Elemental Software Ships Drumbeat 2.0; Millions of Web professionals now empowered to build visually engaging, database-driven Web sites - without writing code

Business Wire, June 2, 1998

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 2, 1998--Elemental Software today announced the availability of Drumbeat 2.0, establishing a new category of Web software that extends point-and-click tools beyond the production of static sites to richly functional Web business solutions. Drumbeat 2.0 is available for purchase immediately for $699 through the company's Web site at www.drumbeat.com or by calling 1-877-DRUMBEAT.

Requiring no programming or coding of any kind, Drumbeat 2.0 geometrically expands the universe of Web professionals who can now develop sites that search and update databases in real time and generate custom pages on-the-fly. Drumbeat 2.0 provides tools for going beyond multimedia "eye candy" to substantive application functionality such as forms validation, record set navigation, streaming media control, and password authentication. Drumbeat 2.0 also simplifies the process of deploying these dynamic sites across multiple browsers.

"Drumbeat proves organizations no longer needto invest huge amounts of time and money to build sites that solve real business problems," said Peter S. Hirshberg, president and CEO of Elemental Software. "A whole new range of applications that weren't feasible before - many focused on the urgent needs of departments and work groups - can now be deployed cost effectively. Businesses can now solve problems as they come up, and more quickly than possible with traditional development cycles."

Drumbeat Customers

Since January 1998, over 20,000 site builders have downloaded preview versions of the Drumbeat 2.0. Drumbeat 2.0 is already in use at businesses of all sizes including American Airlines, Wells Fargo Bank, CBS, Dell Computer, San Diego Urban League, Quantum, Panavision, AT&T, United States Air Force, World Business Council for Substantial Development in Switzerland, Honeywell, Qualcomm, Beckman-Coulter, Kansas City Power and Light, Matrixx Marketing Incorporated, Nationwide Insurance and MCI. These customers are deploying real business solutions over the Web that were simply not possible with the prior generation of static Web site development tools. Several hundred customers placed orders for Drumbeat 2.0 prior to release, indicating its widespread customer acceptance.

Eric Hileman, Webmaster, Instructional Technology Division, Oklahoma City Department of Education faced the task of building a database-driven Web application to track his department's Title III funding for delivering technology in the classroom. He needed to automate this process using an Intranet solution to allow multiple users on different platforms to track, update and approve steps in the purchase order process -- and he had to build it fast. "Using Drumbeat 2.0, I developed a site in just three hours that otherwise would have taken me three months to code and script," said Mr. Hileman. "I know how to do HTML coding, but I had no idea of how to connect Web pages to databases, and didn't have time to learn new programming tools."

Elemental Software Partners

Recognizing the importance of enabling organizations to build Web-based business solutions quickly and without writing code, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, RealNetworks and Chili!soft are partnering with Elemental Software. In addition to being a substantial equity investor in Elemental, Microsoft is promoting Drumbeat during its 13-city Best of Web Tech Ed tour and on SiteBuilder Network. HP will bundle Drumbeat with Intel-based HP Netserver systems and workstations. Real Networks and Elemental have teamed up to deliver streaming media Intranet solutions to corporate customers. Chili!soft is working with Elemental to enable layout-oriented Web developers to build Active Server Pages on non-Microsoft server platforms.

Breakthrough Features of Drumbeat 2.0

Drumbeat 2.0 offers these innovative features to empower nonprogrammers to take their Web sites further:

DataForm Wizard -- Drumbeat DataForm Wizard automatically builds sets of pages that search, update, insert and delete records in ODBC-accessible databases. Client-side HTML and JavaScript, and server-side Active Server Pages code are generated automatically. DataForm generated pages can be enhanced with Drumbeat visual editing tools and Point-and-Click Interactions to meet user-specific business needs--without any manual programming or coding.

SmartElements - Drumbeat SmartElements represent HTML and DHTML tags; JavaScript scripts; Java applets; ActiveX controls; Scriptlets and other Web components. Drumbeat SmartElements "know" how they can interact with one another in each browser and function accordingly in Point-and-Click Interactions. For any combination of SmartElements, Drumbeat creates a pop-up list of appropriate interactions. Users simply point-and-click on the elements on the page layout and choose the desired interaction from the pop-up list. Drumbeat automatically generates all the required HTML and JavaScript. Among the types of interactions possible with Drumbeat 2.0 are DHTML filters and transition effects, media controllers and players, form validations, CSS style modifications, DHTML fly-ins and Database recordset navigation.