[WebMacro-announce] WebMacro 1.1 Press Release

[Marc P. <ma...@an...>]

Version 1.1 of the WebMacro Open Source web-scripting engine released.

January 13, 2003 -- The WebMacro team (www.webmacro.org) today released =

version 1.1 of the WebMacro templating library. A mature product already=
=20
used by many web sites and applications, this new release of WebMacro=20=

adds powerful new features as well as improvements and bug fixes.=20

WebMacro is an extensible templating engine written in Java, which can b=
e=20
used in Java Servlets as well as regular Java applications. What=20
distinguishes WebMacro from most other web scripting technologies such a=
s=20
Java Server Pages (JSP) is the focus on using pages and output streams=20=

purely for the presentation of dynamic information, leaving the actual=20=

data manipulation in the application where it belongs. This MVC (Model, =

View, Controller) approach results in cleaner and easily maintained=20
applications.

The simple WebMacro scripting language is typically used to produce HTML=
=20
output that contains data from a web application, though it is equally=20=

well suited to XML or any plain text output. Directives are the main=20=

"commands" available, and they are deliberately few in number to keep th=
e=20
language simple. What sets WebMacro's scripting apart from other=20
templating libraries is that developers are free to add their own=20
directives to the language without the need to modify the WebMacro=20
source. The vibrant community of users and developers contribute a wealt=
h=20
of tools and extensions for other WebMacro users.

This new release includes several major new features, including support =

for "macros" which allow the definition of sections of WebMacro script=20=

that can be reused with parameters passed to them. There is also now=20=

support for "global" functions in addition to the usual object method an=
d=20
property access.

"WebMacro has been an incredibly powerful tool for Open Doors Software i=
n=20
its development of web pages, java source file generation, and SQL Data =

Definition Files. WM magnifies Java into a powerful text processor: the =

WM processing language can be learned in about 15 minutes and therefore =

adds to the mantra of simplify, simplify, simplify" said Lane Sharman of=
=20
Open Doors Software.=20

Eric Ridge, who uses WebMacro at Technology Concepts & Design, Inc says =

he "...would be hungry and homeless if it weren't for WebMacro. tcdi use=
s=20
WebMacro to generate everything from webpages to email to=20
source-code. WebMacro has greatly decreased our development time and=20=

increased our productivity."

Amongst WebMacro's larger users are AltaVista which has been using it to=
=20
serve the pages on their site since January 2001.

WebMacro 1.1 is available for free from http://www.webmacro.org


About WebMacro

WebMacro was originally devised and developed by Justin Wells during=20=

1998. The current releases are developed through the joint efforts of=20=

several people from around the world. The core development team currentl=
y=20
has five primary members, with contributions from its many users.=20
WebMacro has been used on major high-availability server projects right =

down to embedded systems with only 32MB RAM and J2ME CDC.