Object Design Announces New XML Tool

Object Design announced the XML Object Manager, a database development tool that will help developers create web applications based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

XML is an emerging data transfer standard, widely expected to replace HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) because of its greater flexibility.

"The XML Object Manager gives customers a server-side solution for using XML, which means faster time to market and superior performance," said Larry Alston, VP marketing, Object Design. "While most vendors are just beginning to look at XML, Object Design is already delivering a solution that will help customers incorporate XML into their web applications today."

The vendor said that Web professionals can easily use XML Object Manager to add features such as data entry, queries and personalization to ObjectStore-driven web sites. Instead of having to master COM, DCOM and CORBA technologies, they can use a simple document type definition (DTD) to define the database, and HTML and XML extensions to access and update the data.

Developers will benefit from ObjectStore's Cache-Forward architecture, which is designed to enable local caching of XML data in the middle-tier with the application server or Web server, the company explained. This eliminates the need for applications to access a back-end database for each query, reducing traffic and enhancing performance.

According to the vendor, XML Object Manager is scheduled for availability Sept. 1 direct from the vendor or from distributors, and costs from $3,500.