Maxum Development Announces Release
Of NetCloak 2.5 Upgrade
November 24, 1997 — Maxum Development Corporation, a leading developer of
Macintosh Web server tools, announces the release of NetCloak 2.5, a major
revision to the enormously popular Web server tool for creating dynamic Web
pages. NetCloak, the first commercial Web server tool ever available for
Macintosh, has been included on the Apple Internet Server Solution for well
over a year, and is now included as a standard component of Apple’s
AppleShare IP 5.0.2 package. The new version adds dozens of new
capabilities, improved support for the wide range of servers available for
the Mac OS, better 3rd-party tools support, and more.
“NetCloak 2.5 is easily the biggest leap forward in functionality since we
released NetCloak 1.0 almost 3 years ago,” said John O’Fallon, President of
Maxum. “The focus of NetCloak is still on ease-of-use, and with NetCloak
2.5, we are bringing higher-end Web site capabilities into the hands of
virtually any content author.”
New Features of NetCloak 2.5
* Improved Server Compatibility – NetCloak now fully supports the wide
range of popular Web servers available for the Mac OS, including “virtual
domain” capable servers .
* Variable Management – NetCloak now supports “local”, “user”, and “global”
variables. “Local” variables can be used to simplify page maintenance and
enable complex conditionals or calculations. “User” variables can be used
to process input forms and provide dynamic content for each user that
visits a site. “Global” variables are maintained for an entire site,
allowing the Webmaster to create site “preferences” and allow site visitors
to effect dynamic content for other users.
* PIXO Support – NetCloak fully implements PIXO, which was developed
jointly by Maxum and Clearway Technologies. PIXO allows plug-ins to work
together to process Web content, enabling NetCloak to work seamlessly with
database tools and other W*API plug-ins that also support PIXO.
* Cookies – NetCloak 2.5 puts the power of HTTP “cookies” into the hands of
any Web author. Cookies can be created and manipulated to track users
through the Web site, share information with other CGIs (even on other
servers), and store user information for long periods of time (even between
user sessions).
* Counter Options – Maintaining page counters is perhaps one of NetCloak’s
most basic, frequently used and critical functions. With the release of
NetCloak 2.5, Webmasters have unprecedented control over how counters are
managed, with automatic resets and new commands for displaying not only the
counter itself but status information as well.
* New Security Features – For Webmasters running servers that many people
create content for, several security enhancements have been added. NetCloak
can now restrict the use of external CGIs, macros, and remote files from
within cloaked pages, disabling potentially harmful capabilities that could
be exploited by would-be attackers.
* Improved Control – Webmasters can now configure the HTTP header and
extended character conversion to best suit their server. Using a new
configuration command, authors can control these options on a page-by-page
basis.
* New Commands – NetCloak 2.5 features numerous new commands for processing
path and search arguments in URLs, adjusting content based on the “Host”
field (for recognizing the server domain), and performing basic math
functions.
* Simplified and Streamlined Operation – NetCloak 2.5 includes several
important usability enhancements. Server management is improved, servers
that run multiple server applications can now run multiple copies of
NetCloak, command parsing has been simplified and made extremely error
tolerant, and more. Dynamic caching adds to the administrator-specified
caching to maximize performance of all NetCloak served pages.
NetCloak is now included as a standard component of Apple Computer’s
complete file and Web server solution, AppleShare IP 5.0.2. “NetCloak is
all about making power and performance easy to use, which is completely
in-line with the Macintosh philosophy,” said John Hanay, Sr. Product
Marketing Manager for AppleShare IP. “NetCloak was the obvious first choice
to take advantage of ASIP’s new plug-in capability.”
NetCloak 2.5 is a free upgrade for all AppleShare IP 5.0.2 customers and
most existing NetCloak customers (based on the date of purchase). Other
NetCloak users can purchase the upgrade for $79.00. Complete information
can be found on Maxum’s Web site at “www.maxum.com”.
Press Contact: John O’Fallon
Phone: (630) 830-1113
Fax: (630) 830-1262
E-Mail: john@maxum.com
About Maxum
Founded in 1991, Maxum Development is a leading developer of commercial
World Wide Web server tools for business and education. Maxum products,
NetCloak and NetForms, were the first commercial tools for Macintosh-based
WWW servers and have since become industry mainstays. All Maxum products
are designed to enhance the function and performance of Web sites by making
them dynamic, interactive, reliable, secure, fast, and accessible.
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Maxum products are also available through DevDepot
(http://www.devdepot.com), mailto:orders@devdepot.com, Toll free:
800-MACDEV-1, Outside US/Canada: 805-494-9797, Fax: 805-494-9798.