Altova Makes Industry Leading XML Engines Available for Free; AltovaXML Provides Developers with Xslt 1.0/2.0, Xquery, and XML Validating Engines for Royalty-Free Use within Applications.

BEVERLY, Mass. -- Altova(R) (www.altova.com), creator of XMLSpy(R), MapForce(R), and other leading software development and data integration tools, today introduced AltovaXML(TM), an XML standards processor that includes the same XSLT 1.0, XSLT 2.0, XQuery, and XML validation engines that drive its own award-winning XML development tools. Software developers can download AltovaXML from the Altova Web site at no cost and use it within their own custom applications royalty-free.

XML-based applications often require the use of an XSLT engine for performing transformations, an XQuery engine for executing queries, and/or an XML validating parser for well-formedness checking and validation. AltovaXML provides developers with an XSLT 1.0 engine, XSLT 2.0 engine, XQuery 1.0 engine, and XML validating parser together with COM, Java, and .NET interfaces so that it can be used from a variety of applications. Developers can also call its functionality from the command line. AltovaXML is the first royalty-free XML standards processor to support schema-awareness in XSLT 2.0, and all of its functions are performed in a standards-based manner in conformance with the latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications.

"AltovaXML will give us the free, fast, and compliant XSLT 2.0 processing engine that we need for our applications," said Otto Perdeck, Development Manager, Decision Management for Chordiant Software. "It should easily integrate into our software, which will definitely be a great benefit over competitor products."

AltovaXML is suitable for use in both client- and server-side application development. Some example applications that may require the AltovaXML engines include:

--XML-based single source or multi-channel publishing applications that require content entered by users to be checked for validity according to a specific schema and transformed into HTML or other formats through XSLT processing

--Data integration applications that transform existing XML documents into a format consistent with a new schema via XSLT or XQuery processing

--Web services applications that search for and retrieve data from XML documents via XQuery processing, then present the results in valid XHTML Web pages by transforming them using schema-aware XSLT 2.0 processing

"Since the majority of XML developers are already using Altova tools to build their software applications, it just makes sense for them to use the very same XML processor to check for validity and process transformations and queries in those applications," said Tim Hale, Director of Marketing for Altova. "Schema-aware XSLT 2.0 processing, XQuery processing, and the other advanced capabilities of AltovaXML can significantly improve the accuracy and performance of applications, and the fact that it's free makes it a sure bet."

Pricing and Availability

AltovaXML is offered under a free license and is immediately available for download at: http://www.altova.com/altovaxml.html with no key code required for activation.

About Altova

Altova accelerates development and integration projects with software, services, and solutions that enhance productivity and maximize results. As an innovative, customer-focused company and the creator of XMLSpy, MapForce, and other leading software development and data integration tools, Altova is the choice of over 1.5 million clients worldwide and virtually every Fortune 500 company. With customers ranging from vast development teams in the world's largest organizations to progressive one-person shops, Altova's line of software applications and custom-tailored professional and educational services fulfills a broad spectrum of business needs. Altova is an active member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Object Management Group (OMG) and is committed to delivering standards-based platform-independent solutions that are powerful, affordable, and easy to use. Altova was founded in 1992 and has headquarters in Beverly, Massachusetts and Vienna, Austria. Visit Altova on the Web at www.altova.com.

Altova, XMLSpy, MapForce, and AltovaXML are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Altova GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. The names of and reference to other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.