Product announcement...
Deploy an Entire Website as a Single
Java Applet
JSite provides web designers and Java programmers with
tools that capitalize on Java's object orientation to define both the underlying data
structure of an entire website and its user-interface presentation.
With JSite you can:
- Create a complex, hierarchically organized site
consisting of multiple sections made up of multiple chapters, each of
which may contain multiple pages.
- Describe each of these data objects in a
plain text file that uses transparent, natural-language-like name=value syntax to
define parameters and their values and provide for object persistence.
- Customize and extend JSite's predefined user-interface
objects (banner, footer, graphic, and document panels) to provide a clean,
consistent, visually appealing look throughout your web site along with the intuitive
navigation tools that make any page just a few mouse clicks away.
- Use the power of EarthStones' companion JDoc product to render standard HTML documents and
make the most of its enhanced and extended formating features.
- Take advantage of JSite's AutoResTM features to automatically
size all page elements for the viewer's screen resolution, thus maintaining a consistent
look regardless of the user's display capacities.
- Do all of this, and more, within a single Java applet.
Drawing upon Java's cross-platform portability, JSite
offers more control and precision than is possible with standard HTML and scripting
languages on any given platform and guarantees that the document's look and feel will
survive the translation to other platforms as well without having to code extensive
workaround to handle the many differences encountered across browsers and computing
platforms.
To see for yourself, visit EarthStones' web site (that is, unless you are already here)
and try it out: The entire site uses JSite technology and is deployed as a single Java
applet.
And take a peak under the hood at the actual site-definition files from which the
site's Java objects are loaded from disk:
- Site.web defines the
objects used by the entire site and lists its sections.
- Section.web, a typical
description of a section's objects (in this case, the site's Portfolio section)
along with a list of its chapters.
- Chapter.web, here the
file that defines the Portfolio Tlaloc chapter's objects and enumerates its
pages.
New in Version 1.1:
- Now makes entensive use of Java's multithreading to speed website loading
and document rendering.
- Built in registration checking allows developers to produce evaluation copies of their software which must be registered and
can be granted a time-limited, temporary license.
- Splash panel on start-up now floats above web page to provide the
user with additional visual feedback about loading progress.
- The user interface has been streamlined, employing JDoc panels
which can run in graphic as well as standard document mode to display a
single image source file rather than an HTML document.
- The class library has been generalized to permit creation of Java
applications as well as applets.
- Software now includes JDocViewerApp, a Java console application
which runs on your local computer and functions as a mini-browser for viewing local files
as well as HTML documents located anyware on the internet.
Pricing and Availability
Available now. Price: $395. Check EarthStones' website for
details regarding licensing.
Under Development
The following enhancements to EarthStones' Java products are
currently under development:
- Taking advantage of new features in Java 1.1, JDoc and JSite
objects are being rewritten as JavaBean components, making them even easier to configure
and deploy.
- Exploiting Version 1.1's object streaming capacities, an object
server is under development which will allow deployment of "thinner" client
applets.
- New document features include support for multiple-column page
formats and box elements extending beyond column boundaries.
Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Microsoft and FrontPage are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
JDoc, JSite, HTML+, and AutoRes are trademarks of EarthStones.