NEW PRODUCTS
ActiveState Software has introduced what it calls “commercial-grade” language distributions for Perl, Python and Tcl. ActiveState Business Edition includes AIX, HP-UX and Solaris builds of the language runtimes, as well as builds of Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. The company is also offering enhanced support from ActiveState’s in-house development team with service-level agreements, access to older versions of the platforms, and confidentiality agreements for intellectual property. Pricing is US$999 per server per year.
Quest Software has announced PowerGUI Pro, a graphical administration console for Microsoft’s Windows PowerShell with an integrated editor and debugger. PowerGUI Pro has the same features as the freeware version of PowerGUI, but it protects application scripts with integrated version control. The pro version also implements MobileShell, a secure Web service that lets administrators execute scripts remotely from any mobile device, server or client using only a browser. PowerGUI Pro costs US$99 through June 1, after which the price goes up to $149.
Software AG has offered a system for integrating communications into business-process automation. webMethods Communicate BPM lets users integrate communication infrastructure into complex business processes and control them centrally, independently of the client-side ITC infrastructure. The company says this lets employees and customers benefit from increased responsiveness regardless of their physical location.
RWD Technologies has integrated its uPerform content-generation and management system with HP’s Quality Center testing software. According to RWD, the integration reduces the effort associated with creating and maintaining project documentation, produces more accurate test scripts, and reuses content across multiple life-cycle phases and applications via centralized content management. By introducing uPerform early in the application life cycle, organizations can save time and money via one-time capturing of steps in the target application to produce both learning and testing output. One of these outputs, a test script, can be uploaded to Quality Center for use by test teams during current and future application rollouts.
UPDATES
The newest version of Replay Solutions’ binary software debugger for Java applications is now a hosted tool. ReplayDirector 3.0 no longer requires installation on a Java application server, and it is easier to integrate, according to the company. The debugger has two new features: Visual Recording captures what was on the end user’s screen during recording, helping developers reproduce the exact end-user experience in seconds for faster root cause analysis; Replay Markers pinpoints the root cause of security, performance or application issues in a recording.
Iron Speed has updated its Web application generator to be able to offer built-in reporting and data exporting to Microsoft Word and Excel. Iron Speed Designer 6.2.1 also adds a built-in MSI deployment installer to let applications be deployed to .NET hosting providers more quickly. The software also has a spreadsheet-like page-layout system to make it easier for business users to create database-driven Web applications. Iron Speed Designer generates database, reporting and workflow applications straight from existing databases; applications contain UI features often found in custom hand-coded applications, but without the hand-coding.
Intalio has extended Jetty, its Java application server, to support the WebSocket Protocol. WebSocket is a full-duplex communications channel between client and server. Part of the HTML5 draft specification, WebSocket is designed to be an alternative to AJAX and Comet. Jetty 7.0.1 has WebSocket integrated into its HTTP server and servlet container. Intalio acquired Webtide, which created Jetty, in September 2009.
PEOPLE
W3C has named Jeffrey Jaffe as its new CEO. He previously served as president of Bell Labs at Lucent, as vice president of technology for IBM, and as executive vice president for products and CTO at Novell. W3C says that he will be responsible for the consortium’s global operations and interacting with stakeholders.
