Information Today
Volume 19, Issue 2 — February 2002
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SoftQuad Unveils XMetaL 3

SoftQuad Software, Ltd. has announced the release of XMetaL 3, a major upgrade to its XML content-creation software. According to the company, this new version features innovative ease-of-use and collaboration capabilities for content authors. It also offers developers the first XML editor with a rich development environment that supports XML Schema, a standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to define common languages for business applications. XML Schema enablescompanies to exchange information seamlessly with partners, customers, and suppliers. XMetaL 3 simplifies the creation of reusable business content, making it possible for businesses to rapidly streamline the process of distributing information to the Web, print, and other media.

XMetaL 3 includes the following new features and capabilities that allow customers to deploy solutions that hide the complexity of XML from users during the content-creation process:

  • Revision Marking—This enables groups of authors and editors to collaborate on documents and track changes, speeding the creation and approval of XML content.

  • Preview in HTML and Adobe PDF—Users can preview documents before publishing or save them in these formats for distribution and review.

  • Enhanced integration with Microsoft Office—Legacy content can now be transformed from Word, Excel, and other formats to XML content.

  • Work group document sharing—Support for the WebDAV standard provides a lightweight approach to work group document sharing.

  • Enterprise document sharing—Modules that were introduced with XMetaL 2.1 and that offer seamless integration with Documentum, Interwoven, and other leading content management systems are available for XMetaL 3.
XMetaL 3 is a validating XML editor within an open and scriptable development environment that allows developers to use common Web development and programming skills to create integrated XML content applications. With an extensive COM and Java API comprising over 300 interfaces and support for DOM, CSS, XSL, and standard scripting languages, XMetaL allows developers to control exactly how XML is displayed and entered by end-users. XMetaL 3's new developer features include the following:
  • XMetaL Forms Toolkit—This is an integrated drag-and-drop development environment for creating in-line forms and dialog boxes in order to capture end-user input. Radio buttons, check boxes, fields, and more can be mapped to XML elements,bound to back-end databases, or used to run scripts.

  • Java API—XMetaL's extensive API allows organizations that have standardized on Java to access XMetaL directly without using a COM wrapper.

  • Support for both XML Schema and DTDs—Content solutions can be developed using either XML Schema or DTDs, or can be migrated from DTDs to Schema without interrupting business logic, data integrity, or processes.
According to the announcement, over 2,000 companies, including Microsoft, Cisco, USATODAY.com, KBC Bank, Honeywell, Continental Airlines, Ford Europe, GE Medical Systems, Amazon.com, and National Semiconductor, have chosen XMetaL for XML content creation.

Source: SoftQuad Software, Ltd., Toronto, 416/544-9000; http://www.softquad.com.

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