New Product Briefs (August 23, 1999)
Attention vendors: Here's how to get your products mentioned in SunWorld
August 1999
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New Product Briefs (August 23, 1999)Attention vendors: Here's how to get your products mentioned in SunWorld
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August 1999
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PowerWindows includes such applications as:
Each application uses the Appgen Cross Reference feature, a natural interface to data and information that allows access to master file records with no knowledge of record keys. They also employ a context-sensitive online help system with usage examples.
Transaction entry is protected by a crash-proof batch update. Period-end submenus organize all tasks required to close books for a completed accounting cycle. Period-end processes are flexible enough to allow entry into new periods before closing prior period.
PowerWindows uses a 99-level passwording scheme to secure all menu options and windows.
The applications are integrated, but they can be used as standalone versions if desired. All of the application source code is included.
There are three basic configurations for PowerWindows: Single-user, client/server, and peer-to-peer.
Appgen PowerWindows applications are native to Solaris, Linux, AIX, SCO Unix, and Windows 95/98/NT. They can run in full GUI mode or in a greenscreen mode. PowerWindows applications support ODBC. Pricing depends on configuration and modules required.
http://www.appgen.com/Apps.html
InfoPortal 3.0/Sales Edition lets account managers use the Internet to accelerate sales cycles. Managers can deliver ProspectNets, private one-to-one portals, to qualified prospects in which they can collaborate throughout a long sales cycle, from the early presentation and collateral, to working together on RFPs, to negotiating the final contract.
With ProspectNets, both parties contribute and collaborate on RFPs, technical and product discussions, and contracts. The software lets them conduct threaded discussions and dialogue about specific topics and documents, and about the overall proposition. Managers can expose customer order history or purchase data from existing systems.
The Sales Edition automatically captures each prospect's use of its ProspectNet; it then updates the account manager's Web-based contact management system automatically with the information added to the portal, the information that is reviewed or downloaded, and then it incorporates discussions and e-mails into the customer's profile.
InfoPortal 3.0/Marketing Edition is designed to help marketing teams deliver product intelligence from any source to field sales teams, including presentations, price sheets, and brochures. It goes directly into a private Web portal.
Utilization reports inform marketing as to which tools are most valuable to the sales force and which tools are underused. The content-management features make the development of creative and collateral materials across the extended marketing organization easier, offering the ability to link in freelancers, designers, and service providers.
The PortalWare version 3.0 products run on Solaris and Windows NT systems. Base pricing for each starts at $225,000, with unlimited users.
Sales Edition: http://www.glyphica.com/IP3Sales.html
Marketing Edition: http://www.glyphica.com/IP3Marketing.html
3D-MasterSuite lets Java developers quickly build cross-platform, interactive 3D graphics applications that support visualization and graphics for the enterprise. The applications can be distributed within Communicator or Internet Explorer.
3D-MasterSuite also creates applications that automatically support important network graphics standards, such as VRML 1.0 and VRML97.
3D-MasterSuite for Java is a OpenGL-based library of Java-based objects and methods used to write interactive 3D graphics applications. It is fully integrated into the Java AWT framework, so developers can write standalone 3D Java applets that share a common interface and can be distributed by Web browsers. 3D-MasterSuite for Java's performance is optimized so that 3D can be displayed and manipulated in real time.
3D-MasterSuite for Java is also integrated into Java 2 (JDK 1.2); it can be used with the Swing components of the JFC. The components are compatible with the JavaBeans specification.
Components include:
The 3D-MasterSuite 3.515 software developer's kit for Java is available for Solaris and Windows NT 95/98/NT. Versions for AIX, IRIX, and HP-UX should be available soon. Check with the company for pricing.
http://www.tgs.com/3DMS/index-java.html
Version 3.1 includes broader support for the public key infrastructure (PKI) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories, as well as support for automatic client updating.
Aventail Extranet Center 3.1 is client/server software that includes integrated encryption, authentication, and authorization services using SSL and SOCKS 5 standards.
New features include:
Aventail Extranet Center 3.1 runs on Solaris and Windows NT, with further platform support expected by the end of August. Pricing starts at $10,000.
http://www.aventail.com/index.phtml/products/index.phtml
TurboCluster Server integrates into existing networks, and virtualizes an IP service by providing a single IP and hostname for a group of servers. These servers each run their own independent copies of the clustered application (a cluster is a group of TurboLinux Server nodes that are interconnected to work as a single, available, scalable Web server system).
The product has been tested in clusters of more than 20 server nodes. It automatically detects failure in hardware, operating system, Web server, or router software, and it automatically switches traffic away from the damaged machine.
The software sports intuitive administration tools that let users dynamically add cluster nodes and balance loads among the different servers in the cluster. It also notifies the sysadmin automatically when a node fails.
TurboCluster is currently in beta testing at more than 200 reference sites.
TurboCluster Server, will ship for Intel systems in September. The Alpha version will ship Q499. The suggested price is $995 for two nodes and $1,995 for three or more nodes.
http://community.turbolinux.com/cluster/
The problem with an individual browser's JRE is that the version may not be up-to-date and it may not be 100 percent Java-compliant. The Java Plug-in for Solaris is a version of Java Software's Java Plug-in.
JPI for Solaris runs on Solaris in the Common Desktop Environment (CDE), uses native instead of green threads, bundles a Java Runtime Environment that has been specifically tuned for Solaris, and includes many bug fixes and enhancements. Users of JPI for Solaris can deploy applets, JavaBeans, Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Java Native Interface (JNI), and other components in Netscape Communicator using the latest version of Sun's JRE, instead of the JRE provided with Communicator.
The Java VM users run with JPI for Solaris is also tuned for Solaris. The software delivers full JDK support and Java Compatibility Kit compliance to Netscape Communicator users.
Both JPIs for Solaris install at the system level by default so they are easy to deploy en masse. A single JPI install lets all the system's users access the plug-in via NFS -- voila, a single point of administration.
The 1.2 version provides the Java 2 runtime (most current, JRE 1.2.1_03) for Communicator. The version 1.1.2 JPI for Solaris provides the latest JRE 1.1.7 (1.1.7_08) for Communicator.
Java Plug-Ins are currently available in English; keep watching for other localized versions. (Sun does not support any JRE prior to 1.1.7_08 for JPI 1.1.2, nor any JRE prior to 1.2.1_03 for JPI 1.2.)
http://www.sun.com/solaris/netscape/jpis/index.html
PageFormatter 2.0 adds such new features as the ability to output such formats as PostScript Level 2 and PCL 5, as well as the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).
PageFormatter is designed for C/C++, so it is basically a set of methods. It includes the library and support files, a spiral-bound reference to the API, and release notes. It also includes a complete set of PDF-formatted documentation. It needs about 30 MB of disk space, and some widgets will require Motif 1.2.x (and higher) and X11R5/R6.
PageFormatter uses an onscreen preview tool to help users layout a page. It supports columns and frame output, several layout styles on a single page, any ISO Latin-1 font, and complex font handling. It will generate automatic headers and footers. It sports an easy-to-use template-building tool.
Binaries in multiple formats can be dropped into output. Frames can be built by invoking several simple drawing routine.
PageFormatter 2.0 costs $2,995 for a single-developer license. PageFormatter is compatible with Solaris 2.x, SunOS 4.1.x, AIX 3.2.5, HP-UX 9, Interix 2.2, IRIX 5.0, Linux kernel 2.0.18 (both libc and glibc), OSF-1 3.0, SCO OpenServer 5, and Ultrix 4.4 (or higher version numbers, in all cases).
The server offers:
CommuniGate Pro 3.1 supports Solaris, Linux/LinuxPPC, FreeBSD, Windows NT, MacOS X, BSDi, AIX, Digital Unix, and IRIX. It can support 100,000 to 200,000 accounts from one server; if an ISP needs to handle even more accounts, this version offers clustering support so users can build front- and back-end multi-server configurations, as well as symmetric cluster sites. Depending on server synchronization methods, the cluster can employ shared file servers such as NFS servers.
The new version also supports Personal Web Sites with automated publishing, so users can build their own Web sites and upload the files to the CommuniGate Pro server using any composer application that supports the HTTP PUT method.
CommuniGate Pro offers secure connections for all supported services, including the HTTP services, as well as the other communication protocols (IMAP, POP, SMTP, LDAP, and ACAP).
Among the anti-spam features, the software offers restricted relaying; black-listing IP addresses, domains, and individual accounts; return-path verification; and support for DNS-based black-list servers. It also employs a spam trap, a utility that builds a fictitious account that bulk mail list robots will choose when trolling for addresses. Mail delivered to this account will be automatically trashed.
CommuniGate Pro 3.1 costs $499 (50 users, 5 mailing lists); $999 (200 users, 15 lists); $1,999 (1,000 users, 100 lists); $4,999 (30,000 users, unlimited lists); and $29,999 (unlimited users and lists). The company offers a full-featured free trial version.
http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/
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About the author
Kane Scarlett
comes to SunWorld from such magazines as JavaWorld,
Advanced Systems, Digital Video, NC World,
Population Today, and National Geographic. He's not a
platform fanatic -- he just likes systems that work (that is, don't
issue a beta as a final version) and systems you don't have to upgrade
every six months (upgrades should be new features, not bug fixes).
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