From Maxum...

Big news, folks! Better sit down for this one.

We've made the first development version of NetCloak 3.0 available for
download at:

(http://www.maxum.com/netcloak/ncdev/)

This new version of NetCloak represents the future direction of both the
NetCloak and NetForms products. The two products have been combined in this
new version of NetCloak, and you will soon be able to take advantage of the
synergy created by the merging of the two applications. We are releasing
this early development version of NetCloak 3 in order to get feedback from
our key users as soon as possible in the development cycle.

Existing NetCloak and NetForms keys will not be able to validate this
version of NetCloak. This development version of NetCloak 3.0 will expire
June 30, 1998. We fully expect to finish another development release long
before then.

New Features in NetCloak 3.0
============================

NetCloak and NetForms Combined
------------------------------

We have merged the two into one application. This has the following
immediate benefits, with more sure to come:

1. NetForms functionality is now available as a W*API plug-in.
2. NetForms can use all NetCloak global, local, counter, and cookie
variables in REPLACE commands.
3. New EXEC_FDML command can execute a NetForms FDML file from within a
cloaked HTML page.
4. New NETCLOAK configuration tags (see below) can be used in FDML files.

Limits Removed
--------------

We have made NetCloak more dynamic in its memory usage, so that memory
limitations in previous versions of NetCloak/NetForms have been removed.

Web-based Administration
------------------------

Yes, another long-awaited feature is finally here! You can now edit
NetCloak and NetForms configuration settings, global variables, counters,
and groups using your web browser.

Expanded NETCLOAK configuration tags
------------------------------------

Along with a web admin interface, you can now set, insert, and show/hide
parts of a page based on new, expanded NETCLOAK configuration tags.

In NetCloak 2.5, the (NETCLOAK) tag supported two parameters, "LastMod" and
"Translation", which let you specify options for the "Last-Modified:" field
of the HTTP reply, and for the character conversion desired in the reply,
on a page-by-page basis.

In NetCloak 3.0, this concept has been greatly expanded. In addition to the
NETCLOAK command, we have added SET_NETCLOAK, INSERT_NETCLOAK,
SHOW_NETCLOAK, and HIDE_NETCLOAK. And, we've expanded the list of
configuration parameters you can access with these new commands, including
"TimeFormat", "DateFormat", "Logging", and NetForms options such as
"LinkNextText", "LinkPrevText", and "DuplicateFiles".

AppleScript Access to NetCloak Global Variables
-----------------------------------------------

Using either the NetCloak CGI or the plug-in, you can now create
AppleScripts which can set and get the value of any NetCloak global
variable. Thus, any scriptable application can communicate values to
NetCloak, which can then be inserted into web pages on your server, or can
be used to show or hide portions of web pages.

As you can see, we've made a lot of changes. With that many changes, there
are bound to be bugs in both the new features as well as in the existing
features. Please give it a try and let us know ASAP of any problems you
find. But, remember, this is a development (pre-alpha) release, so you
shouldn't be using it on production servers.

Told you it was big news! Have fun!

Chris Patterson chris@maxum.com
Maxum Development Corp. www.maxum.com