Media Design in*Progress has released a new version of Interaction, the company's XML based web server "companion." The new version, version 3.0, includes a wide variety of new features and improvements. According to Media Design in*Progress:
Media Design in*Progress ships Interaction 3.0, the XML based Mac web server companion for building and hosting personalized, social web sites. Key new features includes integrated Emilé XML editor, expiration of membership subscriptions, conditional content that adapts to the membership status, prerequisite restrictions to personalize pages depending on visitor history, upgraded visitor monitor, OSA scriptability and recordability, among others. Interaction 3.0 can be downloaded from:
Interaction allows web professionals to benefit from the efficiency and flexibility of extensible markup when hosting and maintaining today's web sites. The application generates standard HTML pages at serving time from style sheets and server-side XML, keeping the sites accessible to all generations of web browsers. Conventional HTML documents can be used as is or enhanced with XML constructs, facilitating a smooth transition from HTML to XML. For the convenience of having an extensible markup editor at hand, Interaction 3.0 integrates most of the functionality of the Emilé XML editor.
Interaction 3.0 has an upgraded membership manager with support for subscriptions. The webmaster can specify that a membership expires at a specific date or after a certain time of use. Interaction adapts the web site depending on the status of the member, increasing the retention as expired members can be guided to restore full membership. The visitor tracking monitors of Interaction makes it possible to learn about visitors and their activities on the site in real time.
Interaction 3.0 improves and extends Dynamic Access Restrictions, which are used to build adaptive personalized web sites without depending on scripting. Any page can be restricted with a prerequisite, redirecting visitors that haven't already been to a required page. This feature can be used for adaptive tutoring or to ensure that visitors enter the site via specific pages.
Shipping since 1995, Interaction provides a mature, reasonably priced and easy to use Mac alternative to expensive site management and dynamic publishing systems like Vignette's StoryServer or Inso's DynaBase. The application uses XML to maintain a strict separation between content, processing and presentation, making websites more flexible, facilitating reuse and allowing a centralized consistent design of the look & feel of the pages.
Interaction 3.0 ships on CD-ROM with printed documentation, telephone- and priority email support, and many complementary components including web based forums, chat rooms, and e-commerce. A license allows an unlimited number of Interaction websites on one computer.
