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| New Stuff |
| Theresa W. Carey |
Real-time Data Cleansing
.gif) DataFlux Corporation has released Blue Fusion SDK version 4.0, which is targeted at programmers who want to embed data quality functions into proprietary applications and corporations that need real-time data cleansing and integrity. The Blue Fusion SDK provides a suite of libraries for managing the quality, consistency, and usability of corporate data. DataFlux's Blue Fusion technology allows corporations to control the accuracy and usability of their data at point of entry—or at any point of data exchange/sharing between enterprise applications, databases, and data warehouses.
Blue Fusion uses similarity searching and fuzzy logic to find and recognize similar data patterns in databases and data sets.
The Blue Fusion SDK is an application programmers interface with C-callable libraries. These libraries include functionality for standardization, matching, fuzzy searching, parsing, data identification, gender analysis, capitalization, and self-maintenance. These libraries can be used by developers in many data-driven applications, including Web sites, CRM applications, data warehousing, call centers, applications requiring fuzzy search capabilities, and ETL.
With version 4.0, the Blue Fusion SDK is available for all platforms including Windows®, Linux, Unix, mainframe, and various IBM platforms. The SDK consists of a core set of libraries (Blue Fusion Base) and additional FusionPack libraries (Blue Fusion Match and Blue Fusion Verify). This FusionPack library facilitates the USPS CASS-certification of datasets.
DataFlux Corporation
4001 Weston Parkway, Suite 300
Cary, NC 27513
877-846-FLUX, 919-674-2153
https://www.dataflux.com
.gif) VelociGen Inc. has announced the availability of VelociGenX, a Web Services application development and runtime platform that uses XML to provide application connectivity. VelociGenX allows companies to develop reusable Web Services solutions that incorporate data from any source or app with no restrictions on the type of transaction, deployment, or scalability. With VelociGenX, companies can step through the wrap, link, and run, process to develop Web Service meta-applications (also called wrapplets) from both legacy and dynamic data sources.
Applications are developed by following three steps. First, the desired data and apps are wrapped—from an unlimited number of sources or formats—into reusable XML components. Second, the XML components are linked together to form wrapplets. Finally, the finished meta-applications are run. They return all of the linked information and then deliver the results via a browser, e-mail, PDA, pager, or cell phone.
Once these XML components or resulting wrapplets are created, they can be archived, copied, modified, and reused. Wrapplets can be used repeatedly, with minimal customization, and can be published for commercial distribution on a peer-to-peer basis, allowing users to create transaction-and usage-based revenue streams.
Velocigen Inc.
8380 Miramar Mall, Suite 105
San Diego, CA 92121
858-622-1164
https://www.bluetitan.com/
.gif) XCalls, produced by exe IT, is an ActiveX component that allows your application to issue user-cancelable and asynchronous (non-blocking) COM calls to server objects. XCalls is intended primarily for use in the presentation tier of a distributed app. The component can call methods on any COM object, which exposes the Automation IDispatch interface.
Integrating XCalls into an application involves invoking method XCallControl.CallByName. This method is modeled after its Visual Basic® counterpart VBA.CallByName, which has been part of Visual Basic since version 6.0. XCallControl.CallByName is intended to be VBA.CallByName on steroids. For example, XCallControl.CallByName allows you to specify dynamically at runtime not only the method name, but also any number of arguments.
With XCalls you can say, "Call this method on this object, with these arguments, and do not allow the call to take longer than 10 seconds." If the call doesn't complete in 10 seconds, XCalls raises a distinguished error code that you can trap and react to accordingly. You can also instruct XCalls to display a built-in call-progress dialog and, optionally, to allow the user to cancel the call in progress. This functionality is available without changing a single line of your server code. XCalls can notify your progress-dialog implementation about important events during the call in order to allow your dialog to update its display accordingly. You can download XCalls from the ComponentSource catalog at https://www.componentsource.com.
exe IT
Tvarozkova 13
811 03 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
011-42-17-5319-174
https://www.exeit.sk
Skin Your Applications
.gif) Stardock Corporation has released DirectSkin 2.0, which uses WindowBlinds technology to allow developers to make their programs fully skinnable and Windows XP theme-aware.
A skin is the term used to describe a self-contained alternative GUI. When a user skins an application, they are changing its interface significantly. By doing so, users can customize the software they run to suit their tastes and usage requirements.
DirectSkin is actually an OCX that developers include in their project file. Once added, developers can load and apply skins using the Stardock WindowBlinds UIS skin language. DirectSkin supplies skinning APIs and will be compatible with the Microsoft visual style APIs. A developer can write an application that is theme-aware but still functions correctly on existing versions of Windows.
Stardock Corporation
17292 Farmington Road
Livonia, MI 48152
734-762-0687
https://www.stardock.com
Automate Rollouts
.gif) Contrado recently announced the launch of its Build Control System version 3.0, a product that is designed to reduces the time and cost associated with complex, large enterprise software rollouts and PC/server hardware refreshes. These massive rollouts, which affect employees, customers, and partners, can involve tens of thousands of end-point devices, and typically require long and costly implementation efforts. The expense and technological challenge of installing software (also called stacks) to thousands of desktops, workstations, servers, laptops, and other end-points across the entire geographic expanse of an organization can be enormous. Build Control System's technology is designed to prevent costly software conflicts before the application stacks are loaded onto PCs, and ensures the right software combinations are versioned, packaged, and protected before the stack installation.
Contrado
600 East John Carpenter Freeway
Suite 320
Irving, TX 75062
469-995-2550
https://www.contrado.com
Info Collection and Distribution
.gif) CASAHL Technology is shipping ecKnowledge 7.1, a collaboration framework for companies that need to collect and distribute business information to multiple locations. CASAHL ecKnowledge (pronounced e-c-Knowledge) 7.1 enables companies to collect information from one or more locations, transport the information securely over a data network, and absorb the incoming data into a single target data. The consolidator could be the headquarters of a worldwide organization that gathers information from its multinational offices, or a regional office that collects data from its branches.
For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is using ecKnowledge 7.1 to consolidate data from states, local communities, tribal governments, industry, and environmentalists into a national data exchange. Since each of the partners use various applications and systems to collect and manage data, ecKnowledge is used to retrieve and broadcast vital environmental data without requiring system or application changes at every node.
EcKnowlege is a server-based integration product for enabling replication, real-time transaction processing (RTTP), and publish/subscribe information exchanges between heterogeneous environments. The application design user interface is a standalone Visual C++®-based application, making extensive use of wizard technology and templates. With the Composer, connections to data sources are defined by selecting tables and mapping columns within the sources, choosing from a series of parameters and options. Optional components can be added to the ecKnowledge job.
CASAHL Technology Inc.
12647 Alcosta Boulevard, Suite 450
San Ramon, CA 94583
800-324-4284, 925-328-2828
https://www.casahl.com
A Janitor for Your Registry
.gif) Super Win Software has released RegVac, a registry cleaning program that looks for bad links and gives you the information and tools that you need to safely remove the bad data. RegVac has four vacuum tools that clean specific parts of the registry. They can be run individually, or you can use Robo Vac to automate the process. Classes Vac searches for bad keys in the classes section of the registry and flags the ones that are no longer needed. File Lists Vac searches your hard drive for every file in your registry's many lists of programs and eliminates references to files that no longer exist. Stash Vac removes 27 collections of unused information such as history lists, recent lists, and tips. Software Vac fixes problems with software keys that are left over from files that have been deleted.
RegVac also includes four accessories that eliminate annoying system problems. The Add/Remove Editor checks the Windows Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs list for programs that have already been deleted, and allow you to complete their uninstallation and/or remove the entries for them from the registry. The System Configuration utility works with the msconfig.exe utility in Windows, but actually lets you delete (versus just disable) bad entries. The OpenWith Editor makes it easy to manage the table that controls which file extensions are associated with which programs. The Bad FileName Finder looks through your entire registry for references to files that simply don't exist on your computer, and allows you to safely delete these references.
Super Win Software
811 W. 17th Street
Hutchinson, KS 67501
316-682-0508
https://www.superwin.com
Add DHTML Dialogs to Apps
Buckland, Buchman & Backlund announced the release of B3 Cyber Dialogs, a WYSIWYG tool for creating DHTML dialogs for ordinary Windows-based applications. B3 Cyber Dialogs is designed to enable the developer using Win32® to take advantage of the rendering and scripting features of modern Web browsers. The tool allows developers to replace the dialogs of an application with Web pages acting as ordinary dialogs. DHTML dialogs are resizable and include the capability to use scripts within the dialog itself—for example, to validate user input.
The authoring tool offers a number of palettes populated with DHTML elements such as buttons, fields, labels, and lists. Items are dragged from these palettes onto the dialog being designed. The user can also build his or her library of elements by dragging from the dialog to a personal palette. New classes of dialog controls can be developed and added to the tool by using the HTML Component framework supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Buckland, Buchman and Backlund
Helgevagen 7, SE-182
54 Djursholm, Sweden
011-46-8-753-01-08
Test Your Components
Time to Market Software is shipping their Component Testing Facility (CTF), which allows developers and software testers to automate COM/DCOM components testing. Using the Windows interface, testers specify which COM/DCOM components to exercise and which properties and methods to invoke. Create scenarios to validate the business logic of your components or the low-level details of the implementation itself. Instruct CTF what to expect during the execution of the scenarios, and it will gather statistics and provide you with the information you need to make informed decisions about the status of your software.
CTF supports many complex data types, including XML and other user-defined types and objects, via an expandable plug-in architecture that is based on COM itself. The reporting module displays the scenarios that were run, including statistical charts and information that provide a birds-eye view of the tests, and of the status of the components under review. You can also create your own reports and add them to CTF, and can integrate scripts to perform advanced error checking and customized object creation and initialization.
Time to Market Software
1031 Sterling Road, Suite 201
Herndon, VA 20170
703-733-0345
https://www.timetomarketsoftware.com
Send your New Stuff to Theresa at newstuff@microsoft.com.
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Theresa W. Carey is a freelance writer who lives in California. Her byline has appeared in Barron's and PC World.
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