New Architect > Archives > 2001 > 12 > Programming Product Review

Collaborative Site Building

By Ken Cox

Sitespring 1.0 is the newest product from Macromedia. It's designed for managing Web site content, assigning tasks to team members, creating activity reports, and providing project file version control. Its features include threaded discussion lists and the ability for your customers to approve content online. Most project activity and administration is done via a Web browser. While this product doesn't have the same flash (excuse the pun) as products like Dreamweaver UltraDev, Sitespring will make life easier for small- to medium-size Web teams.

Sitespring's installation routine is easy and comprehensive. I was a little apprehensive when I noticed that the product uses JavaServer Pages (JSP), because my system runs Microsoft Internet Information Server. However, my concern was groundless. The installer does literally all of the work to set up its own Java-based server. It checks the server for minimum requirements?at least 256MB of RAM and the NT file system (NTFS). Then, the setup wizard installs and configures a Sybase database and Allaire's JRun as the Web server environment. Before you know it, the installer launches the administrator's login page in your default Web browser. The first-time system initialization can take some time, so take a coffee break before you assume that Sitespring has hung. Although the documentation says that the software requires Windows NT Server or Windows 2000, my copy ran fine on Windows XP Professional.

Sitespring Macromedia