Unravel the OpenOffice File Format

OpenOffice provides a suite of applications whose native file format consists of a set of XML files, compressed into a ZIP archive. This article explores the basics of the OpenOffice file format.

O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>OpenOffice

Up and Atom

Atom is really two different things, both related to syndication (blogs, newsfeeds, and other information which gets updated periodically). The Atom Syndication Format is an IETF standard for publishing entries (single topics or items) and feeds (collections of topics or items). The Atom Publication Protocol (sometimes called the Atom API or abbreviated APP) is a means for finding, listing, adding, editing, and removing content from an Atom repository. While Atom the Syndication Format has gone through the IETF process to become a standard, the standards committee is still at work on Atom the Publishing Protocol, although it seems likely that much of it has stabilized at this point.

Elza, Dethe and David Mertz. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>XML>RSS

Update XForms Using XForms

With XForms technology, you can provide a lightweight editor for an existing collection of XForms. Explore an approach to form authoring for simple, quick changes that improve the effectiveness of data collected. Typical form editing requires a separate application even for the most trivial changes. XForms manipulates XML data and submits it to a server, making it an ideal choice to author these trivial changes and submit them for redeployment.

Speicher, Steve K., Jan J. Kratky and Kevin E. Kelly. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML

Use Character and Entity References

Not all characters are available on the keyboard! This hack shows you how to represent such characters in an XML document by using decimal and hexadecimal character references, and how to represent entities by using entity references.

O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML

Use Data URIs to Include Media in XML

There are many ways to link to non-XML content within XML, including binary content. Sometimes you need to roll all such external content directly into the XML. Data scheme URIs are one way to specify a full resource within a URI, which you can then use in XML constructs. In this tip, Uche Ogbuji shows how to use this to bundle related media into a single file.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Multimedia>XML

Use Language-Specific Tools for XML Processing

DOM and SAX are the two best known systems for XML processing, but they are really compromises across programming languages. As such, they do not take advantage of any language's particular strengths. Often it is better to duck conventional wisdom and use special APIs that take advantage of particular strengths.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2004). Design>Information Design>XML

Use PHP to create XForms, Part 1: Creating a PHP XForms library

This two-part article series is designed to get PHP developers up to speed in leveraging Web 2.0 XForms forms for their PHP forms development so that they can finally put their outdated Web 1.0 HTML forms away. This will be accomplished by creating a library of functions that generate XForms elements when called upon. In this article, Part 1 of a two-part series, developers will create the XForms library using PHP, allowing each function to take in parameters and output XForm elements.

Anderson, Tyler. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Use PHP to create XForms, Part 2: Using the PHP XForms Library to Create Useful XForms

This two-part article seriess is designed to get PHP developers up to speed in leveraging Web 2.0 XForms forms for their PHP forms development so that they can finally put their outdated Web 1.0 HTML forms away. In Part 1, you created the PHP XForms library. In this article, Part 2, you will enhance the library to include some error checking and convenience functions to help make using the library more manageable, and lastly you'll demo the library by creating a proof of concept XForm.

Anderson, Tyler. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>XSL

Using SOAP with PHP

SOAP, the Simple Object Access Protocol, is the powerhouse of web services. It's a highly adaptable, object-oriented protocol that exists in over 80 implementations on every popular platform, including AppleScript, JavaScript, and Cocoa. It provides a flexible communication layer between applications, regardless of platform and location. As long as they both speak SOAP, a PHP-based web application can ask a C++ database application on another continent to look up the price of a book and have the answer right away.

Apple Inc. (2006). Design>Web Design>XML>SOAP

Using the SQLXML Data Type

If you're a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) developer, you'll want to preview the SQLXML technology, currently in development. Check out procedures to create an XML document, store an XML document in a relational database, retrieve an XML document from a database, and navigate an XML document with the SQLXML Java data type.

Vohra, Deepak. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML

Using Topic Maps to Extend Relational Databases

Topic Maps provide a very flexible and robust way to add arbitrary data to a relational databases at runtime. Moreover, Topic Maps come with a predefined exchange mechanism (the XML Topic Maps (XTM) interchange syntax) to allow data to be exported to XML.

de Graauw, Marc. XML.com (2003). Articles>Information Design>Databases>XML

Using XML

XML is not just a pretty face, living in isolation from the rest of the computing world. XML is more than a rulebook for generating custom markup languages. It is part of a family of technologies, which, working together, make your XML-based documents very useful indeed.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Information Design>Web Design>XML

Using XML as an Application-Level Protocol

In one of my past articles, A Pattern/Framework for Client/Server Programming in Java, I discussed a pattern for client/server development using java. That article does not answer exactly how the two parties, client and server, communicate with each other. We require an application-level protocol to do the talking between two entities. It sets up rules about how the two applications/entities communicate and understand each other over a network. If you happen to know the TCP/IP networking model or the OSI networking model, you will observe that network-based communication is implemented in layers, with the application layer at the top and the physical layer at the bottom. This article discusses issues you must face when implementing an application-level protocol and how XML proves to be an excellent choice to represent and implement the application-level protocol.

Saleem, Usman. Developer.com (2002). Design>Information Design>Software>XML

Using XML in Databases

Today, we can find many applications to manage XML content that demonstrate the power and flexibility that can only be achieved through XML-native databases. Information intensive companies such as the airline and manufacturer described in this paper have achieved significant technical and business benefits from their use of XML standards and database technology over alternative approaches.

Waldt, Dale. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management>Databases>XML

Using XML/XSL for Web Publication

In this article, we look at the problem of Web publication, a process which concerns all enterprises having to send and receive information. What makes XML the technical solution to content syndication? How can the XML/XSL couple facilitate multi-channel publication? We will illustrate this last point using an example near and dear to our hearts, the publication of TrendMarkers e-newsletter.

Gallard, Samuel. Intranet Journal. Design>Web Design>XML

Using XSLT for Content Management

Introduces XM (XSLT Make), a simple and affordable Web publishing content-management solution that takes advantage of XML and XSLT. Code samples show the development of a wrapper for the XSLT to make it easy for a nonprogrammer to use. XM project code is available by link.

Marchal, Benoit. IBM (2001). Articles>Content Management>XML>XSL

Validating a Custom DTD

This article will show you how to create a custom DTD that will add custom attributes, and will also show you how to validate documents that use those new attributes.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2005). Articles>Information Design>Standards>XML

Validating XML: A Pretty Complete Primer

XML does not come with a spell checker, and will not work if written improperly. Eisenberg teaches you two nifty ways to validate your XML.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>XML

Visual Authoring With XML Data

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 supports two workflows when authoring with XML: client-side authoring with complete XSLT template pages and server-side with XSLT fragments. The client-side option is available from the Start page.

Adobe (2005). Articles>Web Design>XML>Dreamweaver

Voice Extensible Markup Language Status  

Introduces readers to Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML), a markup language that allows vocal interaction between users and applications via a telephone-based communication system. The author also discusses World Wide Web Consortium specifications for VXML.

Lippincott, Richard J. Intercom (2004). Design>Information Design>XML>Voice

Voice XML 2.0 Nears Final W3C Standard

It may already be the de facto voice platform for the Internet, but this week the Voice XML 2.0 specification has moved closer to becoming an official World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard. The W3C, the body responsible for maintainin many of the core standards and protocols at the heart of the Internet, has publishe the new Voice XML 2.0 specification as a Proposed Recommendation

Lyman, Jay. TechNewsWorld. Articles>Multimedia>XML>Voice

The W3C Multimodal Architecture, Part 2: The XML Specification Stack

Gerald McCobb continues his introduction to the forthcoming W3C Multimodal Architecture with a survey of the many XML languages that you can use to author multimodal applications. He then shows how several specifications -- SCXML, XHTML, REX, and XML Events -- could work together in a complete multimodal application.

McCobb, Gerald. IBM (2007). Design>Multimedia>Standards>XML

WebCGM Beyond the Basics

WebCGM is the choice for implementers looking for interoperability and longevity of their web graphics. However, the standard alone does not give you an electronic parts catalog or interactive manual. This presentation will provide details on how to use WebCGM in real-world applications. This includes developing a concept for graphic navigation and how to implement it using WebCGM navigation. The presentation will also discuss the pros and cons of inline and out-of-line links. It will then provide an outlook over the latest developments around WebCGM, including stylable WebCGM and the WebCGM DOM. Lastly it will offer help for those who need to decide between SVG and WebCGM for their projects.

XML Conference (2002). Articles>Graphic Design>Standards>XML

What Are RSS Feeds?

RSS, also known as rich site summary or real simply syndication, arrived on the scene a number of years ago, but was only recently embraced by webmasters as a means to effectively syndicate content. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and content providers an avenue to provide concise summaries to prospective readers. Thousands of commercial web sites and blogs now publish content summaries in an RSS feed. Each item in the feed typically contains a headline; article summary and link back to the online article.

Small Business Software (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>RSS

What Is RDF?

RDF was originally created in 1999 as a standard on top of XML for encoding metadata--literally, data about data. Metadata is, of course, things like who authored a web page, what date a blog entry was published, etc., information that is in some sense secondary to some other content already on the regular web. Since then, and perhaps especially after the updated RDF spec in 2004, the scope of RDF has really evolved into something greater. The most exciting uses of RDF aren't in encoding information about web resources, but information about and relations between things in the real world: people, places, concepts, etc.

Tauberer, Joshua. XML.com (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Metadata