Autumn 2006

Retailers or other businesses wanting to create their own e-commerce web front end, integrated fully with the rest of their fulfilment infrastructure, have a new option in the latest version of the Actinic Ecommerce suite.

Version 8 is said to have been rewritten from the ground up and given a modern object-based architecture. "It is effectively a brand new product," the company says.

The biggest change in the new version is that users get a new WYSIWYG "design view", in which any design or content object on the page can be moved around or reformatted interactively. This makes it much more like WYSIWYG web editing packages that many designers use for rapid site development.

The product remains easy to integrate with one such tool, Dreamweaver, and indeed there is now an enhanced Dreamweaver "plug-in" that enables designs originated in Dreamweaver to be imported directly into Actinic software for the addition of shopping cart and related functionality.

It has also been made easier for developers to set up features such as lists for best sellers, "also bought" and new products.

The higher-end Actinic Business version, which allows development and management of multiple high-volume e-commerce web sites, costs only £799 (there are multi-site and multi-user versions starting at £1,250). There is also a client version for users, giving marketing and back-office integration, at £450.

The mainstream developer version costs an even more affordable £350, or £200 for the client version.