TopSpeed's New Direction: The Web

by Dave Harms

Published 1999-09-28    Printer-friendly version

9/28/99 1:02 PM

Monday's focus on web development has been confirmed by Bob Zaunere's presentation this morning: TopSpeed is making a major directional change toward deploying applications on the web.

The short term future for TopSpeed is Internet Connect 2, a major revision that replaces the Java controls with HTML controls, with no significant loss of functionality and a massive increase in speed. A beta of the product is expected to be released in October.

Jim DeFabia demonstrated a IC2 counterpart to the IC1 application he developed for the Monday session. The IC2 app used a table to display a browse of items, and provided locator and scrolling support. Although any change in the data requires a full refresh, the page size is small. Based on the demonstration, this really does make IC2 (aka the Web Edition) competitive in the world of web-based application. And deployment can be very fast as it allows Clarion developers to leverage their existing knowledge of the development environment. This is a big step forward for IC.

Bob Z also spoke about the product to come after IC, called iBuild. In contrast to IC, which generates HTML at runtime, iBuild will work with HTML created at design time. TS has entered into an agreement to OEM the full version of DreamWeaver to support the HTML design side of the process. Through the use of wizatrons, HTML changes will be reflected in the application, and vice versa. (Zaunere later said that C6 will probably be the Web Edition as TopSpeed doesn't expect to see a lot of developers doing Windows-only development in the future.)

Also part of the iBuild direction is a set of web application development kits which can be resold and/or modified by developers. Currently in the planning stage are iSell, a web storefront and store management system, iPublish for administering web content (including user contributions), and iMarket for tracking customer/contact management. These applications are designed so they can be integrated into a seamless whole on the web site.

There are a number of enhancements to the ABC library to help support all of this, as described by Joe van Niekerk in the morning's final session. These include classes for SMTP and MIME (email) support, which use the new Winsock class(es). All of this code also makes use of the new language support for interfaces, so integration with third part products should be expedited. Templates are included, and an alpha version should be available in about six weeks.

Overall reaction to the change in Topspeed's direction has been positive as most developers recognize the inevitability of the shift to the web. What's less clear is how the new product lines fit the kind of work many Clarion developers do. There are also some concerns over the pricing model which although not fully specified seems to indicate that developers would license products such as the web development kits on a site by site basis.

Site hosting for developers will be available through an agreement between TopSpeed and eData.

Additional information on Topspeed's future direction is expected in Richard Chapman's talk on Wednesday, and Clarion Magazine will be providing more detailed reports and analysis in the coming days and weeks.

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David Harms is an independent software developer and the editor and publisher of Clarion Magazine. He is also co-author with Ross Santos of Developing Clarion for Windows Applications, published by SAMS (1995), and has written or co-written several Java books. David is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA).

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942