Kapow Ships New Mashup Server

Kapow Technologies has released a new version of its enterprise mashup-making tool, the Kapow Mashup Server version 6.4, which features support for new Web standards as well as a plug-in for Microsoft Excel.

Announced on June 11 and immediately available, the Kapow Mashup Server 6.4 comes in four editions and features many improvements to further speed up automated access to Web data sources using leading mashup creation tools or Microsoft Excel.

Kapow officials said among the top new features for all editions of Kapow Mashup Server version 6.4 is extended JavaScript handling, which is in response to the fast-growing number of AJAX-based sites on the Web today. Moreover, the company has made many improvements to its proprietary browser engine so that developers can harvest data from pretty much any JavaScript- or AJAX-based Web site for use in mashups.

The Kapow Mashup Server comes in a Web 2.0 Edition, a Portal Content Edition, a Data Collection Edition and an OnDemand Edition.

The Web 2.0 Edition of the Kapow Mashup Server is useful for taking feeds and services from various Web resources for use in mashups. The Web 2.0 Edition also now features support for WADL (Web Application Description Language). WADL makes it much easier for applications and mashup building tools (IBM Mashup Center, Wavemaker, Backbase and Isomorphic) to automatically discover and consume REST (Representational State Transfer) services, Kapow officials said. WADL support also helps developers leverage the Kapow Excel Connector, an Excel plug-in provided by StrikeIron, which enables on-demand access to Web intelligence, via Web services, directly from a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet, the company said.

The Portal Content Edition of the Kapow Mashup Server features enhancements to the product's Web clipping technology, which facilitates rapid development and deployment of standards based portlets. The Kapow solution also now provides simplified portlet deployment on major portal platforms such as IBM WebSphere, Oracle Portal and BEA WebLogic. In addition, Kapow enables developers to interact with custom clipping applications, working from within the development IDE (integrated development environment) of their choice, the company said.

“When developers attempt access to Web data, they soon realize how challenging it can be to obtain it for their mashup applications, especially if the data resides on dynamic JavaScript and AJAX-powered Web sites," said Stefan Andreasen, founder and CTO of Kapow Technologies. “The Kapow Mashup Server is designed specifically to address current and future problems of accessing data on the Web, and version 6.4 includes many improvements to help developers be even more productive.”