LinkScan 5.1 - Improvements to LinkScan Administration & SiteMap

San Jose, CA, October 29, 1998. Electronic Software Publishing Corporation (Elsop) released LinkScan 5.1 today. LinkScan 5.0 was a major new release. At LinkScan 5.1 we have consolidated several minor bug fixes and a number of improvements designed to further simplify LinkScan administration. The following items are worthy of note:

We have improved the default placement of output files from command-line generated reports (linkscan.cgi and dispatch.pl). Users must define the pathname to the default directory in the file linkscan.sys with the Reportsdir setting.

Some servers require that the LinkScan CGI scripts be installed in a special directory (often cgi-bin). In these situations the scripts need to know where to find the remainder of the LinkScan files. In the past, this was achieved by setting a special variable ($LS::Lsdir) in the header of each script. At LinkScan 5.1, we have eliminated that special variable and the the full pathname to the LinkScan directory must be defined in the hidden file called .linkscan. We have updated the LinkScan Configurator accordingly to make this change transparent to users installing LinkScan via that method.

We have enhanced the SiteMap customization features to make it easier to include or exclude different files from the LinkScan SiteMap and TapMap. See How to customize the SiteMap/TapMap.

We have enhanced LinkScan to validate URL's contained within drop-down lists. See How to validate URL's in drop-down lists.

We have improved the error detection and recovery logic associated with various system interfaces to ensure that any misconfiguration errors or exceptions are more clearly detected and reported.

Free fully functional evaluation copies of LinkScan 5.1 may be downloaded (less than 300 Kbytes) from the company's website at:

http://www.elsop.com/linkscan/

For current users of older versions of LinkScan, we have put together a brief summary of reasons to upgrade to 5.1 that outlines the features and benefits to be obtained at the following URL:

http://www.elsop.com/linkscan/upgrade.html

LinkScan is being used by such large and diverse organizations as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Silicon Graphics, the University of Cambridge (UK), the United States Department of Defense, Goethe-Institut, the California Institute of Technology, StorageTek, HBO, Shell Canada, Australia's Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Rueters, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwest Airlines, Brown University, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the MITRE Corporation, the Ford Motor Company, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Walgreens Pharmacy, the Boeing Company, Business Week, the Swedish EPA, Molecular Simulations Inc., 3Com Corporation, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Ericsson.

LinkScan operates on all Unix Servers (including AIX, BSDI, FreeBSD, Digital Unix, HP/UX, IRIX, Linux, and SunOS/Solaris flavors) and Windows NT 4.0 servers with Perl 5.

LinkScan 5.1 is priced at 750 US dollars. Version 5.1 is a free upgrade to purchasers of version 5.0, 4.2, 4.1 and 4.0. Upgrades from versions earlier than 4.0 may be purchased for 250 US dollars. Volume discounts are available in single order quantities of five copies or more. Orders may be placed online via a secure server. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards are accepted in addition to payment by check or money order.

ABOUT ELECTRONIC SOFTWARE PUBLISHING CORPORATION (Elsop)

Founded in January, 1997, privately-held Electronic Software Publishing Corporation's mission is to provide the most advanced high-quality software for quality assurance and management of internet/intranet websites. Elsop prides itself on providing very responsive and comprehensive customer support and assistance to prospects and customers alike.