Mon Dec 15 16:39:33 2003 Latest version of the popular, powerful e-commerce server offers a new user interface and a host of new functions. New York, New York - December 15, 2003 - The Interchange Development Group (ICDEVGROUP) today released version 5.0 of the Interchange E-Commerce and Application Server. Users of Interchange can look forward to an Interchange that is more powerful and robust than ever, including a new administration interface that is completely customizable to their application. With improved internationalization support, powerful content-collation features, and comprehensive shipping, taxing, and online payment support, Interchange is by far the most complete, powerful, and flexible open-source ecommerce application. Using its simple installation program, it can be installed on servers with a modicum of skill to provide a quick route to ecommerce for new users. With its powerful and secure framework for extension of the application, it can be integrated with any accounting, warehousing, or ERP system. And its complete internationalization integration allows multi-national application development that can be extended to more languages with translation tables. "Interchange 5.0 is the culmination of a major effort which had the dual objectives of dramatically improving developer productivity and significantly enhancing the capability of Interchange users to deliver leading-edge e-commerce stores," said Mike Heins, founding member of the Interchange Development Group and CTO and co-founder of Perusion, a leading Interchange consultancy. "The result is a powerful new platform for web developers worldwide." An improved administration interface allows developers to customize their customers' interface to the application, providing powerful point-and-click database display and editing tools. Jonathan Clark, Managing Director of Webmaint, said about the Interchange administration tools: "The configurability of the adminstration interface is truly astounding. With Interchange 5, there is no need for us to spend time developing a back-end for applications we are producing." Interchange is supported on a variety of Unix-like platforms: Linux by Red Hat, Debian, SuSE, Slackware, and others; Sun Solaris; FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD; and Apple's Mac OS X. Interchange 5.0 has a host of advanced internationalization features for users needing multiple-language sites. They include table-based translation, database shadowing of translated information, locale-based currency formatting, syntax-oriented positioning, and more. Interchange 5.0 boasts some significant advances for developers, including the ability to program most tag, filter, and trigger routines. The core tags are now indistinguishable from user tags, allowing no-holds-barred custom development. Interchange 5.0 is the first of the Interchange 5.x series. Future releases will bring more content-management features, improved performance, and improved integration with popular payment and ERP packages. Developers and users wishing to install the Interchange 5.0 E-commerce and Application Server may freely download the software at www.icdevgroup.org. The software includes the Interchange 5.0 core, administration interface, Foundation demo catalog, voluminous documentation, as well as extensions and examples. Interchange is a free software project comprising a complete, powerful application server for Unix-like operating systems. It has been under continuous development since 1995. It is commonly used with popular relational databases such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL, and others. It includes many features that allow it to scale up to meet high traffic demands, including component caching, clustering features, and complete tunability. The platform leverages the power and rapid development of the Perl language as well as the deep and broad base of extensions from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Interchange is used by millions of shoppers around the world. More than a hundred Interchange consultants, including dozens full-time, offer support for Interchange development. There are thousands of Interchange catalogs worldwide. The Interchange Development Group is the international group of software developers who advance Interchange as the leading open-source e-commerce application server. See http://www.icdevgroup.org/ for complete information on Interchange, including a live demo and the "Hall of Fame," a list of selected sites using Interchange. Contact in the US/Canada: Mike Heins mikeh at perusion.com +1.765.647.1295 or 800-949-1889 Contact in Germany: Stefan Hornburg racke at linuxia.de -- Mike Heins Perusion -- Expert Interchange Consulting http://www.perusion.com/ phone +1.765.647.1295