New Stuff
Resources for Your Developer Toolbox
Theresa W. Carey
Contents
Geography for Developers
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Blue Marble Geographics has released its developer toolkit, GeoTransform 5.0. GeoTransform is a DLL for programmers using Visual Basic®, C++, Delphi, PowerBuilder, C++ Builder, and other Windows®-based development tools. The toolkit allows you to embed image reprojection and tiling in applications with just a few function calls.
GeoTransform creates an image map from a source image, geo-referencing information, and destination image parameters, and creates ESRI world and MapInfo TAB referencing files.
Blue Marble includes a coordinate conversion parameter database that contains the most common coordinate systems used throughout the world. You can even define your own custom units, ellipsoids, datums, and coordinate systems. The toolkit will automatically cut projected images into tiles.
Components by Subscription
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ComponentOne has released ComponentOne Studio Enterprise 2004 2.0. Studio Enterprise is a component subscription targeting all runtime environments including the Microsoft® .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Mobile, and ActiveX®, and all application layers including data as well as presentation, reporting, and transformation. This integrated framework delivers over 100 grid, reporting, charting, data, UI, and e-commerce components. Some of the new tools in this release include the following:
XLS for .NET allows users to read and write Microsoft Excel files from their applications. Users can load a workbook, manipulate sheets as if they were grid controls (composed of rows, columns, and cells), and then save the workbook to an XLS file.
WebGrid for ASP.NET lets users create reusable layouts for their WebGrid, and save or load them at design time or run time. Users can also scroll the grid both horizontally and vertically, and lock any row or column.
Menus and Toolbars for .NET is a new Docking Tab control that was added to deliver tabs in the style of Visual Studio® .NET and docking or floating windows.
PDF for .NET supports TIFF images, plus improved image clipping and image rendering.
Preview for .NET encompasses print document features that include new export formats consisting of RTF and Excel.
Finally, Spell for .NET provides improved speed when working with custom dictionaries.
Inspect Web Sites
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Paessler Site Inspector, released by Paessler GmbH, allows you to discover a variety of data about a Web site, which can help Webmasters and Web developers in debugging and analyzing Web sites or Web pages. Site Inspector adds a toolbar and several new menu items to the context menu of Internet Explorer. This provides a number of analysis functions that give you a look behind the technology and structure of a Web page, which allows you to uncover background information about the Web site being viewed.
Site Inspector contains functions to confirm links and HTML validity of a page as well as performance checks. The owner of the domain or the Web site's current global traffic ranking can be accessed from inside Internet Explorer. Site Inspector features include lists of all forms and images available in the viewed Web page, including usually hidden information such as the size of the image files, URLs, and dimensions.
You can also generate lists of all scripts, hyperlink URLs, and stylesheets of the viewed Web page. Site Inspector displays http-header information, including status code, server information, content type, and shows structured source based on the Document Object Model. HTML elements are highlighted by adding colored borders around each object.
UI Components
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Dacris Software has released NetXP 3.0, an overhaul of its NetXP component suite, which developers can use to enhance the way their applications interact with users. NetXP provides a library of user interface controls and components. This update consists of fundamental changes to the command-bar controls and improved renderer support, all designed to coordinate visually with Microsoft Office 2003.
The changes in NetXP 3.0 include a command-bar dock control with MDI support, and a command bar manager component that can save and load layouts using XML, binary format, or the system registry. There's also a status bar control and progress bar panel, and a list bar control (called an outlook bar) with Office 2003, Office XP, and Windows renderers.
In addition, you'll find a desktop alert form, a dropdown treeview control, and a reusable, inheritable pop-up form, providing the functionality of a pop-up window. The command-bar layout now supports wrapping, and the renderer framework has been redesigned.
NetXP added tabbed groups support for docking (for tabbed MDI), plus the ability to change colors by setting a color table for renderers. The command bar supports embedded controls, including a special flat combobox. Custom color tables are now supported by the Task Pane.
Enhance Windows Server
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Jetro Platforms Ltd has launched Jetro CockpIT 3.5, an update of its enterprise management software for Windows Server™ 2003. Version 3.5 features the Universal Client for Windows CE, allowing enterprises that use Windows CE to implement server-based computing without the complications of client-side installations.
Other new features in Jetro CockpIT version 3.5, such as the Advanced Secure Connector and Seamless File Transfer, make server-based computing more secure. These combine with existing Jetro CockpIT features such as seamless delivery of server-based applications using RDP, performance-based load balancing, universal print driver, and print job compression to make Windows Server 2003 a robust enterprise IT solution.
Themed Components for Windows Forms Apps
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DevComponents LLC is providing DotNetBar 3.7, a framework for Visual Studio .NET that provides components with the user experience of Office 2003, Office XP, Office 2000, and Windows XP. The DotNetBar Suite includes controls such as fully customizable menus and toolbars, dockable auto-hide windows, a navigation bar control, a side bar control, a tab strip control, a balloon and balloon-tip control, and an alert control.
This release includes a Navigation Panel control which allows content presentation based on grouping similar tasks, and provides access to most common task commands and views. Navigation Panel blends into the user environment by automatically adjusting its display based on the color scheme selected on the user's system.
The Panel control also has customization options available, so developers can specify gradient background colors and alpha-blended background images with full control over text display.
TCP/IP Networking Libraries
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Catalyst Development Corporation has published SocketTools Library Editions 4.0, a collection of TCP/IP networking libraries for Windows. New features include lower resource utilization and no external dependencies, an expanded API with 18 libraries and over 800 functions, a new library which provides an interface for the IMAP4 protocol and full compatibility with Visual Studio .NET, including Visual Basic .NET and C#.
The update includes support for both synchronous and asynchronous network connections and improved support for multithreaded applications. Additional features include support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and TLS security protocols with 128-bit encryption, support for both implicit and explicit SSL and TLS connections, support for client certificates when required by the remote host, support for using certificate files and the Windows certificate store, and creation of both secure client and server applications.
Editing SQL Queries
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msSQLed has published a query editor called msSQLed for Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 and SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine. The editor provides coding help with pick lists for tables, views, procedures, functions, columns, databases, variables/parameters, as well as dbcc statements.
msSQLed also provides filtering and grouping on the client side of resultsets, the ability to get context-sensitive information about database objects, and object notations that can be viewed by multiple users.
The query manager stores queries with optional parameters and connections so the queries can be opened against the database they were created on. The program also includes integration with Visual SourceSafe®, SQL Server Reporting Services integration, and other features that let a user drill down through retrieved results to get additional information.
msSQLed will show image columns as images in resultsets and can also convert and print results in a variety of different formats. It will execute SQL statements against multiple connections simultaneously, providing the ability to execute a DML statement or perform data retrieval across multiple connections.
Is Your Web Site Down?
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ExclamationSoft Corporation has released WebWatchBot 2.0, its Web site availability and performance-monitoring software. WebWatchBot 2.0 alerts designated personnel of errors, poor response time, and other customizable conditions using e-mail, on screen display, cell phone, or pager.
New features in version 2.0 include the ability to run as a Windows Service for 24x7 monitoring without user intervention, an enhanced user interface, real-time charting, improved scheduling and reporting functionality, and integration with Microsoft Access for data manipulation and management.
WebWatchBot 2.0 can be installed on any Windows-based PC and configured to monitor multiple URLs for a variety of conditions.
The Bookshelf
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Charles River Media has published Introduction to Computer Graphics, Second Edition by H. Bungartz, M. Griebel, and C. Zenger. The authors, all professors of com-puter science in Germany, begin the guide with the basics of gen-erating images from scratch on a computer screen, discussing coordinate systems and transformations, rudimentary shapes, and the representation of grays and colors. The book moves into ways to model and represent a three-dimensional figure, covering mathematical models, the vef graph, Euler operators, Bézier curves, as well as three-dimensional clipping, lighting effects and shading, visualization, and ray tracing.
The final chapter addresses specific applications of techniques such as mapping, stereography, and image processing, explaining their use in representing real objects as well as in virtual reality programming.
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Mike Murach & Associates has released Murach's C#, which shows readers how to use C# and Visual Studio to design, code, and test Windows-based applications. The book teaches essential C# programming skills, such as event wiring, using loops and if structures, handling dates and strings, and using arrays and collections. It also teaches how to use structured exception handling and how to validate user input to prevent common exceptions.
This book treats object-oriented programming in great depth, starting with advice on how to write simple business classes and how to enhance those classes with profes-sional features such as class events, property validation, and overloaded operators.
The book explains inheritance, polymorphism, and interfaces. It contains a five-chapter section on database processing using ADO.NET, which starts by showing how to create two-tiered applications that handle data using typed DataSets with bound or unbound controls.
A dozen model applications, including one for an order entry system, help developers see how all the code works together. Exercises at the end of each chapter provide practice for building new skills.
Send your New Stuff to Theresa at newstuff@microsoft.com.
Theresa W. Carey is a freelance writer who lives in California. Her byline has appeared in Barron's and PC World.