Microsoft Corp. released a draft of the Microsoft BizTalk Framework version 2.0. This newest version of the BizTalk Framework has been redefined to be SOAP 1.1 compliant, thereby allowing BizTalk Framework XML documents to travel over a network in the form of SOAP messages. In addition, version 2.0 has been extended to include specifications for reliable server-to-server messaging, guaranteeing exactly-once delivery of business documents over the Internet. Multi-Part MIME encoding guidelines also have been added to the framework to support the inclusion of one or more non-XML attachments within a BizTalk message. Microsoft BizTalk Server 2000 will support BizTalk Framework 2.0 as the protocol for reliable interoperability over the Internet. The BizTalk Framework takes advantage of XML and MIME to provide the specifications for XML-based integration within and between organizations. The support for the SOAP 1.1 specification, which was recently submitted to and acknowledged by W3C, will allow developers to create applications and services that can be more easily integrated, independent of operating system, programming model or programming language. The new reliable messaging capabilities defined in BizTalk Framework 2.0 allow organizations to reliably transmit information via the Internet using standard transport protocols such as HTTP and SMTP. The inclusion of support for Multi-Part MIME, an alternative to inline encoding of binary information, provides guidelines for encoding and decoding of one or more non-XML attachments within a BizTalk XML message. The BizTalk Framework 2.0 specification is available for review at www.microsoft.com/biztalk
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Kinecta Corporation Worldweb.net announced a joint partnership to offer content providers a fully integrated solution to manage and syndicate content in order to reach broader e-business audiences. As part of the agreement, Worldweb.net will integrate the ICE-based Kinecta Interact syndication platform into the company’s Expressroom I/O content management system. The two companies will also provide joint sales product training and co-branding of the Kinecta Interact platform to Worldweb.net customers. Worldweb.net and Kinecta worked together to tightly integrate the Expressroom I/O and Kinecta Interact solutions. This will enable any customer of Expressroom I/O to utilize the syndication components and quickly ramp up their content distribution networks. As a result, customers can immediately realize the benefits of content syndication.
BroadVision, Inc. introduced BroadVision One-To-One Publishing, a new offering for next-generation content management. One-To-One Publishing combines BroadVision One-To-One e-commerce applications with a content management solution to provide a structured, and convenient publishing solution for a wide range of media, including Web, wireless, and print. This introduction marks the completion of the marriage between BroadVision One-To-One Enterprise and Interleaf’s XML-based content management tools. The new package represents BroadVision’s integration of XML-based capabilities to its e-commerce application suite and the fruition of its acquisition of Interleaf in April of this year. By storing written and graphical content in a central repository as XML, BroadVision One-To-One Publishing provides personalization of this information for a specific audience, purpose, medium or device. Adding this new offering to its enterprise application suite meets current customer demand to deploy and customize business information and prepares for the near-term need for content delivery to wireless devices. BroadVision One-To-One Publishing transforms static business information into dynamic, structured and reusable content, thereby increasing timeliness and reducing cost. The One-To-One Publishing customer will create new content and edit existing content using familiar applications such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Once created, this information can be broken down into manageable pieces so that multiple users working on separate contributions can combine sections and publish to one Web site, printed document or other medium. The content can also be versioned, meaning that new and old versions of information can coexist for reference and other purposes. Key Features of BroadVision One-To-One Publishing include the capacity to: Create complex content with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint which enables easy translation for use with Web, wireless and print for anytime, anywhere delivery without IT support; Manage the publishing process with graphical workflow administration; Optimize content for multiple touch points; and Re-use and re-purpose content by recombining information in different ways to tailor to additional audiences. One-To-One Publishing will be available in August 2000. www.broadvision.com
eBusiness Technologies announced a technology alliance with BEA Systems, Inc. and the integration of eBusiness Technologies’ engenda content management and workflow automation solution with BEA WebLogic Server. This relationship provides customers the advantage of a Web content management solution combined with BEA WebLogic Server, delivering performance and reliability for powering e-commerce applications. engenda’s centralized content management core maintains content, tracks versions, and provides an architecture that scales and integrates with other third-party applications. Centralized content gives all users immediate access to an enterprise’s most valuable assets without impractical, slow synchronization between the content core and users’ desktops. engenda’s XML architecture separates content from business logic and presentation, enabling dynamic page assembly. Once approved by engenda’s workflow process, BEA WebLogic Server can serve HTML, other structured file formats, and any other file type from engenda’s content core. www.ebt.com
Metacode Technologies Inc., announced that iSyndicate will incorporate Metacode’s Metatagger technology in its SmartContent initiative to dynamically link any public company’s ticker symbol appearing in news articles to relevant information about that company. Metacode’s Metatagger scans iSyndicate text to identify company names and ticker symbols. Metatagger draws from a Metacode company vocabulary to automatically recognize company names. Currently, Metacode’s company vocabulary contains over 10,000 automatically generated company names. These are harvested from a variety of sources, including stock exchange records. Metacode enhances the vocabulary set by adding company nicknames and abbreviations. SmartContent is scheduled for release on June 26, 2000. www.isyndicate.com, www.metacode.com
Openpages, Inc. announced a new version of Openpages ContentWare. ContentWare 2.5 is designed to help commerce and e-media organizations more effectively create, manage and deploy timely, accurate and compelling content. Openpages, Inc., provides a high level of integration with popular desktop applications for deployment to any channel, including Web, print and wireless. The new version includes enhanced support for Java, XML and the Apple Macintosh OS. It also features direct integration with leading desktop software packages, including Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Macromedia’s Dreamweaver, Microsoft’s FrontPage, SoftQuad’s XMetaL and QuarkXPress, giving organizations–and their individual content creators–greater flexibility to produce, change, archive, deploy and re-use business-critical content. New Features include: Enhanced XML Support; Integration with SoftQuad’s XMetaL; Added support of XSL templates; Integration between ContentWare and XML content created using Word; And support for Java Server Pages. Openpages ContentWare 2.5 is shipping immediately to selected sites with volume shipping to begin in the third quarter of 2000. U.S. list pricing begins at $150,000 for multi-user configuration. www.openpages.com
IONA shipped the final element of the iPortal Suite by delivering the iPortal Server. IONA’s iPortal Server is the web-facing component of an enterprise portal that aggregates back-end applications and manages content to provide customers, suppliers, partners and employees with a single point of access to all of an organization’s business processes and software applications. The iPortal Server ships with IONA’s iPortal Application Server and Orbix 2000 offerings, providing an integrated J2EE-, SOAP-, XML- and CORBA-compliant environment. Further integration with IONA’s iPortal OS/390 Server and the rest of the iPortal Suite enables organizations to build and deploy portals that leverage mainframe, ERP and proprietary enterprise applications. The iPortal Server provides a structured web design process for building, deploying and managing portal applications. By separating content, presentation, business logic and data layers, the iPortal Server’s XML/XSL-based design ensures that web content is architecturally separated from the presentation layer, enabling new business logic or protocols to be added without affecting data or web content, unless desired. This capability enables organizations to scale their Web applications as they evolve. The IONA iPortal Server 1.0, Standard Edition ships this week and is available from IONA and from partners including Compaq, CIBER, SAIC and others. US list pricing starts at $50,000. The iPortal Server supports Windows NT and Solaris 2.7 immediately, and will support Tru64 UNIX in the third quarter. The iPortal Server supports Oracle, Microsoft, Informix, Sybase and IBM databases. The iPortal server, Commerce Edition, featuring a B2B and B2C commerce portal, entered beta today and is expected to be available in the second half of this year. This offering will expand on the plug-in capabilities of the 1.0 Standard Edition, providing additional functionality in the areas of catalog management, inventory management, order management, payment processing, profiling capabilities, search capabilities, auction functionality, price quote management, message board capabilities, Java mail integration services, and others. www.iona.com
Documentum, Inc. and SoftQuad Software, Ltd. announced the integration of Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition with SoftQuad’s XMetaL 2.0 to bring the advantages of XML to enterprise content management. As a result, users will now be able to create and edit XML content using XMetaL while managing content lifecycle from creation through Web deployment, via 4i’s XML-enabled content repository. Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition provides native support for XML content management from content capture and creation through component management, format transformation and content delivery. XMetaL enhances these capabilities by offering an integrated authoring solution that empowers users to easily complete all authoring tasks required for contributing XML content to the Web. www.softquad.com, www.documentum.com
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