Category: Content technology news (Page 509 of 637)

Informix Corporation announced major enhancements to its Java and XML development tools strategy, which make it much easier for developers to build and deploy multi-tier, standards based, enterprise applications with Informix databases. The company introduced the Informix Object Translator, a data integration tool for transparently mapping objects from Java and Visual Basic programs to Informix Foundation.2000 database server, as well as a partnership with Sun on the Forte for Java Community Edition IDE. Informix will add value on top of this IDE for Java developers building applications for Foundation.2000 and Cloudscape database servers, as part of an overall focus on enabling fast and easy Java development. Informix Object Translator is a development and runtime tool for multi-tier Web applications serving dynamic content. The front end GUI enables users to visually map Java objects to relational tables without writing code. The runtime component, written entirely in Java, enables these objects to run in a middle tier application server. Informix Object Translator enables developers to build high performance, data-driven Java and Visual Basic applications very quickly. Version 1.0 is being released with Foundation.2000 (v. 9.21), the company’s high performance, fully extensible data and content management platform for the Internet. Informix Object Translator version 1.1, due to ship this month, adds support for the saving of XML objects from a Java application to relational tables, as well as the creation of XML objects from existing relational tables. This bi-directional mapping capability makes it easy to represent relational tables as XML objects in data exchange applications, and to store XML objects in the database in content management solutions. These XML capabilities, complemented by Ardent DataStage XML Pack, deliver the core technology and support for building high-end XML data solutions. www.informix.com

eBusiness Technologies announced engenda, a Web content management and workflow application that enables customers to integrate with any application server to dynamically deliver and personalize content. engenda features eBusiness Technologies’ core content management capabilities – including workflow, editions, templates, and dynamic assembly – while leveraging the strengths of application servers to provide personalization, transaction processing and other delivery related capabilities. Key features of engenda include: Secure, intuitive, scalable, Web browser-based workflow system; Easy, collaborative content contribution with forms-based authoring and templating; Transparent Microsoft Word-to-XML conversion for non-technical users; A centralized content repository and content management engine; Separation of content, logic and presentation for dynamic page assembly; and integrated deployment capabilities to move approved files to the application server. engenda is serviced and supported by eBusiness Technologies’ Professional Services Group and several industry-leading application server vendors through the company’s Technology Alliance Program. engenda is available immediately with prices starting at $70,000. www.ebt.com

Bluestone Software, Inc. announced Bluestone Total-e-Server, the next generation of Bluestone’s Sapphire/Web Application Server, and the Application Server edition of Bluestone’s comprehensive, standards-based Total-e-Business platform based on Sun’s J2EE specification and using XML for internal communication and external integration services. Among the Total-e-Server highlights are implementations of J2EE, including EJB 1.1, Java Servlets 2.2, and JavaServer Pages (JSP) 1.1, including Taglib support. Bluestone enhances standard EJB functionality with global-class services not yet defined by the EJB specification, including XML persistence mapping, Dynamic XSL Stylesheets, load balancing, application management, security, and Universal Listener Framework (ULF) scheduling services. The Bluestone Universal Business Server for TeB also employs a Dynamic XSL Engine that lets users automatically detect client device types and generate the proper delivery format, whether it is a cell phone, palmtop device, desktop browser, application, or other client type. Bluestone Universal Business Server for TeB relies on XML for a number of services, including the persistence map that permanently stores the state of an application. XML gives the Bluestone Universal Business Server for TeB high-performance support for fine-grained objects in an EJB. Bluestone XML-Server for TeB provides XML and legacy integration services. The server also features a transformation engine that performs XML-to-XML document translations and DTD-to-DTD translations to facilitate communications with customers and partners via disparate DTDs and documents. Bluestone Connector Capability provides a broad array of application integration services to legacy systems such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and IBM mainframe IMS, CICS, and MQSeries applications. Bluestone Connectors are also available for commerce systems, such as CyberCash, Taxware, Verity, OpenMarket, UPS Worldship, and others. Bluestone’s Total-e-Server will be generally available on July 1, 2000 with pricing starting at $60,000. www.bluestone.com

Art Technology Group, Inc. announced the acquisition of Boston-based Petronio Technology Group, a provider of educational training and consulting services. ATG’s acquisition of Petronio provides it with Java, J2EE, and XML courseware, as well as other enhanced technology training capabilities. Additionally, it was announced that John Petronio, the founder and President of Petronio Technology Group will serve as ATG’s new director of customer education. ATG currently provides a broad selection of training for customers and partners, including programming classes to accelerate productivity and ensure maximum benefit from its Dynamo Product Suite. The addition of Petronio Technology Group will serve to meet increasing market demand for dedicated, customized training services required to develop personalized eBusiness applications on Dynamo and will strengthen ATG’s existing worldwide curriculum development and delivery capabilities through the addition of both seasoned trainers and curriculum developers. www.atg.com

WebXi, Inc. introduced Symmetry Xchange integration Suite (SymmetryXi), a B2B integration solution to integrate corporate data sources and legacy systems with a cost-effective, scaleable and flexible open standards architecture. SymmetryXi is a solution for portals and application server vendors. SymmetryXi provides reliable, commercial-grade XML messaging – critical for emerging XML-based e-markets and trading exchanges. Using SymmetryXi, companies can integrate the business processes of customers, suppliers and distributors, reducing development and implementation costs and speeding time-to-market. SymmetryXi is a Java-based solution that uses XML technology as a backbone to deliver a scaleable B2B integration solution. SymmetryXi provides a flexible architecture utilizing XML adapters and also provides a software development kit so that companies can create custom XML adapters to integrate in-house systems and to incorporate emerging standards. Symmetry Xchange integration Suite is available now. Pricing varies depending on components and configurations purchased. Volume discounts may apply. www.webxi.com

Quark Inc. and Quill Communications announced an alliance intended to increase efficiency and margins for companies that produce and publish advertising, direct marketing, and manufacturing product catalogs in print and Web formats. Quill will integrate Quark Digital Media System with CATPUB (Content, Approval, Tracking, Publishing), Quill’s Web application for managing workflow, content approval, tracking, and publishing. Quill’s integration of the two systems will result in a Content Intensive Media Management solution that hopes to eliminate the challenges of managing and publishing large amounts of content. QuarkDMS is a solution that lets customers manage a virtually unlimited number of text files, images, and other digital resources. It combines an Oracle8 relational database with a scalable three-tiered architecture capable of serving hundreds of concurrent users. The QuarkDMS clients offer secure access to assets from both Windows and Mac OS platforms, as well as from standard Web browsers. www.quillcom.com, www.quark.com

InfoGlide Corporation announced the availability of its XML Similarity Engine for cross-consortia and industry data exchange. The patented XML Similarity Engine is technology that offers cross-industry, B2B integration of software solutions. In the recent past, B2B firms have been forced to choose between BizTalk, OASIS, RosettaNet, ACORD and other leading industry consortia to enable interoperable XML applications. According to InfoGlide, XML was intended to solve many of these interoperability issues for data. However, XML has not been able, until today, to solve two critical data problems left over from the 1970’s: schemas in unlike formats and “dirty” or imperfect data. Neither XML nor the standards imposed by these consortia can bridge the two key barriers to applications working together. While XML enables data segments across different databases to be shared, what the XML Similarity Engine does differently is share entire databases for all common data segments, presented in an untransformed data model. Because the databases do not have to undergo any transformation, they retain all their richness and context. The XML Similarity Engine does not alter the source database or database structures. The XML Similarity Engine gives immediate results while consortia-imposed standards focus only on exchanging data in a very painful and limiting manner. For example, B2B applications must use XML documents with virtually identical schemas or file layouts, or they will not interoperate. For instance, a purchase order from one firm cannot “talk to” a bill-of-materials from another because they have completely different formats. XML cannot solve this problem so the industry has been looking to consortia to develop models and rules as standards, or worse, a rigid transformation technology is required. With InfoGlide’s XML Similarity Engine, companies are freed from the need to painfully model their data independently, or through a consortium. Now they can just use the data and schemas as they exist in their industries-and these can easily communicate with any other XML schema in any other industry. InfoGlide’s patented XML Similarity Engine also enables legacy databases to be fully accessible to XML applications without any data conversion. Any relational, flat file, or hierarchical structure becomes XML enabled through use of the XML Similarity Engine. www.infoglide.com