BigE.com Uses Pervasive's Tango Enterprise For Big Hit in E-Commerce.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1999--Pervasive Software, a leading provider of data management software, today announced that Weblink Communications has used Pervasive's Tango Enterprise(tm) Web application software to build and launch the Internet's largest entertainment memorabilia "e-tail" site: www.BigE.com. This online pop-culture storefront owned by Big Entertainment offers an eclectic inventory of costumes, apparel, posters, and other items relating to movies, TV shows, music and sports.

Weblink used Tango to build the BigE site in just three months. "With the complexity, time constraints and sheer development challenge of creating such a sophisticated e-commerce site, we had to use a powerhouse development solution. For Weblink and BigE, the hands-down choice was Tango," said Weblink IS manager Tom Ferguson.

Pervasive's Tango is a fully integrated environment of Web development tools, built-in database, application server, and reporting functionality that radically simplifies the development and deployment of scalable, high-performance Web-based business solutions. Because Tango combines sophisticated yet easy-to-use technology with an open, extensible architecture, Tango provides best-of-breed Web development capabilities for Webmasters, professional developers and non-professionals alike.

Tango runs across multiple platforms while supporting industry standards such as ODBC, HTML, XML, SQL, CGI, JavaScript, JavaBeans, COM Objects and more. Tango operates seamlessly with today's most widely used databases, including Pervasive.SQL, and can be used with a number of application servers and editing tools as well.

"BigE's electronic commerce system is a powerful implementation of Tango's rapid development and deployment environment," said Scott Bleakley, vice president of marketing for Pervasive. "The site's instant graphics display, convenient shopping cart and insightful link network--all based on Tango--has catapulted BigE to leadership in the e-commerce space."

Drag & Drop Development, Scalability: Big Advantages for BigE

In developing the BigE site, Weblink made extensive use of Tango's visual programming environment, the Tango Development Studio. "The Development Studio's drag-and-drop editor enabled us to add all the actions we needed in the site, such as email, by simply dragging and dropping them into Tango Application Files," said Ferguson.

Ferguson said creating the BigE shopping cart--an e-commerce staple that must function seamlessly to provide on-target views of a buyer's choices--was easy using Tango's advanced looping functionality. The Weblink developers simply built a single array containing many items, ensuring through drag-and-drop looping actions that the items would be laid out instantaneously and accurately.

Tango is an industrial-strength Web development and deployment environment scalable to the demands of high-traffic sites such as BigE. Because the Tango Application Server works with a Web server to allow the dynamic creation of HTML code based on information contained in databases, it can easily store and graphically display data such as items in a catalog. And, adds Ferguson, "the Application Server scales as a site grows."

Database and Java Script Integration: A Key to Dynamic Linking

Part of BigE's strategy is to link with other well-traveled Web sites such as usatoday.com, film.com, and hollywood.com (which BigE has offered to purchase)--all of which have a very different look and feel. This requires customized displays created on the fly so that it is transparent to visitors that they're actually being transported to a linked site. "Tango integrates the database with client-side Java script, which lets us provide real time, dynamic layout changes along with BigE's exceptionally rich search functionality," says Ferguson. "It also ensures BigE can easily track hits and orders that originate from outside links for proper reporting and crediting."

About Pervasive Software 

Pervasive Software, Inc. is a leading provider of software for easily managing data--in packaged client/server applications and in applications built for deployment on the Web. Developers worldwide depend on Pervasive for its powerful zero-administration database and its comprehensive portfolio of Web development, reporting and data transformation tools. The company's channel-driven approach to selling, marketing, and supporting products serves the needs of ISVs, VARs, and in-house development organizations, who can quickly and efficiently move Pervasive-powered solutions into today's fast-paced business environments.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Pervasive Software offers worldwide distribution, with offices in Toronto, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Brussels, Dublin, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. For more information on Pervasive call [phone] or [phone], visit us at www.pervasive.com, or email [e-mail].

About Weblink Communications

Weblink Communications is a full-service electronic media and marketing company that specializes in the design, development and marketing of high-profile entertainment and lifestyle-oriented Internet and multimedia solutions. For more information on Weblink's development services, call [phone], or visit their Website at www.wlci.com.

For more information about Big Entertainment, visit their Website at www.bige.com.

Pervasive, Pervasive Software, Pervasive.SQL, Tango Enterprise and Bolero are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pervasive Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.