Entering the crowded web applications development tools market space this week is Elemental Software Inc. The company’s product, Drumbeat, which started shipping this week, generates dynamic HTML applications using drag and drop tools and taking advantages of both client and server-side scripting to build applications that access databases. The applications are built using Java applets and ActiveX controls, and the next version will support JavaBeans and JSB components, Netscape’s way of encapsulating JavaScript into reusable components. Elemental’s product differs from Haht Software Inc’s Hahtsite and Macromedia’s BackStage because it doesn’t require its own server component or scripting language, and from IBM’s NetObjects Fusion, because Drumbeat’s run-time environment is a standard browser, says the company. Drumbeat works with Netscape’s Enterprise Server 3.0, and in the next release, Microsoft Corp’s Internet information Server, using the server-side JavaScript or Microsoft JScript to communicate with the database. It also includes client-side JDBC Java DataBase Connectivity drivers of its own. So applications written using drumbeat would support whatever databases the Netscape or Microsoft server offers. Elemental’s VP marketing Ed Forman said products like Microsoft’s InterDev were aimed at developers, whereas Drumbeat is for computer-savvy business type, and perhaps the closest competitor would be Netscape’s Visual JavaScript tool. Drumbeat also includes the Tibco Inc TIB/Rendezvous multi- casting component that works with Tibco’s server. It is used to dynamically update data in into fields containing video, audio and regular data inside Drumbeat-developed applications. Elemental is likely to build pre-packaged applications out of the components in Drumbeat and then sell them for Drumbeat developers to use and expand further. Forman said the company will also act as a distributor for its customer’s pre-packaged applications. Drumbeat costs $700 and will be unveiled at next week’s Netscape’s developer’s conference in San Jose, California. The next cut of Drumbeat, with the Microsoft server and JavaBeans support is due around mid-summer.
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