Developer Product Briefs
BCGControlBar Library Version 8.6, More
From libraries to encryption, from refactoring to imaging, debugging, and lifecycle management—don't let anyone tell you there's not a rich selection of third-party tools awaiting.
BCGControlBar Library Version 8.6
BCGControlBar Library is an MFC-extension library with a large feature set that you can use to enhance the look-and-feel of user interfaces. Features include detachable tab windows, auto-hide windows, docking control bars and toolbars that display context while dragging, new docking algorithms, shortcut bars with detachable panes, tabbed toolbars, and IntelliSense-style support. BCGControlBar components are designed to be incorporated into existing applications. Version 8.6 includes advanced tooltip controls, compatibility with the Windows Vista GUI theme, and added support for multi-line tooltips with custom colors, rounded shapes, and icons. The new version also ships with additional samples, including TooltipDemo and ToolBoxDemo, and supports .NET. Pricing starts at $599.
BCGSoft
Web: www.bcgsoft.com
Phone: +7-812-740-3710
CEdit 3.4
CEdit from Logical Sky is a programmer's source code editor for Windows Mobile devices—a Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone. It is designed for developers who need to work with their source code when they are away from their desks. CEdit displays your project workspace folders directly on your Pocket PC, so you can open your desktop files and access the code you are looking for. CEdit features color-syntax highlighting and project navigation for a wide range of programming languages including C# and VB.NET, ASP.NET, ASP 3.0, Java, C++ and C. CEdit version 3.4 is a free upgrade that includes added support for Visual Studio 2005 project files, and improved toolbar image quality in VGA mode. $18.
Logical Sky
Web: www.logicalsky.com
CryptoTools 3.0
CryptoTools from Deux Sortes is a multi-language suite of encryption components and libraries. This suite of tools allows you to add security to your programs and Web applications; it can encrypt binary data, text, and files using encryption algorithms such as DES (56 bit) and TripleDES (168 bit), as well as base64 encoding and MD5 hashing. Both the DES and the TripleDES encryption components provide a function to derive an encryption key from a text password, and yield binary results. You can convert it to base64 using Crypto Tools' base64 encoding component of CryptoTools. The MD5 algorithm—a one-way encryption process—produces a 128-bit hash value that is unique for every piece of data it processes. This is often used to digitally sign data when used in conjunction with public/private key algorithms. All the components in CryptoTools can be incorporated into programs written in VB.Net, C#, C++, and Java, among others, and all libraries and languages are compatible with one another. You can encrypt in Java on Linux on one side and decrypt on the other side using VB.NET. Also, the suite is compatible with third-party encryption tools. CryptoTools components, files, and sample programs for all languages are distributed in a single package, so you have to buy only the one package, and learn a single API. Version 3.0 has been developed for the .NET platform, in native .NET, and is not an "interop" for the COM version of CryptoTools. Pricing starts at $149 for a single license.
Deux Sortes
Web: www.cryptotools.com
Phone: 514-574-8499
Form Designer.NET 1.0
Form Designer.Net from Viklele Associates is a run-time form designer application that requires minimal coding to utilize. Developers know that .NET provides good framework support for developing a run-time form designer. Unfortunately, .NET's documentation is sketchy and implementation is complex. Form Designer.Net helps you put together a runtime form-designer application by shielding you from the details of various interface classes that .NET framework requires you to implement. Form Designer.Net allows resizing and repositioning of contained controls using a mouse as well as a keyboard, with functionality that is supported even for nested controls (controls that are sited on a container, which in turn is sited on Form Designer.Net). The tool also provides built-in methods for cut/copy/paste, undo/redo, aligning, relative-sizing, and relative-spacing of selected controls. The product was built using 100-percent managed code, and ships with an extensive form-designer application (with source code in C#, as well as VB) developed using Form Designer.Net. A fully functional evaluation is available for free. Pricing starts at $399.
Viklele Associates
Web: www.viklele.com
Phone: +91-20-2538-1012
ImagXpress Version 8
ImagXpress from Pegasus Imaging is a .NET and COM software-development kit that provides both document-imaging and photo-imaging technology. ImagXpress provides single- and multi-page TIFF support, embedded-image PDF support, TIFF tag handling, EXIF tag handling, file conversion, and support for 1- to 16-bit images. It also provides TWAIN scanning support, image editing, annotation/redaction capabilities, and image clean up, including image binarization, anti-aliasing, deskew, and despeckel. Barcode, ICR, OCR, OMR, ISIS scanning, full PDF support, forms recognition, and forms processing are all available as add-ons to the toolkit. ImagXpress Version 8 also includes enhanced and more accurate document image clean-up features, plus the ability to create smaller file sizes and improved OCR accuracy. It also includes line removal, hole-punch removal, blank-page detection, a "preserve dark" feature that you can use to enhance the fine lines and details on thumbnail images, and new photo-imaging features such as auto red-eye detection, alpha-channel support, vendor-specific camera RAW support, and advanced color photo enhancement technologies developed by Pegasus Imaging. Full-featured trial downloads are available at the company's Web site. Pricing starts at $599.
Pegasus Imaging
Web: www.pegasusimaging.com
Phone: 813-875-7575; 800-875-7009
Openmake 6.41
Openmake from Catalyst Systems is a development tool for automated-build management combined with product-lifecycle activities management. Release 6.41 is designed to help development teams meet two IT governance goals. First, it supports build automation by replacing a potentially error-prone Ant/XML-based process that uses manual scripts with a more efficient and repeatable scriptless build; scriptless build control files that follow comprehensive construction rules lower development costs as your build target objects grow in complexity. Openmake supports both local and remote builds of components targeted at a variety of deployment platforms, including embedded devices, handhelds, workstations, and servers. To support IT governance goals, Openmake 6.41 supports accelerated application-lifecycle management by allowing ALM processes to be chained and executed across distributed machines. It uses concurrent-processing technology to determine the dependency and order of execution for lifecycle-related activities, enabling you to maximize execution speeds. Openmake is compatible with a variety of development languages and tool environments, including .NET. Pricing starts at $50 for a single lifecycle-automation seat and $350 for a full-build automation seat.
Catalyst Systems
Web: www.openmake.com
Phone: 805-696-6866; 800-359-8049
PowerSNMP for .NET
PowerSNMP for .NET from Dart Communications is an addition to the company's PowerSNMP product line, which includes components for building custom network-management applications. The Manager and Agent components are designed for any application that needs to be "enterprise-aware." They use message classes that aggregate low-level tagged types into strongly-typed classes for sending and receiving management information. The Manager component communicates with SNMP agents and handles traps. The Agent component responds to SNMP managers and initiates traps. Message and MIB classes encode/decode SNMP Version 1/2/3 traps, requests and responses. PowerSNMP for .NET gives you the ability to manipulate, send, and receive Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP versions 1, 2, and 3) communication packets directly to .NET applications. You can construct custom SNMP managers, agents, and trap handlers at a component level. Also, if you need to automate network-management functions, PowerSNMP for .NET provides a multi-level object model that reduces the complexity of building enterprise management apps. PowerSNMP for .NET is designed for both beginning and expert users, because its default behavior can be modified for advanced users. The product provides MIB-2 support as intrinsic classes. Both VB and C# source code can be created from MIB files at design time for inclusion in your project, and dynamic classes can be complied from MIB files at run time. PowerSNMP for .NET includes SNMP Agent, SNMP Manager, MIB Parser, and MIB Compiler. Introductory pricing starts at $1499.
Dart Communications
Web: www.dart.com
Phone: 315-339-8040
ReSharper 2.0
ReSharper from JetBrains is an add-in for Visual Studio .NET for C# that adds code editing, highlighting, and refactoring features to Visual Studio. The product provides the developer with coding assistance, on-the-fly error highlighting, and error correction. It analyzes your code while you work and highlights a range of possible syntax or logic errors. The product detects and emphasizes statements or constructs that you should be warned about, such as unused or uninitialized variables. UI features allow you to pass the cursor over the error and see possible solutions in a pop-up window. ReSharper also supports refactoring; types of refactoring supported include rename symbol with reference correction, moving type to another namespace with reference correction, and changing method signature. ReSharper is integrated with Visual Studio .NET; version 2.0 now supports Visual Studio 2005 and has various feature upgrades. These include a set of quick fixes for discovered problems, assistance in minor code transformations such as auto-converting string concatenation into a format string, additional files templates in the configurable "Surround with" and "Live Templates," and 10 refactorings that have been added to the set already implemented in the product. The new refactorings include Safe Delete, Pull Members Up, and Push Members Down. Also, ReSharper 2.0 can detect whether your project contains unit tests of the supported test frameworks (NUnit and csUnit). It also allows you to run and profile tests from the code editor, while also providing a devoted window where you can analyze test results and re-run unit tests. $199.
JetBrains
Web: www.jetbrains.com
Phone: 650-378-8571; +420-2-4172-2501
SmartInspect 1.4
SmartInspect from Gurock Software is a logging tool for debugging and monitoring .NET, Java, and Delphi applications. SmartInspect 1.4 features a new Tasks toolbox, full configuration-file support, and the Configuration Builder. The Task toolbox includes shortcuts to often-used features in the product such as opening recent log files and searching for log entries in the current log. Also, the Task toolbar contains links to help topics to make it easier for new users to get started with the product. To make it easier to create SmartInspect configuration files, the Connections Builder feature in earlier versions of the product has been extended and renamed the SmartInspect Configuration Builder in version 1.4. Configuration Builder lets you create configuration files by selecting the desired options and logging destinations, and supports configuration files to dynamically configure SmartInspect libraries at runtime. A SmartInspect configuration file specifies the log level of the current application, the enabled status, the application name, and the logging destinations. By using SmartInspect configuration files, you can change the log level and enable logging at run time without changing the applications itself. Other new features in version 1.4 include new help topics on log levels, filtering, code templates, and also example log files for new users. Pricing starts at $229.
Gurock Software
Web: www.gurock.com
Spices.Net 5.0
Spices.Net 5.0 from 9Rays.Net is a suite of tools that provides a range of features to developers, including obfuscation, decompilation to six languages, documentation management services, and modeling and analytical capabilities. Using Spices.Net, you can protect, research, and reverse engineer a number of .NET assemblies. There are multiple new enhancements in version 5.0 of the suite. A reworked GUI comes with three different styles: Office 2003, Office XP, and Visual Studio 2005 with docking and tabbed documents. The core element of the interface is FlyGrid.Net, which is a flexible data grid tool. Spices.Net 5.0 integrates with both Visual Studio 2003 and 2005; you can use Spices.Net in both IDEs. And version 5.0 includes a new multitasking feature—tasks are separated and executed in separate threads. A priority status for each executed task can be specified; for example, you can launch decompilation of an assembly and research the assembly architecture at the same time. And you can view the current state of executed tasks, pause, continue, or stop any of them. You can use Spices.Net 5.0 in different scripts for automation purposes, to utilize decompilation and obfuscation of Spices.Net in scripts or C# and VB.NET applications. Version 5.0 also introduces Visual decompiler in the Spices.Decompiler feature, and the ability to extract localized information from .NET assembled using the new Spices.Localizer tool. Finally, version 5 includes Anonymizer technology that lets you mask code, making it impossible to decompile or disassemble an application. Pricing for the suite starts at $1192.
9Rays.Net
Web: www.9Rays.Net
Phone: 877-972-9763
telerik r.a.d. controls Atlas Service Pack
An Atlas Service Pack has been added to telerik's r.a.d. controls, which allows you to use the company's suite of UI controls for ASP.NET together with Microsoft's Atlas Framework update panels and triggers. All individual components in the r.a.d. controls suite have been modified to resolve the following issues: client-side functionality is now available; CSS styles that define the skin of the telerik controls have been properly applied after an Atlas callback; and CSS styles have been applied on initial rendering. Also, telerik's Ajax mechanism does not interfere with the Atlas Framework. Price for the suite starts at $799 per developer.
telerik
Web: www.telerik.com
Phone: 888-365-2779; 617-249-2116
XtraCharts Suite for .NET
The XtraCharts Suite for .NET from Developer Express is a 100-percent native .NET charting library for Visual Studio developers that supports both Windows Forms and ASP.NET. The suite ships with nine different 2-D chartviews that include a range of styles, from bars and pies to financial series. Within the bar views, you have a choice of a traditional bar view, a stacked bar view, and a 100-percent stacked bar view. Within the point view, you have access to customizable shapes and size of markers, plus a variety of shading options. Working with line views, you can control the style and thickness, and the chose between a line view and a step-line view. XtraChart Suite allows you to switch between views as your needs dictate and combine several series within a single chart. The suite also provides a set of additional elements that can be displayed within the chart. Regardless of data source or the manner in which application information is stored on disk, the XtraCharts Suite is flexible in the way it handles input data, as well as its ability to output/render information on-screen or on the printed page. It addresses tasks such as multiple palettes to automatically color your series for visual appeal, and form access to element-customization settings. The XtraCharts Suite can be purchased with full source code, including design-time code, and ships with demo applications. Contact vendor for pricing.
Developer Express
Web: www.devexpress.com
Phone: 702-262-0609