Serence Reads Beyond RSS in KlipFolio
Serence released a beta of its next KlipFolio 'personal dashboard' software Wednesday. The new version 3.0 delivers rich features to developers that can in turn build Klips that sport a more polished look with added support for images, columns, as well as more advanced options such as pop-up alerts and tooltips.
KlipFolio parses XML and other formats from remote data sources, aggregating and filtering content before pushing it onto users' desktops. Users are free to specify their own update and alert settings.
Web developers can use KlipFolio is a platform to build "Klips" – mini Web applications that are written using either XML or JavaScript.
In a conversation with BetaNews, Serence Chief Executive Officer Allan Wille described Klips as "information agents" that provide alerting capabilities for complex structured XML. Wille stressed that KlipFolio is not just an RSS reader. Klips are designed to read any online data source as long as data is available.
For instance, end users can monitor their favorite Web sites, sports scores or weather forecasts. In the enterprise, those interests may differ but it is the same general idea: KlipFolio may be used as an executive alerting system, drawing decision-making information from databases or other sources.
As an example of the software's versatility, the 3.0 beta release bundles a Bugzilla Klip that can track bugs using comma separated (CSE) data. Wille explained that most CRM packages still publish CSE data and that it was to his company's advantage to provide customers with more than just an RSS reader despite its ubiquity.
For developers, advanced functionality in the new release includes: CSS mapping, event-driven parsing and call back events.
KlipFolio 3.0 Beta A may be downloaded from FileForum.