Outside In Technology Version 8.0 is an updated release of the full suite of the Outside In Technology product offerings. The new release includes an architectural enhancement that consolidates graphics handling code into one module, according to the Eden Prairie, Minn., company, which will reduce the time to market for future Outside In Technology releases.

"We found in the handling of our rendering, of all the different operating systems we support, that they all have different graphical interfaces. With this release, we made our own graphical rendering layer," Doug Markey, vice president of engineering for Stellent's Content Components division, told Publish.com. "All of our rendering calls go through this single layer and then are mapped to each unique operating system's rendering model. Providing that layer also gives us the opportunity to write a standard rendering model in the future, whether it be SVG or something else."

Stellent's Outside In Technology 8.0 release also enhances HTML Export output; XML Export output; expansion of viewer technology annotation options, which gives users the ability to insert text into a document view without modifying the underlying file; and expanded image export support to handle image sizes of up to 4GB to boost high-image resolution.

Commenting on the goal of a standard rendering model for the future, Markey said Stellent is in the ideal position to be the leader in standardizing. "The key is we work with over 300 file formats. We're talking about tackling it at that level for rendering," he said. "The key is to do it fast—in less than 10 seconds—and our engines can process that quickly. Consistent behavior across our platforms is key for our clients."

Customers are looking for the ability to transform documents into a format that is publishable on the Web or to their customers, Markey said. "If you're looking at the solutions currently out there, HTML is a good solution, but it doesn't provide as close a rendering to as one might want. We are targeting in the future releases to make the output a more open-standard format that is scalable and that users can mark up, search on and repurpose. That's why we added the new rendering layer in 8.0."

Outside In Technology 8.0 also adds support for four platforms: HP/UX Itanium 64 bit and 32 bit, Linux Itanium 64 bit, and Windows AMD 64.

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