Two More for the Show

I also evaluated two innovative products that fell just outside the target scope of this report. NetObjects' Fusion 2.0 combines intuitive WYSIWYG PageDraw and SiteStructure editors with SiteStyles and Assets managers to enable RAD Web-site authoring. It lets you drag and drop Java, ActiveX, QuickTime, Shockwave, and Fusion NFX components with pixel-perfect control, but you need third-party products to allow database interaction. An AutoFrames wizard lets you place sitewide navigation controls and logos on the margins of your pages.

You can mix and match 50 visual theme templates in different sections, import existing sites and ODBC data, and stage and publish your sites with versions optimized for different browsers and bandwidth limitations. Fusion automatically creates and updates all navigation bars and links as you rearrange and re name your pages; the Assets view's Verify All Links command uses your default Internet connection to generate a report on all internal and external links.

Netiva uses a visual, page-based interface to create client/server applications that are downloaded to a Java-enabled browser. Netiva Server connects to an Intelligent Java Client running in the browser, monitoring users and providing session/state management for up to 100 simultaneous applications. The built-in relational database sports a transactional design; you use the Macro Editor's 40 VB-like commands, syntax checking, highlighting, and debugging to wire together back-end data pages with front-end entry and report forms.

Netiva doesn't produce any HTML, but you can insert a Netiva URL into a traditional page as a tagged applet or in its own frame. The package includes templates for HR benefits and contact and project management; you can connect to Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase, Informix, and DB2 data sources in real time. You can't share data across applications, a Java limitation that will be eliminated by the forthcoming JavaBeans support. Combining Fusion with Netiva could provide capabilities rivaling those of next-generation solutions, such as Sybase's PowerSite (to be reviewed in the January 1998 BYTE).