Firefox 2.0 and XML

Firefox 2.0 brought several important changes in its XML support. It's currently reaching its peak in user deployment. Learn about updated XML features in Firefox 2.0, including a controversial change to the handling of RSS Web feeds.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Web Browsers

Frequently Asked Questions about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture

DITA experts Don Day, Michael Priestley, and Gretchen Hargis address the topic architecture of DITA, tips and techniques, and general DITA questions.

Day, Don, Michael Priestley and Gretchen Hargis. IBM (2001). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Ganzheitliche Informationslogistik Unterstützt die Technische Dokumentation  

Nicht selten wird die technische Dokumentation nur nebenbei erstellt, obwohl gute Gründe für eine stärkere Beachtung dieses potenziellen Marketinginstruments sprechen: Rechtliche Bestimmungen erzwingen bestimmte Informationen (wie etwa Sicherheitshinweise) sowie die Qualität und Form, in der sie angebracht werden müssen. Fehlende oder zu spät gelieferte Dokumentation verursacht Zahlungsausfälle in Millionenhöhe. Dokumentation und Information wird zunehmend als zusätzlicher Service, also Mehrwert für den Kunden interessant. Darüber hinaus stellt der Bereich der Dokumentation die Keimzelle für technische Informationssysteme z.B. für das Wissensmanagement oder auch die Qualitätssicherung dar, da in diesen Abteilungen ohnehin bereits sehr große Mengen des technischen Know-hows im Unternehmen vorliegen. Im folgenden Beitrag lesen Sie, wie XML und .NET den Produktionsprozess positiv beeinflussen.

Freisler, Stefan. Doculine (2002). (German) Articles>Information Design>XML

Generating XML Schema Dynamically Using VB.NET 2005: Essentials

This is the first article in a series concentrating on generating XML Schema dynamically using Visual Basic 2005. The series is mainly targeted at those who are familiar with XML, XML Schema and the .NET framework.

Chaterjee, Jagadish. ASP Free (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>ASP

Get Started with XPath 2.0

XPath 2.0 is the foundation of two essential recommendations currently in the final stages of development at W3C: XSLT 2.0 and XQuery. It is a major rewrite designed to significantly increase the power and efficiency of the language. In this article, Benoît Marchal shows how the new data model enables you to easily write more sophisticated requests.

Marchal, Benoit. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Getting Started with SGML/XML

This chapter is intended to provide a quick introduction to structured markup (SGML and XML). If you're already familiar with SGML or XML, you only need to skim this chapter. To work with DocBook, you need to understand a few basic concepts of structured editing in general, and DocBook, in particular. That's covered here. You also need some concrete experience with the way a DocBook document is structured.

Walsh, Norman and Leonard Muellner. O'Reilly and Associates (1999). Articles>Documentation>Standards>XML

Getting Started with the DocBook XML Dialect

Gets you started with DocBook, an SGML/XML dialect that describes the content of technical articles and other documents. David discusses the benefits of using DocBook, and then describes how to plan and modularize a large document conversion project.

Mertz, David. IBM (2000). Articles>Documentation>XML>DocBook

Global XML  

XML alone is not enough to effectively manage your organization's global content. Explore global XML and its benefits.

Hurst, Sophie. Intercom (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>International

Greymatter, RSS, and Syndication

Greymatter is an excellent web content management system. After you install it, you can begin to syndicate your content using XML. This article gives you an explicit step-by-step overview of how I created RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.92 files using Greymatter. It is assumed that you have some knowledge of HTML and XML, and that you have already installed Greymatter. Many examples and references are provided to help you along the way.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Design>Content Management>XML>RSS

GUIs and XML Configuration Data

Discusses how XML is used in the configuration of GUI interfaces. He looks at Mozilla's XML-based User Interface Language (XUL) which allows you to write applications that run without any particular dependency on the choice of underlying operating system. This may seem strange at first, but you'll soon see that this Mozilla project offers powerful tools for GUI building that allow you to develop for an extensive base of installed users.

Mertz, David. IBM (2004). Design>Web Design>User Interface>XML

Hacking OpenOffice

If you are using any word processor or editor in a group situation, such as a technical writing team, or an office, then it will probably be in your interest to set up templates for authors to use to ensure consistency, reduce effort, and help automate conversation of documents between formats, such as building web pages from office documents. If you are also trying to store and manipulate content in XML but want to use a word processing environment for authoring, then well-crafted templates are even more important.

Sefton, Peter. XML.com (2005). Articles>Word Processing>XML>OpenOffice

Hands-on XML and Round Trip HTML for Technical Communicators  

XML can simplify production of documents for print, help and web delivery. It can make document components reusable, portable between platforms and easier to maintain. XML also has a dark side. Parts of the standard are turbulent, vendors are rushing XML products to market that are not fully standard-compliant, implementation requires careful planning, and porting of legacy documents to XML is not trivial. Technical communicators can prosper by identifying the parts of XML that can be implemented immediately, by preparing documents to exploit support for XML available in new versions of Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker, and by using hybrid HTML/XML for document delivery.

Reichman, Katriel. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML

How to Create an RSS Feed for any HTML Page

How can you create an RSS for a specific HTML page, especially if the page-create software or web host doesn't provide an automated method. This article discusses how to use a screen scraper to quickly and easily create a RSS feed for any HTML page.

Sapir, Rick. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>RSS

Hurdles to Single-Sourcing

LaTeX and DocBook (and for that matter any manner of XML editors), which could be considered excellent single-sourcing tools, are almost never discussed.

Meyerding, Henry. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Content Management>XML>DocBook

Implementing Information Architecture Using XML: A Business-Driven Approach

A few of aspects that are easy to miss in the excitement of trying to implement an XML-based information architecture in an organization.

Pant, Asit H. and Aoyon Choudhary. Indus (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

Implementing XML: A Writer's Perspective  

In the cover article for Intercom's special issue on XML and HTML, Conlin discusses how the implementation of XML affects writers of documentation.

Conlin, Karen E. Intercom (2002). Articles>Documentation>XML

The Implications of Single Sourcing for Technical Communicators    

Surveys four books that examine methods of single sourcing, including publishing tools, XML, and content management systems. Reviews articles describing the roles of writers and editors, the tool set and its implementation, and ways to make dynamic content more effective

Williams, Joe D. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML

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

InformIT.com

Writing, compiling, and maintaining documentation is a necessary evil. While moving to DITA might not improve the quality of your documentation, it can streamline the process of creating and managing those documents.

Nesbitt, Scott. InformIT (2006). Articles>Documentation>XML>DITA

Inline XML

I was sitting at my desk a few days ago, whiling away the time and I suddenly wondered why HTML includes a <code> tag, and a <var> tag, and yet it takes marking up code no further than that. It’d be understandable to have just the <code> tag, but if they’re going to have a <var> tag, shouldn’t they have more programming tags?

Cannon, Lachlan. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web 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

Integrating Partner Information Using XML and XSL

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 BMC Software product.

Gentle, Anne. WritersUA (2006). Articles>Documentation>XML>Case Studies

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