New Stuff

Resources for Your Developer Toolbox

Theresa W. Carey

Contents

Develop IVI-COM-compliant Instrument Drivers
Make a Movie from Your Desktop
Combobox Controls
Subscribe to ASP.NET Components
XML Visual Code Generator
Audit that Database
Check Out the Changes
The Bookshelf

Develop IVI-COM-compliant Instrument Drivers

Vektrex Electronic Systems Inc. has announced the launch of a new version of VIVID, a software development toolkit for the generation of IVI-COM-compliant instrument drivers. VIVID links the many IVI Foundation specifications into a full lifecycle environment and produces IVI-COM drivers that are compliant with the latest specifications approved by the IVI Foundation.

VIVID allows the driver designer to graphically view the driver hierarchy, automate the code generation, provide control of instruments, and construct context-sensitive HTML-based help. VIVID is designed for use by test equipment manufacturers, systems integrators, and users of automated functional test equipment. The program operates on a standard PC under the Windows® environment.

Make a Movie from Your Desktop

TechSmith Corporation recently announced an update to Camtasia Studio, its software suite used to create videos of PC desktop activity. Using Camtasia Studio, you can turn these screen recordings into Flash presentations or industry-standard video files. The program enables users to record the activity on a Windows desktop, add narration, insert call-outs or annotations, and add other production effects.

The output can be used for demonstrating solutions to software problems, creating employee or customer training materials, and explaining concepts visually.

There are five components in Camtasia Studio. Camtasia Recorder records videos in real time, including cursor movements or any on-screen activity. Voice narration and text annotations can be added during the recording.

Camtasia Producer edits a video and provides you with production capabilities such as transition effects, audio editing, and storyboard layouts. A second audio track can be added for additional voice-overs or instructions. Many multimedia formats are supported, including Macromedia Flash.

Camtasia Effects enables you to add elements to a video with frame-by-frame precision. These include call-outs, text boxes, images, and free-hand drawings.

Finally, Camtasia MenuMaker creates a CD-ROM interface to allow users to index Camtasia Studio videos, Microsoft® PowerPoint® files, Microsoft Word documents, and more.

Camtasia Player is a compact video player that requires 320KB of hard drive storage space. It allows you to play back Camtasia Studio videos.

Combobox Controls

Softel vdm Inc. has released an upgrade of SftBox/ATL 3.0, its combobox control. This ActiveX® user interface control offers complete support for Windows XP, including themes, right-to-left reading support for Hebrew and Arabic versions of Windows, icons and metafiles support, tooltips, and scrolltips.

SftBox/ATL can be used with all major languages and development tools, such as the Microsoft .NET Framework, C#, Visual Basic®, Visual C++®, Delphi, and C++Builder. SftBox/ATL 3.0 also supports all current versions of Windows.

Use of the product with Microsoft Internet Explorer is fully supported, so the control can be used directly on Web pages. A digitally signed cabinet file is also included for this purpose.

Subscribe to ASP.NET Components

ComponentOne LLC has released ComponentOne Studio for ASP.NET, an ASP.NET Web Forms components subscription that delivers ComponentOne ASP.NET Web Forms components, updates and upgrades, select product betas, new ComponentOne Web Forms releases, and e-mail support for one year.

This release includes ComponentOne WebGrid for ASP.NET, an enterprise grid control; ComponentOne WebChart for ASP.NET, a charting tool; ComponentOne WebDataObjects for ASP.NET, data components; ComponentOne WebMenus and WebBars for ASP.NET, menu and toolbar components; and ComponentOne PayPal eCommerce for ASP.NET, a PayPal eCommerce solution.

ComponentOne Studio for ASP.NET is also available as part of ComponentOne Studio Enterprise, a components subscription for ActiveX, .NET, and ASP.NET that combines three individual component subscriptions: ComponentOne Studio for ActiveX, ComponentOne Studio for .NET, and ComponentOne Studio for ASP.NET.

XML Visual Code Generator

Canam Software Labs has released XML Thunder, a visual XML designer and code generator specifically designed for creating XML data handling program code. Using XML Thunder, developers can create XML processing program code, called XML handlers, in a visual environment.

XML Thunder can be used to design and generate two distinct types of XML handling program code: XML Writers and XML Readers. An XML Writer is a subprogram that uses data passed to it to create an XML document and writes it to a data buffer. Conversely, an XML Reader is a subprogram that parses XML data that's passed to it in a buffer and then populates the corresponding program data structures.

XML Thunder's visual designer allows you to map XML elements and attributes to program-specific data structures. The XML document structure can be manipulated in a visual design environment, allowing developers to design XML document-handling subprograms without the burden of having to perform low-level programming or to learn using XML parsers and writing parsing logic. The appropriate source code is generated to implement the mapping between the desired XML elements and program-specific data structures.

Audit that Database

Lumigent Technologies Inc. has introduced Entegra, which is designed to create a complete audit trail of a file's data access, including changes to database structure and permissions. With a record of who viewed or changed data or database structures, companies can protect the privacy and integrity of data such as customer, patient, or employee records and be certain that there has been no unauthorized access. With real-time notification of database changes, firms can facilitate remedial action or protect the database from potential damage.

Entegra is an extension of proprietary technology for analyzing database transaction logs that Lumigent offers in its Log Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server™ and Oracle databases. Entegra uses nontrigger audit agents to collect data from multiple servers. A centralized management console enables configuration of target servers for audit, including specifying types of database activities to be tracked. Entegra supports SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 7.0.

Check Out the Changes

SlickEdit Inc. announced the availability of the DIFFzilla Software Developer Kit as part of the enhanced Visual SlickEdit OEM Edition product. The DIFFzilla file differencing system, previously only available as part of the Visual SlickEdit editing environment, is now available as a standalone SDK. DIFFzilla allows developers to view changes between two files, directories, or directory trees with side-by-side editing and color-coding capabilities enabled for more than 30 programming languages. Supported languages include C/C++, C#, HTML, XML, Unicode, and COBOL.

DIFFzilla gives developers the ability to view which symbols and functions were changed or added in new versions, view what changed on each line, and merge three versions of a file into one. DIFFzilla allows developers to edit and update files being compared in real time. It can also work with other software development tools such as network management products, performance testing and debugging tools, embedded systems tools and applications, hardware configuration and programming tools, and manufacturing automation products.

The Slick-C macro capability allows OEMs to customize commands, dialogs, configurations, and settings. The SDK provides public APIs and libraries along with sample applications in order to assist OEMs in integrating the DIFFzilla differencing engine into their own products.

The Bookshelf

No Starch Press has released Flash: The Future, a guide to developing Flash applications for handheld computers, wireless devices, and other platforms. Written by a team of developers headed by Jon Warren Lentz, Flash: The Future is aimed at intermediate to advanced Flash developers. The book shows readers how to work with either Flash 5 or Flash MX in order to design Flash applications and games for Pocket PCs, manage sound, button, file size, and other limitations that developers encounter when creating content for devices.

In addition, you'll learn how to work with color and optimize for different screen sizes, memory, and CPUs. The book will also show you how to work within the limitations of the browser, Pocket Internet Explorer, or build custom standalone players; use advanced ActionScript techniques optimized for mobile devices; integrate with Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ or eMbedded Visual Basic for business applications, and prepare Flash animation for video or DVD; and build interfaces for interactive TV.

The CD-ROM contains code and examples from the book plus bonus developer tools for Pocket PCs. Find out more at https://www.nostarch.com .

Send your New Stuff to Theresa at newstuff@microsoft.com.

Theresa W. Careyis a freelance writer who lives in California. Her byline has appeared in Barron's and PC World.