COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Jan. 22, 1997

Jan. 22, 1997
Vol. 3, No. 3

The NEWSWIRE is a weekly distribution of information about the sales and installations of publishing technology and the latest news on new products developed by suppliers to the industry.

To get removed from this list, send e-mail to: macjordomo@colegroup.com with the words UNSUBSCRIBE NEWSWIRE as the first line of the text. These missives are archived on the World-Wide Web at http://colegroup.com/NW/.

To submit material for consideration, please deliver electronically to news@colegroup.com.

DIGITOOL APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES
Digitool Applied Technologies, a start-up business based in Cambridge, Mass., that is focused on advanced Internet applications, has introduced InfoStop, a tool for building and serving on-line city directories.

InfoStop enables easy development and management of complete on-line directories for any size city with an easy-to-browse format. At the heart of InfoStop is an object-oriented database and advanced web spinning and serving technology developed by Digitool and individuals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Information about local merchants, organizations, and events is stored in a database from which InfoStop spins and serves a web site. Because InfoStop does not rely on text-based search engines, it can respond to advanced queries based on location, merchant type and services provided. With InfoStop, you can search for such things as a local bookstore that's open now, Chinese restaurants that deliver to your neighborhood and scheduled showtimes of a new film.

InfoStop, which is being used to run a directory site of the city of Cambridge, Mass., at http://www.zami.com/, is available for MacOS on the PowerPC platform. Version 1.0 beta2 can be downloaded free from http://www.zami.com/infostop.html.

EDGIL ASSOCIATES
The HARTFORD COURANT (230k, morning) has automated payment processing for its advertising and circulation credit card payments using EdgCapture software from Edgil, a software provider based in Chelmsford, Mass.

EdgCapture enables the Connecticut Times Mirror paper to process transactions from its Atex system to credit networks for authorization, notifying an operator if a customer's funds are not available so the newspaper won't run the ad or honor the subscription.

The COURANT will use EdgCapture's report generator to run reports showing payment information totals for all transactions put through EdgCapture.

Edgil may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.edgil.com/.

FORESIGHT TECHNOLOGY INC.
Foresight Technology, a software provider based in Fort Worth, Texas, has introduced NetLink/4D 2.0 for Macintosh/Power Macintosh, a new version of the popular web server CGI (Common Gateway Interface). NetLink/4D is an easy-to-use package for connecting Web servers to a 4th Dimension database.

New features include libraries that allow developers to take an existing NetLink/4D database back-end and add a Java interface, which provides extended error checking and validation capabilities. Version 2.0 also has WSAPI (WebSTAR Application Programming Interface) plug-in support. NetLink can now act as an ACGI or plug-in.

NetLink's new ability to control HTTP headers means multimedia objects can be served out of a 4th Dimension or SQL database to the Web. Developers can manage and send out any valid object type, including PDF, QuickTime and AVI.

NetLink 2.0 carries a suggested retail price of $225. Foresight's home page is at http://www.fsti.com/.

MAXUM DEVELOPMENT CORP.
Maxum, a software developer based in Streamwood, Ill., has received MacUSER magazine's 1996 Editors' Choice Award for Best New Internet Server Application. The Eddy Award recognizes the best Macintosh hardware and software products released during the year. Maxum's winning product is NetCloak 2.0.1, which was selected for its technological innovation, quality, performance, user friendliness and value to Mac users.

Maxum may be visited on the Web at http://www.maxum.com/.

PACIFIC COAST SOFTWARE
Pacific Coast Software, a maker of utilities for webmasters and web servers based in San Diego, Calif., has introduced BeyondRealms, a web server CGI that wraps many functions required by all webmasters into a single package.

BeyondRealms augments the built-in security features of many web servers with page level user/group password protection. For example, a site could easily provide a password-protected product price list that decides whether to show retail or wholesale prices based upon the user viewing the page. Similarly, commands may be embedded in the HTML that directs BeyondRealms to hide or show portions of text, or include standard variables, in a page before it is returned to the person viewing the page.

BeyondRealms creates a secure, platform-independent database of users and groups. This allows the administrator to remotely create new users and groups without accessing the server directly. The database can handle tens of thousands of users without significantly affecting performance.

Rather than relying on a text match in the file path, or general folder level protection, BeyondRealms provides unique protection for just the files you want protected. All pages processed by the application can include instructions for dynamically building the HTML text and then caching the template for future use.

BeyondRealms costs $295. You may visit Pacific Coast's web site at http://www.pacific-coast.com/.

PLR SOFTWARE
Atlanta-based PLR has announced the public beta release of WebScout, a complete web publishing system for use with 4D Server-based databases. WebScout is provided as two applications, an ACGI that runs on a WebStar-compatible, MacOS-based web server and an editor program to let you determine how your servers will be published through the web server. The editor program creates description files and HTML documents that are used by the ACGI program for serving users the data from your database servers.

The WebScout beta package, which runs on the MacOS only, is available free at http://www.plr.com/. After the beta program, WebScout will sell for $79 for an introductory period, then for the regular price of $99.

PURITY SOFTWARE INC.
Austin, Texas-based Purity has introduced WebSentinel, a web server security add-on. Utilizing Purity's Verona database engine, WebSentinel can support 10,000 users on any Mac-powered web site.

For details on purchasing WebSentinel, for $99.95, surf over to Purity's web site at http://www.purity.com/.

SOFTQUAD INC.
SoftQuad Inc., a software provider based in Toronto, Canada, has announced that is has become a preferred vendor to the ASCII Group Inc., giving SoftQuad targeted access to the 1000 members of the ASCII Group. ASCII's resellers will be able to resell and implement SoftQuad's intranet-based knowledge publishing solutions.

Toronto-based ASCII Group is Canada's largest group of independent resellers. Founded in 1984 by Alan D. Weinberger, ASCII has created over 60 preferred vendor programs with manufacturers, distributors and service providers. Its 1000 resellers have annual aggregate sales exceeding $5 billion.

--30--

COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SYSTEMS and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

Copyright (c) 1997, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved. This transmission may not be copied, archived or retransmitted without the express written permission of The Cole Group. If you are not a subscriber to COLE'S NEWSWIRE, you have received this transmission illegally.

The Cole Group, 2590 Greenwich, Suite 9, San Francisco USA 94123-3333. V: (415) 673-2424; F: (415) 673-2449; I: info@colegroup.com.