Developer Product Briefs
ActiveReports for .NET 3.0, More
Third-party tools can rock your world; check out a range of offerings here, from report writers, to editors and imaging toolkits. There's something here for everyone.
ActiveReports for .NET 3.0
ActiveReports for .NET is a report-creation tool from Data Dynamics. New features include a retooled designer that includes a component tray to support the design-time use of .NET data components, a zoom toolbar item that magnifies the report design surface, a preview tab that allows reports to be viewed at design time, an improved report explorer that includes nodes for parameters and calculated fields, an annotations toolbar item on the viewer, and support to open TOC items and Web pages in reports as new tabs within the viewer. ActiveReports for .NET is written in managed C# and integrate with the Visual Studio .NET development environment, which allows .NET developers to code in C# or Visual Basic when programming for ActiveReports for .NET. The product includes a report wizard to start creating reports, and filters for exporting to formats like Adobe PDF, Microsoft Excel, RTF, HTML, Text, and TIFF in both Windows- and Web-based applications. Contact vendor for pricing.
Data Dynamics
Web: www.datadynamics.com
Phone: 614-895-3142
AVIcode .NET Management Pack 3.0
AVIcode has released the next generation of its .NET Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 for real-time, in-production monitoring of .NET Framework 2.0 applications, as well as improved usability such as auto-discovery that enables automatic detection of .NET. The new .NET management Pack provides full support of the .NET Framework 2.0, and adheres to both IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) best practices. The .NET Management Pack 3.0 is based on AVIcode's Intercept Studio technology, which monitors applications for exceptions and performance issues in both pre- and post-deployment environments. By tightly integrating this technology into MOM, the .NET Management Pack helps resolve code failures, application faults, and performance degradations, reducing both the time and cost of application maintenance. Contact vendor for pricing.
AVIcode
Web: www.avicode.com
Phone: 443-543-0030
Compuware Vantage .NET Support
Compuware enhanced its application service management facility, Compuware Vantage, with full-time monitoring and root cause analysis for .NET applications. These additions supplement Compuware's Web services solution, provide transaction-level support for hybrid .NET and Java applications, and provides an automated expert analysis that offers problem-resolution recommendations. New capabilities in Compuware Vantage improve its ability to work collaboratively to resolve application performance problems, and provide analysis of .NET and Java applications, improved cross-silo collaboration, faster root-cause analysis, and reduced problem-resolution costs. Also, Compuware Vantage captures and analyzes application performance characteristics to give call-level visibility and isolation into the inner workings of Java and .NET applications, and generates a performance analysis report for a selected transaction. The MS Word document identifies the application bottleneck at both detail and summary levels, and presents the findings with an executive summary, conclusions and recommendations, and results and discussion sections. Contact vendor for pricing.
Compuware
Web: www.compuware.com
Phone: 313-227-7300
Deleaker
Deleaker from Softanics is a run-time error detection and debugging tool for Visual C++ developers, and an add-in for Visual Studio 2003-2005 that helps you to analyze programming errors, many of which are unique to Visual C++. Leaks, even in robust Windows-based apps, appear when you forget to release a systems resource and are some of the most difficult bugs to find, especially when they occur in graphics device interface (GDI) objects and menus. Even if the documentation states that Windows takes care of releasing the resource used by a process when it exits, this is not enough for server applications that must be extremely reliable. Even a small leak can bring down the system if it occurs many times. Using Deleaker, you can detect and localize resource leaks such as memory, GDI and USER objects, and handles. You activate Deleaker before starting your application. Then, while your application is running, Deleaker provides you with the information on created GDI objects. For almost all these objects you will get a full stack, which helps you to see where each GDI object was created. Double click the stack entry and the editor will open the file with source code at the corresponding line. Or, when your application already exits, Deleaker will notify you of GDI objects that were created, but were not deleted. Deleaker allows you to track what resources were created between a start and stop point, and display what those resources are. It doesn't slow down the app because it is integrates into the VS development environment, and includes a full stack for almost all detected GDI objects. You can not only find a bottleneck, but also determine what caused that bottleneck. Contact vendor for pricing.
Softanics
Web: www.deleaker.com
DotImage 4.0
Atalasoft's DotImage is an imaging toolkit for photo- and document-based imaging applications built on the .NET Framework 2.0 and ASP.NET. The 4.0 release includes the DotImage Advanced Document Cleanup (ADC) and Advanced Photo Effects (APE) modules. The ADC module is an add-on that allows you to automatically remove specks and borders for improved image quality. The ADC add-on also provides automatic solid- and broken-line removal, blank-page detection, and the ability to auto-negate inverted text and inverted documents. The APE module is an add-on that allows you to automatically enhance digital photos without manual touch-ups. DotImage 4.0 also includes the new DotImage GlyphReader Module, which is an OCR engine. A new PDF output module can be added onto any Atalasoft-supported OCR engine, and will generate high-quality, searchable PDF documents with thumbnail images of the document pages, and a variety of PDF flavors including text-only, text under full page image, and text and separate images. Other upgrades to the DotImage 4.0 platform include a new Ajax-thumbnail control and an improved Ajax image viewer for viewing and processing images on the Web. Pricing starts at $499.
Atalasoft
Web: www.atalasoft.com
Phone: 866-568-0129; 413-572-4443
Editor.NET 1.4
Editor.NET from Quantum Whale is a code-editor library written in C# and built on .NET classes. Editor.NET allows you to integrate a flexible editor control into your .NET applications, while making almost all the functionalities of the Visual Studio .NET code editor available, including customizable syntax highlighting, code outlining, code completion, unlimited undo/redo, bookmarks, word wrap, drag-n-drop, and search and replace. It also permits the displaying of gutter, margin, and line numbers. Editor.NET is designed to highlight syntax for more than 30 predefined programming languages, including C, C#, Delphi, VB, Java, XML, and HTML, and can be extended to perform syntax highlighting for an unlimited number of programming languages. Editor.NET is written in C# and built on .NET classes. It ships with full source code, including design-time code. New features in version 1.4 of the product include margin and content dividers, and code snippets that provide additional levels of flexibility in the library. $249.
Quantum Whale
Web: www.qwhale.net
Phone: +380-44-418-5550
FlyTreeView for ASP.NET 2.0
FlyTreeView from 9Rays.Net is a tool that helps you present hierarchical data on the Web with highly customizable styles and behavior options. Developers can take advantage properties in the product that define and control appearance and behavior options. There are a range of styles and images that come as part of FlyTreeView; however, any kind of built-in images can be replaced with the new ones. A higher level of user interaction is provided through client-side and server-side event models. Also, the use of Ajax technologies makes the controls faster and increases the usability of a Web application. Additional features in FlyTreeView include a fast cross-browser implementation, XHTML 1.1 standard-compliant markup, full support for Visual Studio 2005, server-side templates with any ASP.NET code, on-demand nodes population without postback and common .NET databinding, a client-side scripting model, advanced drag-and-drop within a treeview, between several treeviews, or between treeviews, and custom user-defined HTML objects. The new release of the product supports ASP.NET 2.0. Contact vendor for pricing.
9Rays.Net
Web: www.9rays.net
Phone: 877-972-9763
Free PDF Converter
PDF Converter from BALTSOFT is a free Web-based service that provides users with an online interface for converting documents to a PDF format. The source file may be a document in one of the 51 formats, including .doc, .xls, .ps, .ppt, and .rtf, among many. For a complete list of supported formats, see the company's Web site below. Free PDF Converter service is designed for home and office users, and just like any PDF converter, you can add a watermark to your PDF output, protect it with a password, and convert MS Word hyperlinks to PDF links. The conversion process is easy; open a Web page with a PDF converter form, use the Browse button to locate a source file on your local PC, select it, and then click the Convert button. The output is sent back to you as an email attachment, or displayed in the browser. The service pricing is based on a membership system. Users pay $9 as a membership fee for three months, which allows you 7 document conversions a month and access to ZIP-archives (limited to 5 documents). For a $49 lifetime membership fee, you can submit and archive up to 100 documents per month.
BALTSOFT
Web: www.freepdfconvert.com/
InstallShield v12
InstallShield from Macrovision is an installation development solution that software producers use when they prepare their applications for installation on the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. Version 12 of the product supports the latest beta version of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, including IE 7, Windows Installer 4, and other new technologies. Macrovision's "Get Ready for Vista" support includes the ability for an installation to specifically target hardware running on Vista, the ability to maintain security via the new User Access Control functionality, to minimize the frequency of reboots through the Restart Manager interface, and to execute a set of validation tests to confirm that the installation is Windows Vista ready. Additionally with InstallShield version 12, support for a wide range of platforms, devices and operating systems has been extended with additional mobile platform management and the ability to convert existing installations into the Microsoft Windows Installer format. InstallShield version 12 is currently available in English, German, and Japanese. Other enhancements in version 12 include support for Windows Mobile 5.0, SQL Server 2005, .NET Framework 2.0, .NET Compact Framework 2.0, and DIFX 2.01. There are also additional configuration of setup prerequisites, collaborative tools for developers to share information with setup authors, the ability to automatically convert installations into the Windows Installer format, and an InstallScript engine overhaul for improved performance. Contact vendor for pricing.
Macrovision
Web: www.macrovision.com
Phone: 408-562-8400
PowerWEB Zoom for ASP.NET 1.0
PowerWEB Zoom from Dart Communications is an Ajax-enabled image viewer for image rendering and delivery. It allows developers to add high-resolution image pan and zoom functionality to Web applications without requiring additional plug-ins or special skills. The new release, PowerWEB Zoom for ASP.NET 1.0, allows you to add interactive features to high-resolution images without needing to develop complex scripts or manually processing source images. It is targeted at any distributed applications where the presenting of high-quality, detailed images is required, including e-commerce, real estate, asset management, and online photo album applications. Features include cross-browser support; on-screen tools such as zoom slider, compass navigator, magnifier, and thumbnail; configurable keyboard short cuts for all controls; on-demand delivery of image data; and configurable render quality modes. PowerWEB Zoom for ASP.NET 1.0 is interoperable with all other PowerWEB products. Pricing starts at $999.
Dart Communications
Web: www.dart.com
Phone: 315-339-8040
SlickEdit version 11
SlickEdit is a multi-platform, multi-language code editor that enables power programmers to create, navigate, modify, and debug code faster and more accurately. SlickEdit can be used as a complementary editor or as a stand-alone development tool, and can be used to manager your large code-base and other challenging programming tasks. You can customize the tool to match your coding style and the way you work by setting preferences for indenting, brace style, and other code format options. You can also use Slick-C to write your own macros that add new capabilities to SlickEdit. Improvements in version 11 include additional support for scripting and dynamic languages, enhanced support for Ruby (an object-oriented programming language, which combines elements of Perl, Smalltalk, and Scheme), and Python (also an object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development). SlickEdit support for the Python language also includes enhanced context tagging, auto-completion, syntax indenting, and code navigation. SlickEdit version 11 also supports ActionScript 2.0 (an ECMAScript-based programming language used for controlling Macromedia Flash movies and applications), as well as over 40 other languages. Pricing starts at $284.
SlickEdit
Web: www.slickedit.com
Phone: 919-473-0070
SocketTools .NET Version 4.5
SocketTools .NET from Catalyst Development is a collection of managed code classes designed to simplify the addition of Internet functionality into applications built using the Visual Studio development platform. The tool helps with the complexities of the native socket classes, without requiring in-depth knowledge of how the various Internet protocols are implemented. SocketTools .NET includes 19 class libraries and components can be used to develop applications capable of uploading and downloading files, sending and retrieving email messages, remote command execution, and terminal emulation. Features of the product include: managed code classes written in C#, compatible with any Visual Studio.NET language; no external dependencies on third-party libraries; support for both synchronous and asynchronous network connections; high-level and lower-level interfaces; thread-safe implementation with full support for multithreaded applications; support for proxy servers, including secure proxies, using FTP and HTTP; support for the standard SSL and TLS security protocols with 128-bit encryption; and support for client certificates when required by the remote host. For existing users, the class interfaces are very similar to the SocketTools COM interfaces. A single developer license for SocketTools .NET Edition is $395; SocketTools Secure .NET Edition is $695.
Catalyst Development
Web: www.catalyst.com
Phone: 800-776-3818
StimulReport.NET 1.60
StimulReport from Stimulsoft is a .NET-based report generator that allows you to create flexible, feature-rich reports from multiple data sources, including MS SQL, Oracle, OleDB, FirebirdSQL, PostgeSQL, and XML files. The reports can be bound or unbound, and are created in a report designer that can be used in design time and in run time. No royalties for using the report designer in runtime are required. Reports created with StimulReport can be used both in Windows Forms and in Asp.Net. Also, a report may contain an unlimited number of master-detail relations, as used in Windows Forms and ASP.NET, and can be exported to a variety of output formats. Rendered reports can be exported to .pdf, .html, .xcl, .rtf, .txt, .csf, .emf, .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png, and .tif formats. StimulReport can be used to facilitate the analysis of data of any complexity, including sales, test scores, and statistics. $499
Stimulsoft
Web: www.stimulsoft.com
Phone: +375-21-237-2898
telerik r.a.d.controls version Q2 2006
telerik has released a new version of its r.a.d. controls suite for ASP.NET; the major highlight is the release of r.a.d.ajax, which supersedes r.a.d.callback and includes a set of controls (AJAX Manager, AJAX Panel, AJAX Loading Panel and AJAX Timer) to simplify development and a codeless Ajax experience. Developers can now Ajax-enable an existing postback-based application without the need to modify the logic of the application. And unlike other Ajax frameworks, telerik r.a.d.ajax allows you preserve the ASP.NET page lifecycle and guarantee proper functioning of your applications. ViewState, EventValidation, and client scripts are also preserved as if a regular postback is performed. Version Q2 2006 includes telerik r.a.d.menu v4.0, a semantic implementation of r.a.d.menu that helps you trim the HTML output of the control. This new rendering technology has been implemented in r.a.d.tabstrip and r.a.d.menu becomes the standard for all telerik navigational products. Also, telerik r.a.d.menu v4.0 includes new databinding capabilities with full support for ASP.NET 2.0 declarative data sources, improved single-property skinning mechanism, various expand/collapse animation effects, and an extended client-side API that closely matches the server-side API. Starts at $799 for a single developer license, and $999 for a single developer subscription license.
telerik
Web: www.telerik.com
Phone: 888-365-2779; 617-249-2116