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Wearing out your mouse ordering music, software, clothing, and books online? Are you getting involved in e-commerce on your own site yet? We at MIND found all kinds of technological goodies for you this month, many of which are designed to improve your electronic commerce Web sites. What I Really Want to Do Is Direct        Bruce Epstein is the author of Director in a Nutshell, recently published by O'Reilly and Associates. This book contains hundreds of tips and tricks condensed into a quick reference guide. It covers the Macromedia Director core components (the Cast, Score, Stage, sprites, and animation), along with delivery and optimization (Projectors, Shockwave, System Player, and ShockMachine) and media elements (video, audio, SWA, bitmaps, JPEGs, GIFs, text, fonts, fields, buttons, menus, cursors, dialog boxes, film loops, Flash, and vector shapes). Bruce also wrote Lingo in a Nutshell, which was published late last year. O'Reilly and Associates 101 Morris Street Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 http://www.oreilly.com Browser-based Image Markup        TMSSequoia has released the Prizm Plug-in, Corporate Edition version 2.3. New features include display support for wide images, up to 50 feet wide at 200 dpi; enhanced printing support, including header and footer printing with automatic date/time insertion; and improved proxy support. The wide image support allows users such as land records departments to distribute very large maps; companies distributing building designs can present complete drawings in a single image. TMSSequoia's Prizm intranet technology suite offers intranet imaging solutions by providing widespread access to document images, cross-platform access to a variety of users, a single user interface, and the ability to share notes and annotations on images. For thin-client imaging and Java language support, Prizm Image Server with Java Client offers a reliable combination of technologies: TMSSequoia's ViewDirector imaging engine and a browser-side Java viewing applet. Prizm Image Server supports TIFF, JPEG, BMP, CALS, and JEDMICS (C4), and is available for Windows NT® and Sun Solaris Web server platforms. The Prizm Image Server Applet runs on all Java-language-enabled Web browser platforms. The Prizm Plug-in is available in corporate and personal editions. TMSSequoia 206 W. 6th Avenue Stillwater, OK 74074 800-944-7654, 405-377-0880 http://www.tmsinc.com HTML Templates for Fireworks 2        Macromedia Inc. has announced new customizable HTML templates for Fireworks 2, the newest release of Macromedia's Web graphics production environment. With the new templates, Fireworks 2 users can export compact HTML code that's been preformatted for Adobe GoLive. The new templates also address customer requests for specific HTML and JScript coding styles. Fireworks 2 supports Web authoring software, including Macromedia Dreamweaver 2 and Microsoft® FrontPage®. By integrating graphics and code, Fireworks 2 enables teams to manage Web workflow throughout Web site creation and maintenance. The templates are now available as a free download from the Macromedia Web site. With the new GoLive templates, Fireworks rollovers display as buttons and can be previewed in the GoLive interface. Fireworks Hot Spot behaviors display as GoLive actions on image maps, and can be viewed and edited in the GoLive inspector. Users can also customize each template to meet corporate or client-specific HTML and JScript coding standards, ensuring consistent appearance and functionality across an entire site or project. There's a free 30-day evaluation copy of Fireworks 2 available at http://www.getfireworks.com. Macromedia Inc. 600 Townsend Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415-252-2000 http://www.macromedia.com E-business Component Factory        Luxent Webworks is shipping version 3.5 of Visual WebGrid, its e-business component factory. Visual WebGrid 3.5 delivers complex HTML tables, grids, and forms with 90 percent less ASP code than required for the same operations in standard ASP. WebGrid's Commercial Server has been benchmarked to execute ASP code at 700KB per second on a standard Pentium II 300 with 128MB of RAM. Luxent Software USA 300 S. El Camino Real, Suite 203 San Clemente, CA 92672 888-4LUXENT 949-369-4961 http://www.luxent.com Paperless Publishing Solutions        SoftBook Press Inc. recently unveiled a system that enables corporations to securely distribute critical business documents using electronic book readers. The SoftBook system uses Internet-based technology to help corporations lower the cost of distributing critical business information—such as database reports, sales and marketing material, and training manuals—to their users. The new SoftBook system includes tools that prepare documents for distribution, services based on patented technology to ensure authentication and security, and the SoftBook Reader, which has been in use by corporate customers since the fall of 1998. The complete system includes the following: the SoftBook Reader, a portable device for reading electronic content; SoftBook Publishing ToolKit, software that prepares documents for secure display on an ebook reader; SoftBook Express, technology and services for pushbutton content delivery via existing Web sites; and SoftBook Network Services, a secure portal to the world of ebook content. Security is a key component of the SoftBook system because documents are heavily encrypted, and the SoftBook Reader does not allow text to be printed or copied. The SoftBook Publishing ToolKit is compatible with the emerging Open eBook specification. SoftBook Press Inc. 1075 Curtis Street Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-463-1800 http://www.softbookpress.com E-commerce Tools for Small Business        Multiactive Software Inc.'s electronic commerce solution, ecBuilder 4.0, is now available at retail stores. Using wizard-driven screens, ecBuilder 4.0 allows computer users with little technical or design experience to create and update a commerce-capable Web site from a PC for less than $100. A built-in ecOrderDesk receives and manages orders. Visitors to an ecBuilder 4.0 Web site can purchase multiple items and pay for them with credit cards and other electronic payment methods. Over 30 customizable templates provide users with a variety of design options to choose from. Users can add up to 100 catalog items and an additional 10 content pages or marketing messages to their site. In addition, ecBuilder 4.0 allows users to showcase products and services with photos, graphics, animations, and sounds by supporting 35 graphic file formats, as well as any audio, video, or document files they have on their PC. User sites are automatically promoted to popular search engines and can be hosted by any Internet service provider or Web presence provider. The program also integrates with several contact management programs, such as Multiactive's own Maximizer. Multiactive Software Inc. 1090 West Pender Street, 9th Floor Vancouver, BC V6E 2N7 Canada 800-804-6299 604-899-3838 http://www.ecbuilder.com Sales Process Automation        Newtonian Software Inc. recently released Sales Mechanix 4.0, which includes an application Rule Wizard and support for Microsoft SQL Server™ 7.0 and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server. Newtonian's Rule Wizard provides sales and product managers with a drag and drop interface to define business and engineering rules—such as "this card consumes a slot" or "these options won't work together"—for configuring and pricing products. The customizable, extensible framework is designed to make defining rules about product engineering, pricing constraints, and business processes a straightforward, graphical process with no programming required. Newtonian also announced the internationalization of Sales Mechanix. With this capability, multinational companies can now tailor product configuration and pricing information to local markets. Other enhancements to Sales Mechanix 4.0 include compression and encryption features that make collaboration easier and safer, and enhanced access to the Newtonian business objects for increased application customization. Newtonian Software Inc. 5501 Dillard Drive, Suite 100 Cary, NC 27511 888-790-8898 919-790-8894 http://www.newtonian.com FairCom Updates ODBC Driver        FairCom Corporation has released version 3.8 of the FairCom ODBC Driver in both 16-bit and 32-bit models. Both drivers support full read/write capabilities, enhanced file opening and closing, and increased stability. The ODBC standard allows connectivity between c-tree Plus or FairCom Server data files while using ODBC-compliant applications like Microsoft Access, Crystal Report Writer, and PowerBuilder. In client/server mode, the FairCom ODBC Driver supports SPX, TCP/IP, and NetBIOS communication protocols. Other features include a dictionary creation option, OEM to ANSI data conversion, debug settings, and padding for fixed-length strings. FairCom also offers a new ODBC SDK extending the functionality of the FairCom ODBC Driver, which allows the programmer to intercept c-tree Plus records, and to support custom data types by building a custom c-tree Plus DLL. The conversion routines are provided in full C source code. FairCom Corporation 2100 Forum Boulevard, Suite C Columbia, MO 65203 800-234-8180 573-445-6833 http://www.faircom.com Web Site Spill Chucker        ParaSoft Inc. has added the WebSpell module to WebKing, their Web management environment. WebSpell understands HTML tags, so it doesn't tag them as misspelled. This ensures that only actual misspelled words get corrected, and also that incorrect words with tags do not slip through simply because the Webmaster has grown used to clicking Ignore every time a tagged word gets flagged. WebSpell is ispell-compatible and lets Webmasters add words to three of its own customizable dictionaries. The user quotes dictionary allows them to add words that will be recognized whenever they use WebKing. The site dictionary allows words to be accepted for a given site. This is especially helpful when working on sites that may use industry-specific terms that are not recognized by standard dictionaries. The page dictionary allows Webmasters to add words that they want to be accepted on a specific page such as a person's name. WebSpell can find case-sensitive spelling errors (such as thiS or tHat), and can also flag words that run together but may be hard to spot because of the HTML tags. ParaSoft's WebKing is an environment in which all the functions of managing a Web site can be performed, and it runs on Windows® 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT as well as Linux and Sun Solaris. WebSpell is included with every purchase of WebKing. Parasoft Inc. 2031 S. Myrtle Avenue Monrovia, CA 91016 888-305-0041 http://www.parasoft.com Internet ActiveX Controls for Windows CE        devSoft Inc. is shipping a Windows CE version of its IP*Works! ActiveX Edition Internet Toolkit, which is a complete set of ActiveX controls for developing Internet/intranet applications. IP*Works! ActiveX Edition for Windows CE contains 32-bit ActiveX controls suitable for use with Microsoft Visual Basic Toolkit for Windows CE and Microsoft Visual C++® Toolkit for Windows CE, as well as other development environments supporting ActiveX controls. IP*Works! contains high-level programmable components such as interfaces to Internet mail and Usenet news, as well as TCP/IP programming tools used to build generic clients and servers. IP*Works! runs on top of the Winsock API and implements standard protocols specified in Internet RFCs. Currently, the list of controls includes SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP, NNTP, IPPort, IPDaemon, IPInfo, UDPPort, ICMPPort, Multicast, NetCode, NetDial, Telnet, Rexec, and Rshell. Additional controls such as LDAP, SNMP, IMAP, SNPP, MX, and MIME will be provided in future releases. Sample applications that demonstrate the capabilities of the controls are also included with the package. devSoft Inc. P.O. Box 13821 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919-493-5805 http://www.dev-soft.com Full-text Database Searches        Metro One Telecommunications Inc. recently announced the upgrade of db-One version 2.1 for the Java language, which provides Web-based businesses with a full-text database software solution for high-speed searching and full-text retrieval. db-One 2.1 enables quick, efficient access to textual data across the Internet or corporate intranets, and can be used for e-commerce, directory, and customer relationship management applications. db-One can be implemented as a standalone database solution or as an add-on, full-text retrieval component for existing industry-standard relational database management systems. Key features include a Java class library for client interface to the database, automatic phonetic, morphological, and typo correction configuration options, support for COM and JavaBeans standards, priority caching for performance optimization, and faster radius searching for distance-related lookups. Metro One Telecommunications Inc. Database Software Division 660 Fairport Office Centre Fairport, NY 14450 716-377-0580 x201, 800-931-9606 x201 http://www.db-one.com Credit Card Validation Tool for E-commerce        Inabyte Inc. recently introduced InaCardCheck, which gives online businesses a tool to instantly assess the authenticity of major credit card account numbers from issuers such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. InaCardCheck—an ActiveX® component that works with Visual Basic®, C++, and the Java language—is designed to reduce customer information input errors and cut down on credit card fraud. InaCardCheck verifies credit card account numbers and expiration date data using recognized algorithms. With its small file size of only 72KB, InaCardCheck can be hosted locally within an application or embedded within Web pages, making it ideal for online retailers who want to validate credit card numbers while customers are still on their Web site. InaCardCheck can also be hosted on the server side, and can be used within Active Server Page scripts. Inabyte Inc. 5 Betty Lane Novato, CA 94947 415-883-3407 http://www.inabyte.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 June 1999 issue of Microsoft Internet Developer.