BIS Version 10 includes major new capabilities, enhancements to BIS 8 capabilities, and numerous corrections and minor improvements. The major capabilities added to BIS 10 include:

• BIS Plus WOW -- This capability allows applications built under RM/COBOL with WOW Extensions to be run from a web browser client. The result is similar to the WOW thin client capability, except that the server applications are run as BIS services and the client-side execution is launched from within an Internet Explorer browser application. Standard web access methods and protocols are used, and all of the files needed by the client can be loaded as part of the web launch. No programming changes to the RM/COBOL application are required to use this new capability, although it might be desirable to use some new WOW runtime capabilities that can greatly improve the efficiency of data exchange between client and server.
• BIS now works with Apache 2.0 web servers on Linux and UNIX platforms. This new *nix implementation of BIS eliminates the need for Perl and Perl-related code as a prerequisite to BIS installation. In fact, BIS 10 for Apache requires only that a standard Apache 2.0 binary object system be installed prior to BIS installation. This results in a much more predictable and trouble free installation of both products. Note, however, that the *nix implementation of BIS 10 works only with Apache 2.0. If Apache 1.3 support is required, BIS 8 must continue to be used.
• Many more platforms -- BIS 10 is ported to Windows, Linux, AIX, SCO Open Server 5, and Sun SPARC Solaris initially. Other platforms will be supported as needed.
• New sample applications -- New sample applications have been added to illustrate complex web services, such as BIS applications and PDA use of BIS web services, and a highly interactive, transform-driven application that uses Cascading Style Sheets and HTML tables for a rich user interface.

Other enhancements to BIS that expand the scope of BIS RM/COBOL applications include:

• "Recursive" Tag Processing -- This allows stencil (.srf) tags to be processed not only in the target .srf file, but also in the content payload generated by the RM/COBOL service program. This permits dynamic use of the tags under program control -- useful for a variety of diverse functions.
• Enhanced Session Support -- BIS sessions now have scope limited to the application directory of the initial .srf and its children. This enables the use of multiple sessions from a single browser, or even a single browser page. With this improvement, BIS applications can maintain multiple simultaneous services from a single menu page, for example. Auxiliary "pop-up" service program applets can now be implemented as well.
• Multiple BIS instances -- BIS may now be run in multiple copies on a single server system. This means that BIS 10 can be run at the same time as BIS 8, or multiple BIS 10 servers can be run at the same time.
• Automatic resequencing -- When BIS automatic page sequencing is used, and application users attempt to request an out-of-sequence page, BIS now offers them the option of resynchronizing with the running application. This eliminates a major inconvenience with the use of the built-in sequencing capability.
• Enhanced tracing -- The application tracing has been improved and more useful information is now included to aid in troubleshooting applications.

In addition to these improvements, many minor corrections and improvements are included in BIS Version 10.