XML Marks the Spot: XML Helps Move Knowledge from Books to Bytes

The discussion will share advancements in the areas of digital capture, storage, management, access and output. It will review the significant benefits and cultural implications with the digitization of information, focusing on software and storage solutions creating easy access and search capability for scanned information. A demonstration and review of the automatic bookscanning process relating to the use of XML will share how modifications can be made to a pre-existing XML file.

Belkhir, Lofti. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>eBooks>XML

Native XML Databases in the Real World

Based on a broad survey of native XML database companies, this presentation describes how native XML databases are being used in the real world, including descriptions of why native XML databases succeeded and relational and other technologies failed.

Bourret, Ronald. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML

Enterprise-Level Web Form Applications with XForms and XFDL

This paper describes a platform for the XML definition of secure, intelligent web-based applications. XForms provides a powerful model-view-controller (MVC) pattern that may best be described as a cause-and-effect XML processing model originated by XFDL. This paper describes a new version of XFDL that consumes, or skins, XForms. Hence, this paper presents the first integration of the standardized XML markup for expressing the core processing of a web-based form applications (XForms) with a host language (XFDL) that offers security, precision presentation, a document-centric capability, and other features that contribute to a more rich user experience.

Boyer, John. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Forms>XML

Getting the Most Out of COCOON: A XML-Based Webs Service for a Registration Agency

Since 2005 the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) is established as a DOI registration agency for scientific content. Data providers transmit XML-files containing the DC-based metadata descriptions of the scientific data to a webservice infrastructure at the TIB, which was created by the Research center L3S during a project founded by the registration agency for scientific content. Data providers transmit XML-files containing the DC-based metadata descriptions of the scientific data to a webservice infrastructure at the TIB, which was created by the Research center L3S during a project founded by the German research association (DFG). This webservice infrastructure is based on the web application framework COCOON. We have however extended COCOON with full webservice functionalities. Using XSLT the webservice is furthermore able to transform XML-metadata files into well-formed PICA-files to insert the metadata information into the library catalogue of the TIB.

Brase, Jan. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XML

On Language Creation

During the past twenty years, a huge number of custom languages - at least hundreds, perhaps a couple of thousand - have been attempted. Almost all have been miserable failures. That is to say, the vast majority have failed to achieve wide adoption, and those that were adopted have often failed to achieve their goals, whether of reducing costs, enriching applications, or both.

Bray, Tim. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Standards

New XML Validation Technologies in Action

This paper is based from a number of real-world XML validation projects, and compares and contrasts the experience 'in the trenches' with the current state of the art in XML validation standards. Validation is a topic of some controversy in the XML community. While there has been movement from the basic validation offered by XML 1.0 DTD's, there is little consensus on whether that movement has been in the right direction.

Brown, Alex. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Programming>XML

Large Scale Validation of Millions of UBL Invoices with XML Schema and Schematron

Since February 1st 2005, millions of invoices have been exchanged between the private sector and the public sector in Denmark. This paper focuses on real life problems, experiences and solutions with syntactical and semantical validation of millions of electronic invoices. Localization and documentation for regional and national use is a massive and important assignment. I.e. decisions on the use of identifiers have to be specified and local payment methods must be mapped to the international standard. The result is a message with many internal integrity constraints that cannot be validated with the UBL schemas alone. In order to provide even stronger validation, non-normative supplementary schemas have been developed. These schemas perform stronger validation based on decisions about the use of national identifiers for companies and persons. In addition to the use of XML schema – Schematron is used for the validation of internal referential integrity constraints. Experiences and theoretical considerations on the localization of international vocabularies are discussed.

Brun, Mikkel Hippe, Brian Nielsen, Christian Lanng and Bryan Rasmussen. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Business Communication>XML

XML Document Formats

As world events and business opportunities collide, the requirements for interoperable document formats become increasingly evident. Mandating XML for systems is a first step, but real information can't be shared effectively without a common understanding on the semantics and usage of the markup. One solution is to use agreed-on custom schemas. Another is to cite well-standardized formats such as XHTML, or deploy more specific XML formats such as Microsoft Office XML or the OpenDocument Format. None of these latter formats were written with a particular semantic usage in mind. They are of more general applicability than custom-built schemas, can be used for human-readable documents, and can be built into specific tools.

Bullard, C. Len. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Standards>XML

Binding the Graphical Web (Component and Data Bindings with XBL, XHTML and SVG)

The emerging XML based web increasingly relies upon ways of presenting content in a just in time manner. Presentation technologies such as SVG and XHTML can do so, yet the power to properly harness them will likely lie in the emergent binding languages such as XBL, sXBL, and XTF. In this presentation, bindings and binding languages will be explored, illustrating how such environments as the Mozilla Firefox 1.5 browser are using XBL as a means for performing component binding into XHTML, SVG and XForms interfaces, looks at sXBL and the W3C's XBL directions, and details why such binding languages likely represent the future of XML presentation and interaction.

Cagle, Kurt. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>XML

Plugging into the Pervasive XML Infrastructure

In 1998 the industry got behind a common vision of interoperability for systems and data using XML. The web (HTTP/HTML) connected millions of users to each other as well by presenting information they needed - both at work and from home. The next logical step is to connect systems together and break down the stove pipes of information and business logic that exist to unleash an entirely new wave of productivity gains. In this talk I will trace the march of computing that has led to incredible productivity gains over several decades; draw parallels to the invention of electrical generation facilities and the subsequent building of the electric grid that provided power for all to harness and call out the challenges that still lie ahead of us.

Campbell, Dave and Soumitra Sengupta. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>History

Integrating Messaging and Databases to Implement Service Architectures

There has been much debate over two quite different approaches to implementing XML services. The "web services" approach leverages a rather large and not yet stabilized stack of formats and protocols built on top of SOAP that promise secure, reliable operations; the "REST" or "Plain old XML over HTTP" approach keeps the basic formats and operations quite simple, but puts the burden for any security or end-to-end reliability on the application developer rather than the computing infrastructure. This presentation considers a third approach which complements many of the ideas in both WS and REST but uses an XML-capable DBMS as the messaging hub or service broker. This makes it feasible to support asynchronous, loosely coupled communications between service requesters and providers.

Champion, Michael. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML

XML Data Binding: Integrating XML and Object-Oriented Technologies

Data are the essence of business processes and technical applications, and managing data effectively is critical for success in any industry. To that end, XML has emerged as the dominant syntax for data management. The fundamental organizing principle of XML is hierarchy. Parent-child relationships among data are maintained to infinite depth through markup. Hierarchies also serve as a critical component of XML’s validation capability. An XML Schema document defines the rules for structuring data within an XML instance by describing a finite set of hierarchy sequences and an explicit set of sequences of elements within them. Hierarchy, therefore, is the underlying principle of data management in XML.

Chaudhuri, Neil. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

XML in the Wild Blue Yonder

A recent survey of XML implementations found that many United States Air Force (USAF) communities are incorporating XML as a foundational step in their migration to a net-centric vision. Although the survey was limited to publicly available resources –and thus only a partial view of total USAF efforts – thoughtful analysis of the survey results nonetheless reveals both strengths and weaknesses in the approaches inspected. In this paper we summarize the survey results and what they imply for how the USAF is progressing towards net-centricity. We note potential positive impacts XML technologies could have on USAF business practices, and some potential shortfalls.

Malloy, Mary Ann, Cheryl Connors and Amit Maitra. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

RosettaNet: Adoption Brings New Problems, New Solutions

The first phase of RosettaNet innovation and deployment was fuelled by the early challenges of achieving standards-based interoperability and making B2B integration work over the Internet. In the second phase, RosettaNet is working to reduce the cost of multi-enterprise collaboration to increase the depth of collaboration and to encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises to participate and thereby increase the breadth of multi-enterprise collaboration. This paper focuses on the XML-based technologies and methodologies that RosettaNet is using to address the principal challenges of the second phase, and shares some insights that may be useful for those facing the challenge of creating standards for information exchange within an enterprise or between enterprises.

Damodaran, Suresh. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Case Studies>XML

XML, REST, and SOAP at Yahoo

Yahoo Search Marketing makes extensive use of XML internally, for data exchange and APIs between back-end systems, and externally, as the primary interaction mechanism with third parties via REST and SOAP APIs.

Darugar, Parand. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>SOAP

XML and the Many Metamodels of Enterprise Metadata

Enterprise metadata appears in many languages and formats. XML provides a standard and consistent language for metadata, simplifying both interchange and parsing. But simply storing metadata as an XML file (be it XSD, BPEL, WSDL, J2EE EJB descriptors files, or any of dozens of proprietary formats) does not automatically and formally capture the full richness of the given metadata language. Even if XSDs are used to constrain syntax, they cannot define all possible structures and relationships, nor can they express the meaning of metadata in its business context.

Borenstein, Joram and Joshua Fox. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>XML

Unit Testing in XSLT 2.0

One of the tenets of modern software design is that early and frequent testing is a key contributor to successful application development. Unit testing frameworks, tools designed to ease the development and execution of unit tests, exist for many programming languages. This paper discusses how unit testing can be applied to the development of stylesheets and describes a testing framework for XSLT 2.0 unit tests.

Walsh, Norman. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

A Close Look at the Compact XML Schema-Aware XML Processing Framework

Wide deployment of XML technology in enterprise applications demands high performance XML processing framework. This results in extensive investigation on building an XML processing infrastructure leveraging a compact, pre-parsed XML format, which could save in the memory and CPU consumption as well as the network bandwidth. In this paper, we will discuss the project building a compact schema-aware binary XML processing framework and compare it with the existing binary XML technologies. The discussion will cover the design of the compact binary XML format, the implementation for the compact binary XML processors, which encode and decode the XML documents, and how the compact binary XML support is integrated with the existing XML processing stack. At the end, we will provide the result testing applications leveraging the compact binary XML processing framework.

Wang, Jinyu. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

A Generalized Grammar for Three-way XML Synchronization

This paper proposes a general synchronization grammar which can describe synchronization rule sets. For example, when handling three input files, we show that changes to elements can be described in terms of just seven possible permutations. Similarly, PCDATA and attribute changes can be described in terms of a fixed set of permutations. Using these permutations a grammar is proposed, allowing precise description of synchronization algorithms and rule sets and providing a testable framework for their implementation. The paper applies the resulting grammar to existing synchronization tools and technologies and shows how the grammar can be applied to provide solutions for specific application areas, including document workflow and translation.

La Fontaine, Robin and Nigel Whitaker. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Programming>XML

Functional XML: A Preliminary Sketch

Existing XML processing models are pipelines, controlled by pipeline descriptions which resemble shell scripts. Functional XML allows XML documents to specify their own processing explicitly, without losing the generality of the pipeline script approach.

Thompson, Henry S. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) in the Real World

Management is an essential for any organization planning to make production use of SOA. Even at the outset of a Web services project, success hinges on defining, tracking and controlling appropriate service levels. When implementing Web services, organizations need to review and analyze quality-of-service (QoS) metrics in order to plan for growth, minimize risk and justify additional investments. Once in production, loosely coupled systems require heightened security measures and a means for handling unexpected business conditions. In this session, the author will review how two leading financial services organizations built and deployed production-ready SOA systems, and, as a result, significantly reduced development cycles and total cost of ownership. Ed will also discuss the benefits these companies have achieved from implementing their SOA systems, the challenges they overcame and how they plan to extend their SOA systems to realize greater business benefit in the future.

Horst, Ed and Christopher Sirna. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

The Future of XML Information Management

Discusses how XML is changing the definition of 'Information Management' and the challenges associated with this change. XML provides endless opportunities when it comes to solving complex data issues companies face today from data integration to implementation of Service Oriented Architectures(SOA). Companies that choose to exploit the advantages of XML will undoubtly gain an edge over their competitors but will also be required to solve the challenges around how to best manage and service XML data without compromising data security and integrity.

Picciano, Robert. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Planning

XML Authoring for Those Who Don't Like Markup

Advances in word processing technology now enable people to author simple documents in an interface they are familiar with. They no longer need to know a lot about markup, the schema in use, or be distracted by other concerns than writing what they want to write. This simpler interface, built upon a Microsoft "Smart Doc" solution provides support for authors who are focused on the content they are writing rather than the markup that describes it. At the same time, the author is producing valid XML that can be routed for review and approval, used for multi-channel delivery, or reused by other authors in the enterprise. Several scenarios of how such an authoring/management system could be used to solve business challenges are described.

Parsons, Jon. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Software>XML