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It's sweltering summer outside, so there's no better time to shape up that Web site. Here are a few new tools that improve the business backend, streamline CGI, Perl, ActiveX, and ASP development, and enhance video links. You can even advertise a URL on your car. Web to Mainframe App Integration       Insession Inc. recently enhanced its TransFuse accessware to include support for DCOM. TransFuse allows object programmers to build industrial strength mainframe transactions into Microsoft® Windows®-based applications. With built-in support for DCOM, TransFuse provides a single interface to leading transaction processing monitors and messaging systems (CICS, IMS, Pathway, Tuxedo, and MQSeries, for example) regardless of object component technology. TransFuse also supports CORBA standards.       Insession added support for IBM's CICS two-phase commit to TransFuse, which enables binding of related transactions into one. Two-phase commit transactions include financial and inventory database updates and online credit card purchases that check to see whether an ordered item is in stock. In addition, Insession's legacy application discovery utility, which formerly required a separate license, will now be bundled with TransFuse. Future TransFuse software releases can be integrated without changing application programs. Insession Inc. 100 Arapahoe Avenue Boulder, CO 80302 303-440-3300 http://www.insession.com Web Site Concierge       Persona 1.0, now available from Insite Innovations, offers companies conducting business on the Web the ability to initiate real-time, two-way communication with any visitor using a Java-enabled browser, without requiring the visitor to have installed any special software, applets, or plug-ins. A full-service Web site concierge, Persona provides inbound and outbound human interaction without plug-ins. Companies can use Persona to reduce inbound 800 toll costs and to make better use of customer support staff and resources. The program allows Web site owners to enhance their sites with real-time, intelligent responsiveness and interaction. Insite Innovations 225 Bush Street 16th Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 415-439-8338 http://www.insiteinnov.com Integrated Perl Development Environment       Perl Builder, an integrated development environment for Perl, is now shipping courtesy of Solutionsoft. The product includes a visual editor/debugger, CGI simulation, and tools to automate the development of Perl scripts. Perl Builder offers developers an environment that is reminiscent of tools such as Visual Basic®, Visual C++®, and Delphi. Features include color syntax highlighting, a full suite of debugging components (breakpoints, watches, single step, and so on), and tooltip variable inspection. Perl Builder's CGI Wizard is a code generator that automates the development of CGI scripts in Perl. Dynamic HTML output, automated email messages, and field validation algorithms can be designed visually, and the automatically generated code can be modified by the developer. Perl Builder can be used for general-purpose Perl programming as well as CGI scripting. The scripts can be run on any platform that supports Perl. Solutionsoft 370 Altair Way, Suite 200 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 408-736-1431 http://www.solutionsoft.com Web Site Accelerator       ActiveState Tool Corp. has released PerlEx, a plug-in for Web servers running under Windows NT® that improves the performance of Perl scripts by up to 30 times. PerlEx compiles Perl scripts once and then stores them in memory. As a result, scripts are not compiled again at each user request, which eliminates overhead after the first execution of a script. PerlEx enables persistent database connections so that a new connection is not required for each user request. Web server performance is also enhanced by the creation of multiple interpreters that can execute scripts simultaneously. Hardware resources can handle more requests in a given period of time. PerlEx extends the functionality of Perl scripts with Solar, a feature which allows a single copy of data to be shared between multiple Perl interpreters, and synchronizes access to the data. Solar also allows Perl code to be embedded directly into HTML files. ActiveState Tool Corp. 540 - 701 W. Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V7Y 1C6 Canada 604-606-4686 http://www.activestate.com Enhance Videos with Hyperlinks       Web designers and professional presentation developers seeking to enhance their videos with hyperlinks can now do so with VisualSHOCK MOVIE by Mitsubishi Electric America. VisualSHOCK MOVIE contains a movie MapEditor and an ActiveX® playback client that allows for the creation of video hyperlink hotspots in video clips. With the VisualSHOCK MOVIE ActiveX component, many ActiveX-compliant applications such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and PowerPoint® 97) can replay video clips with interactive video hyperlinked hotspots, enabling links to additional media information or program functions. Mitsubishi Electric America 1050 E. Arques Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 408-523-6805 http://www.visualshock.com Component Modeling and Deployment       HOW 2.0 for Visual Basic, published by Riverton Software Corporation, gives developers working with Visual Basic the ability to design and implement distributed, component-based business applications. The UML-compliant component modeling tools in HOW 2.0 let developers design all of the components in a three-tier application. HOW for Visual Basic automatically generates ActiveX-based components and controls for Visual Basic 5.0. These components are DCOM-compliant and interoperable with any other ActiveX components and controls. Developers can also make components that automatically operate in Microsoft Transaction Server using OpenFrame for creating distributed scalable applications. HOW 2.0 is also available for Java and PowerBuilder. Riverton Software Corporation 1 Kendall Square Building 200 Cambridge, MA 02139 617-588-0500 http://www.riverton.com Squeeze Those Files       Stonebroom Software is shipping ServerZip, a real-time file compression component for Active Server Pages (ASP) that creates compressed files in ZIP format on the server. The ServerZip component exposes a range of properties and methods that allow you to include a hyperlink in a Web page for the user to collect the compressed file remotely across the Web. ServerZip also lets you apply a password to securely encrypt the compressed file as it is created, and control the compression rate/speed trade-off depending on the file type and size. ServerZip can quickly back up databases or other nonstatic files across the Web, which will save time and network traffic. Web site administrators will be able to compress log files and scheduled database dump files before downloading them to another site. ServerZip can be used seamlessly across the Web with standard HTTP and TCP/IP protocols. Stonebroom Software P.O. Box 64 Alfreton, Derbyshire DE556ZX United Kingdom +44 1773-874661 http://www.stonebroom.com Convert Cold Fusion to ASP       IntraActive Software is publishing Defroster, which converts Cold Fusion templates to ASP using VBScript. Developers can take advantage of ASP capabilities without the major conversion effort that is otherwise required. Defroster delivers the same functionality as Cold Fusion's CFML by providing the ActiveX version of Cold Fusion tags and functions. This not only facilitates template conversion, but also reduces the ASP learning curve for Cold Fusion developers and allows them to use powerful development tools such as Visual InterDev™, FrontPage®, and PowerSite. IntraActive Software also supplies companies a service for migrating Cold Fusion applications to ASP. The Defroster automated conversion tool enables customers to deploy their applications using ASP without having to dedicate resources to the task. IntraActive Software 11 Broadway Suite 1131 New York, NY 10004 212-425-1122 http://www.iasoft.com Count Hits on Every Page       Raymark Enterprises is shipping the Universal NT Counter, a one-line include file that automatically creates a counter on any page in a Web site, no matter how many levels deep. Page name configuration is unnecessary, and the counter comes with a small administrative tool that allows developers to change settings such as hidden/not hidden, count/don't count, text to accompany the counter digits, and a graph showing page hits and percentages for the pages that have the counter installed. Raymark Enterprises 12528 S.E. 54th Street Bellevue, WA 98006 206-810-8888 http://www.totallyfonts.com/counter/demo.asp "License" Web Site Promotion       Here's a new way to let people know about your Web site: a URL Plate that can be attached to any surface, including your car. Caught in a traffic jam? Look on the bright side—you're providing maximum exposure for your Web site address. Placed on the entrance door to your business, a URL plate can let your customers know you have a Web site. The plates are made from an injection-molded plastic covered with a chrome foil process. They are triple-coated to prevent fading from the elements. Bat City Productions 9000 Texas Sun Drive Austin, TX 78748 512-280-0755 http://www.batcity.com

Does your company provide development tools for interactive applications? We'd love to hear the news! Email us at newstuff@microsoft.com.

From the August 1998 issue of Microsoft Interactive Developer.