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Test
Application Performance
Rational Software is shipping PerformanceStudio, a solution designed to allow IT organizations to accurately test applications
under production load prior to deployment. PerformanceStudio integrates functional and performance testing. It includes Rational's Robot product for script recording and built-in test asset management, as well as four technologies aimed at improving accuracy and scalability. Data-Smart Recording automatically generates test scripts using variables, and binds those variables to actual test datasets. The resulting test scripts, when played back, feature unique data for each virtual user. Client-Smart Pacing ensures the closest possible reproduction to "live" application performance by differentiating delays among user "think times," CPU processing issues, and server response times. By emulating these delays in large-volume tests, PerformanceStudio maintains the integrity of tests while scaling beyond thousands of virtual users. Load-Smart Scheduling provides graphical modeling of complex multiuser scenarios without requiring programming. This turns individual scripts into multiuser "schedules" that can be scaled from 10 users to more than 10,000 users without changing
any of the scripts
or workload description.
Server-Smart Playback provides the means to capture server response when playing back dynamic Web page content. No matter how often this content changes, Server-Smart Playback ensures that tests have correctly identified whether the Web server is returning the results specified by the user. PerformanceStudio predicts an application's
performance under load by enabling organizations to test
the client and server
components together.
Rational Software Corporation
18880 Homestead Road
Cupertino, CA 95014
800-728-1212, 408-863-9900
http://www.rational.com
Wizards
for Visual InterDev 6.0
Vertigo Software Inc., a vendor of development tools, recently released RuleZero 1.0, a wizard that supports Microsoft® Visual InterDev™ 6.0. RuleZero
extends into the enterprise by creating custom Web pages and middleware components that expose database tables. Developers save time by using RuleZero to build Active Server Pages (ASP) and HTML forms that support addition, deletion, and modification of table records. RuleZero parses the database schema, picks out the primary and foreign key relationships, and builds an intelligent set of pages with field-specific controls. RuleZero's server-side framework can use either the new Microsoft Design-Time Controls or RuleZero's COM components for Microsoft Visual Basic® 6.0 for easy scalability with Microsoft Transaction Server. Full source code for the COM components is provided so developers can extend the system with custom code.
Vertigo Software Inc.
5 West Richmond Avenue
Point Richmond, CA 94801
888-345-0125, 510-236-0125
http://www.vertigosoftware.com
Visual FoxPro Web Toolkit
West Wind Technologies and EPS Software have teamed up to publish Visual WebBuilder, which allows you to build complex HTML
applications visually using a data-driven and component-based approach. This scriptable environment provides both an interactive visual component editor and the ability to hook Visual FoxPro® code to all components: scripts and templates, DataService objects, HTML table components, HTML data table objects, classes, codeblocks, and email components. All scripting is compatible with Visual FoxPro code and ASP scripting syntax. There's also full support for Visual FoxPro class components (vcx and prg) and COM objects. The object-oriented class framework comes with source code and is fully extensible through hooks and subclassing. In addition, Visual WebBuilder ships with its own generic Request server to handle template page processing from Web pages without additional tools while running a generic Web connection server. The server works with any ISAPI-compliant Web server.
West Wind Technologies
1227 State Street, #A
Hood River, OR 97031
541-386-2087
http://www.visual-webbuilder.com
ActiveX
Components for
Visual Studio
ProtoView is now shipping an upgrade to the ActiveX® Component Suite. Version 3.0 supports OLE DB and Active Data Objects (ADO) and the Microsoft Visual Studio® 6.0 development system. Included in the suite are four products that are also sold separately: Data Explorer 3.0, DataTable 5.0, TreeViewX 3.0, and WinX Component Library 3.0. Formerly only available as a part of the WinX Component Library, the TreeViewX ActiveX control will now also be distributed as a separate product.
The ProtoView DataTable 5.0 has incorporated OLE DB/ADO binding to allow developers full integration with their Visual
Studio-based development. Developers working with
hierarchical rowsets can now display their data in a grid format using this new version. The TreeViewX takes advantage of OLE DB and allows developers to create, bind, and display ADO hierarchical recordsets using the point-and-click property pages. The TreeViewX also includes support for sorting, searching, multiple selection, tooltips, multiple columns, apartment model threading, and digitally signed CAB files for browser-based applications. The WinX Component Library 3.0 includes 16 additional data input and validation controls with full support for OLE DB and ADO. All of the input components (MaskEdit, Time, Currency, Numeric Edit, and Date Edit) and select display controls (Picture, Marquee, and Text) have been engineered with apartment model threading (Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 support) and have CAB files for faster delivery over LAN/WAN or TCP/IP connections.
ProtoView
2540 Route 130
Cranbury, NJ 08512
800-231-8588, 609-655-5000
http://www.protoview.com
Manage
and Repair COM Files
4Developers recently launched COM Explorer 1.0, designed to help developers and system administrators explore, manage, and repair COM files using an Explorer-like user interface. COM Explorer enables users to view, manage, and repair ActiveX controls, DLL servers, and EXE servers with a single mouse click.
The software provides a centralized view of COM objects as well as detailed information such as GUID, TypeLib, version, and file information. A registry editor is integrated, enabling users to view and edit COM settings. COM Explorer is integrated into Windows Explorer to register, unregister, and view COM controls using a popup menu. An inventory report generator allows the generation of HTML or comma-delimited text reports that include a list of the COM objects installed. The report generator supports filtering and customization options.
4Developers
912 E. Evelyn Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
http://www.4developers.com
3D Text for Special Effects
Ulead Systems Inc. has announced the release of Ulead COOL 3D 2.0, a 3D text tool for creating still and animated titles for Web sites, business documents, presentations, multimedia, and video projects. Ulead COOL 3D 2.0 offers four unique special effects—Fire, Board, Explode, and Twist—as well as features for animation control and individual control over multiple objects. New to Ulead COOL 3D 2.0 is the ability to import Windows® metafiles (WMF) and manipulate multiple letters and graphics individually.
Users can control the movement and appearance of each object by adding keyframes to a new timeline. This means each letter in a title can be designed to appear differently and be animated along different paths, with separate designs applied to surfaces and bevels. And using keyframes, the designs and locations of the letters can change whenever the user desires. COOL 3D 2.0 ships with four plug-ins that can twist and distort 3D text, render amazing 3D fire and explosion effects, and create a "mounted" look for 3D logos, buttons, and titles. Ulead COOL 3D 2.0 offers a wide range of drag and drop styles and options, enabling users to create 3D headlines and titles quickly, and 199 levels of undo encourages experimentation. The EasyPalette visually organizes hundreds of preset extrusions, bevels, light sources, camera views, surface textures, animations, and effects into easy-to-locate galleries,
which users can instantly apply
or build onto with their own
custom designs.
Ulead Systems Inc.
970 West 190th Street
Suite 520
Torrance, CA 90502
310-523-9393
http://www.ulead.com
Customer
Support Knowledge Base
Soffront Software Inc. is now shipping TRACK KNOWLEDGE BASE, which "learns" a company's product and service information from expert support personnel, creating an available pool of wisdom for users. TRACK KB, used in conjunction with Soffront's TRACK and TRACKWeb, utilizes rules, questions, and solutions to automate locating answers to users' questions. TRACK KB aids helpdesk people to access specific information, which can then be passed on to the user. When implemented with TRACKWeb, TRACK KB provides designated users the convenience of accessing the knowledge base through a Web browser to retrieve answers to their questions efficiently and simply.
Soffront Software Inc.
830 Hillview Court
Suite 140
Milpitas, CA 95036
408-934-7970
http://www.soffront.com
Help
Authoring Suite
ForeFront Inc. is shipping ForeHelp 3 and ForeHelp Premier 98, new releases of the company's help authoring program and suite of help authoring tools. These products support both the new Windows 98 HTML Help format and the Windows 95 WinHelp format. Both types of help
systems can be developed and maintained from a single project. The products are based on a
powerful, standalone WSYIWYG authoring environment that does not require Microsoft Word. Based on user surveys and focus groups, ForeHelp 3 also includes a new set of project management tools, wizards, automation tools, and editor improvements that are designed to speed up project development.
ForeHelp Premier 98 packages ForeFront's entire
line of help authoring tools into a suite for WinHelp and HTML-based
help development. The new products also include Index
Expert, a sophisticated indexing application, and QuickContext, a development tool that keeps
dialog box help synchronized with software applications.
ForeFront Inc.
4710 Table Mesa Drive
Suite B
Boulder, CO 80303
800-357-8507, 303-499-9181
http://www.ff.com
Boost
Web Server Performance
Fast Engines Inc. has released Fast.Serv 1.40, a new version of its CGI performance middleware.
Now available for both Microsoft and Netscape servers on all platforms, Fast.Serv boosts Web server performance by running existing CGI applications persistently. Fast.Serv does not require extensive modifications to existing CGI applications written in C/C++, Perl, Java, Tcl, or Python. Fast.Serv is fully compliant with the open FastCGI standard, so applications are not locked into a particular development environment or Web server vendor.
High-performance FastCGI scripts developed under Unix will now work without modification on Windows NT® with either Microsoft or Netscape Web servers. In addition, Internet Information Server (IIS) with Fast.Serv can now be used to connect to external FastCGI applications running under remote Unix or other systems, allowing users to connect any legacy application to a new IIS Web server by simply wrapping it with a FastCGI header. Several new features were added to Fast.Serv 1.40: Control Panel, a Web-based administration tool; Session Affinity, which allows user sessions to be directed to a particular process of an
application, adding an extra performance boost through caching; Authorizer Interface, which allows custom FastCGI authorization scripts; and Standalone Process Manager, to manage external FastCGI applications running on
remote machines.
Fast Engines Inc.
675 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-491-3333
http://www.fastengines.com
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