Developer Product Briefs
Barcode ASP.NET Web Control 1.5, More
Everything from barcode components to testing, from Help-authoring enhancements to e-mail capabilities and software localization?it's all here in the May product listings.
Barcode ASP.NET Web Control 1.5
Barcode ASP.NET Web Control is a component that allows you to add barcodes
to your ASP.NET applications as with other Web Form components, but without
having to write complex code. Written in C# with 100-percent managed code,
the RKD Software barcode component can be embedded in applications regardless
of the .NET environment. The Barcode ASP.NET Web component can be used in the
same way as other .NET Framework classes. It allows you to save barcodes to
disk in most major graphic file formats including GIF, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and
BMP. It also gives you full control over the look of your barcode by letting
you configure colors, fonts, text, and orientation. Version 1.5 has undergone
testing to verify compatibility with C#.NET, VB.NET, Borland C# Building, and
Borland Delphi for .NET. Starts at $145.
RKD Software
Web: www.barcodetools.com
Compuware TestPartner 5.4
Compuware TestPartner is an automated QA Center Enterprise Edition testing
tool for the functional testing of complex applications developed with Microsoft,
Java, and Web technologies. The new release includes tight integration with
Visual Studio 2005 Team Systems and support for .NET Framework 2.0. Object
support for the VSTS environment allows you to test third-party .NET components
using native methods and properties. Other new features include an ActiveData
wizard for automatic data parametrization for creating data-driven tests for
less technical users. The more advanced wizard includes enhanced parameterization
flexibility. TestPartner 5.4 also includes an import/export wizard and functionality
that simplifies the moving, sharing, archiving, and executing of test assets.
Contact vendor for pricing.
Compuware
Web: www.compuware.com
Phone: 800-521-9353; 313-227-7300
Doc-To-Help 2006 v1
Doc-To-Help 2006 v1 from ComponentOne enhances your Help-authoring experience
with new features and functionality for Documenter and NetHelp. You can use
the tool to author or import documentation into Microsoft Word or any HTML
editor, and create online Help systems and printed manuals. Help systems created
with Doc-To-Help can be created in most formats including HTML Help, cross-platform
HTML-based Help, JavaHelp, WinHelp, Visual Studio .NET-style Help, and printed
documentation. D2HML properties can be inserted into the code as an attribute
in an HTML-compatible manner, resulting in a clean HTML source document. The
image map editor in HTML associates Help features with hotspots, and creates
a more robust Help system. Doc-To-Help 2006 v1 now shows an icon for each collection
item indicating where it came from, and whether it was added manually by the
user in the Project Editor, or was specified in the document. You can also
place live links in the printed documentation instead of text references to
make the manual more robust when it’s converted to PDF or used in any
on-screen viewing scenario. New features in NetHelp include popup windows or
menus with topic lists that appear when a hotspot links to multiple topics.
New features in Documenter can generate links for standard .NET Framework types
in Help 2.0, and also include tag support in the free nDoc tool. Pricing for
Doc-To-Help for Word starts at $749; pricing for Doc-To-Help Enterprise starts
at $999.
ComponentOne
Web: www.componentone.com
Phone: 800-858-2739; 412-681-4343
Easy Projects .NET 4.0
Logic Software’s Easy Projects.NET is a Web-based projects management
and task-tracking software system. The tool is designed to track real-time
project information and status reports, to centralize project data for easy
file sharing, and to provide message board and e-mail updates to team members.
Easy Projects .NET also supports multi-nesting and access to information on
multiple, simultaneous projects. New features in version 4.0 include an enhanced
user interface with pull-down menus, custom fields, the ability to import from
.CSV files, customizable e-mail notifications, project grouping by customer,
and improved usability of the time-entry page for viewing timesheets from any
time. Starts at $89.
Logic Software
Web: www.logicsoftware.net
Phone: 416-907-9944
Essential Studio 4.1
Essential Studio from Syncfusion is a line of ASP.NET and Windows Forms components
for Visual Studio .NET developers. Essential Studio 4.1 now provides support
for Visual Studio 2005, and includes a range of other additional features as
well. For starters, it offers the option to exclude the ASP.NET or Windows
Forms during installation. Also, Syncfusion has streamlined its product offerings
to remove the distinctions between Essential Studio Professional and Essential
Studio Enterprise, so that every Essential Studio license gives you access
to all 10 products included in the suite. Essential Studio now 4.1 supports
Ajax-style callbacks. The CallbackPanel control provides a control that eliminates
the requirement of postbacks from Web site designs, .NET 2.0-style data sources,
and native binaries for the .NET 2.0 Framework. Release 4.1 also includes a
preview version of Essential DocIO, a .NET library that can read and write
Microsoft Word files, as well as an object model similar to the Microsoft Office
COM libraries. Because Essential Studio 4.1 does not use COM interop and is
built from scratch in C#, essential DocIO can be used on systems that do not
have Microsoft Word installed. A UI-independent component, Essential DocIO
can be used on Web Forms applications where the created document is streamed
to the client browser. Among other new features included in Essential Tools
4.1 for Windows Forms are enhanced support for visual themes across all compatible
controls, as well as support for the look and feel of Microsoft Office 12,
Visual Studio 2005-style docking, a rework of the design-time experience for
the cell-oriented grid, and a popup form that lets you edit cell contents outside
the VS IDE. Pricing starts at $1295.
Syncfusion
Web: www.syncfusion.com
Phone: 888-936-8638; 919-481-1974
FireMail v1.0 for .NET
FireMail for .NET from ceTe Software is a new .NET component that allows you
to add real-time e-mail capability to your server-based or client-based applications.
It features 100-percent managed code and supports both plain text and HTML
message types, as well as HTML messages with embedded images or messages with
an alternate plain text body. FireMail for .NET supports creating attachments
from a file, stream, or byte array, the automatic detection of attachment transfer
encoding, and password authentication—both basic and NTLM (v1 and
v2). And, features in the tool allow the handling of recipients refused by
the mail server. FireMail for .NET integrates with ceTe Software’s DynamicPDF
for .NET by allowing real-time PDF reports and documents to be sent via e-mail
without having to create or manage temporary files. FireMail for .NET has undergone
extensive e-mail client compatibility testing across a range of industry standard
applications, and is available in two licensing models: server-based and developer-based.
Starts at $159 (server-based) and $299 (developer-based).
ceTe Software
Web: www.cete.com
Phone: 800-631-5006
Lingobit Localizer 4.5
Lingobit Localizer from Lingobit Technologies is a software tool for localization
simplification of .NET (C#, VB.NET), MFC (VC++/Win32), and Java applications.
The tool can be used to localize software across a range of geographies simultaneously.
Lingobit Localizer 4.5 now has added support for .NET 2.0 applications, as
well as Delphi and C++Builder applications. Also, version 4.5 has a new, advanced
visual editor and supports different localization techniques, so you can use
the tool for localizations either by using resource-only DLLs or by translating
directly in binary files. Addressing instances where translation in the source
code is unavoidable, Lingobit Localizer now also supports localization of various
text-based formats, including C++/ASP/PHP source files and INI files, among
others. The tool understands the internal structure of the most commonly used
formats, so that when the translator is working in C++, only strings are translated.
But when the translator is working with INI files, only values are translated.
Lingobit Localizer 4.5 provides support across a range of different development
platforms, which makes it useful for a company that wants a unified localization
solution for all its products. Pricing starts at $895 (Professional Edition)
and $1195 (Enterprise Edition).
Lingobit Technologies
Web: www.lingobit.com
Phone: 206-309-5258
Mini-Tools Components for .NET
Mini-Tools has upgraded its line of software components to include .NET support
and help files that are integrated into the Visual Studio development environment. The
component upgrades include Mini-Comm v1.1 and Mini-XMenus v2.1. Mini-Comm is
a component that allows C# and .NET developers to share text and data between
processes running on the same computer, and ensures that only one instance
of an application is running at a time. Mini-Comm includes a messaging system
to track and communicate with other processes, and a control panel for developers
to monitor and debug interprocess communications and add messages to the system
while it is running. Mini-XMenus is a component that adds custom menu items
to the Windows Explorer context menu, and allows menu items to be shown based
on which items are selected in Explorer. Items can include custom icons, fonts
and colors, sub-menus, separators and help tips. Explorer menu items may also
be drawn from scratch with full OwnerDraw support. All Mini-Tools components
come with a sample program to evaluate the component with no programming required,
C# and Visual Basic .NET sample code and templates. Mini-Comm v1.1 is available
for $49 and Mini-XMenus v2.1 is available for $79.
Mini-Tools
Web: www.mini-tools.com
NetAdvantage 2006 Volume 1
NetAdvantage is a toolset from Infragistics for building the presentation
layer of Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and Tablet PC applications. NetAdvantage features
UI controls including grids, scheduling, charting, toolbars, tabs, explorer
bars, menus, listbars, trees, a dock manager, and editing elements. NetAdvantage
2006 Volume 1 is a major release which includes the ability to deliver scalable
ASP.NET applications using improved Infragistics WebGrid and WebTree features,
including Ajax support, enhanced charting controls, a new 3D charting engine
for Windows Forms and ASP.NET, and various new controls such as an ASP.NET
HTML editor and spell checker and a Windows Forms link editor. Volume 1 also
includes the ability to build enterprise-level user interfaces through support
of Microsoft’s Composite UI Application Block (CAB), an Ajax-embedded
tree control, and an optimized grid control to reduce HTML download size. Those
new features in NetAdvantage 2006 have been added to the 2005 edition, which
was recently released, and featured integration into Visual Studio 2005. Starts
at $795.
Infragistics
Web: www.infragistics.com
Phone: 800-231-8588
Nevron .NET Vision 2005
Nevron .NET Vision from Nevron is a suite of tools that includes Nevron Chart
for .NET (data visualization capabilities), Nevron Diagram for .NET (diagramming
component for application customization and extensibility), and Nevron User
Interface Suite (includes pluggable renderers and palettes). Nevron .NET Vision
2005 now supports Visual Studio 2005 and .NET Framework 2.0. However, to continue
to support developers who have not yet moved to VS2005, Nevron will maintain
a separate installation for VS2003. In addition to support for VS2005, Nevron
.NET Vision 2005 has added features to the Nevron Chart for .NET tool, including
binding to dataview. Also, the Nevron User Interface Suite in Nevron .NET Vision
2005 has enhancements, including auto-hide support, stickers templates, appearance
styles, and lock/unlock of the panel, plus separate objects (services) for
control of the docking framework. The objects can be replaced by your own custom
objects using the manager’s RegisterService method, if you so desire.
Contact vendor for pricing.
Nevron
Web: www.nevron.com
Phone: 888 201 6088
Salamander Linker for .NET 2.0
Salamander .NET Linker and mini-deployment tool allows you to link .NET assemblies
together into a single file, and to deploy your application without installation
of the whole Microsoft .NET Framework. The linker selectively links MSIL (intermediate
language) code putting together only the required classes and methods, and
it is capable of linking into the Microsoft .NET Framework class libraries.
The mini-deployment tool then builds a minimum set of the Microsoft .NET runtime
to ship with your application. This usually results in installation size of
a few mega bytes, rather than tens of mega bytes, and the installation takes
less time without having to reboot machines. The mini-deployed application
can be launched directly from a CD, without copying files or adding registry
entries. The new release of Salamander supports .NET 2.0. and includes a native
compilation feature that allows you to compile all managed assemblies into
x86 machine code to improve performance and stop disassembling and decompilation.
No MSIL instructions will be delivered to your customers in the new version.
$1249.
Remotesoft
Web: www.remotesoft.com
Phone: 510-579-2752
TierDeveloper 5.2
TierDeveloper from AlachiSoft is an object relational mapping and code-generation
tool for the development of .NET database applications. TierDeveloper maps
objects to single or multiple tables, and allows you to define queries as methods
to your objects, returning collections of objects and giving you an object-oriented
view of the database. TierDeveloper also lets your application load or update
only a few columns in the table as needed to boost performance. Version 5.2
of the tool includes support for Visual Studio and .NET 2.0. It generates fully-functional
.NET components (both VB.NET and C#) and ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications
to use against generated objects. Each form is divided into a separate design
form and the functional code. TierDeveloper 5.2 also generates bindable objects
that support IBindingList, ITypedList, and IComponent, and includes a new mapping
wizard for N-N mapping, and support for customization of the user interface
generated in WinForm or Web applications. The new release also provides custom
hooks for separate independent .NET assembly and an integration layer. All
code in TierDeveloper 5.2 has been generated based on pre-tested code templates
that were first tested for functionality and performance. Starts at $1495.
AlachiSoft
Web: www.alachisoft.com
Phone: 800-253-8195; 925-236-3830
Web.UI 2006.1
ComponentArt’s Web.UI provides rendering technology for user interface
controls. Web.UI 2006.1 features extensive new support for ASP.NET that includes
a separate version compiled against the .NET 2.0 Framework, and support for
the ASP.NET 2.0 navigation architecture. On the client-side, release 2006.1
now includes client-side templating technology and complete programmatic control
on the client. Nodes at any level can be created, updated, or removed through
the client-side API. All client-side changes are persisted to the server on
postback or callback, and are reflected in the server-side object state. Also,
the callback control now supports viewstate persistence, including accessing
the latest state of controls that were programmatically modified on the client,
optional bypassing of the page lifecycle for faster execution of server-side
logic, and the ability to pass any number of parameters to the server. There
are two new controls included in Web.UI 2006.1, Splitter for ASP. NET for creating
interface layouts with resizable panels and WebChart Lite for ASP.NET that
adds two-dimensional charting capabilities to the suite. Upgrades to the new
release are available at a discount to current customers. For all pricing information,
contact the vendor.
ComponentArt
Web: www.componentart.com
Phone: 416-622-2923