NetObjects Delivers Scripting Tools

NetObjects Inc . acquired a pair of scripting tools today and launched a new product division that will help the vendor move up the Web-site creation food chain.

Best known for its design-oriented Fusion design tool, NetObjects in recent months has unveiled TeamFusion for managing Web-building teams and a new 3.0 version of Fusion that provides hard-core HTML coders with direct access to code.

Today, the company announced it has acquired Acadia Infuse and JavaScript Bean Builder scripting products from Acadia Software Inc.

NetObjects has repackaged the Web scripting tool Infuse as NetObjects ScriptBuilder 2.0 and made a pre-release version of the tool available from its Web site. The vendor will ship the final version of the product within 60 days at a $99 street price.

Altogether, the moves show the 2-year-old firm targeting developers along with its more traditional designer audience.

"We want to position ourselves where our customers, leading-edge site builders, are going," said Morris Taradalsky, NetObjects' executive vice president of the new application development tools division. "Scripting is a very fundamental part of it. Sites are aiming at a much higher level of complexity that combines rich content media with high-transaction processing, interactivity and personalization."

Expect the new division to unveil additional products aimed at the high-end of the market in coming months, Taradalsky said.

NetObjects credited funds from majority investor IBM for its ability to make the acquisiti on and expand its product line-up.

ScriptBuilder 2.0 provides client- and server-side scripting, supporting a variety of languages including JavaScript, JScript and VBScript.