Altova Inc. announced the availability of the new Altova 2004 XML development tools product line, designed to meet the needs of building advanced XML and Web services applications. The new Altova 2004 product line consists of updates to existing products, XMLSPY 2004, AUTHENTIC 2004, and STYLEVISION 2004, and introduces a new product, MAPFORCE 2004. MAPFORCE 2004 is a visual data integration tool, which auto-generates custom data mapping code in multiple output languages such as XSLT and Java, to enable programmatic XML-to-XML or database-to-XML data transformations. Altova’s new MAPFORCE 2004 provides a 2-step XML-based approach to enterprise data integration. Using MAPFORCE 2004, data architects can programmatically convert data into XML from any database by drawing visual mappings from relational databases to any data model expressed in XML schema. MAPFORCE 2004 will then auto-generate the software program code required to programmatically marshal data from the source database to the target XML schema. Next, data can be transformed from one XML format to another, by visually drawing mappings between different XML schema data models. MAPFORCE 2004 is available for a free 30-day trial download or purchase for $499 for a single user license. www.altova.com
Category: Content creation and design (Page 70 of 71)
Technologies and strategies for authoring and editing, including word processors, structured editors, web and page layout and formatting, content conversion and migration, multichannel content, structured and unstructured data integration, and metadata creation.
Altova Inc. announced an agreement with Borland Software Corporation, to include a special edition of Altova XMLSPY 5 within future editions of Borland Delphi Studio, Borland C++ Builder, and Borland C#Builder for the Microsoft .NET Framework integrated development environments (IDEs). www.altova.com
W3C announced the advancement of “XForms 1.0” to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 29 August. More flexible than previous HTML and XHTML form technologies, the new generation of Web forms separates purpose, presentation, and data. The XForms specification is written for authors and implementers alike. Visit the XForms home page. www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms
Macromedia announced Macromedia Authorware 7. Authorware enables developers to deliver AICC/ADL-SCORM compatible courseware, and the latest version adds learning management system Knowledge Objects that make it easier to communicate between the application and the LMS. A Learning Object Content Packager helps developers organize and upload content to the LMS. The packager compiles the metadata, Authorware files and resources, and an XML manifest into an ADL SCORM-compatible zip file. The product imports and exports XML to create data-driven applications, supports JavaScript to enable additional programming depth, and enables all product properties to be scripted, allowing developers to create commands, Knowledge Objects, and extensible content. Macromedia Authorware 7 is available as both a standalone product or as part of the Macromedia eLearning Suite. Authorware 7 is expected to ship later this month for Windows 98, SE, Me, NT 4, 2000, and XP. The product is priced at $2,999 for new users, $399 to upgrade from Authorware 6.5, and $899 to upgrade from Authorware 5.x and 6.0, with educational pricing at $499. www.macromedia.com/go/aw7
Arbortext, Inc. announced Arbortext 5. Featuring three major new products and many enhancements, Arbortext 5 is designed to help medium and large enterprises eliminate the substantial costs and pain associated with the implementation of content systems to create and share information. This new version provides the business user with direct access to XML content across the enterprise, which protects document integrity and enables them to quickly and easily create applications for publishing dynamic content to multiple types of media. Additionally, Arbortext 5 augments the XML editing capabilities of the Enterprise and Professional versions of Microsoft Office 2003. Contributor, Styler and DCA Manager are the three new products that will be available with Arbortext 5. The Arbortext 5 product suite will be available Winter, 2003. www.arbortext.com
Altova Inc. announced that their XML document editor product, AUTHENTIC 5, will now be offered to the public through a free software license. AUTHENTIC 5 is a customizable, light-weight, and easy-to-use XML document editor, that allows business users to create and edit content through a web-enabled interface that resembles a word processor. AUTHENTIC 5 features full support for standard internet protocols and file transfer interfaces, including WebDAV, HTTP; a browser plug-in that enables a business user to access and edit XML content on the Web, spell checking capabilities in 14 languages including a medical & legal dictionary, real-time document validation, built-in templates for over 15 industry standard XMLcontent formats including NewsML, NITF, DocBook, and more. AUTHENTIC 5 can be used in conjunction with XML content repositories, including OracleXML DB, Microsoft CMS 2002 via the AUTHENTIC Content Management Server Placeholder Control Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Software AG Tamino Server, IXIASOFT TextML Server, XML Global GoXML DB, Lightspeed Interactive Astoria, X-Hive/DB, iLevel Software Insite Server, NeoCore XMS, and others. www.altova.com/download
The World Wide Web Consortium has issued Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Advancement of the document to Candidate Recommendation is an invitation to the Web development community at large to make implementations of SVG and provide technical feedback. Web designers have requirements for graphics formats which display well on a range of different devices, screen sizes, and printer resolutions. They need rich graphical capabilities, good internationalization, responsive animation and interactive behavior in a way that takes advantage of the growing XML infrastructure used in e-commerce, publishing, and B2B communication.
Web designers demand vendor-neutral, cross-platform interoperability. SVG brings the advantages of XML to the world of vector graphics. It enables the textual content of graphics – from logos to diagrams – to be searched, indexed, and displayed in multiple languages. This is a significant benefit for both accessibility and internationalization. Related W3C specifications such as the Document Object Model (DOM) allow for easy server-side generation and dynamic, client-side modification of graphics and text. SVG also benefits from W3C technologies such as CSS and XSL style sheets, RDF metadata, SMIL Animation and XML Linking. In addition to being an excellent format for stand-alone graphics, the full power of SVG is seen when it is combined with other XML grammars; for example to deliver multimedia applications, hold business data, or render mathematical expressions. Bringing the XML advantage to vector graphics benefits all industries that depend on rich graphics delivery – advertising, electronic commerce, process control, mapping, financial services, and education all have immediate needs for SVG.
The SVG Working Group consists of key industry and research players including, in alphabetical order: Adobe Systems, AOL/Netscape, Apple, Autodesk, Canon, Corel, CSIRO, Eastman Kodak, Excosoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, ILOG, IntraNet Systems, Macromedia, Microsoft, OASIS, Opera, Oxford Brookes University, Quark, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox. www.w3.org
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), an organization leading the development of international standards to improve electronic resource management and information discovery, announced the formal recommendation of the Dublin Core (DC) Qualifiers. The addition of the DC Qualifiers enhances the semantic precision of the existing DC Metadata Element Set. The DC Qualifiers build upon the DC Metadata Element Set, which provides 15 categories to describe resources on the Web – a catalog card with new dimensions. Known as the Dublin Core, the metadata model has become the de facto standard for description of information on the Internet. For the past year, working groups of the Dublin Core developed these newly agreed upon refinements to the catalog card to give better access to information we seek. In essence, the new recommendations for Dublin Core Qualifiers increase the effectiveness of metadata by giving it finer granularity. For example, a publication’s date, which would be the Dublin Core Metadata Element, may be further detailed as a particular type of date by using a Dublin Core Qualifier such as date last modified, date created, or date issued. The DC Qualifiers improve interpretation of metadata values and can be easily recorded or transferred into HTML, XML, RDF or relational databases. The evolution of DC Qualifiers draws from the input of many individuals across a broad array of disciplines. Users include museum informatics specialists, archivists, digital library researchers, libraries, and government information providers and a variety of content providers. Their efforts have led standards organizations, such as NISO (National Information Standards Organization) in the U.S. and CEN in Europe (European Committee for Standardization) to view the DC Metadata Element Set as a benchmark candidate for simple resource description on the Internet. More recently, new sectors, such as education and industry, have been attracted to Dublin Core’s simplicity, multilingual scope, consensus philosophy and widespread adoption. http://purl.org/dc/documents/dcmes-qualifiers, http://purl.org/dc/
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