"Some time ago, it became apparent that we needed to find more efficient ways of completing the requests made to our servers," says Joseph. All of the programs on the server that compose EZ-NetTools were originally written in the PERL programming language. As the number of users and hits to the server have grown, so to has the number of processes that the servers are requested to complete.

"We are working towards a more robust method of processing. The "mod_perl" methodology that we have been implementing on our servers allows processes to be completed in memory resulting in greatly reduced response times. Along with the functional changes that we have made to virtually every part of the tools, we have gradually been converting all of our tools to be compliant with mod_perl. We have already reduced response times to 1/3 of what they were, and before all is said and done, we expect to reduce them to 1/3 of what they are!" reports Joseph with well deserved satisfaction.

The most significant improvements yet to come to EZ-NetTools over the course of the next year will come to the catalog/order processing systems. Other tools to receive attention in the near future will be EZ-LinkTrader, EZ-Calendar and others.

Goodbye to Old EZ-PageBuilder/EZ-FileManager
The two tools known as EZ-PageBuilder(Old) and EZ-FileManager(Old) will be removed from the Member Tools as soon as January. These old tools are not mod_perl compliant and are no longer receiving updates. Our logs indicate that almost everyone has made the leap to the new versions of these tools. If you haven't, you should get started right away. You will find that functionality in the new versions is much improved over the prior versions.

EZ-FormBuilder - The Answer to Many Requests
Have you seen the new EZ-FormBuilder blocks found in EZ-PageBuilder? This amazing new tool has countless uses that respond to many of the most popular upgrade requests we have received. The reps in Customer Support created some sample forms for you to look at:

The Sample Form is a basic form which uses all of the form blocks available in the EZ-FormBuilder. This form was built using only the basic configurations.

The Payment Process Form will lead to a secure server where customers can enter in their credit card information to place an order.

The Sample Form to Password Protected Page form will lead to a password protected directory where the user could bookmark the page and return to it until you change the password, then they wouldn't be able to enter without the password. We recommend changing the password frequently.

The Subscription Sample Form is a sample form using advanced Javascript to allow the user choose invoice, or credit card. It will also automatically process the payment amount to the secure server page.

Feel free to sample all the forms! Also, for further instruction on the use of EZ-FormBuilder see the page on the Customer Support Website.