Cover Pages: SGML and XML News. October

[December 22, 2001] Multilingual Upper-Level Electronic Commerce Ontology (MULECO) Project. Members of the MULECO Project have published an initial draft description of the 'Multilingual Upper-Level Electronic Commerce Ontology', as organized under the CEN/ISSS Electronic Commerce Workshop. The MULECO project will "research the most efficient means of developing a multilingual upper-level ontology for describing and identifying the relationships between electronic commerce applications and the ontologies used to describe them. In particular it will investigate how information related to business processes can be integrated with existing techniques for classifying businesses, their products and services. The upper-level ontology will take as its start point existing standardized industry and process classification schemes, such as the International Standard for Industrial Classification (ISIC) used as the basis for the NACE classification of European business. The ontology representation language should be expressed in XML so that individual components of it can be referenced as component parts of either a Unique Resource Indicator (URI), XML Path definition or XML Query. The underlying structure of the XML should be based on the concepts described in the EAGLES framework, but with alternative forms of element names based on typical business renditions of technical terms." [Full context]
[December 22, 2001] EDGAR Online Launches XBRL Express Repository for Financial Statements Tagged in XBRL. EDGAR Online, Inc. has announced the launch of an 'XBRL Express' web site designed to serve as a public repository for company financial statements tagged in XBRL. The new web site will function "as a marketplace for companies and organizations wishing to display their XBRL statements and where XBRL developers can demonstrate their applications and tools. XBRL Express represents the first step towards a centralized XBRL repository for all public companies, and initially will provide access to tagged XBRL statements from 80 companies in 12 industries; the designers envision the XBRL Express Repository as a resource for analysts, investors, credit and lending institutions, news organizations and accountants for storing and referencing company financials prepared and published in XBRL format. XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) has been developed as a business-specific XML financial reporting language being advanced by the XBRL Organization, a global consortium of over 120 companies including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and other major financial services, technology, and public accounting organizations. The Bank of America recently announced that XBRL is being piloted to collect data from its customers that are required to provide financial statements on a regular basis for lending and credit analysis purposes. XBRL is expected to become the standard way in which U.S. public companies will prepare, report and disseminate their financial information." [Full context]
[December 21, 2001] W3C XML Query Working Group and XSL Working Group Release XPath 2.0 Working Draft. An initial working draft specification for the XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 has been prepared jointly by members of the W3C XML Query Working Group and W3C XSL Working Group. XPath 2.0 defines "a language for addressing parts of an XML document, and has been derived from both XPath 1.0 and XQuery. The XPath 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 Working Drafts are generated from a common source. These languages are closely related, sharing much of the same expression syntax and semantics, and much of the text found in the two Working Drafts is identical. The primary purpose of XPath is to address parts of an XML document. XPath uses a compact, non-XML syntax to facilitate use of XPath within URIs and XML attribute values. XPath operates on the abstract, logical structure of an XML document, rather than its surface syntax. This logical structure is known as the data model, and is described in the W3C XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model documents. XPath gets its name from its use of a path notation as in URLs for navigating through the hierarchical structure of an XML document." [Full context]
[December 21, 2001] Sun Microsystems Releases Java XML Pack. Sun Microsystems has announced the availability of a 'Java XML Pack' providing a "convenient all-in-one download of Java technologies for XML. Java XML Pack brings together several of the key industry standards for XML -- such as SAX, DOM, XSLT, SOAP, UDDI, ebXML, and WSDL -- into one convenient download, thereby giving developers the technologies needed to get started with web applications and services. Bundling the Java XML technologies together into a Java XML Pack ensures Java developers of a quick and easy development cycle for integration of XML functionality and standards support into their applications. Java XML Pack technology enables interoperability between applications, services, and trading partners through a vendor-neutral platform that allows for sharing of custom industry standard data formats. The XML Pack includes all current, publicly-available releases of Java APIs and Architectures for XML, both production and early access versions. The first release is the Java XML Pack Fall Developer Bundle, which includes the Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) and the Java API for XML Messaging (JAXM). The Java XML Pack will be refreshed quarterly so as to include all current publicly-available releases of Java APIs and standards for XML and Web services, including processing, messaging, data binding and remote procedure calls, as well as services for registration, description and discovery." Also available in the Winter 01 Bundle are JAXR and JAX-RPC; the JAXR RI 1.0 EA in this bundle provides access to UDDI V1.0 registries. [Full context]
[December 20, 2001] CIP4 Releases XML Schema and Software Development Kit for Job Definition Format (JDF). The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4) has announced the release of a draft XML Schema and a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Job Definition Format (JDF) and related Job Messaging Format (JMF). According to Jim Mekis, Vice President of the PrintTalk Consortium, the preparation of an XML Schema "represents a major milestone in the development of JDF as the open standard of interoperability in the printing industry; the XML Schema will allow developers to test the JDF they produce using standard XML tools. JDF is an open, extensible, XML-based format built upon the existing technologies of CIP3's Print Production Format (PPF) and Adobe's Portable Job Ticket Format (PJTF). JDF has the ability to unify the pre-press, press, and post-press aspects of any printing job. It provides the means to bridge the communication gap between production services and Management Information Systems (MIS). JDF is also able to carry out both of these functions no matter what system architecture is already in p lace, and no matter what tools are being used to complete the job. JDF works in tandem with a counterpart format known as the Job Messaging Format (JMF). Also available for download is the SDK, based on the Apache Xerces XML parser. It contains high level JDF and JMF manipulation classes as well as typesafe access to JDF attributes and elements. The initial implementation is designed to be platform independent. It is written in C++ in a Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 environment, and comes with HTML documentation and a host of sample applications, including a complete JDF and JMF validator." [Full context]
[December 20, 2001] Reuters' NewsML Toolkit Provides Enhanced Functionality and Conformance Testing. Postings from Irving Levine (Reuters) and David Megginson announce the final release of the open-source Java-based NewsML Toolkit version 1.1 and public availability of the software. This release reflects a second major phase of development adding functionality of the NewsML toolkit. "NewsML 1.0 is a news-industry packaging and metadata standard for exchanging multi-part news and information in multiple media. The NewsML Toolkit is a Java library for processing packages of news syndicated using the IPTC NewsML standard and for testing conformance. Developed by Dave Compton (Reuters Corporates/Media Group) and David Megginson, the NewsML toolkit is meant to be used both by subscribers of NewsML and by NewsML developers to simplify the processing of NewsML documents. The latest toolkit functionality allows the user to perform detailed searches of documents, using Java, in order to target specific content, without having to incur the overhead of directly examining every piece of data. In addition, the user can remove unwanted portions of a document and verify the resultant content is still valid, according to the NewsML standard." [Full context]
[December 20, 2001] Experimental SAXON XSLT Processor Version 7.0 Supports New XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Specifications. A posting from Michael Kay announces the release of an experimental implementation of the Saxon XSLT Processor supporting many of the new features in the new W3C XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 working drafts. The Saxon package is "a collection of tools for processing XML documents, including (a) an XSLT processor; (b) a Java library, which supports a similar processing model to XSL but allows full programming capability, which you need if you want to perform complex processing; (c) a slightly improved version of the Ælfred parser from Microstar. Saxon implements the XSLT 1.0 recommendation, including XPath 1.0, in its entirety; version 7.0 also implements many features defined in the XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 working drafts, in particular: (1) Support for multiple output files using xsl:result-document; (2) Full processing capability on temporary trees, previously known as result tree fragments; (3) Support for sequences of nodes and simple values; (4) Support for the new XPath expressions if, for, some and every; (5) Support for named collating sequences; (6) Many new functions and operators. The most notable omission in version 7.0 is support for XML Schema data typing: the data types currently supported are boolean, string, decimal, integer, float, and double." [Full context]
[December 20, 2001] New W3C Version 2.0 Working Draft for XSL Transformations (XSLT). W3C has published a first public working draft for XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0. The working draft constitutes a revised version of the XSLT 1.0 Recommendation published on 16-November-1999; it thus supersedes XSLT 1.1, which was never developed beyond the Working Draft stage. The version 2.0 XSLT specification "defines the syntax and semantics of XSLT, which is a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents. XSLT is designed for use as part of XSL, which is a stylesheet language for XML. In addition to XSLT, XSL includes an XML vocabulary for specifying formatting, as defined in XSL Formatting Objects. XSL Formatting Objects are frequently used as the output of an XSLT transformation. XSLT is also designed to be used independently of XSL Formatting Objects. It is often used to produce HTML and XHTML documents, as well as for transformation of application-specific message formats. XSLT 2.0 is designed to be used together with XPath 2.0, which has been developed by the W3C XSL Working Group in collaboration with the XML Query Working Group." The non-normative Appendix E supplies a 'DTD Fragment for XSLT Stylesheets'. [Full context]
[December 20, 2001] SMS Forum Publishes Version 1.0 of the XML-Based Short Message Application Protocol (SMAP). A communiqué from Kieran Dolan (Logica Mobile Networks; SMS Forum XML Working Group Chair) announces the release of a draft XML specification for SMS messages, together with an invitation for comments from application developers and protocol users. Supported by a number of operators and telecoms equipment manufacturers, the SFS Forum "is developing an XML specification for sending and receiving SMS ['Short Message Service'] messages. Version 1.0 of the Short Message Application Protocol is now available for public review, though the protocol is still under design and the draft released is by no means frozen. SMAP (Short Message Application Protocol) is an XML-based protocol designed to support SMS submission, delivery and administration. It provides equivalent functionality to a binary protocol such as SMPP V3.4 but using an XML schema as opposed to binary PDU format of SMPP. The protocol has been designed to meet market needs for XML-based applications, but is not intended to be a replacement for SMPP; instead the protocol is an XML alternative and may prove more applicable in certain circumstances. The specification is intended principally for designers and implementers of an SMAP v1.0 interface between a Short Message Gateway (SMG) or a Short Message Centre (SMSC) and an external Application." Formal definition of the protocol is provided in section 5, 'XML/SMPP Document Schema Specification'. [Full context]
[December 19, 2001] W3C Issues WebCGM 1.0 Second Release as a W3C Recommendation. As part of the W3C Graphics Activity, the World Wide Web Consortium has published WebCGM 1.0 Second Release. The specification has been issued in the form of a revised W3C Recommendation which brings WebCGM up to date with the first release errata. WebCGM is "an interoperable way to exchange dynamic Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) files over the Web. The WebCGM Profile adds hyperlinking to graphics-rich applications such as interactive electronic manuals for engineering and manufacturing. The WebCGM profile specifies additional constraints to improve interoperability, defines how hyperlinking works, and defines mechanisms for use in HTML. Based upon CGM, an ISO standard for vector graphics, the WebCGM profile was developed in collaboration with the CGM Open Consortium to satisfy the needs of specific markets in the aerospace, defense, automotive and electronics industries." A document prepared by Chris Lilly and Dieter Weidenbrück for XML Europe 2001 compares SVG and WebCGM, clarifying that SVG and WebCGM do not compete as graphics standards. Each is suitable for distinct purposes: SVG for high-quality, creative graphics, and WebCGM for technical graphics with a long life-cycle. [Full context]
[December 19, 2001] Komodo IDE from ActiveState Adds XSLT and PHP Editing/Debugging Under Linux and Windows. A communiqué from Lori Pike announces the availability of ActiveState's version 1.2 release of the Komodo IDE, which now has full XSLT editing and debugging on Linux and Windows. Komodo is "a cross-platform integrated development environment for open source technologies and XSLT programming. It is optimized for programming languages such as Perl, Python, and Tcl and now features cutting-edge XSLT and PHP editing and debugging capabilities. Support for consuming Web services has also been added. This release also offers significant performance improvements over previous versions. Komodo has all the features of a professional IDE, such as a language aware editor, graphical debugger, regular expression toolkit for Perl, and distributed development support. The intuitive environment is also ideal for occasional programmers, with syntax checking, AutoCompletion, and a powerful debugger to catch errors fast, as well as tutorials, templates, and online documentation." A non-commercial license is available for $29.50, and previous Komodo releases are available for free educational use. [Full context]
[December 18, 2001] IETF Internet Draft for SPKI-XML Certificate Structure. A posting from Xavier Orri (Octalis SA, Belgium) announces the submission of an informational Internet Draft document on "SPKI-XML Certificate Structure." The schema design takes an approach intentionally different than that of J. Paajarvi in "XML Encoding of SPKI Certificates" (March 2000). The authors' goal in the document "is to promote a discussion within the XML and SPKI community of the subject of XML encoding of SPKI certificates, to receive comments and feedback, and to further evolve it until there is something really solid and agreed upon. The draft document presents an schema in detail for SPKI, and discusses the transcoding from and to S-Expressions; it also addresses some open issues that need to be further discussed with the XML and SPKI community. A principal objective in specifying the XML Schema has been to follow as much as possible the syntax and semantics defined by SPKI; the main goal was not that of defining an XML Schema for certification, but rather defining an XML Schema for the XML encoding of SPKI certificates such that transcoding from and to S-expressions is simple, using standard tools whenever possible." A corresponding XML DTD is also provided in the submission. [Full context]
[December 17, 2001] OASIS Technical Committee to Standardize an XML Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF). A proposal has been submitted to OASIS for the creation of an XLIFF technical committee to "define a specification for an extensible localisation interchange format that will allow any software provider to produce a single interchange format that can be delivered to and understood by any localisation service provider. The format should be tool independent, standardised, and support the whole localisation process. It will comprehensively support common software data formats and be open enough to allow the development of tools compatible with an implementer's own proprietary data formats and company culture." The first phase of TC work will be based on work previously done by the Yahoo DataDefinition Group; this group has produced a white paper, a specification, and a DTD, which were made public through that group's site. The existing specification will be submitted for approval as the XLIFF 1.0 specification in the first meeting. The Technical Committee Proposal contains a statement of intellectual property rights and provisional list of deliverables. [Full context]
[December 13, 2001] W3C Issues First Public Working Draft for XML Version 1.1. The W3C XML Core Working Group has released an initial public working draft for XML 1.1, presented as a series of changes to the W3C Recommendation in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0, Second Edition. Some content in this XML 1.1 working draft was previously published in the document XML Blueberry Requirements, envisioned as a limited revision of XML 1.0 to address character set issues. The decision to create a distinct XML version 1.1 rather than a new collection of errata against XML 1.0 Second Edition is grounded in the fact that "the changes affect the definition of well-formed documents." Two principal motiviations are given for the new version of XML: (1) "the Unicode Standard 2.0 on which XML 1.0 relies for character specifications has [evolved]; new characters not present in Unicode 2.0 may be used in XML 1.0 character data, but they are not allowed in XML names such as element type names, attribute names, enumerated attribute values, processing instruction targets, and so on. In addition, some characters that should have been permitted in XML names were not, due to oversights and inconsistencies in Unicode 2.0. (2) XML 1.0 discriminates against the conventions used on IBM and IBM-compatible mainframes; XML 1.0 documents generated on mainframes must either violate the local line-end conventions, or employ otherwise unnecessary translation phases before parsing and after generation." [Full context]
[December 13, 2001] ISO Publishes Initial Draft Portions of the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 has published an overview document for the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) and has appointed editors for three of the seven major parts which will make up the new International Standard. The Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL) is to be "a multipart International Standard defining a modular set of specifications for describing the document structures, data types, and data relationships in structured information resources. Two kinds of integrated specifications are included: (1) specifications for describing aspects of validity of a document, and (2) rules for combining and packaging a collection of processes applicable to the task of validating a document. This integration makes DSDL applicable to both business and publishing applications of structured information resources. This applicability reflects the expansion of Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications beyond the publishing environment in which XML and its foundation (Standard Generalized Markup Language, SGML) were first developed." The seven primary parts of the standard are: Part 1 - Framework; Part 2 - Grammar-oriented schema languages; Part 3 - Primitive data type semantics; Part 4 - Path-based integrity constraints; Part 5 - Object-oriented schema languages; Part 6 - Information item manipulation; Part 7 - Namespace-aware processing with DTD syntax. [Full context]
[December 12, 2001] OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee Releases Approved Version 2.0 RIM/RS Specifications. Approved Version 2.0 TC specifications for the OASIS ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) and Registry Services Specification (RS) have been published by the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee, together with XML Schemas and UML model diagrams. Implementations of the ebXML Registry's RIM and RS specifications have been reported by several companies. The Registry Information Model document "provides a blueprint or high-level schema for the ebXML Registry. The Registry itself provides a stable store where information submitted by a Submitting Organization is made persistent. Such information is used to facilitate ebXML-based Business to Business (B2B) partnerships and transactions. Submitted content may be XML schema and documents, process descriptions, ebXML Core Components, context descriptions, UML models, information about parties and even software components. The Registry Services Specification defines the interface to the ebXML Registry Services as well as interaction protocols, message definitions and XML schema." [Full context]
[December 12, 2001] James Clark First Recipient of the IDEAlliance XML Cup Award. In the opening plenary session of the XML Conference and Exposition 2001, IDEAlliance honored James Clark as the first recipient of the IDEAlliance XML Cup Award. The award was to be given to "an individual who has been active in the development of XML, its related standards, and tools that support the standards; the award represents meritorious achievement for years of service and dedication to the industry." James Clark also delivered the XML Conference 2001 opening keynote address on the topic "Five Challenges Facing the XML Community." An internationally renowned developer and pioneer in the evolution of XML standards and open-source software, Clark examined the short-term benefits of recent advances in XML, and the foremost challenges facing end-users today. Founder of Thai Open Source Software Center, Clark has been involved with XML and SGML for more than 10 years. He was technical lead of the XML Working Group during the creation of the XML 1.0 Recommendation, and editor of the XPath and XSLT Recommendations. Currently, he is chair of the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee and editor of the RELAX NG specification." Clark is pictured on the IDEAlliance web site receiving the XML Cup Award from Lauren Wood. [Full context]
[December 12, 2001] Altova Releases XML Spy 4.2 Suite with XML Editing Support. A company announcement from Altova, Inc. describes the recent release of the XML Spy 4.2 Suite, "a comprehensive product-line of easy-to-use software tools, facilitating all aspects of advanced XML application development. The XML Spy 4.2 Suite consists of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), the XSLT Designer, and the Document Editor, a comprehensive tool-set for all XML application development. XML Spy 4.2 Suite adds support for all of the newest XML Technologies, including Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) -- the foundation of all next-generation web-services applications. XML Spy 4.2 Suite also adds support for advanced Microsoft XML parser technologies (MSXML4). XML Spy 4.2 Suite is designed to maximize the productivity of today's software professionals by supporting all of the newest XML standards and technology platforms. XML Spy 4.2 Suite was pre-viewed last week at a keynote speech at the Oracle Open World Conference in San Francisco, highlighting XML Spy 4.2 Suite's authoring support for Oracle XML Schema Extensions." [Full context]
[December 12, 2001] W3C Addresses Component Extension ('Plug-in') API for Processing of Compound Documents. The W3C HyperText Coordination Group has published an initial Component Extension (CX) API Requirements specification to address the processing of compound documents. This W3C Note "describes requirements for browser plug-ins and an active component architecture for the Web for server and client software. The term 'Component Extension' in this context (also well-known as plug-ins in Web browsers) refers to any software in charge of providing the client-side part of the Component Extension API; it is a program that runs as part of the Host implementation and that is not part of content." The API requirements specification is motivated by the need to support additional content types in compound documents: now that "we have several XML languages used to represent different parts of Web pages (e.g., XHTML, SVG, MathML, XForms, etc.), we need a well defined mechanism that allow different specialized tools to work together and handled these compound documents." Server-client coordination must address the mixing of multiple XML Namespaces and default/fallback client behaviors in cases where component extensions are unavailable. [Full context]
[December 11, 2001] IBM alphaWorks Releases ToXgene Tool for Complex Template-Based XML Content Generation. Members of IBM alphaWorks and the ToX Project ('Toronto XML Engine', under development at the Database Group, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto) have released a public version of ToXgene. ToXgene is a template-based XML content generator for complex, semantically-correlated collections of XML documents. "The data generation process in ToXgene is based on a conceptual description of the data to be generated, i.e., the templates. The tool is intended for cases in which the structure of the data to be generated is known, the data is required to conform to that structure, and multiple collections of documents, with varying structures, sizes and complexities, can easily be generated. ToXgene has four main features: (1) it generates complex XML content, including elements with mixed content, attributes, non-gibberish text, and different numerical and date values; (2) it supports random number generators using different probability distributions; (3) it allows element sharing among different XML documents; (4) it supports the specification of integrity constraints over the data it produces, thus allowing the generation of consistent ID, IDREF, and IDREFS attributes." [Full context]
[December 11, 2001] SoftQuad's Enhanced XMetaL 3 Supports W3C XML Schema and Collaborative Authoring. An announcement from SoftQuad Software describes the January 2002 release of XMetaL 3, Softquad's flagship XML content creation software. The new version of XMetaL "features innovative ease-of-use and collaboration capabilities for content authors and provides developers with a rich XML development environment. XMetaL 3 is the first customizable XML editor with a rich development environment to support XML Schema, an essential standard developed by the W3C to define common languages for specific business applications. XML Schema enables companies to exchange information seamlessly with partners, customers, and suppliers. XMetaL 3 is a validating XML editor within an open and scriptable development environment that allows developers to use common Web development and programming skills to create integrated XML content applications. With an extensive COM and JAVA API comprising over 300 interfaces, support for DOM, CSS, XSL and standard scripting languages, XMetaL gives developers the power to control exactly how XML is displayed and entered by end users. New XMetaL features for end users include support for revision marking, preview in HTML and PDF, enhanced integration with Microsoft Office, workgroup document sharing, and enterprise document sharing." [Full context]
[December 11, 2001] GooseWorks.org Announces Open-Source Toolkit for Topic Map Information Processing (GWTK). A communiqué from Jan Algermissen and Sam Hunting announces the public alpha release of an open-source toolkit which implements the Topic Maps Processing Model. The GooseWorks.org Toolkit for Topic Map Information Processing (GWTK) was announced at the XML 2001 Conference in Orlando, Florida. GWTK is a "free, open-source implementation of the Topic Maps Processing Model 1.0.2 (TMPM4), which will inform the topic maps Reference Model under development at ISO SC34. Written in C by Jan Algermissen, the GWTK toolkit takes XML topic maps (and HTML plus Dublin Core documents) and represents them as a TMPM4 graph that can be queried with the sTMQL module, viz., subject-based Topic Map Query Language. GWTK complies with the rules for topic map integrity laid down in TMPM4, including the Subject-based Merging rule, the Name-based Merging rule, the 'Node Demander is a Subject Indicator' rule, and three of the four 'No Redundancies' rules. GWTK has a flexible storage strategy adopted at graph creation. The graph can be stored in-memory, or (in future releases) with the Postgres, MySQL, ODBC, or sdbm databases. The toolkit also permits association template validation." [Full context]
[December 10, 2001] W3C Announces Official XML Key Management Activity. The World Wide Web Consortium has announced the launch of its XML Key Management Activity, tasked with the development of "an XML application/protocol that allows a simple client to obtain key information (values, certificates, management or trust data) from a web service. Based upon the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS), the Activity is chartered to produce a companion Recommendation for the IETF/W3C XML Encryption and XML Digital Signature Activities. An initial working draft XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) defines "protocols for distributing and registering public keys, suitable for use in conjunction with the proposed standard for XML Signature (XML-SIG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an anticipated companion standard for XML encryption. The XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) comprises two parts: (1) the XML Key Information Service Specification (X-KISS) and (2) the XML Key Registration Service Specification (X-KRSS)." A recently-updated XML Key Management Requirements document presents "the design principles, scope and requirements for the XML Key Management specifications; it includes requirements as they relate to the key management syntax, processing, security and external requirements and coordination." [Full context]
[December 10, 2001] W3C Publishes Updated XForms 1.0 Working Draft Specification. The W3C XForms Working Group has issued a new version of the XForms 1.0 working draft specification, incorporating "new material agreed upon at the Mountain View face-to-face meeting and ongoing feedback from the general public." The working group plans to publish a 'last call' working draft after evaluation of review comments on the current draft. 'XForms' is W3C's name for "a specification of Web forms that can be used with a wide variety of platforms including desktop computers, hand helds, information appliances, and even paper. The current design of Web forms doesn't separate the purpose from the presentation of a form. XForms, in contrast, are comprised of separate sections that describe what the form does, and how the form looks. This allows for flexible presentation options, including classic XHTML forms, to be attached to an XML form definition. The XForms User Interface provides a standard set of visual controls that are targeted toward replacing today's XHTML form controls. These form controls are directly usable inside XHTML and other XML documents, like SVG. An important concept in XForms is that forms collect data, which is expressed as XML instance data; workflow, auto-fill, and pre-fill form applications are supported through the use of collected instance data." [Full context]
[December 10, 2001] XML Europe 2002 Conference Call for Participation. A posting from Marion L. Elledge (Executive Vice President, IDEAlliance) announces a call for paper submissions in connection with the XML Europe Conference 2002. XML Europe 2002 will be held May 19-24, 2002 at the Princesa Sofia Inter-Continental Hotel, Barcelona, Spain. The deadline for paper submissions is Friday, December 14, 2001. Proposals for papers and tutorials may be submitted online via the forms interface; submission guidelines are posted on the conference web site. The XML Europe 2002 Conference will be chaired by Edd Dumbill (Managing Editor, XML.com). Organized by IDEAlliance [previously under the name 'Graphic Communications Association], this European Markup Technologies Conference and Exposition is now in its 19th year. [Full context]
[December 08, 2001] Intel Corporation Submits Tentative Hold Protocol to W3C. The W3C has acknowledged receipt of a 'Tentative Hold Protocol' submission from Intel Corporation, originally presented on July 23, 2001. The submission is published as a W3C Note in two parts: Tentative Hold Protocol White Paper and Tentative Hold Protocol Technical Specification. Part 2 includes the Tentative Hold XML Schema. The objective of Tentative Hold Protocol "is to facilitate automated coordination of multi-business transactions. Tentative Hold Protocol is an open, loosely coupled messaging-based protocol for the exchange of information across businesses prior to an actual transaction, recognizing the extremely dynamic nature of business conditions. This framework includes a standard way for businesses to exchange tentative commitments to the terms of an interaction (e.g., price, quantity, lead time, and so on) and update each other when the situation changes. These exchanges increase the chances of successful completion of the interaction regardless of whether the interaction is coordinated using custom applications or standard middleware services such as compensating transactions. Tentative Hold Protocol defines an architecture that allows tentative, non-blocking holds or reservations to be requested for a business resource (e.g., the items for sale from an online retailer)." [Full context]
[December 07, 2001] Xerces-C++ XML Parser Version 1.6.0 Provides Full Support for W3C XML Schema Recommendation. A communiqué from Tinny Ng (XML Parsers Development, IBM Toronto Laboratory) announces the release of the Apache Xerces-C++ XML parser version 1.6.0, including full support for the W3C XML Schema Recommendation. 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. The parser features: (1) Conformance to the XML Specification 1.0; (2) Tracking of latest DOM [Level 1.0], DOM [Level 2.0], SAX/SAX2, Namespace, and XML Schema specifications; (3) Source code, samples, and documentation; (4) Programmatic generation and validation of XML; (5) Pluggable catalogs, validators and encodings; (6) High performance; (7) Customizable error handling." The latest version of Xerces-C++ includes a port to FreeBSD and support for specifying a schema location through a method call. Source code and binaries are available for several platforms. [Full context]
[December 05, 2001] W3C Publishes Updated Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide. A new release of the W3C's Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide is designed to help web site operators "deploy the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) on their sites, and provides information on the tasks required." The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) defines a way for Web sites to publish their privacy policies in a machine-readable syntax. Relevant XML Schemas and XML DTDs are presented in the appendices of the P3P 1.0 working draft specification, published September 28, 2001. A Web site will deploy P3P in order to make its privacy practices more transparent to the site's visitors. A visitor's Web browser can download the machine-readable privacy statements, and compare the contents of those statements to the user4s preferences. This way, the user4s browser can automatically notify the user when they visit a site whose practices match the user4s preferences. or warn the user if the practices and preferences don't match... A P3P policy file contains a description of data collection, use, and sharing practices; it does not, however, declare what that policy applices to. P3P uses a separate file, called a policy reference file, to list the P3P policies in use at a site (or portion of a site), and what portions of the site and what cookies are covered by each policy." [Full context]
[December 04, 2001] IDEAlliance Working Group Begins Development of Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Version 2.0. IDEAlliance has issued a public invitation for participation in the development of 'ICE2' as an open source standard for digital asset exchange. Building upon ICE version 1.1 of August 1999, ICE2 is being designed as an enhanced "layered protocol for establishing and managing controlled data exchange between business partners. ICE 1.1 provided key functions such as: standardizing the management of subscriptions; automation of content delivery; communication of metadata relevant to syndication, such as usage constraints, IP status, reuse, business terms, ownership and release/expiration dates; automation of operational issues, including error messaging, logging, delivery and notification. Tasks identified for work in the development of ICE2 include: (1) Integration of the latest standards such as XML Schemas and Namespaces; (2) Expression of ICE as a Web Service [UDDI, SOAP, WSDL]; (3) Enhanced implementation of metadata tags [PRISM and RDF]; (4) Design of a well-defined protocol extension mechanism; (5) Support for negotiation of non-ice delivery, such as FTP and simple 'GET' mechanism; (6) Support for the concurrent syndicator/subscriber; (7) Multi-level distribution; (8) Development of a framework for a public catalog." [Full context]
[December 04, 2001] IBM's Business Explorer for Web Services Supports UDDI Search Markup Language (USML). IBM alphaWorks has released a new XML-based UDDI exploring engine that "provides developers with standard interfaces for efficiently searching business and service information in single or multiple UDDI registries. Business Explorer for Web Services (BE4WS) is based on a proposed UDDI Search Markup Language (USML) for carrying a search request including multiple queries, key words, UDDI sources, and aggregation operators. The Advanced UDDI Search Engine (AUSE) ia a core component of BE4WS which processes the USML request and performs advanced exploring. The AUSE engine aggregates search results from different UDDI registries based on the USML request and its supporting intelligent search facilities. Examples of these facilities are Instant Notification Broker, UDDI Source Dispatching Broker, and Information Aggregation Broker, all of which have both prior knowledge of the meanings of specific categories and the ability to cross-reference across multiple categories. The XML-based USML response that may include business entities, services, service types (t-Models) from UDDI registries, and other extra information (such as relationships among services) from non-UDDI sources or Enhanced UDDI sources. The response provides additional aggregation and selection functions on top of what UDDI provides. The architecture of BE4WS is extensible, so it will be easy to include queries to future enhancements of UDDI registries." [Full context]
[December 04, 2001] W3C Announces Internationalization Workshop. The World Wide Web Consortium has issued a Call for Participation in a W3C Internationalization Workshop, to be held February 1, 2002 in Washington DC in conjunction with the 20th International Unicode Conference. W3C has decided to strengthen its internationalization work, and will prepare relevant I18N guidelines for XML formats, document creators, webmasters, tools developers, etc. The goal of this workshop is to reevaluate the I18N Activity and to prepare the rechartering of the I18N Activity and Working Groups/Interest Groups by surveying the problems and showcasing existing solutions, raising awareness of the issues, and providing a forum for discussion. The workshop is an open event, but space limitations dictate a limit of forty-five (45) participants; position papers should be submitted for review by January 10, 2002. This open-event workshop is part of the W3C's Internationalization Activity, and supports W3C's commitment "to make the Web accessible to people around the world by promoting technologies that take into account the vast differences of language, script, and culture of users on all continents." [Full context]
[December 03, 2001] Apache Cocoon XML Publishing Framework 2.0 Issued as a Stable Release. A posting from Carsten Ziegeler announces Apache Cocoon version 2.0 as the "first stable release of the 'next generation' of Apache Cocoon. This 2.0 release of the Cocoon XML publishing framework represents a complete rewrite of the first generation, removing all of the design constraints that emerged during almost three years of worldwide use. This new release is considered stable in both implementation and on the API it provides." Cocoon is an XML publishing framework that "allows you to define XML documents and transformations to be applied on them, and to eventually generate a presentation format of your choice in HTML, PDF, SVG, etc. Cocoon relies on a pipeline model: an XML document is pushed through a pipeline that exists in several transformation steps of your document. Every pipeline begins with a generator, continues with zero or more transformers, and ends with a serializer. This can be compared to the 'servlet-chaining' concept of a servlet engine." [Full context]
[December 03, 2001] SGML/XML Tools for Mac OS. A communiqué from Kisi Kazutaka announces the new release of SGML/XML software tools that run under Mac OS. Three of the tools are invoked by a call-process of GNU Emacs 20.6, ported to Macintosh by Andrew Choi: NSGMLS 1.3.3b3, TransforMiix 1.0a, and ETAGS 19a. Also ported for use under Mac OS are SX 1.3.3b3 and JADE 1.2.1b2. These resources are available for download from a dedicated web site 'SGML/XML Tools for Macintosh', together with various conversion utilities for encodings. Kisi Kazutaka is a fellow in Japan Association of Graphic Arts Technology and editor of the Janapese 'The SGML/XML Page' web site. [Full context]
[December 03, 2001] OASIS Releases RELAX NG Version 1.0 XML Language Validation Specification. The OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee has produced a version 1.0 Committee Specification for RELAX NG, a simple schema language for XML. The three principal work products completed in the version 1.0 release include: (1) the RELAX NG Specification itself, which supplies the definitive specification of RELAX NG, a simple schema language for XML based on RELAX and TREX; (2) a RELAX NG Tutorial; (3) a RELAX NG DTD Compatibility document, which defines datatypes and annotations for use in RELAX NG schemas; the purpose of these datatypes and annotations is to support some of the features of XML 1.0 DTDs that are not supported directly by RELAX NG. RELAX NG "offers a complementary alternative to the W3C XML Schema Recommendation, providing an option for developers who value ease-of-use and a middle ground for those adopting multiple schema languages." According to James Clark, 'The key to RELAX NG's simplicity lies in the fact that it does not have any mechanisms specific to particular XML applications. Instead, RELAX NG concentrates on the syntax of XML documents. This opens RELAX NG to as wide a variety of applications as XML itself.' "Publication of RELAX NG and XML 1.0 as JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) is under consideration, and INSTAC (Japanese Information Technology Research and Standardization Centre) plans to prepare the draft." James Clark has updated several software tools and resources to support XML processing under the RELAX NG 1.0 specification. [Full context]
[November 30, 2001] SyncML Initiative Launches a SyncML Universal Device Management Project. The SyncML Initiative recently announced a new device management technology track focused upon a universal protocol for remote management of mobile devices. Wireless device management technologies "allow third parties to carry out the difficult procedures of configuring mobile devices on behalf of the end user." The development effort will address the three aspects of device management: (1) Protocol and mechanism: the protocol used between a management server and a mobile device (2) Data model: the data made available for remote manipulation, for example browser and mail settings (3) Policy: the policy that decides who can manipulate a particular parameter, or update a particular object in the device. In a wireless environment, the crucial element for device management protocol is the need to efficiently and effectively address the characteristics of mobile devices including low bandwidth and high latency. The SyncML device management protocol will be an open, universal industry standard for remote device management of networked devices. The Device Management Protocol to be developed by the SyncML Initiative will leverage existing and approved SyncML technology, including planned re-use of core XML DTD, a management protocol similar to the one-way server-alerted sync, and the exploitation and extension of transport and protocol layer security features in SyncML." A white paper describing the new development track is available via the SyncML web site. [Full context]
[November 30, 2001] OASIS DSML TC Recommends Directory Services Markup Language Version 2 as OASIS Standard. A communiqué from Winston Bumpus (Co-Chair, OASIS Directory Sevices Technical Committee) contains the recommendation of the technical committee to OASIS in support of adopting the DSML Version 2 specification as an OASIS Standard. The goal of the DSML TC is to create an XML specification for marking up directory services information. The Directory Services Markup Language version 2.0 (DSMLv2) is "an XML application that provides a method for expressing directory queries, updates, and the results of these operations. Whereas DSML version 1 provides a means for representing directory contents XML documents, DSML version 2 with bindings such as the SOAP Request/Response Binding, allows for directories to be manipulated via XML. DSMLv2 focuses on extending the reach of LDAP directories. Therefore, as in DSMLv1, the design approach is not to abstract the capabilities of LDAP directories as they exist today, but instead to faithfully represent LDAP directories in XML. The difference is that DSMLv1 represented the state of a directory while DSMLv2 represents the operations that an LDAP directory can perform and the results of such operations. Therefore the design approach for DSMLv2 is to express LDAP requests and responses as XML document fragments." [Full context]
[November 29, 2001] US Office of Justice Programs Coordinates the Creation of XML-based Integrated Justice Data Exchange Standards. Through its Justice Integration Information Technology Initiative, the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs has established an XML Technology Working Group to coordinate the efforts of federal and state agencies in the design of interoperable standards for criminal history and public safety records. As of Fall 2001, the working group has successfully completed a project merging/aligning data elements used in three key specifications: (1) the 'Interstate Criminal History Transmission Specification' developed by the Joint Task Force on Rap Sheet Standardization, (2) the Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) XML Specification developed by the RISS, and (3) the 'Electronic Court Filing Proposed Standard' developed by LegalXML. The working group has published a document on the Principles of XML Development for Justice and Public Safety as well as a data dictionary with some 128 XML Schemas. The goals of the Justice XML Standards Initiative are "to facilitate sharing of justice information and integration of justice information systems among various federal, state, and regional jurisdictions; to Establish 'ground floor' information standards; to guide and assist justice and public safety information systems developers; and to further other efforts to share justice information." [Full context]
[November 28, 2001] OASIS Technical Committee Proposed for TransQuery. A proposal for the creation of a 'TransQuery' OASIS Technical Committee has been made by Evan Lenz, Eric van der Vlist, Francis Norton, and Leigh Dodds. A SourceForge TransQuery project currently hosts a sample implementation of the TransQuery processing model. An OASIS mailing list has been formed for the discussion of TransQuery, which is "a small, flexible set of XSLT conventions and processing model constraints that enable the use of XSLT as a query language over multiple XML documents. TransQuery addresses interoperability between XML databases and document management systems that use XSLT as their primary data access language." [Full context]
[November 28, 2001] New Release of Open Source NewsML Toolkit. A posting from David Megginson announces the release of a NewsML Toolkit version 1.1 beta. The new version constitutes "an extensive rewrite of the version 1.0 NewsML Toolkit released in May 2001. NewsML is a news industry standard for packaging and metadata of news objects in multiple media. The NewsML Toolkit is an open-source Java library for reading and processing NewsML documents. The version 1.1 beta includes: (1) full XPath support, (2) high-level support for formal names and basis-for-choice selection, and (3) an extensible conformance test library. Over 300 unit tests are now included. The NewsML Toolkit is Open Source (LGPL), and may be used in free or commercial software products, following the provisions of the license. Work on version 1.1 of the NewsML Toolkit has been sponsored by Reuters PLC." [Full context]
[November 27, 2001] ContentGuard Releases XrML Version 2.0 and Submits Specification to Standards Bodies. ContentGuard, Inc. recently announced the release of XrML (Extensible Rights Markup Language) version 2.0, confirming also that XrML has been submitted to MPEG. XrML is a "general-purpose, XML-based specification grammar for expressing rights and conditions associated with digital content, resources, and services; it is based on years of research at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), which invented the rights expression language concept. XrML 2.0 expands the capabilities of a Digital Rights Language -- usually thought of in connection with authorized use of protected digital content -- to now also allow developers to establish the rights and conditions needed to access various Web Services. As part of a trusted environment, XrML can be used to apply rights to a wide variety of content and services to enable custom tailoring of digital offerings. For example, a Financial Services company can expand its online products from simple password access to customized and personalized offerings that combine services and content such as portfolio analysis, real time video, on-line consulting, or research reports. Each offering can use different rights (e.g., view, save, forward), conditions (e.g., free, fee based, limited time) and delivery methods (e.g., downloaded, streamed, ASP). New services with specific rights can be added to individuals or user groups through use of XrML. ContentGuard is owned by Xerox Corporation, with Microsoft Corporation holding a minority position." ContentGuard is licensing its patents (which enable developers to deploy applications based on XrML) "throughout the world on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms and conditions" [RAND]. [Full context]
[November 21, 2001] ODRL Version 1.0 Submitted to ISO/IEC MPEG for Rights Data Dictionary and Rights Expression Language (RDD-REL). A communiqué from Renato Iannella (IPR Systems Pty Ltd) reports on the release of the Open Digital Rights Language Version 1.0 and the submission of this XML-based DRM specification to MPEG in response to its Call for Proposals for a Rights Data Dictionary and Rights Expression Language for the MPEG-21 Multimedia Framework. ODRL Version 1.0 has been co-submitted to MPEG as a candidate technology by IPR Systems, Nokia, and Real Networks; the ODRL MPEG submission is also supported by IBM, Adobe, Panasonic, MarkAny, Simpsons Solicitors, OzAuthors, Pipers, ARPA, Vienna University, and Information Management Australia. In ODRL 1.0, Nokia's Mobile Rights Voucher (MRV) and Real Networks' Extensible Media Commerce Language (XMCL) have been merged into the Open Digital Rights Language. The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group of ISO/IEC (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11), charged with the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. The Open Digital Rights Language provides the semantics for DRM expressions in open and trusted environments whilst being agnostic to mechanisms to achieve the secure architectures. Section 4 of the ODRL specification presents the XML syntax, illustrated through a series of scenarios covering different content sectors (ebooks, video, education). The formal notation is provided in normative appendices: Appendix A supplies the XML schema for the ODRL Expression Language elements and markup constructs; Appendix B supplies the XML Schema for the Data Dictionary elements. [Full context]
[November 21, 2001] Auto-ID Center Uses Physical Markup Language in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag Technology. The Auto-ID Center has begun field testing of its Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system which supports automated supply chain transactions. One system component is the Physical Markup Language (PML), "an XML-based language for databasing information about physical objects. PML is designed to standardize descriptions of physical objects for use by both humans and machines; the primary objective of PML is to serve as a common base for the software applications, data storage and analytic tools for industry and commerce. The Auto-ID Center's vision is to revolutionize the way we make, buy, and sell products by merging bits (computers) and atoms (humans) together for optimal mutual communication. The system also uses the Electronic Product Code (EPC), a unique numbering scheme for every object in the world and an Object Name Service (ONS). RFID tags are built into objects like food, clothes, drugs or auto-parts, and read' by devices in the environment, e.g., in shelves, floors, doors." [Full context]
[November 21, 2001] University of Chicago Oriental Institute Announces XML System for Textual and Archaeological Research (XSTAR). A communiqué from David Schloen (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) announces a new web site dedicated to the XSTAR Project (XML System for Textual and Archaeological Research). XSTAR includes a database model, a corresponding XML markup language, and software. The goal of the XSTAR project "is to create a sophisticated Internet-based research environment for specialists in textual and archaeological studies. In particular, XSTAR is intended for archaeologists, philologists, historians, and historical geographers who work with ancient artifacts, documents, and geographical or environmental data. It will not only provide access to detailed, searchable data in each of these areas individually, but will also integrate these diverse lines of evidence as an aid to interdisciplinary research. XSTAR consists of both a database structure and related interface software that will make it possible to view and query archaeological, textual, and linguistic information in an integrated fashion via the Internet. The XSTAR database structure is expressed in terms of hierarchies of interlinked data elements using the Extensible Markup Language (XML); XSTAR's XML data format is based on and incorporates ArchaeoML (Archaeological Markup Language), an XML tagging scheme previously developed at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute." [Full context]
[November 21, 2001] UDDI Version 2 Technical Specification Now Supported by Four Public Implementations. Hewlett Packard Company, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP have now deployed public version 2 beta implementations of the UDDI Business Registry conforming to the latest UDDI technical specification. The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Version 2 specification "expands UDDI functionality to enhance support for deploying public and private Web service registries. In addition to taking advantage of the public UDDI Business Registry sites, enterprises can also deploy private registries to manage internal Web services using the UDDI specification. Access to internal Web service information may also be extended to a private network of business partners. Improvements to the UDDI programmer interfaces enable developers to use complex queries in accessing data in UDDI registries; new query options include wildcard support and enhanced search across multiple categories. Version 2 supports business relationship modeling, e.g., modeling of large businesses, organizational structure, or various business units and services within UDDI. With the addition of HP and SAP as hosts of the UDDI Business Registry, there are now four browser-accessible points to find and manage UDDI information. First released in June 2001, the UDDI version 2 technical specification is based upon input from many of the 300+ companies now participating in the project." [Full context]
[November 15, 2001] TIGERS Work Group Releases Draft XML Schemas for Electronic Income Tax Submission. Several working committees in the TIGERS XML Work Group have developed draft XML schemas relating to "an XML-based tax data submission process for use by all state and federal tax authorities." The US Tax Information Group for ECommerce Requirements Standardization (TIGERS) work group has been chartered "to discuss matters relating to business standards and practices surrounding national tax data formatting and transfer; it develops and maintains tax electronic technical format standards for a variety of tax filing and other related government electronic reporting or data exchange applications." The TIGERS project web site provides public access to draft schemas for IRS Form 1120 (140 XML schema files) and for Form 1120S (Subchapter S Corporation). IRS Form 1120 for US Corporate Income Tax Return was initially selected for the pilot because it represents approximately 85% of the data elements for IRS filings, and has significant overlap with the Individual Income Tax Form (1040). The IRS 1120, 1120S, and 941 schemas are now being reviewed, supported by a listserver; ongoing work includes the development of IRS Form 1041, 1065, and 990 XML schemas. Working committees have also prepared a draft 'eFile Transport and Packaging Proposal' which "outlines a method for enveloping XML data designed to provide utility in securing, receiving, routing, and processing files; the intent of the exercise is to determine how best to package for transmission and subsequent processing XML-format 941s, 1120s, and other transactions." [Full context]
[November 13, 2001] NISO Ballots the Digital Talking Book Standard. A communiqué from Lloyd G. Rasmussen (US Library of Congress) reports on the Digital Talking Book Standard being balloted by the members of NISO (US National Information Standards Organization) until December 17, 2001. The draft standard "defines the format and content of the electronic file set that comprises a digital talking book (DTB). It uses established and new specifications to delineate the structure of DTBs whose content can range from XML text only, to text with corresponding spoken audio, to audio with little or no text. DTBs are designed to make print material accessible and navigable for blind or otherwise print-disabled persons. The standard provides specifications applicable to all aspects of digital talking book production and rendering, including authoring tools for DTBs, hardware- or software-based playback devices, and compliance-testing software. Its purpose is to ensure interoperability across service organizations and vendors providing content and playback systems to the target population." XML DTDs are presented in Appendices 1-6 of the specification; in addition to the main DTB DTD, the specification provides a DTB-Specific SMIL DTD, an NCX DTD for Navigation Control, a DTD for Portable Bookmarks/Highlights, a DTD for Resource File, and a Distribution Information DTD. [Full context]
[November 13, 2001] NEMI, IPC, and RosettaNet Publish Three Key Product Data Exchange (PDX) Standards. An announcement from the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), IPC (Association Connecting Electronics Industries), and RosettaNet describes the release of three key product data exchange standards for the computer electronics industry. The three XML-based standards [IPC-2571, IPC-2576 and IPC-2578] describe how PDX will work with other related standards and formats; they facilitate quote, manufacture, configure, test and kit interactions among supply chain partners; and they define how the build history of boards and final assembly are exchanged. These specifications will, for example, enable trading partners to automatically load bill of materials (BOM) information, update and track approvals of engineering change orders (ECOs) and encode approved vendors lists (AVLs) and approved manufacturers lists (AMLs). A fourth PDX standard currently in the IPC review process [IPC-2577] defines an XML encoding scheme that captures the setting and updating of quality goals, communicating and responding to quality excursions and reporting actual data from manufacturing and repair operations. Information represented in this standard includes such things as manufacturing site, manufacturing date, part number, serial number, manufacturing quality results and failure tracking data." [Full context]
[November 09, 2001] Draft XML DTDs for Sports Markup Language (SportsML). A communiqué from Alan Karben (Chairman, IPTC SportsML Effort) reports on the release of version 0.5 draft DTDs for the IPTC's Sports Markup Language (SportsML). The IPTC's design goal is to create a "cross-sport, cross-language XML standard for the interchange of sports data and statistics. SportsML supports the identification and description of several sports characteristics, including: (1) Scores: Who's winning, and how did the score change? (2) Schedules: Who's playing who, when, and where? (3) Standings: Who's in first place? Who's closest to qualifying for the championship? (4) Statistics: How do the players and/or teams measure up against one another in various categories? (5) News: How do we combine editorial coverage of sports with all these data feeds,and package metadata- and multimedia-filled articles together with sports data?" In addition to the 'sportsml-core.dtd', files containing the XML DTDs have names like 'specific-american-football.dtd', 'specific-baseball.dtd', 'specific-basketball.dtd', 'specific-golf.dtd', 'specific-ice-hockey.dtd', 'specific-soccer.dtd', and 'specific-tennis.dtd'. The DTDs, documentation, and sample documents are available for download. [Full context]
[November 09, 2001] eBTWG Core Components Specification Project Team Releases New Draft Specification. Members of the eBTWG Core Component Project Team have published a new public-review draft of its Core Components Technical Specification, Part 1, which "contains information to guide in the interpretation or implementation of ebXML concepts." The eBTWG Core Components Specification Project Team operates under the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group, and has been formed to produce: (1) a consolidated ebXML Core Components Technical Specification that incorporates the material in the ebXML Discovery and Analysis, Naming Convention, and Context technical reports adds material related to Metadata Definition; (2) a specification for and the beginning lexicon of core components. The CC system is designed to ensure that two trading partners using different (XML/EDI) syntaxes are using business semantics in the same way. "The UN/CEFACT Core Component solution presented in the specification presents a methodology for developing a common set of semantic building blocks that represent the general types of business data in use today; it forms the basis for standards development work of business analysts, business users and information technology specialists supplying the content of and implementing applications that will employ the UN/CEFACT Core Component Library (CCL)." [Full context]
[November 08, 2001] Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium Releases Enhanced XML CDISC Operational Data Model. The CDISC Operational Data Modeling Working Group has published a revised specification for the CDISC Operational Data Model (ODM). This WG of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium is developing the XML-based ODM standard "to support context, representation, and interchange of the data collected during the course of clinical trials. ODM version 1.1 was developed by a cross-functional team representing pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, technology providers, and contract research organizations. Among the improvements in ODM Version 1.1 are increased support for incremental data transfers, support for multiple studies, reusable metadata, more complete archiving of clinical trials, increased compatibility with the CDISC clinical laboratory data standards (LAB) and submission data standard (SDS) models, and vendor extensibility. ODM 1.1 is being released with a revised and extensible DTD, together with an extensive documentation set and a set of tools to encourage early adoption by the industry. The ODM is designed to support standard data interchange between various data acquisition sources, such as clinical trial case reports or data captured via an electronic data collection (EDC) application, into an operational database, from which the data are gleaned for analysis and regulatory submission. It also supports archiving of electronic data." [Full context]
[November 08, 2001] XEP Rendering Engine from RenderX Supports the W3C XSL FO Recommendation. A posting from David Tolpin announces the availability of the RenderX XEP Rendering Engine release 2.7 as an evaluation version. XEP is "an engine that converts XSL FO documents to a printable form (currently PDF or PostScript). It can be used as a component in applications that need to generate high quality printable documents from data represented in XML. XEP is a native-mode XSL FO processor: the whole procedure of calculating the layout of every page is performed inside, without recurring to any third-party formatting engines like nroff, TeX, or whatever else. Native mode processing gives you considerable advantages in flexibility and cross-platform portability." XEP version 2.7 now implements the last version of the W3C XSL specification, viz., the XSL Recommendation of October 15, 2001. It offers enhanced functionality, documentation reformatted in DocBook, and includes a stylesheet which converts XSL CR documents to the final XSL Recommendation. [Full context]
[November 08, 2001] Adobe SVG Viewer 3.0 Supports New Features and Platforms. A posting from Steve Snell announces the release of the Adobe SVG Viewer Version 3.0. This new version of the browser plugin better supports the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 specification and adds frequently-requested features for developers. Adobe SVG Viewer V3.0 also adds support for Windows XP and Mac OS X. A new Airbus demo, created by US Airways, "provides an excellent example of the use of SVG to create interactive Smart Graphics. A new Chemical Markup Language demo shows the true versatility of SVG: data stored in another XML-related language, CML (Chemical Markup Language), is manipulated via XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) to create SVG. The new script engine in V3.0 allows self-contained JavaScript scripts to run inside SVG files embedded in hosts that don't support a bridge between plug-ins and the host script engine, including Internet Explorer on the Mac. Adobe SVG 3.0 Viewer will be available in 15 languages and is distributed with Adobe Acrobat Reader." [Full context]
[November 06, 2001] Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative to Use XML Encoding for Third Millennium Texts. A communiqué from Robert K. Englund of UCLA reports that the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is in the process of gathering together electronic transliterations of as many third millennium [BCE] texts as possible in preparation of transforming all data sets into archival XML. The CDLI project is featured in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, which notes that there are "more than 200,000 cuneiform tablets scattered throughout museums in several countries, not counting the steady flow of black-market items trickling out of Iraq and onto eBay, and the world's 400 professional Assyriologists have been struggling to keep from being buried alive by primary documents..." CDLI, a joint project of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), has been funded by NSF and NEH to create the database. Several standard data formats, including XML text descriptions linked to vector-based image specifications of computer-assisted tablet copies, are being used "to insure high conformance with ongoing digital library projects. Metadata-based lexemic and grammatical analysis of Akkadian and Sumerian texts in the CDLI markup environment will be put at the disposal of specialists worldwide; general linguists, semioticists, and historians of communication and cognition, of administration and early state formation, will for the first time have access to the form and content of these records." [Full context]
[November 06, 2001] FISD Publishes Market Data Definition Language (MDDL) Version 1.0. An announcement from the Financial Information Services Division of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) describes the publication of the Market Data Definition Language (MDDL) Version 1.0. MDDL is "a publicly available standard that provides a generic XML-based message format and glossary of fields needed to describe financial instruments, corporate events, and market related indicators. The function of MDDL is to promote data interoperability as well as to provide a standard taxonomy for market data. MDDL Version 1.0 covers equities, mutual funds, and indices; future versions will be expanded to include all financial information necessary to account, analyze, and trade within a market. The initial use of MDDL is for end-of-day and snapshot applications but it has been designed to be extensible to streaming, historical, and other applications as appropriate." Acccording to Mark Hunt (Director of XML Strategy at Reuters, and Member of the MDDL Steering Committee), the MDDL V1.0 standard is "an important milestone in the financial services industry's use of XML, and will allow vendors and users alike to make more of their data." [Full context]
[November 06, 2001] W3C Publishes Data Extraction Language (DEL) as W3C Note. The W3C has acknowledged receipt of a submission from Republica Corp. for a 'Data Extraction Language' intended to provide a basis for furthering work on any-to-XML transformations. As outlined in the Note, DEL is "an XML format for describing data conversion processes from other data formats to XML. A DEL script specifies how to locate and extract fragments from input data and where to insert them in the resulting XML format. The DEL processor executing the DEL script can use the extracted data to either create a new XML document or modify an existing XML document by creating new elements and attributes at locations specified with XPath expressions." Appendix 1 provides the Data Extraction Language DTD. The submission has been referred to the attention of the XSL Working Group, "as the use cases and parse methods could serve as a starting point for the definition of regular expression matching in XPath 2.0." [Full context]
[November 05, 2001] PROSE XML for Production Order Specification/EDI. IDEAlliance recently announced the release of first XML version of PROSE, the Production Order Specification/EDI. PROSE XML 1.0 is said to allow "complete standardization of all production and distribution orders for printers and print buyers, ensuring unprecedented reliability and accuracy of printing instructions. Implementation of PROSE XML 1.0 is designed to increase productivity and performance levels and significantly reduce support cost. Initially released in 1992, the first PROSE was developed by the IDEAlliance EMBARC-EDI Committee out of a need to keep pace with the growing complexity of printed products. PROSE provides print buyers with a format for electronic transmission of instructions for printing and binding services to their printers. PROSE XML 1.0 also provides legacy support for the original PROSE, meaning that any orders previously created in PROSE can be updated into the XML format. PROSE XML orders can be easily transformed into the original PROSE EDI specification, allowing for compatibility with legacy PROSE-based systems." [Full context]
[November 03, 2001] First Public Working Draft of Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL). ISO Subcommittee 34 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC34, Information Technology: Document Description and Processing Languages) has released a first working draft for DSDL. Edited by Martin Bryan, the draft 'Document Schema Definition Language' (DSDL) "allows 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). A new, compact, efficient and XML-based 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 XSD. Informative Annex 4 of the draft ['Alphabetical List of DSDL Components'] supplies (1) a list of DSDL components common to SGML and XML, viz. DSDL components which can be used to describe documents conforming to the WebSGML subset of ISO/IEC 8879, and (2) DSDL components specific to SGML, viz. extensions which could be made if it is decided that DSDL should be able to express all constructs in SGML document instances as well as the WebSGML subset. [Full context]
[November 02, 2001] IBM and Microsoft Issue Specification and Software for Web Services Inspection Language. IBM and Microsoft have jointly issued an announcement for a Web Services Inspection specification (WS-Inspection). The WS-Inspection specification "defines how an application can discover an XML Web service description on a Web server, enabling developers to easily browse Web servers for XML Web services. WS-Inspection complements the IBM- and Microsoft-pioneered 'Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI)' global directory technology by facilitating the discovery of available services on Web sites unlisted in the UDDI registries, and builds on Microsoft's SOAP Discovery technology built into Visual Studio .NET. IBM and Microsoft expect to submit WS-Inspection to an appropriate standards body. WS-Inspection provides (1) a standard way to locate and retrieve Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents and other service descriptions by browsing a single Web server; (2) the capability for XML Web service providers to group sets of related service descriptions, enabling interested parties to determine which descriptions are related to particular services; (3) a way to correlate XML Web services with other types of content, such as HTML pages. For example, a browser may download an HTML page that has corresponding XML Web services of which both the user and the browser environment need to be made aware." [Full context]
[November 01, 2001] IBM alphaWorks Releases XSL Formatting Objects Composer (XFC). IBM's recently-released XSL Formatting Objects Composer (XFC) is "a typesetting and display engine that implements a substantial portion of XSL Formatting Objects (FO), which became a W3C Recommendation on October 15, 2001. XSL FO is an XML language for typesetting, printing, or displaying any of the world's written languages. XFC produces either an interactive onscreen display using Java2D or an output file using PDF. A single formatting engine drives both Java2D and PDF output through a common interface, making XFC the world's first output-independent processor of XSL FO. Other outputs are possible, and some are being developed. XFC is a Java program, developed with JDK 1.3 and released with the run-time component of the IBM WebSphere preview technologies for Windows Developer Kit." [Full context]
[October 31, 2001] Amaya Version 5.2 Supports Display of Generic XML Documents. The most recent release of the W3C's Amaya editor/browser supports the display of generic XML documents in addition to dedicated support for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML Basic, XHTML 1.1, HTTP 1.1. In browser mode, Amaya 5.2 "will display the content of the XML document in the formatted-view, and its whole structure in the structure-view. The formatted-view and XML source-view will also be synchronized. Amaya will parse and apply an associated CSS style sheet for the display. It creates an unknown element/attribute for each element/attribute that belongs to a namespace not-supported within a XHTML/MathML/SVG document. Amaya offers support for MathML 2.0 and for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics); it also includes an annotation application based on XPointer and RDF." Source code for version 5.2 is available via the CVS repository; various binary versions have been prepared: Windows NT/2000, Windows 95/98, PC-Intel Linux format (libc6), GTK version for Linux, Debian 2.2r3, Sparc Solaris 8. The Amaya development team intends to continue its effort on XML, and in particular, the editing of generic XML documents and their association with CSS style sheets; they also plan to finalize the work started on Unicode. [Full context]
[October 30, 2001] OASIS/ebXML Registry TC Publishes Updated Registry Services Specification. Members of the OASIS ebXML Registry Technical Committee have completed a revised Registry Services Specification which "defines the interface to the ebXML Registry Services as well as interaction protocols, message definitions and XML schema." Appendix B of the version 1.01 specification supplies the ebXML Registry DTD Definition; Appendix A entitled "Web Service Architecture" provides a WSDL Terminology Primer, Registry Service Abstract Specification, and Registry Service SOAP Binding. The ebXML Registry "provides a set of services that enable sharing of information between interested parties for the purpose of enabling business process integration between such parties based on the ebXML specifications. The shared information is maintained as objects in a repository and managed by the ebXML Registry Services defined in this document. The Registry Services may be implemented in several ways including, as a public web site, as a private web site, hosted by an ASP or hosted by a VPN provider. A separate document, ebXML Registry Information Model, provides information on the types of metadata that are stored in the Registry as well as the relationships among the various metadata classes." [Full context]
[October 30, 2001] New Implementation of the W3C/LTG Validator for XML Schema (XSV). A posting from Henry S. Thompson (HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh) announces the availability of XSV Version 1.3. XSV (Validator for XML Schema) is an open source (GPLed) work-in-progress attempt at a conformant schema-aware processor, as defined by the W3C Recommendation for XML Schema. A significant change has been introduced in version 1.3, which "switches from using DTD to pre-validate schema documents to using schema-for-schemas. Hitherto, XSV has pre-validated all schema documents involved in a schema-validation episode with the DTD for schemas. This was both not quite right, in that it meant certain constraints were not enforced, because not expressed in the DTD, and messy, in that if a schema document included an internal subset, it was tricky to preserve it. With the advent of version 1.3, all schema documents are now pre-validated with a pre-compiled version of the schema for schemas itself. Even if a DOCTYPE is present, XML 1.0 validation will not be performed, although processing will reflect attribute defaults and general entity bindings, as required by XML 1.0." The authors have done their best with regression testing to ensure that the new XSV release is working properly, but there is potential for introduction of new vulnerabilities and backwards incompatibilities; feedback from the public is solicited. Both the online web version and the standalone/download implementation of XSV have been upgraded to XSV version 1.3. The XSV Schema validator has been developed by Henry S. Thompson and Richard Tobin, with contributions (Web interface) by Dan Connolly. [Full context]
[October 30, 2001] TransQuery: XSL Transformations as Query Language. A posting from Evan Lenz Evan Lenz announces the availability of TransQuery, a "flexible set of XSLT conventions and processing model constraints that enable the use of XSLT as a query language over multiple XML documents. TransQuery is an interoperability specification for XML databases, allowing them to use a standard XML query language today -- the XSLT Recommendation from W3C. The purpose of TransQuery is to promote interoperability between XML document management systems and XML databases that use XSLT as their primary data access language. Traditional XSLT processors are designed to process individual XML documents on the fly. They generally require the entire source tree to be loaded into memory. This obviously has some negative performance and scalability implications for large documents. TransQuery addresses interoperability between implementations of a new kind of XSLT processor -- one that instead functions as a query engine over an XML database, thus reversing the common paradigm of known stylesheet and unknown input. The TransQuery Demo is a browser-based demo illustrating use cases for TransQuery; it is hosted by XYZFind Corp. and utilizes the open-source software provided by the SourceForge TransQuery Project. The TransQuery SourceForge Project is home to an open-source implementation of the TransQuery processing model and experimental platform for the TransQuery interface." [Full context]
[October 30, 2001] Draft Specification Available for Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES). On September 10, 2001 the HR-XML Consortium announced that six leading staffing companies (Adecco, Kelly, Manpower, Randstad, Spherion, and Vedior) would submit a collection of XML-based Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES) to the consortium for review and further development. An initial draft specification for SIDES has now been made accessible via the project mailing list, together with draft XML DTDs and XML Schemas. The standards are needed because "requisitions for temporary staffing typically originate in the Purchasing Department rather than in the Human Resources department; one of the principal goals of the SIDES initiative is to allow the rich description of human resource requirements within standard e-procurement mechanisms. The objective of the Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards 1.0 (SIDES) is to analyze and identify what data is currently being exchanged between Staffing Supplier Companies and Staffing Supplier Customers and to provide a basic standard for which the exchange of data can occur within the general staffing industry. SIDES supports nine payloads by providing full specification for each payload, defining its purpose and dependencies, and where each payload fits into the overall business process. The nine payloads defined in SIDES 1.0 include: Assignment; BackgroundCheck; ContactDetail; HumanResource; Invoice; Order; Qualification; StaffingAction; StaffingSupplier; StaffingSupplierCustomer; TrackingInformation. [Full context]
[October 29, 2001] Evapotranspiration Data in XML Format Aids California in Water Conversation. The California Irrigation Management Information System recently launched a new facility to deliver XML-based real time weather data to irrigators and water agencies as a means of supporting automated water conservation strategies. Water management experts can obtain hourly, daily, monthly, and historical data over an extended period of time. CIMIS was established in 1982 by the California Department of Water Resources and the University of California at Davis, and uses a network of some 120 automated weather stations. The sensors at these stations measure reference evapotranspiration and meteorological data such as solar radiation, vapor pressure, dew point, relative humidity, net radiation, air temperature, wind speed and direction, average soil temperature, and precipitation. This data is delivered to growers, landscape managers, golf courses to assist in water budgeting and conservation. As a further means of supporting automated water usage, CIMIS program is in the process of incorporating satellite data to map reference evapotranspiration for the entire state. [Full context]
[October 29, 2001] World Wide Web Consortium Releases the XML Information Set Specification as a W3C Recommendation. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced the release of the XML Information Set specification as a W3C Recommendation, signifying "that a 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 document has been produced by the W3C XML Core Working Group as part of the XML Activity in the W3C Architecture Domain. The XML Information Set or 'XML Infoset' provides "a set of definitions for use in other specifications that need to refer to the information in an XML document. An XML document has an information set if it is well-formed and satisfies the namespace constraints described in the Recommendation. There is no requirement for an XML document to be valid in order to have an information set. An information set can contain up to eleven different types of information item. An information item is an abstract description of some part of an XML document such as elements and attributes; each information item has a set of associated named properties. The Recommendation describes the information set resulting from parsing an XML document, but information sets may be constructed by other means, for example by use of an API such as the DOM or by transforming an existing information set." [Full context]
[October 29, 2001] OASIS Business Transaction Protocol Technical Committee Publishes Revised BTP Specification. A revised and 'pre-final' draft of the Business Transaction Protocol has been released by members of the OASIS Business Transactions Technical Committee. The committee is developing the specification to define an XML-based protocol for managing complex, B2B transactions over the Internet. The OASIS BTP Technical Committee "began its work at an inaugural meeting in San Jose, California on 13-March-2001. BTP uses a two-phase outcome coordination protocol to create atomic effects (results of computations). BTP also permits the composition of such atomic units of work (atoms) into cohesive business transactions (cohesions) which allow application intervention into the selection of the atoms which will be confirmed, and of those which will be cancelled. BTP is designed to allow transactional coordination of participants which are part of services offered by multiple autonomous organizations (as well as within a single organization). It is therefore ideally suited for use in a Web Services environment. For this reason this specification defines communications protocol bindings which target the emerging Web Services arena, while preserving the capacity to carry BTP messages over other communication protocols. Protocol message structure and content constraints are schematized in XML, and message content is encoded in XML instances... The BTP is an interoperation protocol which defines the roles which software agents (actors) may occupy, the messages that pass between such actors, and the obligations upon and commitments made by actors-in-roles. The BTP is based on a permissive and minimal approach, where constraints on implementation choices are avoided. The protocol also tries to avoid unnecessary dependencies on other standards, with the aim of lowering the hurdle to implementation." [Full context]
[October 27, 2001] Updated Topologi Schematron Validator Supports Validation for Multiple Schema Languages. A posting from Rick Jelliffe announces an updated release of the Topologi Schematron Validator. The Topologi Schematron Validator is a "free Windows-based tool for checking XML documents against the assertions in a Schematron schema. Using the tool, you can (1) validate one or several XML documents using DTDs, W3C XML Schemas, Schematron schemas embedded in W3C XML Schemas, and Schematron schemas; (2) view the results in a convenient linked-view browser; (3) automatically generate RDF statements or Topic Maps; (4) edit the results; (5) print the results; and (6) save the results. A variety of Schematron schemas have been included in this distribution, including RSS, RDF, SOAP, SMIL, WSDL, QAML, XTM, XLink, WAI XHTML, RDDL XHTML, CALS tables and, of course, the Schematron 1.5 schema itself." Enhancements include use of the Microsoft MSXML 4 RTM library, support for the schemaLocation attribute, and improved schemas. Schematron is "an assertion language for XML based on matching combinations of XPath expressions. It can be used both as a schema language and for automatically generating external markup (such as RDF, XLinks and Topic Maps) to annotate XML documents." [Full context]
[October 26, 2001] Business Internet Consortium's XML Convergence Workgroup Publishes Phase One Documents. Members of the Business Internet Consortium (BIC) XML Convergence Workgroup have published key deliverables from the phase one endeavor of collecting "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 principal objective of the XML Convergence Workgroup in phase one was to develop "a conceptual model that describes the architectural components needed for B2B Automation." A High Level Conceptual Model for B2B Integration has now been released, together with three case studies from Intel, RosettaNet, and Ford Motor Company. The case studies reveal several areas that need improvement in terms of better standards specifications and adoption of more loosely coupled and flexible architectures. The BIC XML Convergence Workgroup "proposes to bring clarity by defining generic B2B layers and the corresponding recommended XML standards of a complete B2B, XML-based solution stack. The goals are to define a best-of breed XML solution stack that is standardized, comprehensive, and interoperable, and to develop an implementation path." [Full context]
[October 26, 2001] Treasury Workstation Integration Standards Team Issues Updated Open Standard Interface for Foreign Exchange Trading. TWIST (Treasury Workstation Integration Standards Team) "is a working group of several companies formed and led by the treasury operations department of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group that is focused on creating standards to facilitate an open dealing marketplace for foreign exchange (FX)." The group recently issued a revised XML DTD and set of data models for this open standard interface. This second version "includes detailed instructions for foreign exchange trading, including trade and settlement confirmation. It further includes the following trade events: (1) New trades (2) Collection of trades (3) Amendments (4) Cancellations (5) Close outs (6) Allocations (7) Forward rolls (8) Aggregation (9) Split settlements. The new version has also been aligned with the work done by FpML and is again being considered for incorporation by the FpML FX Products Working Group." TWIST is seeking to deliver additional specifications by the end of 2001, covering (1) Compliance and controls [Credit controls, Dealer authorisations, Tradable instruments]; (2) User Authentication; (3) Trade / Settlement confirmation; (4) Workflow processing Payments; (5) Workflow processing Advises to Receipt; (6) Accounting and audit reporting. "TWIST is working on further alignment with SWIFT and a range of banks that play a dominant role in providing settlement services with regard to the confirmation and settlement processes." The TWIST web site provides open access to the data models, and documentation comparing the TWIST standard to the current FpML-FX specification. [Full context]
[October 26, 2001] Apache XML Project Releases Xerces-C++ Parser Version 1.5.2 with Enhanced Schema Support. A posting from Tinny Ng (XML Parsers Development, IBM Toronto Laboratory) announces the release of the Xerces C++ 1.5.2 XML parser from the Apache XML Project. The Xerces C++ Parser Version 1.5.2 provides additional support for W3C XML Schema. Highlights of the new release include: (1) More Schema Subset support; (2) XMLPlatformUtils::Initialize/Terminate() pair of routines can now be called more than once within a process; (3) Progressive parse support in SAX2XMLReader; (4) Project files for BCB 5; (5) runConfigure script to accept multiple compiler and linker options; (6) more bug fixes, and performance improvement." The distribution includes source code as well as binaries for AIX, HP11, Linux, Solaris, and Windows. [Full context]
[October 24, 2001] HR-XML Consortium Approves New Standards for Human Resources E-commerce. A posting from Chuck Allen (Director, HR-XML Consortium, Inc.) announces the publication of six (6) new approved specifications from the HR-XML Consortium. The 128-member HR-XML Consortium held its quarterly meeting on October 15-16, 2001 at London's Copthorne Tara Hotel, ratifying the new draft standards and affirming an expanded work agenda. The HR-XML Consortium is an "independent, non-profit association dedicated to the development and promotion of a standard suite of XML specifications to enable e-commerce and the automation of human resources-related data exchanges." The newly approved specifications govern Benefits Enrollment, Time Expense Reporting, Competencies, DateTime Data Types, PersonName, and PostalAddress. HR-XML standards working groups are designing HR-related specifications for Benefits Enrollment, Cross-Process Objects, Competencies, Payroll, Recruiting and Staffing, Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES), and Time Expense Reporting. The mission of the HR-XML Consortium is to "spare employers and vendors the risk and expense of having to negotiate and agree upon data interchange mechanisms on an ad-hoc basis. By developing and publishing open data exchange standards based on Extensible Markup Language, the Consortium can provide the means for any company to transact with other companies without having to establish, engineer, and implement many separate interchange mechanisms." The proceedings from the London Meeting documenting activities of the HR-XML consortium are available online. [Full context]
[October 24, 2001] W3C CSS Working Group Issues CSS Mobile Profile as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Members of the W3C CSS Working Group have put forward CSS Mobile Profile 1.0 as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Part of the W3C Style Activity, this document "defines a subset of the Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 specification tailored to the needs and constraints of mobile devices. CSS2 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS2 simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. CSS2 thus specifies how developers can author style sheets for presenting documents across multiple devices and media types. The CSS Mobile Profile specifies a conformance profile for mobile devices, identifying a minimum set of properties, values, selectors, and cascading rules; the resulting CSS Mobile Profile is very similar to CSS1. The new CR document is a revision of the Working Draft dated January 29, 2001; it incorporates suggestions received during last call review, comments, and further deliberations of the W3C CSS Working Group." The duration of the Candidate Recommendation phase will be at least six months, viz., October 2001 through April 2002. [Full context]
[October 24, 2001] SALT Forum Founded for the Development of Embedded Speech Application Language Tags. Cisco, Comverse, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, and SpeechWorks have created the SALT Forum as a joint initiative for the development of 'Speech Application Language Tags' to be embedded in other markup languages. The group has announced its commitment "to develop a royalty-free, platform-independent standard that will make possible multimodal and telephony-enabled access to information, applications and Web services from PCs, telephones, tablet PCs and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). SALT is a lightweight set of XML elements that enhance existing markup languages with a speech interface. SALT will thus extend existing markup languages such as HTML, xHTML and XML. Multimodal access will enable users to interact with an application in a variety of ways: They will be able to input data using speech and/or a keyboard, keypad, mouse or stylus, and produce data as synthesized speech, audio, plain text, motion video and/or graphics. Each of these modes could be used independently or concurrently. Because SALT is independent of the underlying platform, developers will be able to add a speech interface to applications, making them accessible from telephones or other GUI-based devices. The forum founders expect to make the specification publicly available in the first quarter of 2002 and to submit it to a standards body by midyear [2002]." [Full context]
[October 23, 2001] Microsoft Releases New XML Web Services Specifications for a Global XML Web Services Architecture. Microsoft Corporation has published a new architectural model for the next generation of XML Web services together with four specifications supporting that architecture. This Global XML Web Services Architecture "provides a set of principles and guidelines for advancing the protocols and file formats of today's XML Web services to more complex and sophisticated tasks. The four specifications build on XML Web services technologies such as XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI specifications, extending them for global-class computing. The new specifications adhere to the road map outlined by Microsoft and IBM Corp. at the W3C Web Services Workshop in April 2001 and represent a first step toward a comprehensive Global XML Web Services Architecture. (1) WS-Security outlines how to use the W3C specifications XML Signature and XML Encryption; (2) WS-License, along with WS-Security, outlines how existing digital credentials and their associated trust semantics can be securely associated with SOAP messages; (3) WS-Routing describes how to place message addresses in the SOAP message header and enables SOAP messages to travel serially to multiple destinations along a message path [formerly SOAP-RP]; (4) WS-Referral enables the routing between SOAP nodes on a message path to be dynamically configured. As with previous XML Web services specifications, these four will be available for a review period and then submitted to appropriate standards bodies." [Full context]
[October 23, 2001] W3C Working Draft for Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Version 2.0. W3C has announced the first release of a public working draft for Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Version 2.0, along with a joint statement on collaborative effort between W3C and the VoiceXML Forum. The new draft is part of the W3C Voice Browser Activity and forms part of the proposals for the W3C Speech Interface Framework. The WD "specifies VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language) which is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed-initiative conversations. Its major goal is to bring the advantages of web-based development and content delivery to interactive voice response applications. VoiceXML is a markup language that: (1) Minimizes client/server interactions by specifying multiple interactions per document. (2) Shields application authors from low-level, and platform-specific details. (3) Separates user interaction code [in VoiceXML] from service logic [CGI scripts]. (4) Promotes service portability across implementation platforms. VoiceXML is a common language for content providers, tool providers, and platform providers. (5) Is easy to use for simple interactions, and yet provides language features to support complex dialogs." According to a Memorandum of Understanding describing collaboration between the VoiceXML Forum and W3C, "VoiceXML Forum and the W3C have determined that it is in the best interests of the respective organizations and the public that they work together to further develop a dialog markup language... VoiceXML Forum will file an express abandonment of [certain relevant ] U.S. trademark applications, and [during the five-year period] the VoiceXML Forum agrees that the W3C will have sole control of the definition and evolution of the dialog markup language based on the VoiceXML 1.0 that is under development by the W3C Voice Browser Working Group." [Full context]
[October 22, 2001] OASIS to Develop Interactive Web Applications Standard Through a Web Services Component Model (WSCM). OASIS has announced the formation of a new Web Services Component Model technical committee organized to create an XML and web services centric component model for interactive web applications. The TC activity "is focused upon two main goals: to enable businesses to distribute web applications through multiple revenue channels, and to enable new services or applications to be created by leveraging existing applications across the Web. The Web Services Component Model (WSCM) will provide a coordinated set of XML vocabularies and Web services interfaces that allow companies to deliver Web applications to end users through a variety of channels -- directly to a browser, indirectly through a portal or embedded into a third party Web application. With WSCM, companies will be free to syndicate their applications across different portals and Web site platforms without being limited by proprietary products. They will be able to dynamically share Web services without the time and labor of creating multiple vendor-specific connectors written to different Web languages such as Java, COM/.Net and Perl. The OASIS WSCM TC will consider contributions of related work from other groups and companies: (1) The Web Services User Interface (WSUI), an initiative proposed by a working group of software providers earlier this year, plans to submit their specification to the new OASIS technical committee; (2) IBM intends to contribute Web Services Experience Language (WSXL), a Web services-centric component model for interactive Web applications, as work to be considered in the WSCM TC. Initial members of the WSCM Technical Committee, chaired by Charles Wiecha of IBM, include Cyclone Commerce, DataChannel, Documentum, Epicentric, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Logistics Management Institute, Macromedia, Sterling Commerce, U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), along with other OASIS Contributors and Individual members." [Full context]
[October 19, 2001] UK Ordnance Survey's Digital National Framework (DNF) Tests XML Schemas for Geographical Information. Through its XML Schema Repository, the UK Digital National Framework (DNF) has released a number of draft XML schemas supporting the Ordnance Survey's geographical database. The schemas are based upon extensions to the GML version 2.0 specification. The draft DNF Release 1 product data specification includes XML schema documents, a specification overview, classification and attributes of DNF features, DNF themes, lifecycles of DNF features, DNF geometry and topology, DNF data in GML, and a DNF glossary. The DNF application schemas "define four main types of properties that are present inside a feature element. These are simple, complex, geometric, and topological properties. The ordering of properties within a feature element is important as XML validation is reliant on elements being in a specified order; the order of properties is specified within the XML schema." The Digital National Framework (DNF) "is a definitive, consistent and maintained framework for the referencing of geographical information in Great Britain. It comprises the [UK] National Grid linked to Global Positioning System (GPS), height data, detailed topographic information and unique identifiers on features. Key elements are: (1) Polygons: the building blocks of the data representing real world features; (2) Maintained topographic identifiers (TOIDs) on all features -- some 400 million self-contained individual objects; (3) Seamless data; (4) A themed classification based on the real world; (5) Availability of data by themes; (6) Metadata on each feature..." [Full context]
[October 18, 2001] Last Call Working Drafts from W3C XML Encryption Working Group. A posting from Joseph Reagle (W3C XML Encryption Chair) announces the publication of 'last call' working draft specifications from the XML Encryption Working Group. The last call period for the three WDs is 3 weeks, ending on November 9, 2001. From the document abstracts: (1) XML Encryption Requirements lists the design principles, scope, and requirements for the XML Encryption. It includes requirements as they relate to the encryption syntax, data model, format, cryptographic processing, and external requirements and coordination. (2) XML Encryption Syntax and Processing 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. (3) Decryption Transform for XML Signature specifies the 'decryption transform', which enables XML Signatures verification even if both signature and encryption operations are performed on an XML document." [Full context]
[October 18, 2001] New Joint Venture (JV) XML Standards for Reinsurance and Large Commercial Insurance. A new suite of documents and files defining the JV XML insurance standards has been announced by ACORD, which assumed responsibility for the JV Standards in July 2001. The release includes "an XML specification that gives general information regarding JV XML as well as details of the structure and makeup of the JV XML data tags, aggregates and messages. A Document Type Definition (DTD) is also included that can be used to validate XML datastreams; there are transaction templates which show the XML streams for each of the JV XML messages. This new version is based on extensive pilot testing of the earlier version 1.0, released in June 2000, by a number of broker and reinsurer organizations in the US, UK and Europe. As a result of the pilots, transaction structures have been simplified, and XML designs optimized so that interfaces to them can be incorporated efficiently into an implementers' internal systems. The new release also includes updates to other implementation documentation, and to the JV interactive Data Dictionary, to fully support the new version of the XML standards." [Full context]
[October 17, 2001] Sun Microsystems Releases Generalized Schema-Related Tools for Validation and Conversion. A posting from Kohsuke KAWAGUCHI (Sun Microsystems) announces the availability of an updated version of Sun's Multi-Schema XML Validator (MSV), along with three new schema-related tools. The new Sun XML Instance Generator "is a Java technology tool to generate various XML instances from several kinds of schemas; it supports DTD, RELAX Namespace, RELAX Core, TREX, and a subset of XML Schema Part 1. The RELAX NG Converter is a tool to convert schemas written in various schema languages to their equivalent in RELAX NG. The new Multi-Schema XML Validator Schematron add-on is a Java tool to validate XML documents against RELAX NG schemas annotated with Schematron schemas. By using this tool, you can embed Schematron constraints into RELAX NG schemas, making it easy to write many constraints that are difficult to achieve by RELAX NG alone." [Full context]
[October 17, 2001] OASIS Announces Technical Committee Work to Define a Universal Business Language (UBL). OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) has announced a member-initiated Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee formed "to define a common XML business document library. UBL will provide a set of XML building blocks and a framework that will enable trading partners to unambiguously identify and exchange business documents in specific contexts. Uniting disparate efforts underway by companies and standards groups around the world, the OASIS UBL Technical Committee intends to enhance and harmonize overlapping XML business libraries and similar technologies to advance consensus on an international standard. [According to] Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, and chair of the OASIS UBL Technical Committee: 'Agreement on a common set of XML business-to-business document standards is essential for successful electronic commerce; our goal in creating UBL is to quickly develop a synthesis of existing XML business libraries using the OASIS open collaborative process.' UBL work will begin with xCBL 3.0 as the starting point and to develop the standard UBL library by mutually agreed-upon changes to xCBL 3.0 based on industry experience with other XML business libraries and with similar technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange." OASIS is a non-profit, international consortium that creates interoperable industry specifications based on public standards such as XML and SGML, as well as others that are related to structured information processing. [Full context]
[October 16, 2001] Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0 Published as W3C Recommendation. The World Wide Web Consortium has announced the release of Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification represents "cross-industry agreement on an XML-based language that specifies how XML documents may be formatted. It works in concert with XSL Transformations (XSLT), an XML language that performs transformations of structured documents. W3C Recommendation status indicates that a specification is stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its widespread adoption. XSLT 1.0, the XML language which performs transformations on XML data and documents, has been a W3C Recommendation since November 1999, and already enjoys significant usage in both developer communities and in commercial products. XSL 1.0 builds on XSLT 1.0, and provides users with the ability to describe how XML data and documents are to be formatted. XSL 1.0 does this by defining 'formatting objects,' such as footnotes, headers, columns, and other features common to paged media. Designers would use XSL 1.0 stylesheets to indicate rendering preferences for a type of XML document, including how it is styled, laid out, and paginated onto a presentation medium such as a browser window, a pamphlet, or a book. An XSL engine would take the XML document and the XSL stylesheet, and would produce a rendering of the document. XSLT 1.0 makes it possible to significantly change the original structure of an XML document (automatic generation of tables of contents, cross-references, indexes, etc.), while XSL 1.0 makes complex document formatting possible through the use of formatting objects and properties. As XSL 1.0 is focused on the formatting of paged media, it makes it possible for professional printing capabilities and functions to perform with XML documents today. XSL 1.0 and XSLT make it possible for the needs of Web and print-based media formatting to be met." [Full context]
[October 11, 2001] Vitria Announces Value Chain Markup Language (VCML). Vitria Technology has announced the availability of Value Chain Markup Language (VCML) as a new business collaboration standard. Sample XML Schemas, DTDs, and instance documents may be downloaded from the project web site. The Value Chain Markup Language is "a comprehensive set of XML-based, industry-specific vocabularies (defined words and meanings) and documents such as purchase orders, invoices, etc. required to conduct business over the Internet. VCML schemas support over 100,000 pre-built vocabulary structures and over 4,000 pre-built, complete documents. VCML provides a standard set of vocabularies, transactions, elements, and guidelines that power value chain collaboration within and across vertical industries using a common syntax and semantics. VCML supports the North American, European, and Asian direct material procurement standards (including ANSI X12 and EDIFACT transaction sets in all current versions). Support is also included for industry-specific standards including aerospace, automotive, banking and finance, education, energy, government, healthcare, insurance, petrochemical, retail, telecommunication, and transportation industry-specific EDI documents." [Full context]
[October 10, 2001] UML/XML Submissions for the UN/CEFACT eBTWG 'UML to XML Design Rules' Project. Several contributions have been made this week to the work of UN/CEFACT's UML2XML Project, whose project team has been meeting to draft requirements for the mapping specification. One of several projects recently approved under the UN/CEFACT Electronic Business Transition Working Group is the UML to XML Design Rules Project. Its goal is "to produce a set of formal syntax production rules, describing in a very detailed and strict way how to convert standardized business messages, which are defined in UMM-compliant UML class diagrams, into physical XML representations." As input to the drafting of requirements, David Frankel submitted the OMG's XMI2 draft specification, recently approved by the OMG Architecture Board. This specification "defines MOF-XML Schema mapping rules, MOF being essentially a subset of the part of UML that supports class modeling." On behalf of SWIFT, Frank Vandamme has submitted the "SWIFTStandards XML Design Rules" document; it "defines in a very detailed and strict way how a physical XML representation is derived from the business message in the UML class diagram." Phil Goatly of Bolero submitted a document "Bolero Document Modeling Conventions" which presents the modeling conventions used by Bolero in phase one of UML to XML conversion (BoleroXML). [Full context]
[October 04, 2001] Logistics.com Announces XML Standards and Logistics Event Management Architecture for Supply Chain Integration. Logistics.com Inc. of Burlington, MA. has announced the availability of a collection of LEMA standards in its 'Logistics Event Management Architecture' which enable shippers and carriers to buy, sell, manage and optimize transportation services over land, air and ocean. The company has developed LEMA as an open, standards-based and user-driven architecture to empower a more seamless flow of information among supply chain and logistics community members as well as adjacent industry participants such as providers of information technology and services. LEMA has three primary benefits: intra- and inter-enterprise application integration, free flow of information, and the reduction of cycle time in processing logistics events such as simultaneous offer and acceptance of shipment moves. Logistics.com developed TransportationXML (tXML) in conjunction with customers to enable standard application integration among all members of a logistics chain as well as intra-enterprise requirements between legacy and new systems. Logistics chain members include shippers, carriers, consignees, suppliers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and other vendors. The backbone of LEMA is its message bus, which seamlessly integrates with over 70 distinct external business protocols such as EDI, HTTP, SOAP, XML/RPC and XML over the web. This standardization dramatically reduces the cost and risk of intra- and inter-enterprise application integration and enables the free flow of information versus custom integration. One immediate benefit of LEMA adoption is the elimination of high initial set-up fees and on-going interface maintenance fees associated with each interface between enterprises or applications. Transactional tXML most closely mimics today's business processes provided for in current transportation technology: shipments, orders, payments and tracking messages make up the list of transactional messages. Being a superset of the existing EDI documents, the tXML is fully backwards compatible with their EDI counterparts. However, transactional tXML provides additional context during processing and content flexibility. Logistics.com's LEMA standards are available to its customers and any other company wishing to reap the benefits of an open and standard business platform. The company is now seeking to expand LEMA participation through the endorsement of the standards bodies." [Full context]
[October 03, 2001] OASIS Technical Committee Proposed for Provisioning Services (PSTC). A new OASIS technical committee for Provisioning Services has been proposed by company representatives from Access360, Business Layers, Jamcracker, Novell, Oblix, OpenNetwork, Sena Consulting, Thor Technologies, VeriSign, and Waveset. The purpose of the proposed OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee (PSTC) is "to define an XML-based framework for exchanging user, resource, and service provisioning information. The TC will develop an end-to-end, open, provisioning specification developed from existing provisioning specifications which are of public knowledge, accessible, and freely distributed. [Specifically,] the work proposes to take into consideration the Active Digital Profile (ADPr), the Extensible Resource Provisioning Management (XRPM), and the Information Technology Markup Language (ITML) Provisioning specifications, along with any other relevant and timely submissions. The PSTC will produce a set of one or more Committee Specifications that will cover use cases and requirements, information model, protocol(s), bindings, and conformance; all of the aforementioned are to be examined with respect to security considerations. The goal [subject to revision] is to submit a Committee Specification to the OASIS membership for its approval by September 2002." [Full context]
[October 02, 2001] TV-Anytime Forum Publishes Metadata Specification for Network Broadcast Content. The global TV-Anytime Forum is an association of approximately 146 member organizations which seeks to develop specifications to enable audio-visual and other services based on mass-market high volume digital storage in consumer platforms. The Forum has recently published a version 1.1 Metadata specification to accompany its Content Referencing and System Description specifications, together with XML Schemas and data dictionaries. The TV-Anytime Forum is "developing open specifications for interoperable and integrated systems to allow broadcasters and other service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, content creators and telecommunications companies to maximise effective use of high-capacity digital storage in consumer devices." Metadata types defined by the specification include: (1) Content Description Metadata, which describes content independently of any particular instantiation of that content; (2) Instance Description Metadata, used for linking content metadata to content; (3) Consumer metadata, "modeled as description schemes for describing usage history information gathered over extended periods of time"; (4) Segmentation metadata, "which supports the ability to define, access and manipulate temporal intervals (i.e., segments) within an AV stream. For the purpose of interoperability, the TV-Anytime Forum has adopted XML as the common representation format for metadata. XML offers many advantages: it allows for extensibility, supports the separation of data from the application, and is widely used. TV-Anytime uses the MPEG-7 Description Definition Language (DDL) to describe metadata structure as well as the XML encoding of metadata. DDL itself is [2001-08] based on XML schema 'W3C Proposed Recommendation'; the MPEG-7 data types and description schemes in the TVA Metadata Specification are currently taken from the MPEG-7 MDS Final Committee Draft (FCD)." [Full context]
[October 02, 2001] OpenTravel Alliance Releases Version 2001A Combined Specification for Hospitality and Travel Industries. The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) has released today Version 2001A of its specification, complete with XML DTDs, W3C XML Schemas, and supporting prose documentation. The XML-based OTA specification provides for the exchange of messages in the travel industry, covering airlines, car rentals, hotels, and other travel services. Part I "describes the base technical architecture used by the OpenTravel Alliance for message exchanges, including transport protocols, identification and connections to trading partners, security and privacy, and infrastructure required to identify the message content and route it to the proper application handler. Part II addresses the travel business content and exchanges of a customer profile, and identifies relevant message sets. Merging the OTA and Hospitality Industry Technology Integration Standards (HITIS) respective customer profiles, the OTA unites the requirements of both hospitality and travel industries into one comprehensive specification. Unifying a historically fractured process, OTA converges and capitalizes on the communication process between the players in this industry by harnessing the power behind Extensible Markup Language (XML). OTA Version 2001A enhances the use of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) XML schemas and adopts a portion of the messaging structure developed by the ebXML Transport, Routing and Packaging project team. In the coming months, OTA will complete work on two specifications, supporting such cross-industry norms as the ebXML infrastructure and SOAP messaging. Additionally, OTA will release for public review in spring 2002 a specification that will become the foundation for all future messaging in the travel industry." [Full context]
[October 02, 2001] TopicMaps.Org Consortium Continues Development Efforts within OASIS. A posting from Carol Geyer announces the decision of the TopicMaps.Org consortium to continue development of XML Topics Maps (XTM) specifications within the OASIS Technical Process. Eric Freese, Chair of TopicMaps.Org, previously announced a decision by the group to become an OASIS Member section. Topic maps (ISO/IEC 13250:2000) are designed to "provide a knowledge layer -- independent of the information resources themselves -- to capture and manage corporate memory, improve indexing, and enable the integration of information that spans multiple, disparate repositories. Applications include the semantic web, distributed ontologies, business processes, workflow, search and retrieval tools, knowledge management, diplomatic communication, cultural dialogue and various other disciplines and functions." One OASIS XTM technical comittee has already been formed (Topic Maps Published Subjects Technical Committee) and others are in the process of formation. According to Steven R. Newcomb, one of the three co-editors of the ISO Topic Maps: "Topic Maps offers a simple and extraordinarily scalable way to control 'infoglut' and amalgamate sets of knowledge-bearing assertions from disparate sources." [Full context]
[October 01, 2001] Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory Publishes Updated SCORM E-Learning Reference Model. The Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Laboratory has announced a version 1.2 release of the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The SCORM reference model with its XML bindings "defines a Web-based learning 'content aggregation model' and a 'runtime environment' for learning objects, providing a bridge from general emerging technologies to commercial implementations. At its simplest, SCORM is a model that references a set of interrelated technical specifications and guidelines designed to meet the US Department of Defense's high level requirements for web-based learning content, supporting content reusability, accessibility, durability, and interoperability. The goal is to leverage existing practices, promote the use of technology-based learning, and provide a sound economic basis for investment. SCORM originated as a program for information technologies designed to modernize education and training, and to provide cooperation between government, academia, and business through developmenet of e-learning standardization." The model has been developed in cooperation with several e-learning partners, including ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks for Europe), the Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training [CBT] Committee, the IMS Global Learning Consortium, and the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee. The version 1.2 release of CSORM "adds the ability to package instructional material and meta-data for import and export. These XML-based specifications provide a crucial link between learning content repositories and learning management systems. The new SCORM version incorporates the IMS Global Learning Consortium's Content Packaging Specification and expands it to include additional course structure capabilities." [Full context]
[October 01, 2001] Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) Publishes Enhanced Chem eStandards Specification. The Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) has announced a public release of new business-transaction DTDs supporting the chemical marketplaces and service providers. Chem eStandards are "uniform standards of data exchange developed specifically for the buying, selling and delivery of chemicals; they are based on the 'gold standard' for electronic data exchange, Extensible Mark-Up Language (XML). Chem eStandards are open, platform-independent, uniform and available free of charge." The new version 2.0.2 sub-release "provides upgrades to the existing 47 business transactions first published as version 2.0 on March 1, 2001 and incorporates over 150 requests for functional enhancements made by chemical industry implementers. Seven new business transactions will be made available to CIDX member companies for pilot testing in November. The new transactions developed include: certificate of analysis, report of testing results, invoice response, shipment status request, shipment instructions, price and availability request, and price and availability response. The next major release of the Chem eStandards is planned for the spring. Version 3.0 will upgrade all of the documentation from version 2.0, supporting the 54 business transactions that will exist at that time. This major release may also introduce support for XML Schemas as well as Document Type Definitions (DTDs). In general, CIDX will publish major releases in which supporting documentation is provided annually, with the potential for semi-annual publication if there is an industry need to do so." [Full context]


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