InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 22, 1998
Make The Web Work For You
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Tango takes advantage of SCCAPI to interface with source-control software. However, advanced features must still be accessed through the source-control software's native interface.
The Tango Application Server provides a scalable architecture for applications built with the Tango Development Studio. The server is multithreaded and scales well on multiprocessor machines. In fact, EveryWare suggests running multiple Tango Application Servers on Solaris to improve performance and scalability. Tango also has a dynamic pool-threading architecture, which can sense dead threads and restart them.
The Tango Application Files created with the studio are fully portable to any platform on which the Tango Application Server can run, which includes Sun Solaris, AIX, Silicon Graphics Irix, Windows NT, Windows 95, or the Mac OS. However, there is no built-in support for publishing applications from a development machine to a testing machine to a production server.
The Tango Application Server includes an internal scheduling engine that can be used to automatically execute applications at any time. When combined with programming logic, this could allow for very powerful scripted events. Tango also provides a powerful and extensible administration module, which can be used remotely through a browser.
Tango essentially leaves it up to the developer to create authentication and access-control mechanisms. Also, Tango is "firewall friendly," as it uses the Common Gateway Interface to provide a static port to and from the application file. In addition, Tango fully supports Secure Sockets Layer encryption.
HahtSite Application Server 3.1
Haht Software's HahtSite Application Server 3.1 aims to be a full-featured application development tool and deployment engine for enterprise Web applications. The product focuses on the delivery of HTML-based content to universal clients such as Web browsers. HahtSite consists of an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), an Integrated Publisher, and an Application Server.
The IDE runs on Windows NT and lets developers visually construct applications using drag-and-drop widgets and direct programming. It contains many features that simplify the development of HTML content, including visual layout editors, image editors and converters, image map utilities, report generators, and more. A visual project layout viewer graphically depicts the construction of a particular application and shows dependencies and links to other parts of the application.
The IDE includes a SCCAPI, allowing developers to use popular source-control packages such as Visual SourceSafe and PCVS. The IDE also has a powerful integrated debugger that has the ability to do remote debugging. A variety of tools and wizards simplify tasks such as creating frame sets, validating fields, and creating database queries. HahtSite supports a variety of data sources through Open Database Connectivity and several native interfaces.
One of the useful features of HahtSite is that it provides a software development kit, which lets developers extend the environment in different ways, such as by creating new widgets. For programming, HahtSite offers HahtTalk Basic, a Visual Basic 3.0-compatible programming language. There is also some support for Java and JavaBeans.
HahtSite's Integrated Publisher allows publication of an application from the IDE to the Application Server, which may or may not reside on the same machine. The process is truly a push-button operation; it's so simple that developers don't even need to know that the publishing action actually compiles the application and publishes it to a remote machine.
The Application Server offers a number of robust capabilities, including multiprocessing, multithreading, pool threading, and database connection pooling. The Application Server is available for Windows NT, Solaris, HP-UX, and IBM AIX. It provides some load balancing when running in a multiserver environment.
Overall, HahtSite is an especially compelling choice for organizations that already have Visual Basic developer skills, while still providing support for Java. Haht has several partner programs designed to help developers create their own business solutions or to create extensions and products for use by end users of HahtSite. Some of these products are available today, including extensions for Accipeter AdManager, MapInfo, PowerCerv, Reed Travel's Voyager, and SAP.
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