Review: Information Architecture With XML: A Management Strategy

Despite the plethora of books positioning Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the next software programming language for IT gurus to master, the XML specification is not a programming language. Instead, it is a set of strategically important data standards that, when implemented from a tactical point of view, can provide organizations with value unsurpassed by many of the technologies that have come before it.

Abel, Scott. STC Hoosier (2003). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>XML

Information Models and XML  

The defining feature of XML is the ability to specify your own tags. Learn about what to look for in an XML information model and what a technical communicator can contribute to an XML documentation team.

Baril, France. Intercom (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML

Integrating Partner Information Using XML and XSL  

BMC Software Inc., a company that writes utility tools for database administrators, wanted to reuse the error messages from partner database companies. Having learned that two of these database companies already used single-source files for their error messages, BMC Software integrated the information about the error messages from the database companies. We accomplished our goal by negotiating with our partner companies for the source files of the error message information. This session discusses how we took those source files and modified them to create simple XML files, then transformed them into HTML using XSL transforms within a product.

Gentle, Anne. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Introducing SOAP

SOAP or Simple Object Access Protocol has become a standard mechanism in the world of Web Services. Now what exactly does this mean? And how can I make use of it inside Acrobat?

Wraight, Dave. PlanetPDF (2004). Design>Information Design>XML>SOAP

Introducing XML Internationalization

One key benefit of XML is the fact that it was designed for international use. But do you really understand the concepts of internationalization and localization? This article explains what they are, how they work, and why you want to use them.

Silberman, Hernan. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>International

Introduction to DITA References

DITA is quickly becoming the dominant XML schema for topic-oriented authoring. DITA is a highly practical way of moving to XML authoring in general and granular content reuse in particular. DITA distinguishes itself from predecessor standards by explicitly rejecting the book paradigm in favour of a topic-oriented model.

Prescod, Paul. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

An Introduction to Extensible Stylesheet Language  

Introduces the three technologies that comprise the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) family of specifications as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Hodge, Drew W. Intercom (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Introduction to OMG's Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Large enterprise applications - the ones that execute core business applications, and keep a company going - must be more than just a bunch of code modules. They must be structured in a way that enables scalability, security, and robust execution under stressful conditions, and their structure - frequently referred to as their architecture - must be defined clearly enough that maintenance programmers can (quickly!) find and fix a bug that shows up long after the original authors have moved on to other projects. That is, these programs must be designed to work perfectly in many areas, and business functionality is not the only one (although it certainly is the essential core). Of course a well-designed architecture benefits any program, and not just the largest ones as we've singled out here. We mentioned large applications first because structure is a way of dealing with complexity, so the benefits of structure (and of modeling and design, as we'll demonstrate) compound as application size grows large. Another benefit of structure is that it enables code reuse: Design time is the easiest time to structure an application as a collection of self-contained modules or components. Eventually, enterprises build up a library of models of components, each one representing an implementation stored in a library of code modules. When another application needs the same functionality, the designer can quickly import its module from the library. At coding time, the developer can just as quickly import the code module into the application.

UML Resource Page (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>UML

Introduction to Relations in XML Schema

This is the first article in a series concentrating on implementing relations for designing robust XML schema definitions.

Chaterjee, Jagadish. Dev Articles (2006). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML

Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating 'information-typed' modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help and product support portals on the Web. This document is a roadmap for DITA: what it is and how it applies to technical documentation.

IBM (2001). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Introduction to XML

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, has gone from the latest buzzword to an entrenched eBusiness technology in record time. This newly revised tutorial discusses what XML is, why it was developed, and how it's shaping the future of electronic commerce. It also covers a variety of important XML programming interfaces and standards, and ends with two case studies showing how companies are using XML to solve business problems.

Tidwell, Doug. IBM (2002). Resources>Education>Information Design>XML

Introduction to XML Document Object Model

Learn about XML and the hierarchical structure of the Document Object Model. Nodes, NodeLists, NameNodeMaps, as well as properties such as parentNodes, childNodes, nodeNames, and nodeValues are explored, explained and code is given.

Gokul, Gayathri. ASP Free (2002). Articles>Information Design>XML

Introduction to XPath

XPath is a language for addressing parts of an XML document, designed to be used by both XSLT and XPointer. In this article we will learn about XPath, XPath expressions and how to use XPath in .NET and Java.

Zaman, Mamun. Dev Articles (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Managing XML Data Storage

XML is becoming the data format of choice for a wide variety of information systems solutions. Common applications using XML include document transmission in B2B systems, message format construction for integration of Internet applications with legacy systems, binding of XML data to visual and non-visual controls, data storage and retrieval, and various data manipulation activities within applications.

Emerick, Jerry. ACM Crossroads (2002). Articles>Information Design>XML

Manipulate XML Service Definitions with Java Programming

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) typically exports a range of services. For XML service modelling and subsequent consumption of those services by users (people, machines, or other services), Java technology provides powerful mechanisms to handle XML data, which in turn provides a key foundation for using SOA concepts. Dive into the practical aspects of SOA using XML and Java technology, and discover clear examples of why this seemingly complex technology is so popular.

Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Java

Mapping Between XML and Relational Data

This chapter explores the various methods for mapping between XML and relational data models. It focuses on the underlying fundamentals: goals and requirements for mapping between XML and relational data; issues that arise when mapping, such as handling of datatypes and order; and when a particular technique can or cannot support update operations.

Draper, Denise. InformIT (2004). Design>Information Design>XML

Merging XML Files: A New Approach Providing Intelligent Merge of XML Data Sets  

As XML becomes ubiquitous so the need for powerful tools to manipulate XML data becomes more pressing. Merging XML is particularly tricky, but often necessary to consolidate data feeds from heterogeneous systems, or to synchronize submissions of XML fragments which make up a larger document. An automated mechanism for defining and controlling such merges has been developed and is demonstrated to provide a consistent, adaptable and resilient solution to this problem. Integration into an information pipeline allows limitless customization.

La Fontaine, Robin. DeltaXML.com (2001). Articles>Information Design>XML>Collaboration

MSXML, Concluded

This article, the third of three parts, explains what MSXML is and how to access an XML document using JavaScript.

Keogh, Jim and Ken Davidson. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Microsoft Windows

MSXML, Continued

This article, the second of three parts, explains what MSXML is and how to access an XML document using JavaScript.

Keogh, Jim and Ken Davidson. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Microsoft Windows

MSXML Tutorial

This article, the first of three parts, explains what MSXML is and how to access an XML document using JavaScript.

Keogh, Jim and Ken Davidson. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Microsoft Windows

New Metadata Standards for Digital Resources: MODS and METS

Metadata has taken on a new look with the advent of XML and digital resources. XML provides a new versatile structure for tagging and packaging metadata as the rapid proliferation of digital resources demands both rapidly produced descriptive data and the encoding of more types of metadata. Two emerging standards are attempting to harness these developments for library needs. The first is the Metadata Object and Description Schema (MODS), a MARC-compatible XML schema for encoding descriptive data. The second standard is the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), a highly flexible XML schema for packaging the descriptive metadata and various other important types of metadata needed to assure the use and preservation of digital resources.

Guenther, Rebecca and Sally McCallum. ASIST (2002). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>XML

New to XML

Extensible Markup Language, or XML, provides a way to mark up content that adds information about its purpose. With the information stored using XML, an application known as a parser can reliably extract the relevant information and process it accordingly for multiple situations.

IBM. Articles>Information Design>XML

Newcomers Lured by the Sweet XML of Success

How do you simplify the message you want to broadcast to the world without losing its meaning? For established players it's so much easier because they can get in front of their customers. They can run seminars or publish White Papers that will most likely reach an audience. Or they may gain interest from independent technical consultants to whom users will listen.

Sharpe, Richard. PC Magazine (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML

One-One, One-Many and Many-Many Relations in XML Schema

This article is the second in a series that shows you how to implement relations for designing robust XML schema definitions.

Chaterjee, Jagadish. Dev Articles (2006). Design>Information Design>Databases>XML