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Netiva eases Java development

Netiva claims its Java-based tool develops database-centric intranet applications in a fraction of the time traditional client-server tools require.

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Mike Ricciuti Staff writer, CNET News
Mike Ricciuti joined CNET in 1996. He is now CNET News' Boston-based executive editor and east coast bureau chief, serving as department editor for business technology and software covered by CNET News, Reviews, and Download.com. E-mail Mike.
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Mike Ricciuti
2 min read
Netiva Software today launched tools that might make the most difficult part of Web site development a little easier.

Netiva's namesake Java-based tool develops database-centric intranet applications in a fraction of the time required with traditional client-server tools, the company claims. The tool is intended for applications such as contact and lead management systems, order entry applications, and other data entry and retrieval systems. Back-end database and client-based data entry and retrieval applications are two such retrieval systems.

The company said Netiva hides the nitty-gritty database application programming, in HTML, SQL and CGI script, that is both complex and time-consuming. Instead, the tool uses a forms-based approach that generates underlying database structures and Java client software as programmers build data-entry forms.

The tool consists of Designer, Server, and Java client components. The Designer is used on a desktop machine to define applications and build forms. Applications are then moved to the Server component, which runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT. At runtime, users point their browsers to the server and download the Java client.

Netiva claims that application run as quickly as local applications, since most of the processing is taking place on the server.

The company says since its tools were built from the ground up as Web tools they are better-suited to Web development than revamped client/server development tools and applications from Microsoft and Powersoft, for example.

The tool, now in beta test, will ship in June, priced at $299 for a five-user license.

Netiva is one of several Java software companies that has received venture capital funding from a special Java fund established by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers last summer. Other fund recipients include Marimba and Active Software.