Macromedia avails enterprise solutions

by Samuel Quek

Singapore, 04 July 2000 - Macromedia has announced the availability of two new products for the enterprises here in Singapore.

The company today held a "Built for Speed" seminar, previewing their interoperability between Flash 4, Fireworks 3 and Dreamweaver 3, as well as the two new solutions.

Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev is a visual solution for web developers who need to roll-out applications quickly - the authoring software allows developers, programmers, and designers to visually create and edit data-driven web applications on the ASP, JSP and Cold Fusion platforms.

Built upon the Dreamweaver architecture, UltraDev is Macromedia's project aimed to allow developers and designers to work on the same level. The idea was to allow application builders to author visually while having total control over their source code, and at the same time aiding designers in visualizing and editing server-side content.

Using the software, e-businesses can accelerate their delivery of dynamically generated pages, forms and database applications.

Because of its Dreamweaver architecture, UltraDev retains the functionality and features of its parent platform.

Generator 2 Enterprise Edition was also made available, and is Macromedia's solution for integrating content from enterprise databases, application servers, and content management systems with graphical templates.

Generator 2's job is to pump real-time content into a pre-designed look and feel, and delivering it to web site visitors, allowing for a reduction in workflow as well as personalization to the site visitors.

The server is a production solution, and can be integrated with personalization engines such as Macromedia Likeminds, or application servers from providers like Vignette and Broadvision.

The server makes use of a five-layer caching.system that accelerates delivery of personalized content by storing frequently generated pages and elements, reducing the need for personalized pages to be served for each site visitor.

Generator 2 also comes in a Developer Edition, that comes with a Software Development Kit (SDK) and open API to allow developers to create custom objects.

Both Generator 2 and UltraDev are components of the Macromedia Web Content Lifecycle, the company's strategy for helping enterprises find solutions to build, manage, personalize, and analyze web content.

Availability
Dreamweaver UltraDev is available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms at about S$1,100. Registered Dreamweaver 3 users can purchase UltraDev at S$550.

Users who purchased Macromedia Drumbeat 2000 before April 5 are entitled to an upgrade for S$185, while those who bought it after that date get a free upgrade.

Generator 2 is priced at S1,750 per server. It runs on Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Sun Solaris, and Red Hat Linux platforms.

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