Tool Makers Take It to the Net

Steve Apiki

New components from Centra Software, Microsoft, Spyglass, and others provide Web-browser functions and lower-level Internet access that developers can integrate directly into their applications.

"You shouldn't have to leave an application to access the Web," says Dan Johnson, product manager at Spyglass. "We've never viewed a browser as a product." Developers can apply tools from the three vendors mentioned above to implement features such as Web-resi dent dynamic help files, Internet-based software distribution and registration, and built-in browsers aimed only at selected sites.

Microsoft (Redmond, WA, (206) 882-8080; http://www.microsoft.com ) offers two paths to the Web, both Win32-only. First, its Internet Control Pack provides Web-access components (e.g., a browser and the FTP, POP3, and NNTP protocols) packaged as ActiveX Controls. Second, its ActiveX Development Kit, formerly known as Sweeper, covers an array of lower-level technologies. Chief among these are extensions to the Win32 API that offer access to the HTTP, gopher, and FTP protocols, and a new Persistent Cache API for storing information from intermittent sources. An OLE-based technology called URL Monikers allows containers to bind asynchronously to objects via their URLs.

Microsoft's two paths are currently separate; controls in the ICP don't run on top of the Win32 extensions. Microsoft plans to merge the two with an update to ICP by the end of this year. Mac versions of these products should be available in the same time frame. MFCs that further abstract these extensions shou ld ship in the third quarter.

The new Web Technology Kit from Spyglass (Naperville, IL, (708) 505-1010; http://www.spyglass.com ) provides a full set of components for building a browser; its modules are arranged into Media Viewers (e.g., HTML or Java), protocols (e.g., HTTP), and various utilities. In contrast to Microsoft's current offerings, the Web Technology Kit is undiscriminating of OS or component technology. It runs on Windows, the Mac OS, and Unix platforms; in addition, Spyglass licenses the kit to QNX Software Systems (Kanata, Ontario, Canada, (613) 591-0931; http://www.qnx.com ) and expects to see small-foot print kit components running in set-top boxes.

Each module is available as both an OLE server and an OpenDoc component and is accessible through a Spyglass API. Spyglass's HTML module can act as a container as well as a control, and the company promises support for all Web entities, including ActiveX controls and NetScape plug-ins.

Spyglass's technology fits OEM customers only, with current licensing agreements starting at 10,000 units. Centra Software (Cambridge, MA, (617) 547-6300; http://www.centra.net ) offers a more accessible option with its Centra Internet Classes, or CICs, a C++ class library built on MFC. CICs' multithreaded library abstracts Internet protocols and implements a shareable document cache. Centra says a port to the Mac OS is under way (although no release timetable has been set); t he current release runs only under Windows.

Centra, like Spyglass, targets commercial programmers developing games or entertainment applications more than it targets corporate developers. "Our approach is to provide an Internet solution right out of the box," says Leon Navickas, Centra's president and CEO. "This way the end user doesn't have to hunt for a Web browser."

Other vendors also provide options that aren't browser specific. Mac developers can turn to Apple's (Cupertino, CA, (408) 996-1010; http://cyberdog.apple.com ) Cyberdog. As a set of Internet OpenDoc parts, the still-beta Cyberdog can provide FTP, gopher, NNTP, and HTML access to any OpenDoc application. The modules that constitute Cyberdog can also be swapped in and out to, say, add support for new protocols. Also, the W3C ( http://www.w3.org ) maintains its own freely distributed C library (the W3C Reference Library), which can be built under Windows, on the Mac, and under most varieties of Unix.

Another option for developers wishing to implement browser-specific Internet access in their applications comes from such companies as Sax Software (Eugene, OR, (541) 344-2235; http://www.saxsoft.com ), which offers Sax Webster control, a Web browser built as a 16- and 32-bit OLE Control. Whatever scenario you choose, the number of options is increasing on a daily basis.