Fourth World Media Corp. has updated WebMerge, its tool for generating static Web pages from database or spreadsheet files, to version 2.0.
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WebMerge — which runs under Mac OS 8.0 and higher, including Mac OS X — works with any database that exports in merge or tab-delimited format, including FileMaker Pro. The user creates a template HTML page with placeholder tags and WebMerge creates a new HTML page from the data in each record of the exported Merge file. WebMerge can also create an index page with links to each of the generated pages. Generated pages can be hosted on any Web server without the need for a specialized database hosting solution, according to Fourth World.
Version 2.0 adds options for specifying how pages are generated and supports more than a dozen new tags for assembling and linking Web content. Among the new template tags supported are conditional IF-THEN expressions, an INCLUDE tag to merge the contents of any text or HTML file into a template, and several tags for navigating between generated pages.
What’s more, exported database files can now use any characters as delimiters, with presets for most popular programs and formats. The new WebMerge 2.0 interface provides options for creating multiple index pages, running automated batches of settings, logging, and can automatically create simple templates for instant publishing with no HTML knowledge required, said Richard Gaskin, president of Fourth World.
Through the end of the month, you can buy WebMerge 2.0 for US$69. After that the price tag goes to $79. Multiple licenses can be purchased in groups of five or 10 at a discount. A demo version of WebMerge 2.0 is available for download at the Fourth World Web site. The demo version can be used for free to generate up to 20 pages from a database file and has all features enabled with no time limit, suitable for evaluation and testing. Registered copies have no limit on the number of pages that can be generated.