System iNetwork

May 4, 2010

BCD Makes a Cluster of Product Announcements

Business Computer Design (BCD), a provider of application modernization products for the IBM i, made a cluster of announcements in tandem with the COMMON 2010 conference this week. The announcements include:
* upgrades to BCD's WebSmart family of products
* a new version of Nexus Portal
* a new release of Presto

WebSmart upgrades. BCD released WebSmart ILE 8.2, WebSmart PHP 3.2, and Clover Query 2.0. These new versions incorporate product-specific features such as gradient charts, new XML functions, Oracle templates, and the flexibility to schedule reports. One key enhancement is a new version of SmartCharts, a set of data-graphing Flash charts included with all three products, which uses new gradient colors to give charts a Web 2.0 look. Another highlight is XML improvements to WebSmart ILE and Clover, which include new XML functions that simplify XML document processing and parsing.

Nexus Portal 3.6. The latest version of Nexus Portal, BCD's secure enterprise web portal solution for IBM i, offers a Google Search Appliance portlet that lets users apply Google searching and indexing to their own content, full support for Firefox users, and a major revision to the code that BCD claims improves page load times by up to 40 percent. The Google Search portlet provides users with search capabilities to any network drives and web pages they index with a Google Search Appliance or a Google Mini. This is in addition to the documents in the Nexus Enterprise Content Management system. Another enhancement in version 3.6 is the new Nexus QNTC feature, which lets you use a QNTC mapped drive as the storage location for your documents loaded or created in the Nexus ECM, as an alternative to using the IFS and enabling the use of less-expensive storage.

Presto 2.0. The latest version of Presto, BCD's tool for web-enabling IBM i green-screen applications, features a new modern look, a Visual Screen Editor, and an improved out-of-the-box experience. The Visual Screen Editor allows users to drag and drop text and fields (called elements) to reposition them from where they originally appeared on the green screen. You can change the appearance of elements (e.g., font size, color, borders) and transform on-screen elements (e.g., add date pickers, drop-down boxes), customize elements, and reposition them on screen. Presto 2.0 also includes four new web-enabled skins, among many other improvements, such as support for device names and improved alignment of data and text on web-enabled 5250 green screens.

You can download a free 30-day evaluation copy of WebSmart ILE 8.2, WebSmart PHP 3.2, Clover Query 2.0, and Nexus Portal 3.6 at http://www.bcdsoftware.comor www.mybcdsoftware.com. To learn more about Presto 2.0 or request a free trial, go to www.bcdsoftware.com/presto.

Posted by agrubb at May 4, 2010 8:49 AM