ClientSoft Gives Application Developers Direct XML Access to Mainframe Data.

HAWTHORNE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 1999--

Launches First XML Standard for IBM 3270 and 5250 Terminal Emulators

ClientSoft Inc., a leader in the legacy extension marketplace, announced today that it will provide XML specifications that position the mainframe and AS/400 operating platforms to fully participate in the evolving XML standard. Terminal Emulation Markup Language, TxML(TM), specifications will be developed by ClientSoft and provided to W3C Standards Body. This initiative will allow mainframe and AS/400 customers to participate in e-commerce and e-business in an easy and open way without the need to change a single line of their application codes.

ClientSoft Inc., a leader in developing e-commerce solutions for businesses, today announced it has developed Terminal XML (TxML), the first XML standard for IBM 3270 and 5250 terminal emulators. TxML enables application developers to directly access and use mainframe legacy system data in terminal emulator programs without needing an Application Programming Interface (API). This breakthrough TxML standard has been integrated into ClientSoft's ClientBuilder product line, a complete development toolset for enterprise-to-enterprise, enterprise-to-Web and enterprise-to-wireless legacy data extension solutions.

XML, an Extensible Markup Language, has emerged as a powerful Internet tool for data representation, storage, modeling and application interoperability for E-commerce, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business to Business (B2B). Clientsoft's TxML provides a set of XML document type definitions, or DTDs, to help define the exchange of terminal emulation-based information between host systems such as IBM mainframes and IBM AS/400 systems and E-commerce, ERP or B2B applications.

Applications that use TxML document formatting have the potential to reside anywhere in the network, both locally or on the Internet. The TxML specifications eliminate the need for the use of dated API's, such as EHLLAPI. Moreover, companies can now interact with 3720/5250 emulation information using a standard XML parsing engine.

One of XML's chief strategic advantages is its ability to place information in both a contextual and structural framework. With TxML integrated into the ClientSoft ClientBuilder product line, application developers writing for IBM terminal emulators now can represent data by meaning rather than layout. With TxML, custom markup tags define and describe content.

TxML also validates the structure of a document based on its Document Type Definition (DTD), which specifies what information elements exist, their respective attributes, as well as element groupings, subsets and orders.

"TxML's separation of content and presentation in modeling mainframe data gives application builders the freedom to program more quickly, efficiently and smarter," said Scott Nevins, president of ClientSoft. "TxML is automatically scalable and provides a standard format for transmission to a legacy database and data sharing between applications. It also is a great management tool for doing comparative analysis of legacy application data."

Eion Gibson, Program Director of MetaGroup's GNS/OCSS Services, said, "Although the XML 1.0 specification is just over a year old and relatively immature, business benefit is driving early implementation. Unlike HTML, that generally only defines how the content is presented, XML defines what the content means. This ability to describe the meaning of the content using XML tags and associated data type definitions (DTDs) or XML schemas makes XML a key technology for application to application information exchange, thereby becoming a primary enabler for E-business and business-to-business (B2B) application integration."

ClientSoft is reshaping the way products and services are bought, sold and serviced by creating e-commerce and e-business solutions that leverage an organization's multi-million dollar investments in host-based applications. ClientSoft's vision is to enable today's leading organizations to capitalize on these Internet-based business and commerce opportunities while protecting their significant IT investments, including major reinvestments in mainframe systems. ClientSoft is empowering the mobile worker with the valuable corporate information available through its wireless technology. ClientSoft has developed a suite of solutions that link PDA's and laptops to a company's mainframe.

In business since 1987, ClientSoft has demonstrated its proven technology, skills and a successful track record working with hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies, insurance and healthcare companies, universities and government agencies including: ADP, Consultec, CSC Logic, Dow Jones, Duke University, First Health, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Peralta, Trustmark Insurance Co., University of Akron and the U.S. Navy. ClientSoft is privately held and headquartered in Hawthorne, N.Y.

More information about ClientSoft and its software solutions is available by visiting the ClientSoft website, www.clientsoft.com

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