Cover Pages: SGML and XML News. April

[June 29, 2001] Updated Specification for the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL). A posting from Renato Iannella (Chief Scientist, IPR Systems Pty Ltd) announces the publication of an updated 'work-in-progress' specification for the Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL). ODRL defines a set of semantics "for rights management expressions pertaining to digital assets. The ODRL complements existing analogue rights management standards by providing digital equivalents, and supports an expandable range of new services that can be afforded by the digital nature of the assets in the Web environment. The ODRL is a standard vocabulary for the expression of terms and conditions over assets. The ODRL covers a core set of semantics for these purposes including the rights holders and the expression of permissible usages for asset manifestations. ODRL specifies an XML binding and is expected to be utilised within open and trusted environments. The XML syntax is supported by the XML Schema language. The ODRL will be standardized via an appropriate, open, and non-competitive organisation with an public process for the future maintenance of the standard." The new version 0.9 specification supersedes the previous draft of 2000-11-21. Version 0.9 of ODRL now includes the following new features: (1) Agreement expressions [between parties]; (2) Requirements, e.g., payments for permissions; (3) Separation of the Expression Language from the Data Dictionary elements, as specified by the MPEG-21 Requirements; (4) Additional Permissions and Constraints; (5) Container mechanisms; (6) Additional Examples; (7) Full W3C XML Schema definitions and documentation. [Full context]
[June 28, 2001] Topologi Announces Schematron Validator. A communiqué from Rick Jelliffe announces the availability of the Topologi Schematron Validator tool. The Schematron Validator user interface "supports validation of multiple files, and store/recall of locations to allow validation of chains of transformations. As well as Schematron validation, the tool also supports DTDs and W3C XML Schemas validation. Schematron schemas can be embedded in W3C XML Schemas schemas to augment them. The tool is highly reconfigurable. It also provides XSLT transformations, and the automatic generation of Topic Maps and RDF (beta). It allows simple editing and a variety of different viewers, including text, single-pane web-browser and double-pane web-browser. The Topologi Schematron Validator comes with schemas for CALS tables, NITF, QAML, RDDL, RDF, RSS, Schematron, SOAP, SMIL, XHTML WAI, WSDL, XLink, and XTM. These are all open source and readily accessible. The tool will be useful for anyone with document which have constraints that cannot be expressed in schema languages such as DTDs, XML Schemas, RELAX, etc. and for creating friendly validators for files. Educators may find it convenient for teaching XML classes. Experimenters will appreciate the tool's configurability." The tool is available for no cost from the Topologi web site. The developers have provided an online version of the Schematron Validator manual, together with screen shots. [Full context]
[June 28, 2001] EIA XML Standard for Configuration Management Data Exchange and Interoperability. A communiqué from Russell F. Moody of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) reports on the recent release of the EIA Standard 836 for public review and comment. Developed by member organizations of the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA), the EIA-836 standard for 'Configuration Management Data Exchange and Interoperability' is a fundamental reference for business-to-business access, sharing and exchange of CM data, and for the development, mapping and use of CM related tools, systems and databases. The EIA-836 XML vocabulary and grammar can be used within XML frameworks to facilitate interoperability between trading partner systems, databases, and people performing configuration management and product support functions throughout a product's life cycle. EIA-836 supports CM data exchange regardless of trading partner information system implementation or method of data transfer. EIA-836 utilizes the Extensible Markup Language (XML), the emerging lingua franca of e-commerce data exchange, in defining CM data elements, and data element relationships, as well as a set of XML schemas and XML document templates for the exchange of CM business objects such as Engineering Change Proposals, Request for Deviations, and a host of others. The EIA-836 Business Objects can be tailored by users to suit specific trading partner situations and different industry domains. The EIA-836 development team is actively collaborating with other e-business initiatives including STEP (ISO 10303), the Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) Program, and the Aerospace Industries Association Electronic Commerce Working Group (ECWG) to harmonize related efforts." The comment and review period for EIA-836 version 0.3 will extend through July 20, 2001. [Full context]
[June 27, 2001] Epicentric Announces Release of Web Services User Interface (WSUI) Draft Specification. A communiqué from Chad Williams (Epicentric, Inc.) announces the release of 'WSUI' as an open standard "for the presentation of Web services as user interface components that can be delivered as Web applications to end users." The WSUI developers "are part of a working group formed to review and comment on the specification; once the specification has been reviewed and commented on by all interested parties, the resulting work will be submitted for standardization." Participation in the working group is welcome. A working draft document "describes the syntax and semantics of Web Service User Interface (WSUI). WSUI is a component model for adding presentation and multistage interaction to XML and SOAP-based network services. It is designed to be lightweight and easily implementable by using standard XML technologies such as XSLT, XPath, and XHTML." Rationale for the design is provided in the specification Introduction: "XML-based network services have become a very popular application integration mechanism. The aggregation and integration of these services at the presentation layer (such as HTML) is increasingly performed by non-technical or semi-technical business users. However, most standards for integrating or consuming XML-based network services are designed for a developer audience and are intended principally for RPC communication between server applications. A number of vendor-specific approaches have emerged to facilitate non-developer integration of network services, particularly to aid in the construction of e-commerce and portal web sites. WSUI is an attempt to standardize this 'last mile' of integration by defining a web component model that couples network services with interaction and presentation information. These components can be dynamically embedded into container applications at run-time by non-developers." WSUI's goal is "to enable a simple mechanism for integrating applications which are remotely exposed as XML and SOAP Web services into a Web site. Simplicity and elegance are the key technical goals, and the specification has been made simple enough that it can pass the 'weekend test' -- a single programmer working for one weekend can create an implementation." Other industry partners participating in the WSUI initiative include Documentum, Intraspect, Jamcracker, NewsEdge, Securant, and Yellowbrix. [Full context]
[June 27, 2001] First Public Working Draft for W3C XML Encryption Syntax and Processing. The W3C XML Encryption Working Group has released a first public working draft for XML Encryption Syntax and Processing. The formal model for syntax is provided in W3C XML Schema notation. The working draft "specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in XML. The data may be arbitrary data (including an XML document), an XML element, or XML element content. The result of encrypting data is an XML Encryption element which contains or references the cipher data. When encrypting an XML element or element content the EncryptedData element replaces the element or content (respectively) in the encrypted version of the XML document. When encrypting an entire XML document, the EncryptedData element may become the root of the new document. And when encrypting arbitrary data, the EncryptedData element may become the root of a new XML document or become a child element in an application-chosen XML document." An experimental namespace URI is provided: xmlns:enc='http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#'; the WD specification also makes use of the XML Signature namespace and its schema definitions, xmlns:ds='http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#'. [Full context]
[June 27, 2001] XML Base and XLink Published as W3C Recommendations. The World Wide Web Consortium has announced the publication of the XML Base and XML Linking Language (XLink) specifications as W3C Recommendations, indicating that specifications are "stable and contribute to Web interoperability; W3C Recommendations have been reviewed by the W3C membership, who are in favor of supporting adoption by academic, industry, and research communities." A posting from Daniel Veillard (W3C) expressed the hope that "the XPointer specification will reach a similar status in a reasonable timeframe; this is in a large part dependant on getting enough interoperable implementation." From the announcement: "XLink is a way to allow elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources, whether internal or external to the original document. XML Base provides a way to indicate the URI base for linking in XML documents. Together, XLink and XML Base bring the functionality necessary for robust, rich XML applications spread across multiple documents... XLink provides flexible linking for XML: XML application developers are eager to have both the basic hyperlinking capabilities of HTML, and a range of further capabilities appropriate to XML documents, including links that can point to multiple resources, collections of links separate from the resources they connect, and an attribute-based link declaration syntax which doesn't interfere with users' decisions about XML document vocabulary. XLink supports not only traditional, or simple, links familiar from HTML, but also extended links. Extended links may be used to connect two or more resources via a single link, which need not be contained within any of them. This makes it possible to associate metadata or other supplemental information with resources without editing them. XLink also supports richer information about link types and the roles of each resource that an XLink connects. XML Base provides a proven approach for Base URI Services in XML: One of the requirements of XLink was to support the way HTML 4 provides linking capabilities in a more portable way. The HTML 'base' element allows authors to identify the base URI of a document, thus making it possible for an author to make use of relative URIs for external images, applets, style sheets, and other resources, without compromising portability. XML Base provides that same functionality for XML applications, including XLink. Since it has been written as a module, it may be reused or referenced by other applications." [Full context]
[June 26, 2001] Reuters Releases Updated Version of the NewsML Toolkit. Reuters has announced an updated release of the NewsML Toolkit Version 1.0. "The NewsML Toolkit is an open-source Java library for reading and processing NewsML documents. NewsML 1.0 is a news-industry packaging and metadata standard for exchanging multi-part news and information in multiple media. This latest version of the Java based toolkit follows the alpha testing version released in December 2000. Developed in conjunction with XML specialists, Megginson Technologies Ltd., it is designed to simplify the processing of NewsML documents for subscribers to NewsML Services. NewsML Toolkit v1.0 now offers increased functionality including: (1) Access to all elements and attributes in a NewsML document via a Java Application Programming Interface; (2) Complete metadata extraction; (3) The ability to locate vocabularies which source content values for elements in a NewsML document; (4) Complete JavaDoc documentation. The NewsML Toolkit is available for use under the GNU Lesser General Public License. Reuters is also developing two complementary toolkits that build on NewsML Toolkit v1.0's document content extraction. These tools include: (1) A conformance checking tool, which will verify a NewsML document beyond visual basic DTD validation; (2) An application level toolkit, which will provide an intuitive level of parsing of a NewsML document. This allows the user to pose queries from a news perspective and 'prune' NewsItems in order to keep only selected content." [Full context]
[June 25, 2001] Uniform Code Council (UCC) Announces Modular EAN-UCC XML Schemas for Global E-commerce. The Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) has announced the development of an initial set of EAN-UCC XML schemas which constitutes "first steps in a global solution that will reduce costs and bring greater clarity and functionality to Internet-based e-business processes. The UCC and EAN International will make XML the cornerstone of an open, global electronic commerce standard that bridges legacy EDI systems with Internet-based users and enables all companies to maximize their e-business opportunities." The XML schemas have been developed together with EAN International based upon input from some of the world's largest companies. This first suite of XML standards is "based on a core set of schemas that are shared across all industries. The standards include Item, Party, Purchase Order, Despatch Advice, Invoice, Charges, and Payments. Their development was based on Simple e-Business (Simpl-eb), a growing global business practice that involves a common definition of e-Business data and processes across the value chain. Each XML schema has an extensible, modular design to enable multi- industry adoption and implementation, as well as industry-specific customization. When fully implemented, these standards will expand the global user base for electronic commerce and enable companies of any industry, size, or geography to streamline their e-business processes via improved interoperability and efficient data transmission. The EAN-UCC System is recognized as one of the most important innovations in the history of commerce, enabling nearly one million member companies in 23 major industries to conduct efficient business in more than 141 countries around the world. Both organizations share a history that is user-driven and consensus based, ensuring that standards and solutions seamlessly cross over industries and national borders." [Full context]
[June 23, 2001] ACM Workshop on Security and Privacy in Digital Rights Management. Tomas Sander (InterTrust STAR Lab) recently posted a 'Call for Papers' in connection with an ACM Workshop on Security and Privacy in Digital Rights Management, to be held November 5, 2001 in Philadelphia, PA. The workshop is part of the Eighth ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS-8). The workshop "will consider technical problems faced by rights holders (who seek to protect their intellectual property rights) and end consumers (who seek to protect their privacy and to preserve access they now enjoy in traditional media under existing copyright law). The organizers seek submissions from academia and industry presenting novel research on all theoretical and practical aspects of DRM, as well as experimental studies of fielded systems; they encourage submissions from other communities such as law and business that present these communities' perspectives on technological issues... Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems are supposed to serve mass markets, in which the participants have conflicting goals and cannot be fully trusted. This adversarial situation introduces interesting new twists on classical problems studied in cryptology and security research, such as key management and access control." Interest in Digital Rights Management is rapidly gaining ground, as evidenced by the growing number of industry and consortial initiatives proposing new architectures and models. XML-based standardization efforts are also underway within ISO, IETF, W3C, OASIS, and related arenas. [Full context]
[June 22, 2001] Draft Documents Available for the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML). Several draft documents covering the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) are now available for public review. SAML is being developed within the OASIS XML-Based Security Services Technical Committee (SSTC) as an "XML security standard for exchanging authentication and authorization information." The documents are under active revision, but provide a snapshot of the committee's design work. A draft 'SAML Specification' prepared for use at FTF3 contains material on the SAML domain model (description of the SAML problem space), a glossary, SAML core assertions, alternate assertion model, protocol models, and conformance. A version 0.9 draft of Security Assertions Markup Language: Core Assertion Architecture provides the text proposed by the Core Assertions and Protocol group for the Core Assertions section of the SAML. SAML "specifies several different types of assertion for different purposes; these are: (1) Authentication Assertion: An authentication assertion asserts that the issuer has authenticated the specified subject. (2) Attribute Assertion: An attribute assertion asserts that the specified subject has the specified attribute(s). Attributes may be specified by means of a URI or through an extension schema that defines structured attributes. (3) Decision Assertion: A decision assertion reports the result of the specified authorization request. (4) Authorization Assertion: An authorization assertion asserts that a subject has been granted specific permissions to access one or more resources." [Full context]
[June 21, 2001] XBRL.org Releases 'XBRL for General Ledger' and W3C XML Schema Version of Financial Statements Specification. XBRL.org recently announced the release of 'XBRL for General Ledger' for public comment, along with a new version of the 'XBRL for Financial Statements' specification. The XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) initiative "is a worldwide effort to develop a common framework for using XML for business reports such as financial statements, bank loans, credit reports and tax filings." The enhanced XBRL Financial Statements "harmonizes with the new World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML Schema to better align itself with initiatives of the W3C and other XML organizations and share technology and tools. The new XBRL for General Ledger specification "is an agreement on how to represent accounting and after-the-fact operational information and transfer it to and from a data hub or communicate it in a data stream. It incorporates the UN Standard Messages ENTREC (Journal) and LEDGER. Users of XBRL for General Ledger will be able to more easily bridge the gap between operational, off-site or outsourced systems and their back office accounting and reporting systems. XBRL for General Ledger is currently designed to meet international accounting requirements and allow an extensible, flexible, multi-national solution to exchange data required by internal finance, accountants, creditors, banks or other audiences across all software formats that can be brought into and out of accounting systems and reported using XBRL. It will also allow the future linkage of XML development on the transactional level to the general ledger level as such frameworks are developed. Working in alliance with the UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG) this Joint EWG Accounting, Auditing, Registration and Financial Information Services (EWG sub working group D14) and XBRL.org effort is focused on the urgent need to fill the gap between e-business and e-accounting and overcome the inefficiencies of disparate, non-integrated and outsourced accounting and financial systems by using the power of XML." XBRL for General Ledger has been released for a ninety-day feedback period, from June 18, 2001 to September 17, 2001. UML models for the specification are to be released soon. [Full context]
[June 21, 2001] UN/CEFACT and OASIS Announce New ebXML Technical Committees. UN/CEFACT and OASIS, sponsors of the ebXML electronic business specifications, "today announced the formation of new technical committees (TC) within OASIS to carry forward the the infrastructure portions of the ebXML work. ebXML specifications, which provide a standard method for companies to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data and define and register business processes, were recently approved, marking a successful 18-month initial development phase. To continue ebXML maintenance and enhancements, OASIS has formed the ebXML Messaging TC, the ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement TC and the ebXML Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance TC. Members of the existing OASIS Registry/Repository TC have expanded their charter to embrace the ebXML Registry/Repository Specification. UN/CEFACT plans to form a working group for ebXML business process and core components in the near future. Together, OASIS and UN/CEFACT will continue to manage ebXML Technical Architecture and Marketing Awareness functions." [Full context]
[June 20, 2001] Extensible Media Commerce Language (XMCL) Initiative To Create Standard Business Rules for Digital Media Market. An announcement from RealNetworks describes a new industry initiative designed to create an open XML-based standard for Internet media commerce and digital rights management. The Extensible Media Commerce Language (XMCL) initiative is "an open XML-based language designed to establish industry-wide standards for Internet media commerce. By standardizing the language for business rules, XMCL will enable content to be played in a way that is independent of codecs, digital rights management systems, and e-commerce systems. XMCL will greatly simplify deployment and accelerate the market for digital media commerce over the Internet. RealNetworks intends to submit the XMCL proposal to the appropriate standards organization, and will work with other industry leaders to ensure the initiative evolves into a widely accepted standard. The XMCL Initiative endorsed by many industry leaders proposes a standard business rule definition language providing rights holders the ability to take existing media business models -- such as purchase, rental, video-on-demand, and subscription services -- and deploy them on the Internet to generate new commerce opportunities. XMCL will give rights holders the freedom to use multiple back-end systems that interoperate with rights management solutions under a common interchange language." [Full context]
[June 19, 2001] Antarcti.ca Systems Announces Visual Mapping Software for UDDI. An announcement from Antarcti.ca Systems Inc. (ASI) describes the development of 'Visual Net' visualization technology which uses mapping software to "act as a front end to the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) Registry. The UDDI Business Registry is a global, public, online directory that gives businesses a uniform way to describe their services, discover other companies' services, and understand the methods necessary to conduct e-business with a particular company. Visual Net places the UDDI Business Registry data on large-scale maps utilizing a superior navigation system and information-rich visuals to enable users to find information on businesses." The UDDI Registry Map under development will feature (1) "A visual map displaying categories of information enabling users to browse through all the data and drill down into those areas of interest; (2) The ability to search the database using classification taxonomies such as the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code from the same interface; (3) An intuitive display that instantly and visually shows the user valuable information about data in the Registry such as how wide-ranging the services of a business are and provides a relevancy scale of the data for the user." [Full context]
[June 19, 2001] RosettaNet Joins Business Internet Consortium to Promote XML Standards Convergence. The Business Internet Consortium recently announced that RosettaNet has joined the Consortium in order "to help drive XML standard convergence activities in the industry." The Business Internet Consortium is an open-industry group formed to develop cross-industry eBusiness implementation guidelines, facilitated especially within its XML-based eBusiness Standard Convergence Workgroup. The XML working group was formed "to bring clarity by defining the generic layers and the corresponding recommended XML standards of a complete B2B, XML-based solution stack that is standardized, comprehensive, and interoperable, and to develop an implementation path." Details from the announcement: "RosettaNet's membership [in the Business Internet Consortium] pairs the efforts of these two leading eBusiness consortia to effectively promote supply chain interoperability. RosettaNet brings a substantial body of eBusiness XML standards expertise, research and results to the Business Internet Consortium's effort. RosettaNet represents more than 400 companies committed to the implementation of eBusiness process standards for the information technology, electronic components and semiconductor manufacturing industries. By joining the Business Internet Consortium, RosettaNet will share its learning with other industries looking to standardize their respective business processes. The Business Internet Consortium XML-based eBusiness Standard Convergence Workgroup is incorporating customer requirements to develop a generic XML-based standards reference stack and best practice guidelines for B2B processes, as well as a roadmap for businesses to migrate to the stack. The Workgroup expects to make recommendations to various standards bodies, such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and OASIS." [Full context]
[June 18, 2001] UDDI Project Releases Version 2 Specification for Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. An announcement from the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Project describes the publication of the UDDI Specification Version 2. The project is creating a "platform-independent, open framework for describing services, discovering businesses, and integrating business services using the Internet, as well as an operational registry that is available today." The Version 2 specification "delivers upon the roadmap and requirements outlined at the launch of UDDI in September 2000. New Features and improvements in the UDDI V2 specification will enable: (1) Description of Complex Organizations: Businesses can now describe and publish their organizational structure, including their business units, departments, divisions, and subsidiaries. (2) Improved support for internationalization: Businesses now have more flexibility in describing their business and services in multiple languages. (3) Additional categorization and identifier schemes: Businesses can use additional industry specific categories and identifiers to describe their businesses. For example, a chemical company may now use existing industry specific categories to describe themselves and their services. These categories can be validated during registration through third parties such as a chemical industry association. (4) Richer searching options: Businesses can now search the registry using more expressive query parameters, using more fields and complex combinations of fields. The UDDI Community is comprised of more than 280 business and technology leaders working together to enable companies to quickly, easily, and dynamically find, and transact with one another." UDDI version 2 specification documents include the UDDI Data Structure Reference, UDDI XML Schema, UDDI Programmer's API, UDDI Replication Specification (with XML schema), UDDI XML Custody schema, and the UDDI Operators Specification. [Full context]
[June 18, 2001] Draft Specification for DC-based Application Profile for Agricultural Information. A posting from Stephen Katz (FAO) announces the availability of draft documents specifying a Dublin-Core based standard for describing document-like agricultural resources. A 'Metadata Framework' document identifies a "metadata set of core elements and qualifiers that are generic to the description of agricultural resources. This document presents a further development of a specific application profile for description of document and document-like agricultural resources. This gives an example of how a unique application profile can be developed from the generic metadata set. The metadata set describe a minimum level format to allow interoperability between different islands of information." A second document 'Presentation of a metadata set' provides the elements and qualifiers of the proposed standard, presented in a hierarchical structure. The authors have tried to make a clear distinction between where they are applying Dublin Core elements and qualifiers as specified by the DCMI, and where they have suggested additional requirements to meet the needs of the Agricultural Community." An 'Element Description' document supplies definitions "based on formal standards for the description of metadata element sets; there are 10 attributes for defining the DC elements of which all were discussed for their suitability in meeting [the design] needs. The set of attributes conforms to the ISO/IEC 11179 standards for description of data elements." [Full context]
[June 18, 2001] Xerces-C++ Parser Provides Support for W3C XML Schema Recommendation. A posting from Tinny Ng (IBM Toronto Laboratory) announces the release of Xerces-C 1.5.0 with partial support for the W3C XML Schema Recommendation. The developers intend to update this package until it implements all the functionality of the current XML Schema Recommendation. Apache Xerces-C is a "validating XML parser written in a portable subset of C++. Xerces-C makes it easy to give your application the ability to read and write XML data. A shared library is provided for parsing, generating, manipulating, and validating XML documents. Xerces-C is faithful to the XML 1.0 recommendation and associated standards (DOM 1.0, DOM 2.0. SAX 1.0, SAX 2.0, Namespaces). The parser provides high performance, modularity, and scalability. Source code, samples and API documentation are provided with the parser. For portability, care has been taken to make minimal use of templates, no RTTI, no C++ namespaces and minimal use of #ifdefs. In addition to the implementation of XML Schema subset, Xerces-C 1.5.0 offers: (1) Mac OS X command line configuration and build support; (2) Enabled libWWW NetAccessor support under UNIX; (3) Enabled COMPAQ Tru64 UNIX machines to build xerces-c with gcc; (4) Updated support for SCO UnixWare 7 [gcc]; (5) Experimental IDOM; (6) Support for ICU 1.8; (6) Documentation in PDF format; (7) Bug fixes and performance improvement." Xerces-C 1.5.0 source code and binaries are available for AIX, HP11, Linux, Solaris, Windows. [Full context]
[June 14, 2001] Altova's XML Spy 4.0 Beta Supports W3C XML Schema Recommendation. Altova has announced a limited beta testing phase for the XML Spy 4.0 product line, including the XML Spy 4.0 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the XML Spy 4.0 Document Framework, released to customers and invited industry experts. The XML Spy 4.0 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) "builds on the success of the award-winning XML Spy 3.5 product in the developer market and adds expanded ODBC database access functionality, enhanced user interface customization, as well as support for the final XML Schema Recommendation for both graphical XML Schema editing and validation of XML instance documents based upon XML Schema. The XML Spy 4.0 Document Framework is based on a combination of XML Schema and XSLT Stylesheets. This provides the customer with a highly user-friendly interface -- very much like a typical word processor -- that allows for true XML content editing and creation. The framework consists of two applications: (1) The XML Spy 4.0 Document Editor supports free-flow WYSIWYG text editing, form-based data input, graphical elements, presentation and editing of arbitrary repeating XML elements as tables, real-time validation, and consistency checking using XML Schema and is deployed on the end-users desk. (2) The XML Spy 4.0 Document Administrator application includes a graphical XSLT Generator that enables the customization of the document editor by defining an XSLT Stylesheet and additional editing-specific options based upon the underlying DTD or XML Schema for use during the content creation or editing process." [Full context]
[June 14, 2001] Early Access Release of Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB). A posting from Mark Reinhold (Sun Microsystems, Inc.) announces the version 1.0 early access implementation release of the Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB), previously referenced as the "Adelard" project. JAXB "provides an API and tools that automate the mapping between XML documents and Java objects. It is being developed through the Java Community Process program under [Java Specification Request] JSR-31. JAXB makes XML easy to use by compiling an XML schema into one or more classes. The generated classes handle all the details of XML parsing and formatting, they ensure that the constraints expressed in the schema are enforced, and in many cases they are much more efficient than using a SAX (Simple API for XML) parser or an implementation of the DOM (Document Object Model) API. An application that uses the generated classes can build a Java object tree representing an XML document, manipulate the content of the tree, and re-generate XML documents from the tree, all without requiring the developer to write complex parsing and processing code. JAXB 1.0 will be available as an optional package for the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE). JAXB may be included in future releases of J2SE or the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). According to the working draft issued in conjunction with the implementation: "The primary components of the XML data-binding facility described in this specification are the schema compiler, the binding framework, and the binding language. (1) The schema compiler transforms, or binds, a source schema to a set of derived classes. As used in this specification, the term 'schema' includes the document-type definition language of the XML 1.0 specification. (2) The binding framework is a set of public interfaces and classes upon which derived classes rely to implement the operations of unmarshalling, marshalling, and validation. (3) The binding language is an XML-based language that describes the binding of a source schema to a set of derived classes. A binding schema written in this language specifies the details of the classes derived from a particular source schema." [Full context]
[June 13, 2001] RELAX NG Gets Official Documentation and Validation Software. James Clark, Chair of the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee, has announced the release of the RELAX NG Tutorial as an official 'Committee Work Product' and the availability of validation software for RELAX NG schemas. The draft RELAX NG Tutorial edited by James Clark and Makoto MURATA is structured as a graded series of examples illustrating and explaining principal features of the RELAX NG structure-validation language. A RELAX NG schema "specifies a pattern for the structure and content of an XML document" in support of validation software which can test XML instances against these declarations. Of the tutorial's three appendices, Appendix A "Comparision with XML DTDs" most succinctly summarizes the goals and methodological approach taken in RELAX NG vis-à-vis SGML/XML DTDs. "RELAX NG provides functionality that goes beyond XML DTDs. In particular, RELAX NG (1) uses XML syntax to represent schemas; (2) supports datatyping; (3) integrates attributes into content models; (4) supports XML namespaces; (5) supports unordered content; (6) supports context-sensitive content models; (7) has improved support for cross-references. RELAX NG does not support features of XML DTDs that involve changing the infoset of an XML document. In particular, RELAX NG; (8) does not allow defaults for attributes to be specified; (9) does allow entities to be specified; (10) does allow notations to be specified; (11) does not specify whether white-space is significant. Also RELAX NG does not define a way for an XML document to associate itself with a RELAX NG pattern." A collection of other resources (schemas, transformation stylesheets, software) supporting RELAX NG has also been announced. James Clark's 'Jing' is a validator for RELAX NG implemented in Java. As a command-line tool, it validates an XML instance against a RELAX NG schema and reports (any) errors in a file; one may specify multiple XML files for validation in a single command. Jing is written on top of SAX2, and represents an adaptation of James Clark's validator for TREX. Jing supports validation of datatypes from W3C XML Schema Part 2. The version 2001-06-11 implementation is available for download as a JAR file and as a Win32 executable for use with the Microsoft Java VM; the sources are also available. [Full context]
[June 12, 2001] Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) Proposed as ISO New Work Item. ISO JTC1/SC34/WG1 recently approved a proposal for a new work item on a 'Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL)'. The NP was submitted by the British Standards Institution (BSI), who have been asked to appoint an editor "to complete a first draft based on extensions to RELAX-NG and forward it to SC34 for review." The specification would govern "the definition of document structures, data types and data relationship constraints that can be applied to data represented using the ISO/IEC 8879 Standard Generalized Markup Language and its derivatives, such as ISO/IEC 10744, Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime), and the W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML)." Background for the NP: "SGML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) allow document structures to be formally modelled but do not allow details of data types or data relationships to be recorded in an XML-compatible way. While the W3C XML Schema Definition language (XSD) does allow data types to be used to validate the contents of SGML elements and values of attributes, it does not allow the relationships between the values of different attributes and contents of elements to be validated. A new, compact, efficient and XML document type definition for the integrated description of document structures, data types and data relationships will make it possible to automate the processing of structured information resources to the level required by business users, which has a higher level of requirements than those identified from the publishing community for which SGML was originally developed. The standard will also define the scope and notation for converting and interworking a core subset of document structure, data type, and data relationship constraint models among the three notations: DSDL, DTD declarations, and XSDL." According to the draft proposal, a "preparatory draft will be contributed by the UK National Body for the SC34 meeting in December 2001. Liaison with the W3C XML Coordinating Committee will be undertaken to keep the standard aligned with the work being done to manage information sets developed for XML. The committee expects to be able to integrate the best practices of [recent] proposals to form the basis of a first draft of the new standard... [for example,] the RELAX TR developed by the Japanese National Body as ISO 22250 and the TREX language developed by James Clark (the editor of the ISO/IEC 10179 Document Style Semantics and Specification Language) both propose efficient XML representations of document models, including data types. The widely acknowledged XML Schema Data Types specification will be referenced. The Schematron language allows the relationships between data elements and attributes to be described." [Full context]
[June 12, 2001] XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0 (XQueryX) Published as W3C Working Draft. The W3C XML Query Working Group has released a first public working draft specifying an XML syntax for the W3C XML Query language (XQuery). The draft supplies a W3C XML Schema for the XQuery XML Syntax as well as an XML DTD. The working group intends that the XQueryX DTD and XML Schema "will track the XQuery 1.0 syntax and will be changed as often as the XQuery 1.0 syntax is changed in future Working Drafts." The syntax specification in 'XQueryX' "is a close representation of the abstract syntax found in Appendix B of the XQuery Working Draft; for each production in the abstract syntax, the authors created an equivalent XML representation. XQueryX is thus an XML representation of an XQuery. [Because] it was created by mapping the productions of the XQuery abstract syntax directly into XML productions, the result is not particularly convenient for humans to read and write; however, it is easy for programs to parse, and because XQueryX is represented in XML, standard XML tools can be used to create, interpret, or modify queries." Concurrent with the release of the new XQueryX draft, the XML Query Working Group has published four updated related working drafts: "XQuery 1.0," the "XML Query Use Cases," "XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model" [replaces the former "XML Query Data Model"], and "XQuery 1.0 Formal Semantics" [replaces the former "XML Query Algebra"]. W3C XQuery "is designed to be a small, easily implementable language in which queries are concise and easily understood. It is also flexible enough to query a broad spectrum of XML information sources, including both databases and documents." [Full context]
[June 11, 2001] ElCel Technology Announces Windows/Linux XML Validator with XML Catalog Support. An announcement from ElCel Technology describes the availability of its 'XML Validator' and 'Canonical XML Processor' applications, now featuring support for entity resolution specified by the draft XML Catalogs specification. Rob Lugt (Founder and Technical Director, ElCel Technology) writes: "The XML Validator is built using our C++ XML Toolkit, which is designed to be fast, flexible and 100% conforming to the XML 1.0 recommendation. Use of ISO-standard C++ makes our toolkit highly portable, enabling us to provide binary versions of the XML Validator for both Windows and Linux. The XML Validator is uniquely packaged to validate from the command line with a host of options to facilitate use in batch scripts or to validate a whole set of documents in one go. It is one of the first tools to support a draft of the OASIS XML Catalog specification for entity resolution." The ElCel Technology Canonical XML Processor "is a free command-line utility built using the SAX 2.0 interface of our C++ XML Toolkit. It implements the canonicalization algorithm as described by the W3C's Canonical XML recommendation. It also implements the original Canonical XML specification from James Clark. This is a very useful program for converting valid XML with a DTD into a standalone document." Both tools may be downloaded for free. [Full context]
[June 11, 2001] New XForms Working Draft Adds Modularization and W3C XML Schema Notation. The W3C XForms Working Group has published a new Working Draft of XForms 1.0 that "incorporates new material agreed upon at the Boston face to face meeting, including the adoption of XML Schema to replace XForms Simple Syntax, as well as initial efforts at modularizing XForms and additional feedback from outside sources. XForms are the W3C's response to demands from Web applications and eCommerce solutions, which require Web forms with richer interactions. XForms are the successor to XHTML forms, and benefit from the lessons learned in the years of HTML forms implementation experience. The specification represents extended analysis, followed by the creation of a new platform-independent markup language for online interaction between an XForms Processor and a remote entity. More flexible than previous HTML and XHTML form technologies, the new generation of Web forms called 'XForms' separates purpose, presentation, and data. The specification introduction includes a brief tutorial on XForms and a discussion of design principles behind XForms. Core chapters contain the XForms reference manual. The bulk of the reference manual consists of the specification of XForms. This reference defines what may go into XForms and how XForms Processors must interpret the various components in order to claim conformance. Appendixes contain a normative description of XForms described in XML Schema, information on optional function libraries, references, a change history, and other useful information." [Full context]
[June 09, 2001] TIBCO Software Releases 'XML Validate' with Support for W3C XML Schema Recommendation. An announcement from TIBCO Software Inc. describes the release of a new streaming XML validator with full support for W3C XML Schema. Details: Tibco has "announced the commercial release of XML Validate, a member of the TIBCO Extensibility product family. XML Validate is an enterprise-grade solution for validating streaming XML documents or messages against an XML Schema or DTD. The Simple API for XML (SAX)-based implementation for run-time validation provides organizations with the core component in developing high bandwidth, XML-based processing. This release of XML Validate is also the first commercially available validator to fully support the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML Schema Recommendation. The XML Schema Recommendation was released [2001-05-02] by the W3C... this XML Schema validation support will facilitate the creation of XML driven ecosystems based on open-standards. Additionally, XML Validate supports the validation of DTDs to allow connectivity with organizations not currently using XML Schema. XML Validate is a core building block for creating an e-commerce processing engine for XML documents and messages. As organizations conduct e-commerce with a growing and global audience, the processing capabilities of XML Validate can scale to the demand. XML Validate has the potential of handling millions of transactions per day per server. XML Validate can easily be inserted into an existing XML parsing scenario, enabling validation to occur the instant it is received by the parser. Because SAX is an event-based API, XML Validate is the ideal solution in a streaming run-time environment, creating an enterprise-grade XML processing engine." [Full context]
[June 09, 2001] W3C XHTML Events Working Draft Supports Association of Behaviors with Document-Level Markup. The W3C HTML Working Group has published an updated working draft specification for 'XHTML Events', designed to "(1) expose the DOM event model to an XML document, (2) provide for new event types without requiring modification to the DOM or the DTD, and (3) to support integration with other XML languages." The new draft supersedes the previous working draft of 2000-08-28; changes are provided in the diff-marked HTML version. The XHTML Events module specification "defines an element onevent which represents a DOM level 2 event listener. The element onevent and its associated markup encapsulate the various aspects of the the DOM level 2 event interface, thereby providing markup level access for specifying the actions to be taken during the various phases of event propagation." From the document abstract: "The XHTML Events module defined in this specification provides XHTML host languages the ability to uniformly integrate event listeners and associated event handlers with Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 event interfaces. The result is to provide XHTML based languages an interoperable way of associating behaviors with document-level markup. In addition, this specification defines a subset of the XHTML Events module called basic events for use on simpler client devices. Finally, the XHTML Event Types Module defines the XHTML language event types." The DTD Implementation is provided in the normative Appendix A. [Full context]
[June 09, 2001] CL-XML Provides Common Lisp Support for XML, XPath, and XQuery. A communiqué from James Anderson reports on a "preliminary re-release of CL-XML which (1) includes not only a validating XML parser/processor, but also XPath and XQuery compilers, (2) supports namespace-aware DTD-based validation, and (3) can claim conformance. CL-XML is a collection of Common LISP modules for data stream parsing and serialization according to the Extensible Markup Language and ancillary standards. The modules perform parsing and serialization between XML, XML Query, and XML Path expressions and DOM-compatible CLOS instances." The associated Web site provides extensive doumentation for CL-XML, including separate BNF descriptions of the XML, XPath, and XQuery syntax used to generate the parsers. According to the site description: "The processor is intended for use both as a stand-alone XML interface and as an extension to the CL-HTTP server. The XML module implements a conformant, namespace-aware, validating XML processor which instantitiates an Info-Model compatible document model. The processor always incorporates external references. A referenced document definition is instantiated and incorporated in the document instance as an internal document type definition model. The definition is used to effect instance defaulting and typing and to perform in-line document validation. The parser can be invoked with validation enabled or disabled. It can be invoked so as to produce a data instance, a parse tree, or to parse without generating a result. The XMLPath module implements access to document models based on XML Path expressions. It includes an implementation for the XML Path library, an interpreter for paths formulated as S-expressions and, a parser to translate string-encoded expressions into the equivalent S-expression form. The XMLQuery module implements access to document models based on XML Query expressions. These incorporate XML Path expressions to address document elements and extend them with construction operations. The module includes an implementation for the XML Query library, an interpreter for queries formulated as S-expressions and, a parser to translate string-encoded expressions into the equivalent S-expression form. The base CLOS model comprises a class library which implements the XML Query Data Model and presents an Infoset compatiable programming interface." [Full context]
[June 06, 2001] W3C Conceptual Model for XML Linking and Style. Members of the W3C XLink/XSL Joint Task Force (XML Linking and XSL Working Groups) have released a conceptual model specification for the interaction of XLink linking elements and styling. The document XML Linking and Style has been published as a W3C NOTE, and addresses the (hitherto unclarified) "interaction of XLink linking elements and styling." Background to the NOTE is provided in the document Introduction: "Linking and styling have significant interactions: on the one hand, style may be applied to elements because they participate in links; on the other hand, selecting a link may modify, replace, or create a new document which must then be styled. This note introduces a conceptual model for describing the interactions of XLink linking elements and styling. It then shows how this model may be applied in two different ways: (1) Using current and anticipated technologies supported by existing W3C Recommendations [and Working Drafts, Candidate Recommendations, and Proposed Recommendations]. (2) In an environment where the XSLT processor provides significantly more functionality for linking and contains several new features." Appendix B contains the (Non-Normative) "Summary of Proposed Changes to XSLT." [Full context]
[June 06, 2001] SilverStream Releases Complete XML RPC/SOAP Environment. A communiqué from Misha Davidson (SilverStream Inc.) describes the release of 'jBroker Web' as a public beta version of a new SOAP ORB product. jBroker Web is "a complete XML RPC environment for platform-independent building, running, and invoking Web services using Java. It supports writing Web service interfaces using WSDL as well as Java. jBroker Web provides a complete set of compilers for converting WSDL to Java and vice versa, as well as for generating client and server XML RPC glue (stubs and skeletons) code. It comes with a high-performance, scalable SOAP 1.1 runtime that uses HTTP transport and is on-the-wire compatible with Apache SOAP and .NET. JBroker Web-generated skeletons are Java servlets. They can be deployed in any J2EE Web Application container using standard J2EE Web Application deployment. They can also benefit from the standard J2EE security features like authentication, access control, and confidentiality using SSL." [Full context]
[June 06, 2001] Sun Microsystems Announces Broad Support for XML-based Web Services. At the JavaOne Developer Conference, Sun Microsystems has issued several announcements for support of XML-based web services. Sun revealed its plans for native support of 'web services' as key components in the next version of the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE). "Working through the Java Community Process, Sun will leverage several web services related technology projects now underway in the JCP." Sun also "announced plans to make available a Web Services Pack, an all-in-one download containing key technologies to simplify building of web services using the Java 2 Platform. The announcement also lays out the roadmap for incorporation of the technologies into integrated development environments (IDEs) from key software development tools suppliers. The Web Services Pack is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) and architectures developed by Sun and the other members of the Java Community that provide support in the Java technology for important web services features. These are to include: (1) JavaServer Faces, which establishes a standard API for creating Java Web application graphical user interfaces (GUIs), eliminating the burden on developers to create and maintain the GUI infrastructure from scratch. (2) Tomcat, a free, open-source implementation of JavaServer Pages and Java Servlet technologies developed under the Jakarta project at the Apache Software Foundation. (3) JAX Pack, a collection of XML-based Java APIs [Java API for XML Processing, Java API for XML Registries, Java API for XML Messaging, Java Architecture for XML Binding, Java API for Remote Procedure Call]." The new Java Community Process web site lists ten JSRs (Java Specification Requests) which focus on the development of Java technology APIs specifically targeted at building XML-based applications. [Full context]
[June 06, 2001] Microsoft Publishes XML Web Services Specifications. Microsoft recently announced the release of three new 'Web Services' specifications which support its effort to "combine the best aspects of component-based development and the Web, and provide a cornerstone of the Microsoft .NET programming model." The specifications are provided "as-is, for review and evaluation only." (1) SOAP Routing Protocol (SOAP-RP) is a "SOAP-based, stateless protocol for exchanging one-way SOAP messages from an initial sender to the ultimate receiver, potentially via a set of intermediaries. In addition, SOAP-RP provides an optional reverse message path enabling two-way message exchange patterns like request/response, peer-to-peer conversations, and the return of message acknowledgements and faults. SOAP-RP is expressed as a SOAP header entry within a SOAP envelope making it relatively independent of the underlying protocol. This specification defines the use of SOAP-RP in combination with TCP, UDP, and HTTP but other underlying protocols are possible." (2) Direct Internet Message Encapsulation (DIME) is a "lightweight, binary encapsulation format that can be used to encapsulate multiple application defined entities or payloads of arbitrary type and size into a single message construct. It is used by SOAP-RP as the encapsulation mechanism when exchanged directly over TCP or UDP in order to support encapsulation of attachments to the SOAP-RP message as well as to provide efficient message delimiting." (3) XLANG is an "XML business process language which provides a way to orchestrate applications and XML Web services into larger-scale, federated applications by enabling developers to aggregate even the largest applications as components in a long-lived business process. XLANG has a two-fold relationship with WSDL. An XLANG service description is a WSDL service description with an extension element that describes the behavior of the service as a part of a business process. XLANG service behavior may also rely on simple WSDL services as providers of basic functionality for the implementation of the business process." [Full context]
[June 05, 2001] TREX and RELAX Unified as RELAX NG, a Lightweight XML Language Validation Specification. Significant progress has been made on the specification for 'RELAX NG' since the April 2001 announcement by the TREX and RELAX design teams declaring their intent to unify the two similar structure-validation languages. The OASIS Technical Committee originally chartered under the name TREX has been named RELAX NG, and key draft documents have been published as sketches for the new validation language. These include a RELAX NG Tutorial, a RELAX NG Formal Semantics specification, and a draft RELAX NG schema for RELAX NG. The goals for RELAX NG are summarized in a recent announcement from the TC: "Members of the OASIS TREX Technical Committee announced their decision to integrate TREX (Tree Regular Expressions for XML) and RELAX (REgular LAnguage description for XML) in order to collaborate on a unified lightweight specification for validating XML-based languages. They renamed their work RELAX NG. RELAX was initially developed at the Information Technology Research and Standardization Centre (INSTAC) in Japan, which advances Japanese national standards for XML under the auspices of the Japanese Standard Association (JSA). TREX was created by James Clark, widely regarded as one of the most prolific contributors to the field of structured information standards. Clark decided to continue development of his schema language at the OASIS XML interoperability consortium in March 2001. 'RELAX and TREX both focus on simplicity,' said James Clark, chair of what is now the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee. 'RELAX NG will remain straightforward and easy to use, incorporating the best of TREX and RELAX.' Said Murata Makoto, one of the original developers of RELAX: 'It is important to note that RELAX NG is not intended to replace the W3C XML Schema Recommendation. Instead, it represents a lightweight alternative to Schema. We believe that users are likely to adopt multiple schema languages, and many will find RELAX NG fills a very important need.' According to the OASIS technical committee, the specification offers a middle ground that will make RELAX NG a useful tool for many developers. The team is interested in facilitating conversion among DTDs, XML Schema and RELAX NG. 'RELAX NG fits in well with the W3C XML Schema Formal Description,' added Clark. 'Our hope is that RELAX NG will be a constructive influence on the future development of XML Schema'." [Full context]
[June 04, 2001] IBM alphaWorks Releases XML Registry/Repository Data Management System. The XML Application Development team at IBM's alphaWorks lab has released an 'XRR' data management tool which supports registration, searching, and delivery for XML resources. The IBM XML Registry/Repository (XRR) is "a data management system that manages and provides services for XML artifacts including schemes (DTD, XSD), stylesheets (XSL) and instance documents (WSDL). User can use XRR to obtain an XML artifact automatically, search or browse for an XML artifact, deposit an XML artifact with or without related data, and register an XML artifact without deposit. The XRR 'Registry' service is "where organizations submit and register DTDs, schemes, stylesheets, and other types of XML documents. Once approved, these documents are referred to as registered objects. The registry provides a search of registered objects based on their metadata. Registry facilities include (1) Registration: An organization must first register itself with the registry as a submitting organization (SO) before it can make submissions. SO make submissions through one of its contacts whose role is referred to as a submitter. The 'submitter' must always be authenticated. Only an SO can make submissions. (2) Search and Retrieval Registered Object: Anyone can search the registry for registered objects based on their matadata. No authentication is required. (3) Administration: A Registry Administrator can change user status and get the registry content. The 'Repository' service "provides access to registered objects. Through the repository, a user can download a registered object using standard identifiers (URLs)." The current version of XRR runs on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Linux, AIX, and Solaris; it supports basic Servlet/JSP functionality. [Full context]
[June 01, 2001] W3C Publishes Specifications for Ruby Annotation. Two new specifications relating to 'Ruby' annotation have been released by the W3C. 'Ruby' are "small character annotations, sometimes added to the characters of an ideographic script like Japanese, to clarify the pronunciation (and/or the meaning) of those characters. They are usually put in a very small font, along the side of the ideogram in vertical text, or at the top in horizontal text... Ruby annotations are used frequently in Japan in many kinds of publications, including books and magazines; a sequence of ideographic characters (kanji) is supplemented with the simpler hiragana which show how the word should be pronounced. Ruby is also used in China, especially in schoolbooks. Ruby text is usually presented alongside the base text, using a smaller typeface. The name 'ruby' in fact originated from the name of the 5.5pt font size in British printing, which is about half the 10pt font size commonly used for normal text. While many international typography needs can be fulfilled through the use of style sheet languages such as CSS or XSL, additional markup is needed [in this case] to define the relationship between the base text and its annotation. Ruby Annotation delivers this functionality to the Web in the form of an XHTML module, thus allowing ruby to be correctly rendered along with the basic text without using special workarounds or graphics. XHTML 1.1 includes the Ruby Annotation module, enhancing XHTML 1.1's power and extensibility." As part of the W3C Internationalization Activity, the Internationalization Working Group has produced a markup specification for ruby which is now a W3C Recommendation, Ruby Annotation. A companion document Implementing the Ruby Module from Masayasu ISHIKAWA has been released as a W3C Note. It describes sample module implementations of the abstract definition of ruby annotation markup using several schema notations: XML DTD, RELAX, TREX, and the W3C XML Schema. This document also illustrates W3C's Amaya browser/editor implementation of ruby as part of XHTML 1.1. [Full context]
[June 01, 2001] Module-based XHTML Published as a W3C Recommendation. The World Wide Web Consortium has now issued XHTML 1.1 - Module-based XHTML as a W3C Recommendation, indicating that the XHTML 1.1 specification "is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who are in favor of supporting its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. The specification defines a new XHTML document type that is based upon the module framework and modules defined in Modularization of XHTML. The purpose of this document type is to serve as the basis for future extended XHTML 'family' document types, and to provide a consistent, forward-looking document type cleanly separated from the deprecated, legacy functionality of HTML 4 that was brought forward into the XHTML 1.0 document types. The XHTML 1.1 document type is essentially a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict using XHTML Modules. This means that many facilities available in other XHTML Family document types (e.g., XHTML Frames) are not available in this document type. These other facilities are available through modules defined in Modularization of XHTML, and document authors are free to define document types based upon XHTML 1.1 that use these facilities. The document type is designed to be portable to a broad collection of client devices, and applicable to the majority of Internet content. Content developers who base their content upon XHTML 1.1 can trust that it will be consistently portable across user agents which support XHTML." [Full context]
[May 25, 2001] New OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) Specification Supports Cross-Industry Availability and Booking Capabilities. More than 140 leaders representing all aspects of the travel industry recently met for an OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) Advisory Forum and approved the release of a new draft customer profile specification. Version 2001A of the OpenTravel Alliance Message Specifications document "merges the OTA and Hospitality Industry Technology Integration Standards (HITIS) respective customer profiles into one comprehensive profile to expedite the imminent adoption of this new OTA specification. The Version 2001A public release also includes a major infrastructure change that incorporates emerging Extensible Markup Language (XML) capabilities: it adopts a portion of the messaging structure developed by the Electronic Business XML (ebXML) Transport, Routing and Packaging project team. Version 2001B has also been released for member review; it includes the complete set of revised HITIS standards for the hotel industry coupled with availability and booking specifications to serve airline, car rental, package holidays from consumer to supplier, and travel insurance industries. The OTA specifications now include the principal specification document, W3C XML Schema and schema fragments conforming to the W3C Candidate Recommendation, XML DTDs, UML Model diagrams, and a data dictionary. The OTA's five working groups, together with an interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, are developing open Internet-compatible messages using XML data terms: air, car, hotel, leisure supplier, and non-supplier." [Full context]
[May 25, 2001] XPath Tester Provides Graphical Test Environment for XPath Expressions. Paul Brown (FiveSight Technologies, Inc.) announced the release of an 'XPath Tester' tool which provides a graphical test environment for XPath expressions. XPath Tester "is an XML productivity tool that wraps the XPath API in XalanJ2. It allows the user to load an XML document, enter a query, and see the resulting NodeSet match highlighted or the value displayed. The tool provides a real-time mode that will apply the query as you type. The Xalan-J2 XSLT Processor [Version 2.1.0] from the Apache XML Project is used as the underlying XPath engine. The tool is available for download as a single executable JAR file that can be run via double-click in Windows or via java -jar xpathtester_1_x.jar [x replaced by the appropriate digit)] on any platform." XPath Tester is made publicly available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Peter Flynn nominated the XPath Tester application for [first] prize as "Most Useful Tool." [Full context]
[May 24, 2001] Edge Side Includes (ESI) Specification Receives Broad Support. Several leading companies recently announced support for Edge Side Includes (ESI) as an open specification for managing content transparently across Application Server solutions, Content Infrastructure, Content Management Systems, and Content Delivery Network industries. Edge Side Includes (ESI) "accelerates dynamic Web-based applications by defining a simple markup language to describe cacheable and non-cacheable Web page components that can be aggregated, assembled, and delivered at the network edge. The Edge Side Includes (ESI) specification defines an XML-based markup language that provides a means to assemble resources in HTTP clients. Unlike other in-markup languages, ESI is designed to leverage client tools like caches to improve end-user perceived performance, reduce processing overhead on the origin server, and enhanced availability. ESI allows for dynamic content assembly at the edge of the network, whether it is in a Content Delivery Network, end-user's browser, or in a 'Reverse Proxy' right next to the origin server. ESI is primarily intended for processing on surrogates (intermediaries that operate on behalf of the origin server, also known as 'Reverse Proxies') that understand the ESI language. However, its application is not restricted to these devices. ESI also specifies a content invalidation protocol for transparent content management across ESI-compliant solutions, such as application servers and content delivery networks. The ability to assemble dynamic pages from individual page fragments means that only non-cacheable or expired fragments need to be fetched from the origin Web site, thereby lowering the need to retrieve complete pages and decreasing the load on the Web site's content generation infrastructure." [Full context]
[May 22, 2001] Johns Hopkins and Leading Medical Societies Announce MedBiquitous Consortium for XML Medical Standards. A recent announcement from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine describes the creation of a new technology consortium for education and collaboration in the area of medical science. "Johns Hopkins has joined with many leading professional medical societies to create the MedBiquitous Consortium, a group dedicated to creating technology standards and software for education and collaboration in online medical communities. The MedBiquitous Consortium is a non-profit international organization dedicated to creating a comprehensive XML framework for professional medical societies. The goal is to enable individual citizens, medical societies, governmental, and industry members to build on this framework to create thriving online communities and Web-based services for physicians. The MedBiquitous Consortium's immediate focus is on defining a set of XML (Extensible Markup Language) standards and software requirements for communications within and among professional medical societies and related organizations. The standards developed by the Consortium are freely available throughout the industry, thus enabling the development of interoperable software tools and Web services. The Consortium is also creating a library of Java software tools for Consortium members." Key working standards identified by the group include XML, Java, and UML: "The Consortium will create XML standards that allow organizations to better exchange data; it will create modular Java software components and applications based on the XML standards; it will use UML to architect Java software components and applications. MedBiquitous will thus provide the vehicle for a consensus-building process of defining an XML vocabulary for professional medical societies. The XML vocabulary will support a wide range of activities including organizational membership and participation, specialty certification, continuing education, online meetings, scientific abstracts, journal article submission and administration, clinical trials, and data registries for tracking medical outcomes. As is the case with other industries, the creation of these XML standards will allow the development within professional medicine of interoperable Web software tools and services." [Full context]
[May 22, 2001] IBM Global Services and IBM WebSphere Platform to Support IBM's Web Services Infrastructure. IBM recently announced a wide-scale program of support for "production-ready infrastructure software and services to enable Web Services," involving open Internet standards and secure management of high-volume transactions and integrating complex business processes. Also announced is systems integration support from IBM Global Services to help businesses build Web services applications using IBM's infrastructure software. To support the growth of business-process integration, projected to approach $50 billion by 2005, IBM is enabling all of its middleware infrastructure software with comprehensive support for open Internet standards to enable the development of Web services applications. The support spans IBM's entire middleware portfolio, including DB2, Lotus, Tivoli and WebSphere software. Software for developing, publishing, hosting and deploying Web services includes WebSphere Application Server Version 4, which supports the variety of open standards and technologies necessary to develop, publish and deploy Web services applications, including: Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI); Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP); Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE); Web Services Description Language (WSDL); and enhanced integration of leading XML technologies. Software enabling Web Services applications to manage and access data includes DB2/XML Extender, which enables Web services applications to access data stored in DB2 or any other database, providing businesses with greater ease and efficiency in accessing, analyzing and managing information across multiple computing systems. Software for availability, performance and security of web services applications involves the Tivoli Manager for WebSphere Application Server, which provides a single point of control to enable businesses to manage the distributed environments that use WebSphere Application Server to host Web services applications. Software for enabling web collaboration, knowledge management, and e-learning includes the Lotus Web Services Enablement Kit with the Lotus Domino Application Server; the collaboration, workflow, and messaging capabilities of Domino can be accessed as Web services by adding SOAP interfaces and WSDL descriptions to new or existing Domino applications. The built-in support for Web, XML, and Java technology provides a straightforward approach for enabling custom Domino applications as Web services, with workflow, knowledge discovery system, and instant messaging." IBM is also developing an XML-based 'Web Services Flow Language (WSFL)' which describes how Web services may be composed as 'usage patterns' and 'interaction patterns' into new Web services to support business processes. [Full context]
[May 22, 2001] IBM XML Schema Quality Checker Supports the W3C XML Schema Recommendation. A communiqué from Bob Schloss (IBM Research) reports on the availability of an updated IBM XML Schema Quality Checker tool from IBM alphaWorks. The new version of this downloadable tool (Version 1.0.17, 05/21/2001) assists users who are creating XML Schemas conforming to the May 2, 2001 W3C Recommendation. The updated release "contains fixes bugs, adds a checker to verify that identity constraint definitions (Key, KeyRef and Unique) are consistent with the type of the element declaration where they appear, and updates the default stylesheet used to view the error reports. The XML Schema Quality Checker is a Java program which takes as input an XML Schema written in the W3C XML schema language and diagnoses improper uses of the schema language. Where the appropriate action to correct the schema is not obvious, the diagnostic message may include a suggestion about how to make the fix. For XML Schemas which are composed of numerous schema documents connected via <include>, <import>, or <redefine> element information items, a full schema-wide checking is performed. The tool can also be run in batch mode to quality-check multiple XML schemas in a single run." Schloss reports that the team is continuing to work on more complete checking of the consistency of identity-constraint definitions and on additional improvements; they welcome feedback and suggestions. The tool has been produced by the IBM XML Application Development team, including Achille Fokoué, Bob Schloss, Tom Gallivan, and Roberto Galnares. [Full context]
[May 21, 2001] Ontopia Knowledge Suite Features Topic Map Engine and TM Navigator Framework. A product announcement from Ontopia AS describes the commercial release of the Ontopia Knowledge Suite Version 1.0, with support for the ISO 13250 and XML Topic Map (XTM) specifications. "The Ontopia Knowledge Suite (OKS) version 1.0 comprises a full-featured Topic Map Engine written in 100% Java, and the Ontopia Topic Map Navigator, a framework for building web-based topic map delivery applications. The new Navigator can be tested online or downloaded free. The OKS will become a complete suite of tools for managing and using topic maps, as new components are released during the coming months. Topic Mapping is a new paradigm for organizing, retrieving, and navigating information resources. Through the provision of a 'knowledge layer' that is independent of the information resources themselves, topic maps help capture and manage corporate memory, improve indexing, and enable the integration of information that spans multiple, disparate repositories. Topic Maps are an international standard, defined by the ISO, and can also be interchanged using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) defined by the W3C. Ontopia AS, a providers of advanced Topic Map technology and co-creators of the Topic Map standards, offers technology supporting added value to web portals, content management systems, knowledge-based intranet applications, and enterprise application integration." [Full context]
[May 21, 2001] BOX Tool Generates XML DTDs and Vector Graphics Diagrams from UML/XMI. A posting from Christian Nentwich announces the release of a software tool called BOX ('Browsing Objects in XML') which "reads UML models in XMI and exports the contained diagrams in vector graphics form, including SVG and VML. The BOX tool includes, amongst other things, (1) An implementation of the UML metamodel [mainly Foundation/Core, not behavioral packages], in the uml package; (2) A parser for XMI; (3) An additional parser for diagram information specific to the Unisys exporter, in the unisys package; (4) Several exporters in the export package, which you have to manually call at the moment; (5) Heuristics for reconstructing diagrams from the rather poor information made public by the exporter; (6) Sample UML models." BOX was written for a research project in 1998-2001; though currently unmaintained and underdocumented, it is licensed as free software under the GNU General Public License. A research paper on 'Browsing Objects in XML' from 1999 describes BOX as a "a portable, distributed, and interoperable approach to browsing UML models with off-the-shelf browser technology; its approach to browsing UML models leverages XML and related specifications, such as the Document Object Model (DOM), the XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) and a Vector Graphic Markup Language (VML). BOX translates a UML model that is represented in XMI into VML. BOX has been successfully evaluated in two industrial case studies which used BOX to make extensive domain and enterprise object models available to a large number of stakeholders over a corporate intranets and the Internet. We discuss why XML and the BOX architecture can be applied to other software engineering notations and argue that the approach taken in BOX can be applied to other domains that already started to adopt XML and have a need for graphic representation of XML information. These include browsing gene sequences, chemical molecule structures, and conceptual knowledge representations." [Full context]
[May 20, 2001] OOPSLA Workshop on 'Objects, <XML> and Databases'. A communiqué from Akmal B. Chaudhri announces a call for papers in connection with the OOPSLA 2001 Workshop on 'Objects, <XML> and Databases', to be held October 14/15, 2001 in Tampa Bay, Florida. The workshop will be hosted in conjunction with the OOPSLA 2001 Conference (ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications). Topics of interest for the workshop include "the use, management and delivery of XML, web and semi-structured data using object technology and database systems; for example, the efficient storage, retrieval and querying of XML from database systems, application and database evolution issues relating to changes in structure of XML documents, case studies or experience reports, benchmarks and performance, early adopter experiences, standards issues, etc. The goal is to bring together academics, practitioners, users and vendors to discuss the use and synergy between Objects, XML and Databases. Many commercial systems built today are increasingly using these technologies together and it is important to understand the various research and practical issues. The wide range of participants will help the various communities understand both specific and common problems... For many organizations already using object-orientation with database management systems, XML data adds a new dimension that brings considerable flexibility and promise, but also adds new uncertainties and issues as to how to effectively manage that data. The recent trend towards XML servers, native XML databases and support for XML in existing relational databases is a testimony to the importance of this issue for the vendor community as well." [Full context]
[May 19, 2001] Workshop on E-Business and the Intelligent Web. An updated workshop schedule is available for the IJCAI 2001 Workshop on E-Business and the Intelligent Web, to be held in Seattle, WA, August 5, 2001 as part of the Seventeenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. An invited paper on "Standardizing XML Rules" will be presented by Benjamin N. Grosof of the MIT Sloan School of Management. The workshop is set against the backdrop of two key trends: "(1) The e-business community is creating new infrastructures to support high-level business-to-business and business-to-consumer activities on the web. (2) The so-called 'semantic web' movement is developing a range of proposals aimed at supporting intelligent information-seeking and information-management operations over the web. In the first trend, the main foci are on defining a new generation of electronic data interchange protocols, mostly based on XML (prominent initiatives include BizTalk, eCo, OASIS, and RosettaNet) and on creating new kinds of e-business services such as agent-mediated B2B e-commerce, and knowledge-driven customer relationship management. In the second trend, the emphasis is on enriching the web's data markup languages with knowledge representation features, to permit inference over the content of web pages (prominent initiatives include DAML, OIL, and RDF). Its goals include the production of internet-scale inference mechanisms, knowledge markup languages, and active information-seeking services. The goal of the workshop is to bring together members of the e-business and intelligent web communities to consider the current state of the two fields, and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the interaction between the two areas." [Full context]
[May 19, 2001] W3C XML Key Management Services Workshop. W3C has announced a call for papers and registration in connection with a workshop on XML Key Management Services, to be held July 19, 2001 in Redwood City, California. The goal of the workshop is "to consider the requirements for simple key resolution and trust services for XML security applications, the degree to which the XKMS specification satisfies those requirements, and to determine if there is sufficient focus and interest to propose a W3C activity in this area." The workshop will focus upon 'questions of key trustworthiness' which hitherto have not been in scope for W3C activities under the XML Signature and XML Encryption work. The workshop organizers believe the broader questions of trust not yet fully accounted for in W3C activity, including confidence in a key, "are critical to secure XML applications, reliable XML protocols and trusted Web services. Topics likely to be discussed at this workshop include: (1) XML Security application key management requirements (2) Dependencies upon XML Protocol, Web services, XML Query, Semantic Web, and transport protocols [e.g., HTTP]; (3) Security considerations resulting from a specification; (4) The scope of any resulting W3C Activity." Workshop attendance will be limited to forty-five (45) participants, based upon the quality of position papers submitted and [preference for] membership in a W3C Working Group. [Full context]
[May 19, 2001] RELAX Core Approved as an ISO Technical Report. A posting from Murata Makoto (Project Editor of RELAX Core at ISO/IEC JTC1) reports on the result of an ISO/IEC JTC1 ballot of May 10, 2001 which approved the RELAX Core specification as ISO/IEC Technical Report 22250-1. RELAX Core is part of the larger RELAX [Regular Language Description for XML] specification, which currently includes RELAX Namespace, and will later have RELAX Data. RELAX Core is "a simple language for describing XML tag sets, viz., for describing markup languages containing a single XML namespace; the RELAX Namespace is used to describe markup languages containing more than a single XML namespace consisting of more than one RELAX Core document." RELAX Core "was originally created as a JIS TR and was then submitted to ISO via the fast-track procedure. The final text will be prepared in an upcoming meeting in August 2001. The latter half, RELAX Namespace, has been approved as JIS TR and will soon be submitted to ISO." In a parallel universe, RELAX Core and TREX (Tree Regular Expressions for XML) are to be unified, since the two are very similar as structure-validation languages. The unified TREX/RELAX language will be called RELAX NG [for "Relax Next Generation," pronounced "relaxing"]. This design work is now being conducted within the OASIS TREX Technical Committee, where a (first) specification is expected by July 1, 2001. The OASIS TC has also been renamed 'RELAX NG' to reflect the new name of the unified TREX/RELAX language. The RELAX NG development team plans to submit the OASIS specification to ISO, given the importance of ISO standards in Europe. RELAX NG progress may be tracked via the mailing list archives or by comparing the issues list with the original TREX tutorial and specification. [Full context]
[May 17, 2001] W3C Publishes Last Call Working Draft for XML Inclusions (XInclude). The W3C XML Core Working Group has announced the release of a last call working draft specification for XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0. The working draft document "specifies a processing model and syntax for general purpose inclusion. Inclusion is accomplished by merging a number of XML Infosets into a single composite Infoset. Specification of the XML documents (infosets) to be merged and control over the merging process is expressed in XML-friendly syntax (elements, attributes, URI References)." The working group invites comment on this specification during the last call review period which begins May 16, 2001 and ends June 5, 2001. According to background information supplied by Arnaud Le Hors and Paul Grosso (Chairs of the XML Core WG), the XML Core WG "is not aware of an issue with this WD document; the list of issues that have been raised and resolved while elaborating the specification can be found in the accompanying issues document." [Full context]
[May 17, 2001] SRML Proposed as an XML Rule Representation for Java Rule Engines. A communiqué from Margaret Thorpe (ILOG, S.A.) announces the development SRML (Simple Rule Markup Language) which the designers believe may be of wider interest. SRML describes a "generic rule language consisting of the subset of language constructs common to the popular forward-chaining rule engines. Because it does not use constructs specific to a proprietary vendor language, rules specified using this XML DTD can easily be translated and executed on any conforming rule engine, making it useful as an interlingua for rule exchange between Java rule engines. The Java Rule Engine API specified in JSR-000094 defines generic API support for parsing rulesets that are represented using XML, but does not define a rule language standard. Thus, while JSR-094 will prescribe that some kind of 'content language' is made available to the engine via XML, and will provide some kind of 'content handler' to process these XML rule documents, a rule language is still required in order to provide a Java rule engine with rules via this API." A preliminary XML DTD describing the structure of SRML has been made available by the authors. As defined in this DTD, a ruleset "is the root element of the SRML XML document, and it consists of a list of rules. Rules have a condition part [conditionPart] and an action part [actionPart], and the condition part must have at least one condition. Conditions are composed of test expressions, and can be simple conditions or not conditions." Etc. [Full context]
[May 14, 2001] W3C Publishes XML Information Set Specification as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. The XML Information Set specification ('Infoset') has been advanced to the status of W3C Candidate Recommendation, and implementation experience is being sought by the WG members. The specification provides an abstract data set via a set of definitions "for use in other specifications that need to refer to the information in an XML document." The Infoset "does not attempt to be exhaustive: the primary criterion for inclusion of an information item or property has been that of expected usefulness in future specifications. Nor does it constitute a minimum set of information that must be returned by an XML processor... The XML Information Set does not require or favor a specific interface or class of interfaces. The specification presents the information set as a modified tree for the sake of clarity and simplicity, but there is no requirement that the XML Information Set be made available through a tree structure. Other types of interfaces, including (but not limited to) event-based and query-based interfaces are also capable of providing information conforming to the XML Information." The W3C XML Core Working Group invites comments on the Infoset CR through 15-June-2001, at which time it expects to have sufficient evidence of implementation to advance the specification to a Proposed Recommendation. [Full context]
[May 14, 2001] Microsoft Hosts Online XQuery Prototype Application. A posting from Michael Rys (Microsoft Program Manager, SQL Server XML Technologies) announces that the XQuery Prototype demonstrated at XML DevCon in New York has been placed online for public use. "The goal of the prototype implementation is to follow the public working drafts of the W3C XML Query working group while trying to avoid 'inside' knowledge about how something is supposed to work. The prototype currently [2001-05-14] follows the February 15, 2001 W3C XQuery working draft and will be updated to the next working draft within weeks after the next working draft's publication. The web site allows you to formulate XQueries and a subset of a proposed XQuery-compatible data manipulation language and parse and execute the former, but currently only allows one to parse the later. Since the demo is provided via a website, we provide a set of predefined XML documents and disallow the use of user-specified documents for security reasons. In addition, the site offers a set of compliance tests that can be used to check the syntax for the XQuery parser. Since the tests are automatically generated based on the syntax, some of the statements may not have meaningful semantics... The prototype is implemented in C# and is currently only available via the website; future downloadable implementations of XQuery are planned for later technology previews of some of the XML technologies." [Full context]
[May 14, 2001] Updated IBM Web Services ToolKit Contains Private UDDI Registry. An updated release of the IBM Web Services ToolKit (WSTK version 2.3) contains a Private UDDI Registry and enhancements to the WSDL Generation Tool in order to support COM. IBM Web Services ToolKit provides "a runtime environment as well as demo/examples to design and execute web-service applications to find one another and collaborate in business transactions without programming requirements or human intervention. The distribution includes a full web services application 'Gourmet2Go', an Aggregation demo of web services, and some tools that are helpful to develop and deploy Web Services. Extensive documentation is included in the toolkit to assist developers with the basic concepts of web services. The toolkit includes a fully functioning web services client API that can be used to directly access a UDDI registry." The version 2.3 WSTK release is compliant with the WSDL 1.1 specification; it also supports SOAP encryption, UDDI4B (a UDDI for Browser), and Digital Signature handler. [Full context]
[May 14, 2001] Final ebXML Specifications Approved in Vienna. An announcment from UN/CEFACT and OASIS reports on the meeting of 11-May-2001 in which ebXML participants approved a core set of electronic business data specifications. From the announcement: "ebXML, which began as an 18-month initiative sponsored by UN/CEFACT and OASIS, is a modular suite of specifications that enables enterprises of any size and in any geographical location to conduct business over the Internet. Using ebXML, companies now have a standard method to exchange business messages, conduct trading relationships, communicate data in common terms and define and register business processes. Approved specifications include ebXML Technical Architecture, Business Process Specification Schema, Registry Information Model, Registry Services, ebXML Requirements, Message Service and Collaboration-Protocol Profile and Agreement. Accepted ebXML Technical Reports include: Business Process and Business Information Analysis Overview, Business Process Analysis Worksheets & Guidelines, E-Commerce Patterns, Catalog of Common Business Processes, Core Component Overview, Core Component Discovery and Analysis, Context and Re-Usability of Core Components, Guide to the Core Components Dictionary, Naming Convention for Core Components, Document Assembly and Context Rules, Catalogue of Context Drivers, Core Component Dictionary, Core Component Structure and Technical Architecture Risk Assessment. Adoption, implementation and maintenance of the ebXML specifications will be conducted by UN/CEFACT and OASIS under the auspices of a Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed by the two organizations in Vienna. Coordination of this work will be achieved through a joint UN/CEFACT and OASIS management committee." [Full context]
[May 10, 2001] University of Washington Tukwila Data Integration System. The University of Washington Database Research Group is developing a 'Tukwila' system which "uses adaptive query processing techniques to efficiently deal with processing heterogeneous, XML-based data from across the Internet. The data integration system depends upon a mediated schema to represent a particular application domain and data sources are mapped as views over the mediated schema. The user asks a query over the mediated schema and the data integration system reformulates this into a query over the data sources and executes it. The system then intelligently processes the query, reading data across the network and responding to data source sizes, network conditions, and other factors. The Tukwila data integration system is designed to scale up to the amounts of data transmissible across intranets and the Internet (tens to hundreds of MBs), with large numbers of data sources. The Tukwila data integration system is designed to support adaptivity at its core using a two-pronged approach. A highly efficient query reformulation algorithm, MiniCon, maps the input query from the mediated schema to the data sources. Next, interleaved planning and execution with partial optimization are used to allow Tukwila to process the reformulated plan, quickly recovering if decisions were based on inaccurate estimates. The system provides integrated support for efficient processing of XML data, based on the x-scan operator. X-scan efficiently processes non-materialized XML data as it is being received by the data integration system; it matches regular path expression patterns from the query, returning results in pipelined fashion as the data streams across the network. XML provides a common encoding for data from many different sources; combined with standardization of schemas (DTDs) across certain domains, it greatly reduces the needs for wrappers and even query reformulation. The latest versions of Tukwila are built around an adaptive query processing architecture for XML, and can seamlessly combine XML and relational data into new XML content." [Full context]
[May 10, 2001] University of Bergen Hosts MLCD Project: Markup Language for Complex Documents. The Center for Humanities Information Technology at the University of Bergen has announced support for a two-year research project focused on markup for "complex" documents. The main goal of the MLCD Project (Markup Language for Complex Documents) is to "lay the theoretical foundation for a better system of representation for complex textual phenomena than can be found in today's SGML- and XML-based systems; the project will also lay a foundation for software development, with an eye to web-based delivery." Among the issues dealt with in MLCD: the well-attested phenomenon of "overlap" (non-hierarchical structures), handled by various methods in SGML and XML, e.g., 'store both structures, filter into SGML; use the SGML CONCUR Feature; use marked sections and entity declarations; use [TEI] milestones [= empty, asynchronous elements]; model as fragmentation; use stand-off markup'; etc. The MLCD project builds upon published research from C. M. Sperberg-McQueen and Claus Huitfeldt, especially "GODDAG, MECS, and TexMECS (an experimental markup meta-language for complex documents). MECS (Multi-Element Code System) "was developed by Claus Huitfeldt in connection with the work of the Wittgenstein Archive at the University of Bergen. MECS has many similarities to SGML-based systems, but distinguishes itself from them in that it has a simpler notation and a well-defined concept of well-formedness as a property separate from that validity. MECS thus anticipates many of the ways in which XML has modified the rules of SGML; in addition, MECS allows non-hierarchical structures in the form of overlapping elements. The MLCD project intends to define a system which combines the best of SGML/XML and MECS. A notation for such a system has already been designed, and a data structure has been sketched out. The project will work to complete the specification of the data structure and to develop some method of specifying document grammars." [Full context]
[May 08, 2001] DOMMITT Online Diff and Merge Utility for XML. Dommitt Inc. (Cupertino, CA) has announced an online utility for XML diff/merge and XML DTD generation. The tool allows a user to find changes in XML documents in three easy steps, aided by HTML forms: "upload the files, view the differences between them, and generate a DTD to validate the new XML file with changes." Supporting documentation at the website demonstrates the differences between the Dommitt online tool and related software tools in the market (e.g., IBM alphaWorks XML Diff and Merge utility, Sun's diffmk perl tool, and DeltaXML). DOMMITT produces an XML document annotated with edit operations (insert, delete and update operations). DOMMITT has its roots in research directed towards diffing snapshots of object databases. Such snapshots are inherently tree structured. The algorithms stemming from this research similar to the LCS algorithm used by the UNIX diff utility, but LCS does not comprehend tree structure. So variants of this approach were used to adapt the algorithm to this new domain. DOMMITT Inc. is committed to delivering high-performance and scalable solutions in the XML space. Making these tools easy to use is also a priority. DOMMITT is structured to allow peer-to-peer XML document comparisons. This essentially implies the computationally intensive diff operation is scaled across machines that are registered in the peer network." [Full context]
[May 08, 2001] IMS Educational Consortium Releases Content Packaging 1.1 Specification. IMS, "a global consortium of more than 300 educational institutions, commercial entities and government agencies" recently announced the publication of the IMS Content Packaging 1.1 Specification that forms part of the core IMS standard for exchanging e-learning content. "The IMS Content Packaging Specification provides the functionality to describe and package learning materials, such as an individual course or a collection of courses, into interoperable, distributable packages. Content Packaging addresses the description, structure, and location of online learning materials and the definition of some particular content types. The Content Packaging Specification is aimed primarily at content producers, learning management system vendors, computing platform vendors, and learning service providers. Learning materials described and packaged using the IMS Content Packaging XML format should be interoperable with any tool that supports the Specification. Content creators can develop and distribute material knowing that it can be delivered on any compliant system, thereby protecting their investment in rich content development. IMS uses XML as its current binding, and XML-Schema as its primary XML control document language. Some IMS bindings use parts of other IMS XML bindings; for example, the Content Packaging specification also uses the IMS Meta-Data." The Managed Learning System Research and Development Lab has announced support for IMS, along with other XML-based educational standards designed for interoperability. [Full context]
[May 05, 2001] Visio 2002 Incorporates XML Support with XML for Visio Format. Microsoft Corporation has released a new version of its Visio 2002 drawing and diagramming software to manufacturing companies with new XML capabilities and support for Component Object Model (COM) add-ins. "Based on Extensible Markup Language syntax, the XML for Visio format allows developers to create tools for searching and indexing, revision tracking, and version control. This new format gives Visio data synergy with new Web tools, better archival data format, and an open exchange of Visio data with other XML-enabled applications. XML for Visio is capable of describing Visio data with as much fidelity as VSD format, and is intended to provide open access to data in Visio and to enable more open exchange of Visio data with other applications. In addition, by using the 'Save as Web Page' feature, users can publish Visio drawings to the Web and at the same time generate a XML for Visio file that will permit round-tripping-re-opening the file in Visio without loss of data. The XML for Visio format requires considerable complexity; however, developers who have a knowledge of Visio (the Automation and ShapeSheet models in particular) will have no trouble understanding the format and, with a reasonable amount of effort, writing software that uses it. The XML for Visio schema is organized so that individual shapes and masters can be represented without requiring the complete document structure. In practice, this means that Visio can both emit individual objects as XML for Visio data and read in and merge such objects. XML for Vi


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