An announcement from Altova Inc. describes the public availability of Altova's XML document editor product AUTHENTIC 5 under a free software license. "AUTHENTIC 5 is a customizable, light-weight, and easy-to-use XML document editor, that allows business users to create and edit content through a web-enabled interface that resembles a word processor. AUTHENTIC 5 features full support for standard internet protocols and file transfer interfaces, including WebDAV, HTTP; a browser plug-in that enables a business user to access and edit XML content on the Web, spell checking capabilities in 14 languages including a medical & legal dictionary, real-time document validation, built-in templates for over 15 industry standard XML content formats including NewsML, NITF, DocBook, and many more. AUTHENTIC 5 can be used in conjunction with the leading XML content repositories, including Oracle XML DB, Microsoft CMS 2002 via the AUTHENTIC Content Management Server Placeholder Control Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Software AG Tamino Server, IXIASOFT TextML Server, Global XML GoXML DB, Lightspeed Interactive Astoria, X-Hive/DB, iLevel Software Insite Server, NeoCore XMS, and many others. AUTHENTIC 5 can also be easily deployed in custom XML editing applications as a custom control for ASP.NET."

Details from the announcement

Altova Inc., producer of XMLSPY, the world's leading XML development tool, today announced that their XML document editor product, AUTHENTIC 5, will now be offered to the public through a free software license.

Business content is the lifeblood of today's knowledge companies, yet content authors still find themselves spending a disproportionate amount of time in simply locating and formatting content, instead of doing what they do best - creating new content. Business content creation efforts are often duplicated due to content fragmentation across individual company workstations and different proprietary file formats. This fragmentation results in non-reusable information assets, and is a major source of in-efficiency across all corporations today.

XML technologies can solve the problems associated with content fragmentation because the XML file format naturally lends itself to more efficient indexing, retrieval, reuse, and transformation of data. Unfortunately, the high price tags associated with all current XML content editor product offerings becomes a significant barrier for companies wanting to develop XML content editing solutions, especially given the current restraints on Corporate IT spending. Altova believes that the high costs of XML content editors shouldn't deter people from adopting and ultimately benefiting from corporate-wide XML content applications, and has therefore made AUTHENTIC 5 publicly available under a free license.

AUTHENTIC 5 is a browser enabled document editor, allowing business users to seamlessly capture thoughts and ideas directly into XML. Save to any content management system, database, or XML repository for later retrieval or transformation - unlocking corporate knowledge. The authentic 5 word-processor style interface is ideally suited as a lightweight editing component for building document frameworks -standards-based XML document management systems for web publishing or knowledge management applications.

In addition to XML document editing, AUTHENTIC 5's dynamic forms are ideally suited for web-based information-gathering applications which fully take advantage of the rich editing and validation possibilities of XML and XSLT which are not possible using simple HTML forms. AUTHENTIC templates, which are user-friendly interfaces and layouts for editing XML documents, can be visually created with the Stylesheet Designer product, included with XMLSPY 5 and STYLEVISION 5. The Stylesheet Designer supports transformation of XML to both HTML and PDF output formats.

"Offering AUTHENTIC 5 under a free license means that corporate IT departments, even those under tight spending constraints, can implement XML content editing applications today and start realizing the benefits and cost-savings associated with reusing information assets", said Alexander Falk, President & CEO of Altova Inc. "Once XML content is captured into XML using AUTHENTIC 5, content can be transformed, saved to a repository, or accessed via a Web Service -- for these operations, Altova's developer tool, XMLSPY 5 can further accelerate the implementation of XML content editing applications."

To see a live demonstration of AUTHENTIC 5 in various XML content editing scenarios, please visit our online examples at http://www.nanonull.com. The product is available for download.

The Seybold Analysis

In "Altova Makes Authentic 5 XML Editing Tool Free," Seybold comments: "Anticipating increased competition and shrinking margins in the XML editing market, Altova is shaking things up by making its Authentic 5 XML editing tool free to the public. The strategy is to turn Authentic into a loss leader that spurs sales of Altova's flagship product, XML Spy. Even as interest in multichannel publishing is fueling demand for XML-aware content-editing tools, Altova's decision will put further pressure on XML-authoring vendors already concerned about the impending arrival of Office 11..." See The Bulletin: Seybold News and Views On Electronic Publishing Volume 8, Number 20 (February 19, 2003).

Related News: XML Trade on Caffeine

"Altova XML Tools Enables National Coffee Association of USA to Create Coffee Industry E-Commerce Trade Documents. XML Tools Help to Promote Adoption of New XML Standards. NCA on Track to Connecting The Global Coffee Industry Using XML Based Technologies, XMLSPY 5 and AUTHENTIC 5." - "The National Coffee Association of USA, Inc. (NCA) has recently announced the completion of the new NCA Standard Traffic Documents in XML format. Working with ExImWare Inc, a leading software solutions provider for the coffee industry, NCA has translated four coffee industry standard commercial documents -- 'Shipping Advice', 'Sample Order', 'Delivery Order', and 'Invoice' -- into electronic formats for the fast approaching world of Web service based Internet commerce. The development of these XML-based standards was completed using Altova's XMLSPY, the world's leading XML development environment, enabling coffee industry participants to communicate electronically. To help accelerate adoption of these new XML standards by business users across the coffee industry, Altova has released several AUTHENTIC Forms (user- friendly interfaces), which are freely available for download. AUTHENTIC 5, when used in conjunction with custom AUTHENTIC Forms, empowers business users to easily capture content and information into a standard XML document format through a user interface that closely resembles a word-processor, thus abstracting away the underlying technical complexities of XML technologies. Both the new AUTHENTIC forms for the NCA XML document formats, as well as the AUTHENTIC 5 XML document editor product are available under a free software license. NCA, established in 1911, is the leading trade organization for the coffee industry in the United States. Its members, who conduct nearly 90 percent of the business of the U.S. coffee market, include importers, roasters, retailers, growers, exporters, resellers, market exchanges and suppliers, as well as some international members. 'These NCA Standard Trade Documents were created in response to the demands of our members,' said Robert F. Nelson, NCA President and CEO. 'The global coffee trade is dependent on extremely accurate trade records and reliable and immediate information. Development of these documents is the essential step that when fully implemented will allow participants of this now paper-intensive trade to conduct commerce electronically and facilitate automated data retention and reporting, creating operating efficiencies and reducing back-end costs'..."