San Francisco, California-Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR)and Allaire Corp. (NASDAQ: ALLR) today announced plans to jointly develop a toolkit that will enable Allaire ColdFusion and Allaire JRun developers to use the rich user interface and media capabilities of the Macromedia Flash Player. The toolkit, code-named "Harpoon," will provide developers with a set of common user interface controls for Web applications built with Allaire ColdFusion and JRun servers. Harpoon is being previewed today at the 2nd Annual Allaire Developer Conference and is expected to be available through a free public beta in December, 2000. "With the Macromedia Flash Player, there is a ubiquitous client platform for highly interactive Web user interfaces," explained Jeremy Allaire, Chief Technology Officer for Allaire. "Our customers have asked for more effective user interface technology which complies with the low-bandwidth, cross-platform requirements of the Web environment. Using Flash and the technology in Harpoon, developers are better able to address the need for rich application user interfaces in the next wave of Internet business solutions." Harpoon will include Flash-based user interface elements and custom tags to access and control those components within an application. The user interface elements, such as hierarchical menus, drop down lists, grids and calendars, will be presented within dynamically generated Web pages based on CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) or JSP (JavaServer Pages). Client-side interactions will be handled by the Macromedia Flash Player and passed back to the server seamlessly, without the need for a page refresh. ColdFusion and JRun developers can integrate these pre-built components into applications and control them via CFML tags (in ColdFusion) or custom JSP tags (using JRun). Designers can customize the visual look and feel of the components using Macromedia Flash 5. Additionally, developers can use the Macromedia Generator server to extend the capabilities of Harpoon. With Macromedia Generator, ColdFusion and JRun developers can build sophisticated server applications to deliver customized or data-driven graphical content to the Flash Player client at run-time. With the compilation of graphics processed by the Generator server, developers can build robust, graphically rich interfaces without affecting client-side performance, ensuring an optimal user experience. "Developers are already using Dreamweaver UltraDev with Allaire Cold Fusion and JRun to build dynamic Web applications," said Kevin Lynch, president of products for Macromedia. "Harpoon will add the high production values of the Flash Player to the powerful application server capabilities of ColdFusion and JRun and the efficient development of Dreamweaver UltraDev." Companies already using Macromedia Flash with Allaire application servers have expressed interest in the new controls promised with Harpoon. "By combining the graphical appeal of Macromedia Flash and the power of ColdFusion, we have been able to deploy truly amazing content for our customers," said Henry Bar-Levav, president of OvenDigital. "With the availability of Harpoon, we will be able to deliver rich Web applications to our clients much more rapidly." Harpoon is expected to be available for free to developers in the beginning of 2001 on Web sites of Macromedia (www.macromedia.com) and Allaire (www.allaire.com). ABOUT MACROMEDIA Macromedia is passionate about what the Web can be. Its award-winning products empower developers to provide the most engaging experiences on the Web, and enable more effective e-business. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR) has more than 1,200 employees worldwide and is available on the Internet at www.macromedia.com. ABOUT ALLAIRE Allaire Corporation is a leading provider of Internet software products and services for companies building their businesses on the Web. Supported by a community of 500,000 developers and a global partner network, the Allaire Internet Business Platform enables tens of thousands of companies worldwide to seize new business opportunities by creating e-commerce, content management, customer service and business automation systems. Headquartered in Newton, Mass., Allaire has offices in Europe and Asia Pacific and can be found on the World Wide Web at www.allaire.com.