Cover Pages: SGML and XML News. January

[March 29, 2002] XL: An XML Programming Language for Web Services. A research project located at Technische Universität München is developing a new high-level programming language called XL for the specification of Web services. XL as an 'XML programming language' is "a language whose only type system is the XML type system and not a language whose syntax is described using XML vocabulary. XL is specially designed for the implementation of Web services; it is portable and fully compliant with all W3C standards such as XQuery, XML Protocol, and XML Schema. One of the key features of XL is that it allows programmers to concentrate on the logic of their application. XL provides high-level and declarative constructs for actions which are typically carried out in the implementation of a Web service; e.g., logging, error handling, retry of actions, workload management, events, etc. Issues such as performance tuning (e.g., caching, horizontal partitioning, etc.) can be carried out automatically by an implementation of the language. This way, the productivity of the programmers, the ability of evolution of the Web service specific programs and their chances to achieve good performance are substantially enhanced." [Full context]
[March 29, 2002] Australian Public Record Office Victoria Uses VERS Standard for Records Management. The Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) is a records management framework developed for the state archives of Victoria, Australia. The VERS framework of standards, guidance, case studies, demonstrations, and implementations has been created to enable the long-term preservation of current electronic documents. The VERS Standard for the Management of Electronic Records "includes specifications governing the metadata necessary for long term preservation of electronic records, a standard long-term XML format, and a method for securing records so that unauthorized changes are detectable. The VERS long-term format is based on the notion of encapsulating the computer files which make up the records along with the metadata necessary to understand those computer files in the future. Digital signature technologies are used to seal the XML record so that it is possible to detect any alterations made to the record. Public Record Office Victoria has recently released an online VERS toolkit which contains a step-by-step implementation guide as well as a discussion forum, a toolbox and a reference library." [Full context]
[March 28, 2002] LegalXML Group Joins OASIS. In an effort to "align the development of specifications for legal data exchange with the global standards community at-large, the LegalXML standards group has joined the OASIS consortium. By migrating its work to OASIS, LegalXML secures its representation within the consortium known for setting adoptable worldwide standards for electronic business, Web services and security. The alliance brings new resources and international awareness to LegalXML's work on specifications for electronic court filing, court documents, legal citations, transcripts, criminal justice intelligence systems, and others. Under the new organizational structure, members of LegalXML will join OASIS and be eligible to contribute to all OASIS technical work. Existing OASIS members will have the option to participate in LegalXML without additional membership dues. OASIS will host open mail lists for public comment on LegalXML technical committees, and completed work will be freely available to the public without licensing or other fees." [Full context]
[March 28, 2002] LEAF Project: Linking and Exploring Authority Files. A newsletter from the LEAF Project surveys recent results and current activities of the project participants. Started in March 2001, LEAF (Linking and Exploring Authority Files) is a three year project "co-funded through the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme within the European Union's Fifth Framework. The consortium consists of fifteen partners in ten European countries, including libraries, archives, documentation and research centers. LEAF will develop a model architecture for a distributed search system harvesting existing name authority files (person names and corporate bodies). LEAF is also participating in the development of an XML format for authority records and archival context information, as relevant to the EAC (Encoded Archival Context). Results from testing the first version of EAC within LEAF will contribute to the development of the public version, which is expected to be launched in 2002. The LEAF Project public deliverables include a report on a recommended name DTD, a mapping between the name DTD and a name metadata set, a report on the XML encoding, and conversion tools for the encoded name data. The principal expected benefit for LEAF is that access to authority files will no longer be restricted to professional users from large libraries and archives, but will be available to any interested person. Furthermore, the professional use of authority files will also be enhanced; as the workflow between the participating institutions will be established, authority records can easily be exchanged and improved and small institutions will also be able to provide their information." [Full context]
[March 27, 2002] Meat and Poultry XML (mpXML). A new 'mpXML' consortium has been formed to define a technical infrastructure supporting XML-based e-commerce within the meat and poultry industry. Meat and Poultry XML (mpXML) "brings together companies working to establish voluntary, public domain Extensible Markup Language (XML) data standards that can be used throughout the industry. The membership of mpXML is comprised of companies representing all sectors of the meat and poultry industry, including producers, packers, processors, wholesale distributors, brokers, retailers, purchases bulk quantities of meat or poultry, associations, government agencies, and technology and services providers. mpXML is in the process of forming the Work Groups that will develop the standard to support B2B e-commerce for meat and poultry industry. In its initial stages, the work will focus on electronic communication between producers and retailers and purchasers of bulk quantities of meat or poultry products. Membership is open to all meat and poultry industry suppliers, non-supplier companies, government agencies, and incorporated industry associations that provide service in the meat and poultry industry and wish to participate in and support the development of the mpXML standards." [Full context]
[March 26, 2002] Workshop on Rule Markup Languages for Business Rules on the Semantic Web. A call for papers has been issued in connection with the International Workshop on Rule Markup Languages for Business Rules on the Semantic Web, to he held June 14, 2002, Sardinia, Italy. This workshop follows the First International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2002), to be held June 9-12, 2002 in the same location. The organizing committee welcomes submissions on all topics related to rule markup languages; in particular, they encourage papers on reaction rules in the Semantic Web (event/action languages, execution models) and on defeasible rules in the Semantic Web (defeasible concept definitions in ontologies, resolving conflicts in triggered action sets). Rule markup languages "support the expression of business rules as modular, stand-alone units in a declarative way and the publication/exchange of these rules between different systems and tools. They are expected to play an important role in facilitating business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) interactions over the Web." [Full context]
[March 26, 2002] Korean Research Institute Develops the Extensible Rule Markup Language (XRML). An Extensible Rule Markup Language (XRML) is being designed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). It is one of several XML-based agent-languages being developed for the support of Internet e-commerce. In particular, XRML supports a rule exchange scheme for workflow which can be understood by expert system agents. A draft specification describes XRML as "a language that may be used to represent the implicit rules in such a way as to allow software agents to process them as well as to be comprehensible to human... At highest level, the goals of the XRML specification are to: (1) support knowledge sharing between humans and software agents; (2) maintain consistency between natural language and structured rules; (3) design a light-weight markup notation with easy-to-understand tags." The XRML design includes XML DTDs for a Rule Structure Language, a Rule Triggering Language, and a Rule Identification Language. [Full context]
[March 26, 2002] W3C Working Draft for XQuery 1.0 Formal Semantics. A public review W3C Working Draft has been published for XQuery 1.0 Formal Semantics, providing the formal semantics of W3C XQuery as specified in XQuery 1.0: A Query Language for XML. "XQuery is a computer language designed to return information to users or their agents. It is applicable to XML data sources from documents to databases, search engines, and object repositories. Much of the WD document is the result of joint work by the W3C XML Query and XSL Working Groups, which are jointly responsible for XPath 2.0, a language derived from both XPath 1.0 and XQuery. The new document defines the formal semantics for XQuery 1.0, and a future version of the document will also define the formal semantics for XPath 2.0. XQuery is a powerful language, capable of selecting and extracting complex patterns from XML documents and of reformulating them into results in arbitrary ways. This document defines the semantics of XQuery by giving a precise formal meaning to each of the constructions of the XQuery specification in terms of the XQuery data model. The document assumes that the reader is already familiar with the XQuery language. Two important design aspects of XQuery are that it is functional (built from expressions, called queries, rather than statements) and typed. 'Types' can be imported from one or several XML Schemas (typically describing the documents that will be processed), and the XQuery language can then perform operations based on these types. In addition, XQuery also supports a level of static type analysis. This means that the system can perform some inference on the type of a query, based of the type of its inputs... These two aspects play an important role in the XQuery Formal Semantics." [Full context]
[March 26, 2002] W3C Updates RDF/XML Syntax Specification. The W3C RDF Core Working Group has published a working draft for RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised). The revised draft supersedes the previous W3C RDF Model & Syntax specification published 1999-02-22. The new WD is issued in response to "the need for a number of fixes, clarifications, and improvements to the specification of RDF's abstract graph and XML syntax. Implementations of the earlier syntax and comparison of the resulting RDF graphs had shown that there was ambiguity; implementations generated different graphs and certain syntax forms were not widely implemented." The new RDF/XML syntax has been updated "to be specified in terms of the XML Information Set with new support for XML Base. For each part of the syntax, it defines the mapping rules for generating the RDF graph as defined in the RDF Model Theory. This is done using the N-Triples graph serializing test format which enables more precise recording of the mapping in a machine processable and testable form. These tests are gathered and published in the RDF Test Cases... the document re-represents the original EBNF grammar in terms of the XML Information Set items which moves from the rather low-level details, such as particular forms of empty elements. This allows the grammar to be more precisely recorded and the mapping from the XML syntax to the RDF graph more clearly shown." [Full context]
[March 25, 2002] OASIS Members Propose a Rights Language Technical Committee. Representatives from ContentGuard, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Reuters, and Verisign have proposed the formation of an OASIS Rights Language Technical Committee. Chaired by Hari Reddy of ContentGuard, the TC will "continue work previously done by ContentGuard, Inc. on XrML to define the industry standard for a rights language that supports a wide variety of business models and has an architecture that provides flexibility to address the needs of the diverse communities." The TC will "define a governance and language extension development process for the language that comprehends maintaining an evergreen language while minimizing the impact of change on all market participants." It will also define relationships with complementary standards efforts within OASIS and establish liaisons with standards bodies. ContentGuard, which has copyrights to the XrML 2.0 specification and schema, will submit the Extensible Rights Markup Language (XrML) Version 2.0 to the TC at the initial meeting. [Full context]
[March 21, 2002] W3C RDF Core Working Group Publishes RDF Primer Working Draft. The W3C RDF Core Working Group has produced an initial public working draft RDF Primer. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is "a general-purpose language for representing information in the World Wide Web. It is particularly intended for representing metadata about Web resources, such as the title, author, and modification date of a Web page, the copyright and syndication information about a Web document, the availability schedule for some shared resource, or the description of a Web user's preferences for information delivery. RDF provides a common framework for expressing this information in such a way that it can be exchanged between applications without loss of meaning. Since it is a common framework, application designers can leverage the availability of common RDF parsers and processing tools. Exchanging information between different applications means that the information may be made available to applications other than those for which it was originally created. This Primer is designed to provide the reader the basic fundamentals required to effectively use RDF in their particular applications." [Full context]
[March 21, 2002] Call for Papers: Second Workshop on NLP and XML. A communiqué from Graham Wilcock (University of Helsinki, Finland) contains a Call for Papers issued in connection with the 2nd Workshop on NLP and XML (NLPXML-2002). The workshop "will be held at COLING-2002 in Taipei on September 1, 2002. This workshop follows on from the First NLP and XML Workshop at NLPRS-2001 in Tokyo. The goal of the workshop is two-fold: (1) to provide a forum for presentation and discussion of XML use in NLP, including resource and software development, applications, tools, etc.; and (2) to clarify the 'big picture' for NLP [natural language processing] applications and resources vis-à-vis the XML framework and development of the Semantic Web. As such, the workshop is intended not only for those already using XML, but also for members of the NLP community who seek a fuller understanding of the motivations and implications of XML and related standards for the field." The organizing committee welcomes papers articulating position statements concerning the implications of XML, RDF, and the Semantic Web for NLP resources and applications; papers may also address the use of XML for linguistic annotation, including overall data architecture, implications for editorial practices, linkage mechanisms, and issues of NLP data management. [Full context]
[March 21, 2002] Interwoven Publishes Draft Content Services Specification. Interwoven has published a draft specification for Content Services, described as "a new, open, and implemented standard for accessing Enterprise Content Management functions as Web Services." Content Services (CS) is "a specification for providing core content infrastructure functionality in the form of web services. Exposing those capabilities as web services offers the advantage of language and platform independence. The Content Services standard delivers these business benefits because of its comprehensive design. It encompasses all lifecycle elements of enterprise content management; including content transfer, metadata, workflow, workareas, locking, and many other functions. These functions are made available as a Web Services in a vendor-neutral solution, promising to hide many of the differences between competing software platforms, programming languages, and hardware specifics. The standard is built on the basic foundational standards for Web Services WSDL (Web Service Description Language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). A 1.0 version of the standard has been implemented and is being used in commercial products now. [Interwoven] will submit the standard to one of the industry's open standards groups for future versions." A WSDL definition file and accompanying DTDs are available from the website along with the public review specification. [Full context]
[March 21, 2002] Microsoft Releases Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 4 SP 1. A posting from Dare Obasanjo (Microsoft) announces the release of MSXML 4 SP 1 (Microsoft XML Core Services). This version 40SP1 (14-March-2002) release "offers a number of new features and improvements over the MSXML 3.0, including support for the XML Schema language and substantially faster parser and XSLT engine. MSXML 4.0 SP1 is a complete replacement for MSXML 4.0 RTM and provides a number of bug fixes. It cannot replace MSXML 3.0, because some obsolete and non-conformant features are no longer supported. MSXML 4.0 installs side by side with MSXML 3.0 and earlier, without any interference." MSXML 4 SP 1 is available for Windows 95 & 98, NT 4.0 & 2000, Windows Me, and Win XP. [Full context]
[March 21, 2002] X-Hive/DB 3.0 Technology Preview Adds XQuery, XPath, and DOM Level 3 Support. A communiqué from Irsan Widarto (X-Hive Corporation) announces the release of a Technology Preview for X-Hive/DB 3.0. The new release adds support for XQuery 1.0, XPath 2.0, DOM Level 3 Load and Save, and DOM Level 3 Abstract Schemas. X-Hive/DB also supports XML 1.0 with Namespaces, DOM Level 2, XPath, XPointer, XLink, XSL-T, XSL-FO, and XUpdate. Using native XML database technology, X-Hive/DB stores XML documents in parsed form, eliminating translations between XML document structure and the database schema. X-Hive/DB includes an XLink-compliant 'intelligent-linking engine'. "With X-Hive/DB's XLink engine you are able to offer support for bi-directional links, link-bases and link management. In conjunction with the XPointer implementation, X-Hive offers a pure XML based link Processor. Within X-Hive/DB documents can be stored as versionable documents. X-Hive/DB offers linear versioning with support for branching. X-Hive/DB calculates differences between documents and stores the calculated delta efficiently in an XML format. Branching allows you to concurrently maintain different threads of versioned documents." Earlier in 2002, the company added X-Hive/DB support for WebDAV, J2EE, and XUpdate. X-Hive's WebDAV implementation "allows end users to access, create, and manage X-Hive/DB collections and documents directly from WebDAV-compliant desktop applications." [Full context]
[March 20, 2002] Report to the Uniform Code Council (UCC) on ebXML Interoperability and Conformance Validation. A "final status" report from the Drummond Group to the Uniform Code Council announces successful interoperability testing by four vendors participating in the ebXML Interoperability and Conformance Validation Test 4Q01. bTrade, inc., Cyclone Commerce, Sterling Commerce, and Sybase have "completed all requirements and passed tests between each product demonstrating interoperability and conformance to the ebXML-MS v2.0 document; the participating vendors' products are in full compliance with the ebXML-MS v2.0 specification. The vendors underwent thorough and rigorous testing to demonstrate their ebXML software products comply to a common level of interoperability." There was one functional requirement where the testing participants agreed to extend the ebXML specification (Encryption/Confidentiality); this new functionality was developed as a joint effort of the Testing group and presented to the ebXML-MS team. The UCC-Drummond ebXML messaging pilot and subsequent tests will ensure that different e-business software offerings can seamlessly work in concert under real world conditions, eliminating costly communication obstacles and facilitating more efficient trading partner relationships. The ebXML messaging specification has grown in cross industry endorsements over past months with industry groups such as the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR), Open Applications Group Inc., Covisint, the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), and the Open Travel Alliance stating their support." [Full context]
[March 20, 2002] UN FIGIS Introduces FIStatXML Standard for Fisheries Statistical Data. A posting from Stephen Katz and Marc Taconet announces the publication of a FIStatXML standard for fisheries statistical data import/export. The FAO Fisheries Global Information System (FIGIS) is a global network of integrated fisheries information; the project endeavors to provide policy makers with timely, reliable strategic information on fishery status and trends on a global scale. The FIStatXML release includes an introductory document, XML DTDs, and sample XML documents. FiStatXML "provides an intermediary format between FIGIS statistical module and reference tables, Fishstat Plus, external databases and files, reports, and other XML/HTML formats. The goal is to reduce complexity and to reuse certain components related to data import, export and transformation." [Full context]
[March 19, 2002] W3C XML Key Management Working Group Publishes XKMS 2.0 and X-BULK Working Drafts. The W3C XML Key Management Working Group has published three new working drafts. The XML Key Management Specification (XKMS 2.0) WD "specifies protocols for distributing and registering public keys, suitable for use in conjunction with the proposed standard for XML Signatures 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) is a protocol to support the delegation by an application to a service of the processing of Key Information associated with an XML signature, XML encryption, or other public key; its functions include the location of required public keys and describing the binding of such keys to identification information; (2) the XML Key Registration Service Specification (X-KRSS) is a protocol to support the registration of a key pair by a key pair holder, with the intent that the key pair subsequently be usable in conjunction with the XML Key Information Service Specification or higher level trust assertion service such as XML Trust Assertion Service Specification (XTASS). These protocols do not require any particular underlying public key infrastructure (such as X.509) but are designed to be compatible with such infrastructures." The Last Call XML Key Management (2.0) Requirements Working Draft "lists the design principles, scope and requirements for XML Key Management specifications and trust server key management implementations. It includes requirements as they relate to the key management syntax, processing, security and coordination with other standards activities." The XML Key Management Specification Bulk Operation (X-BULK) WD is the first X-BULK draft from the Working Group. X-BULK "extends the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS) protocol to encompass the bulk registration operations necessary for interfacing with such systems as smart card management systems. X-BULK is defined in terms of structures expressed in the XML Schema Language XML-Schema and web services description language (WSDL)." [Full context]
[March 18, 2002] Markup Standards for 'Name and Address' Information. As XML vocabularies, DTDs, and Schemas continue to proliferate, rising in number from hundreds to thousands, one feature remains consistent: markup models almost always provide some mechanism to represent name and address information for personal and corporate entities central to the application domain. XML markup schemes for name and address sometimes draw upon established standards or data models, but usually do not. For simple applications, a few data elements are adequate to represent the name of a person, corporate entity, or geographic location; for complex applications (e.g., criminal records and health records management, genealogical and prosopographical research, bibliographic name authority), dozens or hundreds of information objects are required to represent a name and its relationships over time. Similarly, simple forms used for collecting address information typically use a dozen data fields; specialized applications (e.g., land and property ownership, international postal mail, GIS-aware database systems) require hundreds of data entities to model the notion of address. Name and address data models are often deeply integrated into personal information database frameworks. Reconciling the different models is not easy because the problem domains are so different: variably-scoped information spaces and conceptual/analytical perspectives unique to different models give rise to fundamentally different factoring of the same or similar information into metamodels for discrete factoids. Models competent to support machine processing of internationally-standardized name/address data must reckon with linguistic variation and differing cultural conventions. Significant standards work now underway will provide the basis for some re-use of markup models across application domains, but we expect convergence to be slow. Ubiquitous computing levies new requirements to model features of 3-D physical location and recipient-authentication along with traditional address data. [Full context]
[March 15, 2002] ANSI/NISO Publishes Z39.86-2002 Standard for the Digital Talking Book. A posting from Lloyd G. Rasmussen and Michael M Moodie of the US Library of Congress announces the publication of the ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2002 standard Specifications for the Digital Talking Book. The standard was ratified by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) on March 6, 2002. The new ebook standard "defines the format and content of the electronic file set that comprises a digital talking book (DTB) and establishes a limited set of requirements for DTB playback devices. 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 primarily for DTB files and their interrelationships. It also includes specifications for DTB playback devices in two areas: player performance related to file requirements and player behavior in areas defined in user requirements." The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) will serve as the Maintenance Agency for Z39.86. The six XML DTDs for the DTB are now available online, together with the full text of the standard in HTML and PDF format. [Full context]
[March 14, 2002] W3C Publishes Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL) Version 1.0. W3C has acknowledged receipt of a 2002-02-04 submission from the Hewlett-Packard Company for a Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL). The published Note "proposes a simple conversation language standard that can be used for various Web-service protocols and frameworks. It focuses on modeling the sequencing of the interactions or operations of one interface and fills the gap between mere interface definition languages that do not specify any choreography and more complex process or flow languages that describe complex global multi-party conversations and processes." The Web Services Conversation Language "allows the abstract interfaces of Web services, i.e., the business level conversations or public processes supported by a Web service, to be defined. WSCL specifies the XML documents being exchanged, and the allowed sequencing of these document exchanges. WSCL conversation definitions are themselves XML documents and can therefore be interpreted by Web services infrastructures and development tools. WSCL may be used in conjunction with other service description languages like WSDL; for example, to provide protocol binding information for abstract interfaces, or to specify the abstract interfaces supported by a concrete service." The WSCL submission will be brought to the attention of W3C's Web Services Architecture Working Group and to the Web Services Description Working Group; it will also be brought to the attention of the Web Ontology Working Group as a potential use case for the Web Ontology language designed. [Full context]
[March 14, 2002] UBL Library Content Subcommittee Releases Draft UBL Library of Reusable Types. A posting from Lisa Seaburg (Commerce One Labs) announces the availability of a UBL Library review package containing draft XML schemas and documentation. The UBL Library Content Subcommittee is developing "a standard XML business library content by taking an existing library (xCBL 3.0) as a starting point and modifying it to incorporate the best features of other existing business and core component libraries. Its goals are to create a BIE Catalog by identifying the Basic Information Entities out of the xCBL Library, to create XML (XSD) Schemas for business document types, and to document a customization methodology." The review package contains a methodology document describing the approach taken in this design work, draft XML Schemas derived from spreadsheets, and sample XML instances of UBL Order documents. The three XML schemas represent the UBL Library, the UBL Order document, and the Core Component Library. Review comment are being accepted through April 08, 2002. [Full context]
[March 12, 2002] e-Government Interoperability Framework Version 4.0 Published. An updated version of the UK e-Government Interoperability Framework has been released in draft for public consultation. For the first time the e-Government Metadata Framework has also been incorporated into the e-GIF specification. The Version 4.0 (07-March-2002) release is issued in two parts: Part One presents the e-GIF Framework itself; Part Two documents the Technical Policies and Specifications. The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) "sets out the UK government's technical policies and specifications for achieving interoperability and information systems coherence across the public sector. The e-GIF defines the essential prerequisites for joined-up and web enabled government... Adherence to the e-GIF specifications and policies is mandatory: they set the underlying infrastructure, freeing up public sector organisations so that they can concentrate on serving the customer through building value added information and services. he main thrust of the framework is to adopt the Internet and World Wide Web specifications for all government systems. There is a strategic decision to adopt XML and XSL as the core standards for data integration and management of presentational data. This includes the definition and central provision of XML schemas for use throughout the public sector. The e-GIF also adopts specifications that are well supported in the market place. It is a pragmatic strategy that aims to reduce cost and risk for government systems whilst aligning them to the global Internet revolution." The e-GIF Interoperability Framework specifications are open for comment through April 18, 2002. [Full context]
[March 12, 2002] Sun Releases XML Pipeline Definition Language Controller Implementation. A posting from Eve L. Maler announces a sample implementation of the W3C XML Pipeline Definition Language, available from the Sun Microsystems Developer Connection. A 2001-10-26 'Pipeline' submission from ten W3C member companies was recently acknowledged and published by W3C in the form of a Note: XML Pipeline Definition Language Version 1.0. As defined in the Note, a Pipeline is "an XML vocabulary for describing the processing relationships between XML resources; a pipeline document specifies the inputs and outputs to XML processes and a pipeline controller uses this document to figure out the chain of processing." The Sun Preview Version 1.0 application developed by Ed Mooney is a free, Java, "Ant-based sample implementation of an XML Pipeline controller; this controller implementation can be used to manage validations, transformations, and similar XML processes." The distribution includes binary code, source code, and documentation. [Full context]
[March 12, 2002] HR-XML Workgroup to Lead Employer Stock Plan Standards Initiative. A posting from Chuck Allen announces the launch of an Employer Stock Plan Standards Initiative, to be organized under a new HR-XML workgroup. The group will "develop standards for employee stock purchase plans (ESPP) and stock option programs. The principal project goal is to define interfaces to exchange ESPP as well as stock option data between an employer and a plan administrator or broker. HR-XML member companies sponsoring the stock plan workgroup include Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, Fidelity Investments, Transcentive, and Watson Wyatt Worldwide. The project also includes participants from a variety of financial services, brokerage, and third-party administration companies. The workgroup plans to deliver the first HR-XML specifications for employer stock programs later in 2002." [Full context]
[March 11, 2002] MIT Press Publishes 'Markup Languages: Theory and Practice' Issue 3/1. A new issue of Markup Languages: Theory and Practice has been published through the MIT Press, and is available in paper and electronic format. Four of the twelve contributions in Issue 3/1 are feature articles, including: (1) "The Relationship Between General and Specific DTDs: Criticizing TEI Critical Editions," by David J. Birnbaum; (2) "A Simple Property Set for Contract Architectural Forms," by Sam Hunting; (3) "Path Predicate Calculus: Towards a Logic Formalism for Multimedia XML Query Languages," by Peiya Liu, Amit Chakraborty, and Liang H. Hsu; (4) "Complexity of Context-Free Grammars with Exceptions and the Inadequacy of Grammars as Models for XML and SGML," by Romeo Rizzi. Markup Languages: Theory and Practice is published by the MIP Press and edited by B. Tommie Usdin and C.M. Sperberg-McQueen. It is a "peer-reviewed journal devoted to research, development, and practical applications of text markup for computer processing, management, manipulation, and display. Specific areas of interest include: new syntaxes for generic markup languages; refinements to existing markup languages; theory of formal languages as applied to document markup; systems for mark-up; uses of markup for printing, hypertext, electronic display, content analysis, information reuse and repurposing, search and retrieval, and interchange; shared applications of markup languages; and techniques and methodologies for developing markup languages and applications of markup languages." [Full context]
[March 08, 2002] W3C Publishes Web Ontology Language Requirements Document. The W3C Web Ontology Working Group has published an initial working draft document outlining requirements for the Ontology Web Language (OWL) 1.0 specification. The draft document "specifies usage scenarios, goals and requirements for a web ontology language. Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management." An 'ontology' in terms of the WG charter "defines the terms used to describe and represent an area of knowledge. Ontologies are used by people, databases, and applications that need to share domain information, where a domain is just a specific subject area or area of knowledge, like medicine, tool manufacturing, real estate, automobile repair, financial management, etc. Ontologies include computer-usable definitions of basic concepts in the domain and the relationships among them... An ontology formally defines a common set of terms that are used to describe and represent a domain. The WD specification motivates the need for a Web ontology language by describing six use cases. Some of these use cases are based on efforts currently underway in industry and academia, others demonstrate more long-term possibilities. The use cases are followed by design goals that describe high-level objectives and guidelines for the development of the language. These design goals will be considered when evaluating proposed features." [Full context]
[March 08, 2002] Sun Microsystems Announces JAXR API Proposed Final Draft. A posting of Farrukh Najmi to the OASIS ebXML Registry TC announces the "publication of the Proposed Final Draft of a specification for Java API for XML Registries (JAXR). The JAXR specification provides a simple Java API for accessing OASIS ebXML and other registries, and will help to promote the use of OASIS ebXML registries within the Java developer community. This version of the specification provides a near final and stable version of the JAXR API with comprehensive support for the version 2 of the OASIS ebXML Registry specifications." JAXR supports "a uniform and standard Java API for accessing different kinds of XML Registries. An 'XML registry' [in this context] is an enabling infrastructure for building, deploying, and discovering web services. Currently there are a variety of specifications for XML registries including, pre-eminently, the ebXML Registry and Repository standard, which is being developed by OASIS and U.N./CEFACT and the UDDI specification, which is being developed by a vendor consortium. JAXR enables Java software programmers to use a single, easy-to-use abstraction API to access a variety of XML registries." [Full context]
[March 08, 2002] ISO Working Group on Coding Systems Outlines New Language Encoding Initiatives. A document prepared by Håvard Hjulstad (Convener of ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1 'Coding systems') outlines a number of important language encoding initiatives that are to be undertaken within the framework of ISO/TC37/SC2/WG1. The language identification codes of ISO 639-1 (alpha-2 code) and ISO 639-2 (alpha-3 code) were designed to meet the needs of terminology and library applications, but are judged inadequate as a basis for language-based text processing within Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries. XML 1.0 Second Edition normatively references RFC 3066 ("Tags for the Identification of Languages"), which relies upon the ISO 639 language codes. The Convener notes a recognized need to "expand the current set of language identifiers and language identification mechanisms greatly; there may be a need for identifiers for 15-20 times as many linguistic units as the current [code] tables provide." Eleven (11) candidate projects are identified in the document, including: (1) a model for language identification [definitions for 'language', 'individual language', 'language variant', 'dialect']; (2) language identification structure [geographical variation, variation as to script, writing system, and orthography, temporal variation, stylistic variation]; (3) linguistic unit description format; (4) description of linguistic units and default values [script, orthography, geographical area]; (5) resolution of problems in current code tables; (6) further development of ISO 639-1 and ISO 639-2; (7) hierarchical language identifiers [language group identifiers]; (8) additional individual language identifiers [5000-7000 needed]; (9) geographical coordinate information. (10) topic mapping project; (11) mapping with other language identification code sets [e.g., Ethnologue and Linguasphere Register]. [Full context]
[March 08, 2002] Ontopia Knowledge Suite Supports Query and Schema Tools for Topic Maps. A communiqué from Geir Ove Grønmo and Steve Pepper announces the release of the Ontopia Knowledge Suite version 1.3, with a query engine and schema tools. The Ontopia Knowledge Suite (OKS) includes (1) "a full-featured Topic Map Engine written in 100% Java; (2) the Ontopia Topic Map Navigator Framework, a framework for building J2EE compliant web applications; (3) integration with full-text search engines; and (4) an RDBMS backend for persistent storage of very large topic maps. The new query engine, which utilizes the 'tolog' query language, enables complex queries to be performed on topic maps. The schema tools allow the validation of semantic constraints expressed using the Ontopia Schema Language (OSL), and the development of more intelligent, schema-aware end-user applications." Ontopia is also releasing a new version of its popular free topic map browser, called Omnigator; the Omnigator "is a generic application built on top of the Ontopia Navigator Framework that allows users to load and browse any conforming topic map, including their own." [Full context]
[March 06, 2002] Updated XML Parser Written in Haskell (HXML). A posting from Joe English announces the release of HXML version 0.2, a 'pre-beta' non-validating XML parser written in Haskell. This Haskell-based parser is "designed for space-efficiency, taking advantage of lazy evaluation to reduce memory requirements. HXML may be used as a drop-in replacement for the HaXml parser in existing programs. In HXML, XML documents are represented as a Tree of XMLNodes; an XMLNode is an algebraic data type roughly corresponding to XML Information Set items, [as specified by the W3C XML Information Set Recommendation]. Changes in version 0.2 include added support for CDATA sections; arrow-based combinator library [HXML filters]; a new function parseDocument which recognizes [and ignores] the document prolog, viz., the XML and DOCTYPE declarations; renaming of several data structures and public functions; fixed space fault in comment parsing. The current version has been tested with GHC 5.02, NHC 1.10, and various recent versions of Hugs 98." [Full context]
[March 05, 2002] XBRL Standard for Capital Markets Enjoys Growing International Adoption. News from the March 4-8 German XBRL Symposium in Berlin and from a published 'XBRL Progress Report' highlights the global adoption of the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) by financial services institutions, government agencies, regulatory bodies, software developers, and other organizations. Following closely upon the announcement by Bank of America that it has begun to pilot XBRL in the US, the Deutsche Bank has announceed its use of XBRL to process loan information and streamline its credit analysis process. An XBRL taxonomy for German Accounting Principles has been released, so German companies can now use XBRL as they move forward with implementation to obtain straight-through reporting efficiencies. The Australia Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) recently became the first banking regulator in the world to use XBRL to monitor the financial well being of 12,000 Australian super funds, insurers and banks required to report to APRA on a regular basis. Microsoft anounced that it has "become the first technology company to publish its financial statements on the Internet using Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) an XML-based framework for financial reporting." XBRL is designed to provide "public and private companies with an effective way to prepare and distribute financial statements, credit and loan reports, tax, audit, and others reports using the Internet in a cost effective and universal manner. For financial publishers and data aggregators, XBRL supports efficient data collection through straight-through processing which lowers operating costs associated with custom, idiosyncratic data feeds and reduces errors." [Full context]
[March 04, 2002] W3C XML Encryption Working Group Releases Candidate Recommendation Specifications. The W3C XML Encryption Working Group has published an updated XML Encryption Requirements document and has approved the release of XML Encryption Syntax and Processing and Decryption Transform for XML Signature as Candidate Recommendation specifications. The working group expects to meet the exit criteria for the two CRs, but solicits additional feedback (until April 25, 2002) based upon on implementation experience. The requirements specification outlines "the design principles, scope, and requirements for XML Encryption; it includes requirements as they relate to the encryption syntax, data model, format, cryptographic processing, and external requirements and coordination." The core specification for XML Encryption Syntax and Processing defines "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 EncryptedData element which contains (via one of its children's content) or identifies (via a URI reference) the cipher data. When encrypting an XML element or element content the EncryptedData element replaces the element or content (respectively) in the encrypted version of the XML document. When encrypting arbitrary data (including entire XML documents), the EncryptedData element may become the root of a new XML document or become a child element in an application-chosen XML document." The Decryption Transform document " specifies an XML Signature "decryption transform" that enables XML Signature applications to distinguish between those XML Encryption structures that were encrypted before signing (and must not be decrypted) and those that were encrypted after signing (and must be decrypted) for the signature to validate." [Full context]
[March 01, 2002] GSA's Government Without Boundaries Project (GwoB) Publishes Draft XML Schemas. A Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the 'Government Without Boundaries' (GwoB) project has published draft XML schemas with a corresponding taxonomy and data dictionary for park and recreation services. The General Services Administration's GwoB project is dedicated to the creation of a "virtual pool of government information and services available from all levels of government and accessible by all constituents to facilitate interoperability between parks and recreation sites and web enabled systems. The GWoB website provides general GWoB project information with hotlinks to each state participants' GWoB demonstration project. GSA will also post subcommittee products such as draft XML schemas for government and industry comment; it is to host information regarding other intergovernmental initiatives such as the Business Registry and Simplified Tax and Wage Reporting System (STAWRS)." The draft taxonomy for parks and recreation data defines the data entities and related attributes of interest; entities include Agency, ContactSponsor, Event, Facility, and Location. The corresponding XML schemas are available online in an interactive context that supports public review and annotation; the element specifications map to enumerated attributes for the data entities, as in the case of Event: EventName, EventDescription, StartDate, EndDate, StartTime, EndTime, AgeGroup, EventURL, EventEmail, RegistrationNeeded, EventADAAccess, EventFeeDescription, EventComments. These facilities (in pilot phase) support the ideals of a seamless GwoB initiative which means "constituents can obtain info and services across all levels of government for their purposes, and governments can identify and deliver integrated information and services to their constituents." [Full context]
[March 01, 2002] ebXML Message Service Specification Version 2.0 Submitted for Ratification as an OASIS Standard. A posting from Ian Jones (Chair, OASIS ebXML Messaging Services TC) announced that the latest ebXML Message Service Specification Version 2.0 has been approved, and that the technical committee has voted to submit the specification for approval as an OASIS standard. The ebXML Message Service (ebMS) "defines the message enveloping and header document schema used to transfer ebXML messages over a communications protocol such as HTTP or SMTP and the behavior of software sending and receiving ebXML messages. The ebMS is defined as a set of layered extensions to the base 'Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)' and 'SOAP Messages with Attachments' specifications. It provides the message packaging, routing and transport facilities for the ebXML infrastructure. The specification document provides security and reliability features necessary to support international electronic business. These security and reliability features are not provided in the SOAP or SOAP with Attachments specifications. The ebMS is a closely coordinated definition for an ebXML message service handler (MSH)." Implementations of Version 2.0 of the specification have been reported by bTrade Inc., Cyclone Commerce, Sybase, IONA Technologies, Sterling Commerce, and Fujitsu. [Full context]
[March 01, 2002] Rogue Wave Software Releases Ruple Alpha Version 2 for XML Spaces. A posting from Andy Gray announces the Alpha Version 2 release of Ruple , implementing XML Spaces. Ruple is an Internet space (similar to Sun 'JavaSpaces' and IBM 'Tspaces') based upon tuple space architecture; it is implemented "as a distributed collection of content-addressable documents, providing a shared memory space for multiple applications from which documents can be read or to which documents can be written. It supports asynchronous Web services, secure document exchange, application integration and coordination, occasionally connected devices, and peer-to-peer computing. Like other spaces, Ruple allows synchronization of highly decoupled systems, but it is unique in that it both stores XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents, and that it is accessible over the Internet using standard Internet protocols such as HTTP and the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). In addition, it offers a security model based on X.509 digital certificates, allowing only those with the proper security to place and take documents in a Ruple space. Ruple natively stores XML documents, and retrieves them using an XML query syntax." New features in the Ruple Alpha V2 release include MIME-based attachments,a server-side download, and comprehensive examples illustrating the use of Ruple technology. [Full context]
[February 28, 2002] OpenTravel Alliance Publishes XML Specifications Supporting Travel Industry Messaging. The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) has announced the publication of Versions 2001B and 2001C of its Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifications, which "help all sectors of travel communicate more efficiently and effectively by simplifying the implementation and transmission of complex electronic transactions." The 2001B Message Specification "presents the specifications for the exchange of messages in the travel industry, covering travel services for airlines, car rentals, hotels, and travel insurance. It uses the XML for the exchange of these messages transmitted under Internet protocols. The 2001C Messages document contains Air Availability messages, Package Tours messages, and Golf Tee Times messages. This Infrastructure document also specifies a mapping for the distribution of OTA messages on top of ebXML messaging, and provides the framework for all OTA messages by completing the OTA Best Practices section. The OTA has chosen XML as the vehicle for its specifications, determining that it offers a common framework flexible enough to be used between systems throughout the travel industry." The new OTA specifications build upon ebXML, W3C, ISO, and IATA standards. [Full context]
[February 28, 2002] W3C Publishes XML Pipeline Definition Language Version 1.0. A 'Pipeline' submission from ten W3C member companies describes the features and syntax for a proposed XML Pipeline Definition Language. Pipeline is "an XML vocabulary for describing the processing relationships between XML resources. A pipeline document specifies the inputs and outputs to XML processes and a pipeline controller uses this document to figure out the chain of processing that must be executed in order to get a particular result. For example, you can use a pipeline document to specify that the XML messages coming into a business transaction hub must be validated and augmented with datatype information using XML Schema, then transformed with XSLT to bring them into a hub language, then queried for various purposes... a pipeline document could be used to control the behavior of a SOAP actor, a complex publishing application, or an upgrade to new versions of XML vocabularies, [making] applications of the Pipeline language are as broad as XML applications themselves." The Note will be brought to the attention of the W3C XML Core Working Group and the XML Signature Working Group. Declarations from the ten companies making the submission offer the technology 'Royalty-Free' under terms defined by the submission request. [Full context]
[February 28, 2002] Web3D Consortium Publishes Draft for Royalty-Free Extensible 3D Standard. The Web3D Consortium has announced the public availability of the draft X3D ('Extensible 3D') royalty-free standard which will be submitted to the International Standards Organization (ISO) in August 2002. The normative Annex A of 'Part 3: Data encodings' presents the Extensible Markup Language (XML) encoding in the form of a DTD; there is also a draft XML Schema for the Extensible 3D (X3D) tagset, representing the draft Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 200x. The X3D standard "enables new opportunities for the creation and deployment of state-of-the-art 3D graphics on small, lightweight web clients, and the integration of high-performance 3D into broadcast and embedded devices." Web3D also announced that the X3D Interactive profile "has been accepted by the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as the basis for lightweight, interactive 3D graphics in the MPEG-4 multimedia standard; this profile defines a small footprint subset of X3D that enables interactive 3D functionality for MPEG-4 Systems." [Full context]
[February 27, 2002] Governmental Markup Language (GovML) for Online One-Stop E-Government. A two-year eGOV initiative (IST PROJECT 2000-28471) has been funded through the European Commission to "specify, develop, deploy and evaluate an integrated platform for realising online one-stop government." One aspect of the eGOV project is development of the Governmental Markup Language (GovML), to be introduced as an XML vocabulary that "will support the delivery of content and services to citizens (businesses) in terms of life-events, or business episodes." The eGOV project will specify and develop a "next generation of governmental portals and the supporting network architecture, a service repository with corresponding service creation environment, and the Governmental Markup Language. The technical aspects will be coupled with a study of social aspects and process re-engineering methods. The ultimate project goal is to promote the eGOV developments as the next generation platforms for online one-stop government... GovML itself will support the interoperability and the data flow between the portal and the distributed services repositories; it will provide a basis for the exchange of documents with a common format within the domain of public sector." [Full context]
[February 26, 2002] UK Office of Government Commerce Publishes CECA XML Specification Version 2.1. In support of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Electronic Property Information Mapping System (e-PIMS), the UK government agency has produced a version 2.1 draft of the CECA Property Data Structures specification which defines the data required to be submitted by Central Civil Government departments to the OGC about their Civil Estate property occupations. The goal of the UML/XML specification, which covers requirements of the Civil Estate Co-ordination Agreement (CECA), is to support the transfer and interoperability of e-PIMS data based on e-Gif standards. It outlines a proposed XML schema architecture for representing CECA Property data structures. This architecture has been developed with modular structure and has two clearly defined parts. The actual data structures referred to as the architecture and a set of schemas to be used to transfer the data, referred to as messaging schemas." This initiative is being developed "in line with the government's own e-Gif standards, but is essentially designed for use within the public sector, to facilitate the improvement in quality and accuracy of Civil Estate data. XML is being used extensively within the e-Government initiative to facilitate communication, with this in mind CECA is utilising XML as the key data format for bulk data transfer." [Full context]
[February 26, 2002] W3C Publishes Royalty-Free Patent Policy Working Draft. The W3C Patent Policy Working Group has released a new working draft document Patent Policy Working Group Royalty-Free Patent Policy, superseding the W3C Patent Policy Framework. The WD Royalty-Free patent policy "addresses a large number of issues raised by comments from W3C Members and the general public." One of the significant changes in the new WD (since the 16-August-2001 Last Call draft) relates to the W3C's position on RAND. Under the terms of the previous document, a preference was confirmed for W3C Recommendations that can be implemented on a royalty-free (RF) basis, but allowing, where RF is not possible, "a framework to assure maximum possible openness based on reasonable, non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing terms." In response to public comments, the RAND track has now been dropped. Comments have expressed concern that RAND-encumbered specifications would not be implemented and that RAND would lead to discrimination and fragmentation (e.g., RAND would hurt open source developers, would discriminate against the poor, would stifle innovation and reduce choice, would harm end users as well as developers, universal access and RAND are incompatible; patents and standards are incompatible, etc.). A number of issues remain to be resolved in the W3C patent policy. [Full context]
[February 21, 2002] W3C Publishes Specification for Voice Browser Call Control (CCXML). The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has released a first public Working Draft specification for Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. The CCXML specification, based upon CCXML 1.0 submitted in April 2001, "describes markup for designed to provide telephony call control support for VoiceXML or other dialog systems. CCXML has been designed to complement and integrate with a VoiceXML system." The draft thus contains many references to VoiceXML's capabilities and limitations, together with details on how VoiceXML and CCXML can be integrated. However, the two languages are separate and are not required in an implementation of either language. For example CCXML could be integrated with a more traditional IVR system and VoiceXML could be integrated with some other call control system... Properly adding advanced telephony features to VoiceXML [through CCXML] entails adding not just a new telephone model, but new call management and event processing, as well... events from telephony networks or external networked entities are non-transactional in nature; they can occur at any time, regardless of the current state of VoiceXML interpretation. These events could demand immediate attention. We could either abandon VoiceXML's admirably simple single-threaded programming model, or delay event-servicing until the VoiceXML program explicitly asked to handle such events. Instead of making either of these bad choices, we instead move all call control functions out of VoiceXML into an accompanying CCXML program. VoiceXML can thus focus on being effective for voice dialogs, while CCXML tackles the very different problems..." [Full context]
[February 20, 2002] SALT Forum Publishes Draft Specification for Speech Application Language Tags. The SALT Forum has published a draft specification for its "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 (Speech Application Language Tags) is defined by "a small set of XML elements, with associated attributes and DOM object properties, events and methods, which may be used in conjunction with a source markup document to apply a speech interface to the source page. The SALT formalism and semantics are independent of the nature of the source document, so SALT can be used equally effectively within HTML and all its flavours, or with WML, or with any other SGML-derived markup. SALT is an extension of HTML and other markup languages (cHTML, XHTML, WML) which adds a spoken dialog interface to web applications, for both voice only browsers (e.g., over the telephone) and multimodal browsers. For multimodal applications, SALT can be added to a visual page to support speech input and/or output. This is a way to speech-enable individual HTML controls for 'push-to-talk' form-filling scenarios, or to add more complex mixed initiative capabilities if necessary. For applications without a visual display, SALT manages the interactional flow of the dialog and the extent of user initiative by using the HTML eventing and scripting model. In this way, the full programmatic control of client-side (or server-side) code is available to application authors for the management of prompt playing and grammar activation." Appendix A of the version 0.9 draft specification supplies the SALT XML DTD. [Full context]
[February 19, 2002] IBM Publishes Technical Paper on Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP). A technical specification on "Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP)" edited by Thomas Schaeck (IBM) has been published on the IBM developerWorks web site. The specification has also been submitted to the OASIS 'Web Services Remote Portal' Technical Committee; Schaeck is currently the TC Chair. Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP) are described as "visual, user-facing web services centric components that 'plug-n-play' with portals or other intermediary web applications that aggregate content or applications from different sources. They are designed to enable businesses to provide content or applications in a form that does not require any manual content- or application-specific adaptation by consuming intermediary applications... the WSRP standard defines a web services interface description using WSDL and all the semantics and behavior that web services and consuming applications must comply with in order to be pluggable as well as the meta-information that has to be provided when publishing WSRP services into UDDI directories. The standard allows WSRP services to be implemented in very different ways, be it as a Java/J2EE based web service, a web service implemented on Microsoft's .NET platform or a portlet published as a WSRP Service by a portal. The standard enables use of generic adapter code to plug in any WSRP service into intermediary applications rather than requiring specific proxy code." [Full context]
[February 19, 2002] Updated TEI PizzaChef Tool Supports XML DTD Generation. A posting from Lou Burnard (Oxford Computing Services) announces the release of an updated TEI 'PizzaChef' tool, accessible online from the TEI Consortium websites at the University of Virginia and Oxford University. The updated tool uses the P4 XML Edition DTD modules from the TEI Guidelines and produces only XML DTDs. Using a baking metaphor, the PizzaChef tool enables the designer to create a personalized TEI-conformant document type definition (DTD) simply by clicking radio buttons and check-boxes. "The TEI Guidelines define several hundred elements and associated attributes, which can be combined to make many different DTDs, suitable for many different purposes, either simple or complex. With the aid of the PizzaChef, you can build a DTD that contains just the elements you want, suitable for use with any XML processing system." The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines themselves support SGML and XML, representing an "international and interdisciplinary standard that helps libraries, museums, publishers, and individual scholars represent all kinds of literary and linguistic texts for online research and teaching, using an encoding scheme that is maximally expressive and minimally obsolescent." [Full context]
[February 18, 2002] Mailing List and Web Site for ISO's Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL). Ken Holman and Eric van der Vlist have set up a web site to support the ISO SC34/WG1 work on the Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL). DSDL [ISO/IEC 19757] is a relatively new project under International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Committee, Joint Technical Committee 1, Subcommittee 34, Working Group 1. The project objective is "to create a framework within which multiple validation tasks of different types can be applied to an XML document in order to achieve more complete validation results than just the application of a single technology." 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: specifications for describing aspects of validity of a document, and 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." Much of the DSDL work is expected to be conducted via email. In addition to the moderated members-only mailing list, an open unmoderated list dsdl-comment@dsdl.org has been set up for public contributions. [Full context]
[February 14, 2002] UK Inland Revenue Internet Service Technical Pack Provides XML Schemas for Tax Software Developers. The latest release of the '2002 Internet Service Technical Pack for Software Developers' from the UK Inland Revenue contains some sixteen (16) XML schemas and other documentation relevant to the development of software for the electronic submission of 2001/02 Tax Returns over the Internet. This pack is one of several containing XML schemas; financial agents, payroll bureaux and other intermediaries are now able to send a number of PAYE forms over the Internet on behalf of their clients who are employers. XML schemas are available for EB5 PAYE forms (P6, P6B, P9) and for PAYE 'In Year'. An online Y2002 Internet Test Submission Service has also been provided to software developers to test the validity of XML submissions under the internet service; these include IR-PAYE-EOY (2002 End Of Year submissions); IR-PAYE-EXB (2002 Expenses and Benefits submissions); IR-PAYE-STARTER (2002 Movements P46 and P45[3] submissions); IR-PAYE-LEAVER (Movements P45[1] submissions); IR-PAYE-PENNOT (2002 Pension Notification submissions); IR-PAYE-UPDATE (2002 Works Number Update submissions); IR-PAYE-DOM (2002 Domestic schemas P12, P37). This UK Inland Revenue Electronic Business activity parallels similar schema development work being done in the US by the Tax Information Group for ECommerce Requirements Standardization (TIGERS). [Full context]
[February 14, 2002] Clark Updates Jing - A RELAX NG Validator in Java. James Clark has announced a new version of Jing with significant changes and revised documentation. Jing version '2002-02-13' implements the final RELAX NG 1.0 Specification and also implements parts of RELAX NG DTD Compatibility, specifically checking of ID/IDREF/IDREFS. James has "almost completely rewritten the validator using an improved algorithm. In the old algorithm, the state of the validation was represented by a stack of sets of patterns; in the new algorithm, the state is represented by a single pattern... The new release includes a documented API for Jing; in fact there are two APIs, a native API and JARV. James has rewritten the description of derivative-based validation to correspond to what's been implemented and to incorporate feedback received on the previous version from Murata-san and Kawaguchi-san... The Jing implementation is available for download as a JAR file and as a Win32 executable for use with the Microsoft Java VM. [Full context]
[February 14, 2002] IBM Releases XML Schema Quality Checker Version 2.0. IBM alphaWorks labs has released an enhanced version of its XML Schema Quality Checker (SQC). SQC is "a program which takes as input documents containing XML Schemas written in the W3C XML schema language and diagnoses improper uses of the schema language. Where the appropriate action to correct the schema is not obvious, the diagnostic message may include a suggestion about how to make the fix. The updated version now provides direct validation of embedded schemas like those which may appear in WSDL documents or XForms. It includes bug fixes and now uses Xerces version 2.0.0. For Eclipse or WSAD users, the IBM XML Schema Quality Checker can now be installed as an Eclipse or WSAD plugin; it can also still be run as a standalone command line program." [Full context]
[February 14, 2002] XML-Signature Published as a W3C Recommendation. The IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group has produced a 'final' specification for XML Signature, and has issued XML-Signature Syntax and Processing as a W3C Recommendation. XML digital signatures "provide integrity, message authentication, and signer authentication services." The accompanying Interoperability Report identifies at least ten (10) implementations, with at least two interoperable implementations over every feature. The Recommendation "specifies XML syntax and processing rules for creating and representing digital signatures. XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content (data object), including XML. An XML Signature may be applied to the content of one or more resources. Enveloped or enveloping signatures are over data within the same XML document as the signature; detached signatures are over data external to the signature element. More specifically, this specification defines an XML signature element type and an XML signature application; conformance requirements for each are specified by way of schema definitions and prose respectively. This specification also includes other useful types that identify methods for referencing collections of resources, algorithms, and keying and management information." [Full context]
[February 13, 2002] New W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Specification and Deployment Guide. The W3C P3P Specification Working Group has released an updated Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide as well as a 'Proposed Recommendation' version of The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 (P3P1.0) Specification. The review period for the PR specification ends on 25-February-2002. P3P version 1.0 is "a protocol designed to inform Web users of the data-collection practices of Web sites. It provides a way for a Web site to encode its data-collection and data-use practices in a machine-readable XML format known as a P3P policy. The P3P specification defines: (1) A standard schema for data a Web site may wish to collect, known as the 'P3P base data schema'; (2) A standard set of uses, recipients, data categories, and other privacy disclosures; (3) An XML format for expressing a privacy policy; (4) A means of associating privacy policies with Web pages or sites, and cookies; (5) A mechanism for transporting P3P policies over HTTP. The accompanying Guide explains what's involved in deploying P3P on a Web site, how to decide how many P3P policies to use and how to map those policies onto the Web site, different ways to publish your privacy policy, and step-by-step instructions for deploying your privacy policy on various popular Web servers." [Full context]
[February 11, 2002] ArapXML Project Develops a General Ledger Information Entities (GLIEs) Library. The ArapXML project has begun development of a 'General Ledger Information Entities (GLIEs) Library' designed to "support the payloads passed between General Ledgers, Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable (AR/AP) systems, and ebXML business collaboration software." In this context, a Generally Ledger is conceptualized as a "collection of records denoting the increases and decreases in resources of an Owner over time, together with classifications and descriptive information sufficient for reporting of the results of operations for periods of time, and financial position at points in time." The GLIE library "will consist of information entities such as dates, times, parties and products (data elements) suitable for registration in an ISO 11179 metadata registry or ebXML registry/repository, or as a native application interface. The library elements will represent any discrete economic resource flow or commitment that can be quantified in money or unit measures, as well as the adjustments and summarized totals which are found in ledgers and other systems. The library will consist of Core Components (CCs) and Business Information Entities (BIEs) compliant with the ebTWG specification for Core Components, UML models, and XML schemas for each usage scenario generated from the UML models. The library will provide a UML models which describe use cases for passing transaction data between a variety of business objects such as web services, legacy accounting ledgers and business applications... By adopting the GLIE library and ebXML registry/repository, business may align the semantic content and grain of their internal metadata with globally standard data element names and definitions (ebXML Core Components) used in external transactions with trading partners." [Full context]
[February 11, 2002] OASIS Technical Committee for XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF). A proposal has been received by OASIS for a new technical committee to define a common set of XML 1.0 encodings for the patron formats defined in CBEFF, the Common Biometric Exchange File Format (NISTIR 6529). In this setting, biometrics "are used to prove or help prove identity based on human characteristics such as DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, hand geometry, etc." The encodings created by the technical committee on XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF) "will be specified in accordance with the ASN.1 schema definitions published in ANS X9.84:2000 Biometrics Information Management and Security for The Financial Services Industry. Projected deliverables from the TC include (1) a document defining the ASN.1/XML CBEFF schema, an introduction and overview of canonical DER, PER, and XER, and the processing and security requirements needed for the creation and verification of all cryptographic types defined in X9.84, in the form of XML encoded objects; (2) a working module including ASN.1 XML Markup Value Notation examples of X9.84 biometric types defined in the CBEFF standard, along with the underlying ASN.1 schema; (3) a published example DER, PER and XER encodings of values of X9.84 biometric types and equivalent BIR encodings; (4) documentation of new CBEFF patron formats that may become standard during the period of this work, in particular an anticipated smart card patron format." [Full context]
[February 07, 2002] IBM and Microsoft Announce Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I). IBM and Microsoft, together with some fifty additional industry leaders, have formed a new Web Services Interoperability Organization "committed to promoting interoperability among Web services based on common, industry-accepted definitions and related XML standards support. WS-I brings the work of multiple standards development organizations together for the purpose of providing clarity and conformance around Web Services." WS-I working groups will be chartered to produce specific sets of deliverables such as testing tools and sample Web services. These deliverables will be targeted at providing resources to assist Web services developers "to create interoperable Web services, and to verify that their results are compliant with both industry standards and WS-I recommended guidelines." Key deliverables include (1) Profiles, which identify version-specific sets of Web services specifications that interoperate to support specific types of solutions; (2) Sample Implementations exposing interoperability issues; (3) Implementation Guidelines with implementation scenarios, sample solutions, and test cases illustrating compliance verification; (4) A 'Sniffer' tool to monitor and log interactions with a Web service; (5) An 'Analyzer' conformance testing tool which processes sniffer logs to verify that the Web service implementation is error-free. WS-I is open to any organization supporting the goal of interoperable Web services. [Full context]
[February 05, 2002] XrML Under Review for the MPEG-21 Rights Expression Language (REL). The MPEG Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS) Group has produced a skeletal working draft for MPEG-21 Part 5 "Rights Expression Language (REL)," based upon initial work at the 58th MPEG Meeting in Pattaya, Thailand. Following receipt of several submissions in response to the MPEG Call for Proposals for a Rights Data Dictionary and Rights Description Language, three MPEG experts selected ContentGuard's Extensible Rights Markup Language (XrML) as a basis for the MPEG-21 Rights Expression Language. XrML [submission M7640] was selected as "the base architecture," and the working group is now conducting a series of Core Experiments to determine whether modification and additions will be necessary to fully meet the MPEG-21 requirements. Working group participants anticipate that they will have a fairly "stable specification" by July 2002; after subsequent formal review, comment, and voting procedures, they hope to publish the specification as an ISO/MPEG standard by June/July 2003. [Full context]
[February 04, 2002] US GSA Office of Intergovernmental Solutions Publishes Report on E-Government XML Applications. A communiqué from Keith Thurston announces the publication of a special OIS newsletter featuring "XML Applications in Government." This special newsletter issue "explores how Federal, State, Local and International Governments are using XML to help facilitate development of 'Citizen-Centered E-Government'. The newsletter issue contains twenty-eight (28) articles from from governments around the world, academia, IT associations and business, and "provides an excellent introduction to the uses of XML by government agencies." OIS Newsletter Issue 11 is the latest in an "ongoing series of comprehensive newsletters which focus on 'Citizen-Centered E-government,' requiring a high degree of interoperability across agencies and jurisdictions in order to link the systems and applications that collect, process, and display government information. Article topics include: the AEC/XML DATA Model for Equipment Manufacturers; Department of the Navy XML Work Group; Office of Justice Programs XML Reconciliation Effort; SGML and XML at the Patent and Trademark Office; US Army Electronic Bid Solicitation system; Program Executive Office Interchange XML Initiative (PIXIT); EPA National Environmental Exchange Network and Central Data Exchange P2P system; National Institute of Justice XML Solution for Information Sharing, etc. The Office of Intergovernmental Solutions (OIS) under the US General Services Administration (GSA) seeks to facilitate the intergovernmental sharing of experiences and expertise in information and communications technology and public administration." [Full context]
[February 04, 2002] CGM Open Consortium Releases WebCGM Test Suite. A posting from Lofton Henderson (CGM Open Program Director) announces the first public release of the WebCGM Conformance Test Suite 1.0. This release of the test suite "has tests spanning the most important functionality of the WebCGM 1.0 standard. It covers both the graphical and intelligent (navigation and hyperlinking) content of WebCGM 1.0. A second release is planned for June, 2002, containing additional test cases (where functionality might currently be inadequately tested), as well as structural and informational improvements. In particular, an important link/traceback from the test case to the appropriate requirements and testable assertions from the WebCGM standard is under development. The test suite should provide a valuable interoperability tool for both WebCGM product developers and product users. Comments, feedback, and suggestions are welcome." [Full context]
[February 02, 2002] Agricultural Metadata Standards Initiative Publishes Draft XML DTD. A posting from Johannes Keizer (FAO, Library and Documentation Systems Division) announces the availability of a draft XML DTD which will provide a standard exchange format for literature and database resources published through the AGRIS network. The draft DTD is based upon the existing AGStandards specifications and the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. In anticipation of March 2002 publication of the DTD, the developers invite public comment. The Agricultural Metadata Standards Initiative "was launched in November of 2000 at a workshop in Brussels jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and OneWorld Europe." The current project goal is to encode and publish the Application Profile both as an XML Document Type Definition as well as an RDF Schema. The schema will be put to immediate use as part of pilot project between FAO and a number of important and successful agricultural gateway services. The project aims to provide a single access point with multi-host searching using the Agricultural Application Profile as the standard for linking common meta-data across the different gateway services." AGRIS Network resources are designed especially for the exchange of information among developing countries, whose literature would not be covered by other international systems." [Full context]
[February 02, 2002] OASIS Technical Committee to Define Published Subjects for Geography and Languages. A proposal has been submitted to OASIS for the creation of a new technical committee on 'Published Subjects for Geography and Languages'. The TC will define sets of published subjects "for language, country, and region subjects, in accordance with the guidelines for published subjects to be laid down by the OASIS Published Subjects TC. Languages, countries, and regions are subjects that occur frequently across a wide range of topic maps. In order to promote maximum reusability, interchangeability and mergeability, standardised sets of published subjects are required to cover these domains. Two such PSI sets (for country and language) were published as part of the XML Topic Map 1.0 Specification; the task of this TC will be to update and extend those PSI sets using existing code sets defined by recognised standards bodies such as the ISO and the UN." Published subjects will be created for languages according to ISO 639 and USMARC codes; published subjects for countries and regions will be based upon ISO 3166; PSI sets for countries, regions, and geographic areas will also be created for USMARC codes; another set of published subjects for regions will be based up on the UNSD Standard Country or Area Codes. Published subjects are a form of controlled vocabulary allowing "unambiguous indication of the identity of a subject"; they are defined in the ISO 13250 Topic Maps standard and further refined in the XML Topic Maps (XTM) 1.0 Specification. [Full context]
[February 01, 2002] LuceneXML Package Supports Structure-Aware Searching of XML Documents. A communiqué from Eliot Kimber announces the availability of a LuceneXML package and companion LuceneClient package which support indexing of XML documents in a way that enables structure-aware search and retrieval. LuceneXML represents "the initial result of an experiment in using the Apache Lucene package; the implementation is incomplete but sufficient to demonstrate the approach and to enable testing." Jakarta Lucene is Java-based, high-performance, full-featured text search engine suitable for full-text search. The LuceneXML package "provides a manager class (XMLSandRManager) that exposes factory methods for creating XML indexers and searchers. Using the XML indexer, you can add XML documents to a Lucene index. The XML searcher provides convenience methods for submitting XML queries to Lucene... The LuceneClient application lets you index XML documents and submit queries against Lucene indexes." [Full context]
[January 29, 2002] W3C Organizes a Web Services Activity. The W3C's XML Protocol Activity has been incorporated into a new W3C Web Services Activity, organized under the W3C Architecture Domain "to develop a set of technologies in order to bring Web services to their full potential." Initially, the W3C Web Services Activity includes a Coordination Group and three Working Groups: (1) Web Services Architecture Working Group; (2) XML Protocol Working Group; (3) Web Services Description Working Group. Members of the Coordination Group include the Chairs of the Activity Working Groups (Christopher Ferris, David Fallside, and Jonathan Marsh), the Web Services Activity Lead (Hugo Haas) and the Semantic Web Activity Lead (Eric Miller). The Architecture Working Group "will identify the technologies necessary for Web services to be used, described, discovered, how Web services interact with each other (such as long-time conversations, routing, composition); it will clearly delimit the boundaries of each identified component, and model the interfaces between them, so that the scope of new Working Groups created to address each piece of is unambiguously defined." The XML Protocol Working Group "creates simple protocols that can be ubiquitously deployed and easily programmed through scripting languages, XML tools, interactive Web development tools, etc. The Web Services Description WG will review the scope of the WSDL 1.1 specification as part of the interface component design task (message, message exchange patterns, protocol binding). [Full context]
[January 25, 2002] Sun Releases Java Web Services Developer Pack EA1. A posting from Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart (Sun Microsystems) announces the early access release of the Java Web Services Developer Pack, available from the 'Java Technology and Web Services' web site. The package "provides access to early versions of the standard Java APIs for XML processing and web services that are being developed through the JCP process. The Java Web Services Developers Pack (Java WSDP) is an all-in-one download containing provides key technologies to simplify building of web services using the Java2 Platform. It provides early releases of base XML technology (JAXP 1.2, including XML schema support), SOAP based RPC (JAX-RPC), SOAP-based messaging (JAXM), and registry client support (JAXR). Although this is an EA1 of the product that Sun developers are targeting for release in summer 2002, they also include a tutorial as well as a number of additional features to help you get up and running quickly, including building tools (Ant Build Tool 1.4.1), a UDDI registry for testing, some management (more in later EAs), installation, etc. They also include a version of Apache Tomcat so that developers can start using the JWSDP right away; the pieces depend only on J2EE 1.3 APIs." [Full context]
[January 25, 2002] Updated SPACE XML Schema for the Advertising Print/Publisher Supply Chain. A communiqué from Craig Shrader (Intersect Technologies Inc., SPACE XML Committee Chair) updates technical committee progress on the SPACE XML specification. SPACE XML (Specifications for Publisher-Agency Communications Exchange XML) was created through an IDEAlliance committee as the XML version of the SPACE X12 specification, finalized in 1997. The committee (also known as the 'SPACEXML B-to-B Advertising Committee') first developed the SPACE standard as an EDI X.12 format in order to eliminate confusion and discrepancies in advertising pre-print processes. SPACE XML "takes the information that is exchanged between an ad agency, printer, and publisher, and puts it into a completely standardized electronic format. This allows the process of exchanging information to be well defined and creates a definitive way of conducting business. SPACE XML currently has standardized XML coding for: (1) Space reservations; (2) Insertion orders; (3) Material job tickets; (4) Change order; (5) Confirmation. Balloting on the draft XML Schema ended November 30, 2001; the current review period extends through January 31, 2002, and specification approval by the IDEAlliance Board is expected in March 2002. [Full context]
[January 25, 2002] Seminar on Rule Markup Techniques for the Semantic Web. A one-week seminar on 'Rule Markup Techniques' will be hosted by the Dagstuhl International Conference and Research Center for Computer Science (Wadern, Germany) on February 3-8, 2002. "Rule systems (e.g., extended Horn logics) suitable for the Web, their (XML and RDF) syntax, semantics, tractability/efficiency, and transformation/compilation will be explored. Both derivation rules (which may be evaluated bottom-up as in deductive databases, top-down as in logic programming, or by tabled resolution as in XSB) and reaction rules (also called 'active' or 'event-condition-action' rules), as well as any combinations, will be considered. This 'Rule Markup Techniques' seminar aims at bringing together the classical- and Web-rule communities to cross-fertilize between their foundations, methods, and applications. The long-term goal is a Web-based standard for rules that makes use of, and is also useful to, the classical rule perspective. The seminar is expected to contribute to some open issues of recent proposals such as Notation 3 (N3), DAML-Rules, and the Rule Markup Language (RuleML). Furthermore, by studying issues of combining rules and taxonomies via sorted logics, description logics, or frame systems, the Seminar will also discuss the US-European proposal DAML+OIL. Two particular issues that will be addressed during this seminar are efficient implementation techniques (e.g., via Java-based rule engines) and major exchange applications (e.g., using e-business rules)." Conference organizers include internationally-recognized authorities on rule and agent markup languages: Harold Boley (DFKI Kaiserslautern, Germany), Benjamin Grosof (MIT Sloan School of Management, USA), Said Tabet (Nisus, USA), and Gerd Wagner (Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands). [Full context]
[January 24, 2002] W3C Patent Policy Supports Royalty-Free (RF) Working Groups. A new document approved by the W3C Advisory Board describes current W3C patent practice as established in a 22-January-2002 meeting. At present W3C only has a process for Royalty-Free (RF) Working Groups; the Patent Policy Working Group has been asked to look into creating a process for RAND working groups. W3C current practice "has evolved in order to satisfy the goal held by a number of W3C Members and significant parts of the larger Web community: that W3C Recommendations should be, as far as possible, implementable on a Royalty-Free basis. The current practice described here seeks to (1) establish Royalty-Free implementation as a goal for Recommendations produced by new and re-chartered Working Groups; (2) encourage maximum disclosure of patents that might prevent a W3C Recommendation from being implemented on a Royalty-Free basis; (3) provide a process for addressing situations in which the goal of Royalty-Free implementation may not be attainable. Each new or re-chartered Working Group will be chartered with a patent licensing requirement. At present, only Royalty-Free (RF) Working Groups will be created. This requirement describes the licensing terms according to which the final Recommendation ought to be able to be implemented. It does not impose any licensing requirements on either Working Group participants or W3C Members as a whole." [Full context]
[January 23, 2002] Adobe InDesign 2.0 Supports Generalized XML Import/Export and the Extensible Metadata Platform. Adobe Systems has announced XML import/export support in its InDesign version 2.0 software, together with an enhanced printing interface, editable transparency effects such as drop shadows, table creation, and long document support. The professional layout and design program also supports Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) technology, "an XML-based framework for embedding, tracking and exchanging metadata so that content can be deployed more efficiently across different media. InDesign 2.0 enables creative professionals to more effectively create, manage and deliver visually rich content to multiple channels including print, Web, eBooks and PDAs. With built-in support for importing and exporting XML files, one can produce a layout in InDesign, tag the content, and export an XML file for integration into different publishing workflows. Version 2.0 performance enhancements, native support for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows XP, and tighter integration with other Adobe products (Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop) make Adobe InDesign more usable for graphic designers, production artists, and prepress professionals in advertising agencies, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, and book publishers." [Full context]
[January 21, 2002] Proposal for an OASIS Web Services Remote Portal (WSRP) Technical Committee. A proposal has been submitted to OASIS for a new Web Services Remote Portal Technical Committee. To be chaired by Thomas Schaeck of IBM, the WSRP TC proposes to "create an XML and web services standard that will allow for the 'plug-n-play' of: portals, other intermediary web applications that aggregate content, and applications from disparate sources. These so-called Remote Portlet Web services will be designed to enable businesses to provide content or applications in a form that does not require any manual content or application-specific adaptation by consuming applications. The group would harmonize WSRP as far as practical with existing web application programming models (e.g., Portals/Portlets, Macromedia Flash, ...), with the work of the W3C (e.g., XForms, DOM, XML Events, XPath, XLink, XML Component API task force), emerging web services standards (e.g., SOAP, WSDL, WSFL) and with the work of other appropriate business information bodies." Based upon the proposed specification(s), portals would be able "to consume Remote Portlet Web Services, using generic Portlet Proxies to allow to dynamically plug in any Remote Portlet Web Service; portals would be able to publish any local portlet as a Remote Portlet Web Service, and Remote Portlet Web Services could be implemented on any Web services-capable platform." [Full context]
[January 21, 2002] FpML Version 2.0 Published as a Trial Recommendation. A posting from Steven Lord (FpML IRD Working Group Chair) announces the release of FpML Version 2.0 as a Trial Recommendation, and invites implementation feedback. The specification is open for public comment through April 30, 2002 or later, as determined by the FpML Standards Committee. The Financial Products Markup Language (FpML) is "a protocol enabling e-commerce activities in the field of financial derivatives. It is an application of XML, designed by FpML.org to allow the electronic integration of a range of services, from electronic trading and confirmations to portfolio specification for risk analysis. All types of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives will, over time, be incorporated into the standard, although the current focus of FpML Version 2.0 is interest rate derivatives." The FpML 2.0 Trial Recommendation incorporates feedback received from the FpML 2.0 Last Call Working Draft (02-November-2001). The standard is not expected to advance to Recommendation status until implementation feedback has been received. [Full context]
[January 18, 2002] UN/CEFACT Publishes Updated Core Components Technical Specification. The UN/CEFACT eBTWG Core Component Project Team has released an updated version of its Core Components Technical Specification: Part 1, replacing the previous draft version of 31-October-2001. Comments sent to the project team leader by January 30, 2002 will be addressed in the February 2002 ebTWG/TMWG Meeting in Seattle. The Core Components Technical Specification "provides a way to identify, capture and maximize the reuse of business information to support and enhance information interoperability across multiple business situations. The specification focuses both on human-readable and machine-processible representations of this information. The Core Components approach described in this document is more flexible than current standards in this area because the semantic standardisation is done in a syntax-neutral fashion. UN/CEFACT can guarantee that two trading partners using different syntaxes (e.g., XML and EDIFACT) are using business semantics in the same way on condition that both syntaxes have been based on the same Core Components. This enables clean mapping between disparate message definitions across syntaxes, industry and regional boundaries." [Full context]
[January 18, 2002] ARTS and IXRetail Release XML Price and Digital Receipt Schemas for Retail Industry. Recent announcements from the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and the International XML Retail Cooperative (IXRetail) describe the release of new XML schemas for use by retailers. The IXRetail digital receipt XML schema "provides retailers the ability to create, deliver and archive digital receipts using in-store point-of-sale transaction data. The digital receipt is an electronic purchase verification that can be issued by retailers, financial institutions or any other industry that provides consumers proof of purchase. Development of the IXRetail digital receipt standard represents a two-year effort by retail and technology industry leaders through the Digital Receipt Alliance (Office Depot, Home Depot, VISA, NCR, HP-Verifone, Intuit, Microsoft, American Online, and Valicert)." ARTS and IXRetail also released XML-based price schemas for public review and input from retailers. Other IXRetail XML schemas for Transaction Log, Stored Value, Inventory, Remote Equipment Monitoring, and Payment will be released later in 2002. The price schemas are being piloted by Longs Drugs; they are "part of a comprehensive XML data model being developed by ARTS, and are designed to allow retailers to deliver consistent and accurate real-time pricing information to virtually any requesting device -- including hand held units, web sites, phones, and kiosks. The price schemas being piloted are based on the ARTS Data Model and use the ARTS XML Data Dictionary of more than 3,000 standard XML data tags, definitions and codes." [Full context]
[January 16, 2002] U.S. Federal CIO Council XML Working Group Issues XML Developer's Guide. An initial Draft Federal XML Developer's Guide has been published for review by the U.S. Federal CIO Council XML Working Group. The version .1 draft document represents "an early deliverable of the overall US federal strategy for employing XML, designed to assist government activities in developing XML implementations in the short term, while lessons learned are collected. It provides general development guidance for the many XML initiatives currently taking place within US Departments and Agencies while the Working Group is in the process of developing a long-term strategy for aligning XML implementations with government business needs. The XML Developer's Guide is an adaptation of the updated consensus draft produced by the US Department of the Navy (DON)." The guidelines address a broad range of design methodologies and development practices, including the use of recommended XML specifications, XML component conventions, creating XML component names from ISO 11179 data elements, constructing XML component names, XML schema design, recommended schema development methodology, use of XML attributes and/versus elements, creating application specific metadata, document versioning, use of ebXML and UN/CEFACT specifications, and use of the US Federal XML registry. [Full context]
[January 12, 2002] Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL) Supports Sequenced Document Exchanges and P2P E-Commerce. Researchers at HP Laboratories have developed extensions to the Web Services Conversation Language (WSCL) that support 'transformational interactions' for message coordination between web/peer services. Hewlett-Packard's WSCL specification of May 2001 "allows defining the abstract interfaces of web services, i.e., the business level conversations or public processes supported by a web service; WSCL specifies the XML documents being exchanged, and the allowed sequencing of these document exchanges. WSCL adopts an approach from the domain of software agents, modelling protocols for business interaction as conversation policies, but extends this approach to exploit the fact that service messages are XML-based business documents and can thus be mapped to XML document types." The HP research team has now designed a facilitator service mechanism "that can leverage 'reflected' XML-based specifications (borrowed from the web service domain) to direct and enable coordinated sequences of message exchanges (conversation) between services. They extend the usage of WSCL to include mappings of the input and output document types to corresponding document transformations, and call these extended message exchanges 'transformational interactions.' The facilitator service can use these transformational interactions to allow service developers to decouple internal and external interfaces. This means that services can be developed and treated as pools of methods that can be composed dynamically." [Full context]
[January 12, 2002] Pageflex Persona Publishing Application Supports Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML). The version 1.5 release of 'Pageflex Persona' from Pageflex, Inc. offers enhanced support for the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) specification, providing [one of] "the first variable publishing solutions to use XML as the intermediate data format between a profile database and the page composition process." PPML, developed by a working group of the Digital Printing Initiative (PODi), "is a new XML-based printer language gaining widespread support in variable data printing applications. PPML is an open, interoperable, device-independent standard designed to enable the widespread use of personalized print applications. PPML uses XML as its syntactical base, and can access page content files generated in many different formats. Applications will ultimately range from desktop to high-end digital printing presses. PPML output is now being integrated into a variety of complete workflows, several of which can use other XML methodologies." The Persona desktop application offers improved optimization for PPML and for CreoScitex VPS (Variable Print Specification) output drivers. [Full context]
[January 11, 2002] Nomen Project Provides XML DTD for Enhanced MARC21 Name Authority Control. The Nomen Project at San Jose State University is one of several current endeavors focused upon an XML-based representation for name authority records. Nomen was created initially as a thesis project of Antonio M. Calvo, "MARC to XML: an Enhanced Name Authority Record," presented to the Faculty of the School of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, California. The project web site references structured documents based upon records and resources from the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose, California. Sample documents are given for Beethoven, Archduke Rudolph, Emil Gilels, Boston Philharmonic Society, Goethe, and Bettina Brentano. The Nomen XML DTD for biographical data was created to "simplify and enhance the encoding of biographical data in EAD (Encoded Archival Description). The Nomen DTD provides a record structure for encoding the authorized name, variant names and biographical details of a person or a group being associated with informational items as subjects or creators. The structure of the Nomen DTD is described in relation to the MARC21 name authority format followed by a discussion of how it may be used as a means to create an authority file for EAD biographical data encoding and linking." [Full context]
[January 11, 2002] NAXML Guidelines for Electronic Invoicing Implemented by Convenience Store Industry. The NAXML Guidelines developed by the technology committees of the of National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) have been implemented in a live e-commerce setting by Store24, The Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG), and Professional Datasolutions, Inc. (PDI). Through its NAXML project, NACS has been is developing XML DTDs and schemas to support electronic business document exchange within the convenience store industry. Several pilot projects have been started to test the NAXML specifications for lottery systems, fuel sales, food service transactions, and other retail activities. The electronic invoicing system recently implemented on a limited scale by Store24 will soon be extended to an additional eighty (80) convenience stores. The technology which increases efficiencies between stores "also benefits vendors, such as The Pepsi Bottling Group, which will be able to eventually incorporate electronic remittance and payment. By processing and reconciling information online, companies can eliminate costs associated with keying in data and cutting and processing checks for payments. The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) is an international trade association representing over 2,300 retail and 1,700 supplier members." [Full context]
[January 10, 2002] New OpenTravel Alliance XML Specification Supports ebXML-OTA Mapping. The OpenTravel Alliance recently announced the release of an OTA Version 2001C XML Specification, available for public review through January 31, 2002. The new version includes the mapping of OTA payloads onto an ebXML framework, consistent with OTA's recommendation of ebXML "as a viable infrastructure for the exchange of OTA messages across private and public networks." Two prose documents have been published along with the new XML Schemas, sample instances, and best-practices information: (1) The OpenTravel Alliance 2001C Infrastructure Specification "presents the specifications for the underlying infrastructure for the exchange of messages in the travel industry, covering travel services for airlines, car rentals, hotels, and travel insurance. It uses the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the exchange of these messages transmitted under Internet protocols and includes a detailed mapping onto ebXML Message Services. (2) The OpenTravel Alliance 2001C Message Specification "presents the specifications for the Air Availability RQ/RS message pairs, the Package Tours RQ/RS message pairs, and the Golf Tee Times RQ/RS message pairs. The OTA working groups, together with an OTA interoperability committee to coordinate their efforts, develop open Internet-compatible messages using XML." [Full context]
[January 10, 2002] RefDB Bibliographic Database Management Tool Supports DocBook and TEI. A posting from Markus Hoenicka announces a new release of RefDB for bibliographic database management. RefDB is a "reference database and bibliography tool for markup languages; it helps you to keep track of the publications you read and allows you to automatically create bibliographies in your SGML, XML, or LaTeX documents. The citations and bibliographies can be formatted according to the specifications of a particular journal or publisher. RefDB currently supports document types and stylesheets based upon DocBook SGML (DSSSL), DocBook XML (DSSSL or XSL), and TEI XML (XSL). Further document types can be added without modifying RefDB itself. Using RefDB one may create HTML, PostScript, PDF, DVI, MIF, or RTF output from DocBook or TEI sources with fully formatted citations and bibliographies according to a publisher's specifications. RefDB is a client/server system which was specifically designed to allow sharing of databases in workgroups or departments, although it runs just as well on a standalone workstation. RefDB currently runs on Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows/Cygwin, but other Unices most likely work as well. RefDB is released under the GPL and available for free." [Full context]
[January 09, 2002] Updated XML DTDs for the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines. A posting from Lou Burnard invites comment on the publication of updated XML DTDs for the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines. Based upon extensive public review, the XML DTDs have been improved and corresponding revised documentation has been created in HTML and PDF format for the TEI Guidelines. Approval of the new P4 edition by TEI Technical Council and final publication is expected within the near future. Already widely adopted for use in digital library projects, the TEI Guidelines are "intended for use in interchange between individuals and research groups using different programs and computer systems over a broad range of applications... The Guidelines apply to texts in any natural language, of any date, in any literary genre or text type, without restriction on form or content. They treat both continuous materials ('running text') and discontinuous materials such as dictionaries and linguistic corpora. The primary goal of the P4 revision has been to make available a new and corrected version of the TEI Guidelines which: (1) is expressed in XML and conforms to a TEI-conformant XML DTD; (2) generates a set of DTD fragments that can be combined together to form either SGML or XML document type definitions; (3) corrects blatant errors, typographical mishaps, and other egregious editorial oversights; (4) can be processed and maintained using readily available XML tools instead of the special-purpose ad hoc software originally used for TEI P3. A second major design goal of this revision has been to ensure that the DTD fragments generated would not break existing documents: in other words, that any document conforming to the original TEI P3 SGML DTD would also conform to the new XML version of it. Although full backwards compatibility cannot be guaranteed, we believe our implementation is consistent with that goal." [Full context]
[January 07, 2002] New XML Schema for the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS). The developers of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) recently announced a revised METS XML schema. The METS Schema is "a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the W3C XML schema language." Originally developed as as an initiative of the Digital Library Federation, METS is maintained by the US Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress, with development coordination through the Research Libraries Group (RLG). METS provides "an XML encoding format for digital library objects that was designed for application as a Submission Information Package (SIP), Dissemination Information Package (DIP) and Archival Information package (AIP) within the Open Archival Information System reference model." METS has been implemented in several digital library projects (e.g., National Gallery of the Spoken Word; the METAe project, UCBerkekey, California Digital Library, LOC Audio-Visual Prototyping Project), and has been identified in the Submission Information Package (SIP) Specification recently published by the Harvard University E-Journal Archive project. The revised METS XML schema makes a number of changes and enhancements, and now requires the use of an additional XML schema document defining XLink attributes. [Full context]
[January 04, 2002] Harvard University Library Feasibility Study Recommends XML DTD/Schema for E-Journal Archives. With financial support from the Mellon Foundation, the Harvard University Library's Office for Information Systems E-Journal Archiving Project commissioned a feasibility study to investigate the development of a common markup formalism that can be used to "reasonably represent the intellectual content (text, tables, formulas, still images, and links) of archived journal articles." The study was carried out by Inera Corporation, using input from ten publishers who were asked to provide their existing DTDs, documentation and sample SGML documents for analysis. The Inera investigative team reviewed the materials to determine if such a structure can be developed and to assess the challenges that would be faced in SGML transformation; they also examined the challenges faced by organizations that have worked with DTDs from multiple publishers. A 65-page report documenting the E-Journal Archival DTD Feasibility Study has now been published. The report recommends the creation of an XML DTD or Schema which "can be developed, allowing successful conversion of significant intellectual content from publisher SGML and XML files into a common format for archival purposes." The authors of the recommendation elected to defer the choice between XML DTD and W3C XML Schema for formal notation. The Harvard project team now "hopes to finalize the conceptual agreement with its publishing partners, to document technical development, operations, and staffing of the archive, and to refine the business model that will sustain the archive over time." [Full context]
[January 03, 2002] Covisint Supports ebXML Message Specification and OAGIS Standards. Covisint has announced the "adoption and implementation of the ebXML message transport layer and use of the Open Applications Group's OAGIS standards for the XML document payload as its technology strategy. Covisint's adoption of these standards allows OEMs, automotive suppliers and software providers to make critical business decisions on applications and products that also use these common standards. This will promote software and application interoperability that enhances business agility, improves communication and reduces integration costs. A 'message transport layer' is a set of electronic protocols that works very much like a paper envelope works to 'envelop' a message or letter. It contains information as to who sent it and directs where to deliver the document. The XML payload, in an electronic sense, is the letter inside the envelope. This approach will give Covisint the ability to exchange Internet-based messages between trading partners wrapped in a standard message framework that is being adopted globally... At the outset, Covisint will use 'off-the-shelf' XML standards for the document payload but recognizes the need to develop industry wide XML standards that are focused on the needs of the automotive industry. In addition, Covisint will work in conjunction with other associations to manage a transition plan from existing legacy specifications to the adoption of ebXML and OAGIS XML standards." [Full context]
[January 03, 2002] xmLP: A New Literate Programming Tool for XML. A posting from Anthony B. Coates (Reuters Plc) announces the public availability of an XSLT-based literate programming tool for XML. Version 1.0 of xmLP is distributed under the Lesser GNU Public License, and may be downloaded from SourceForge. xmLP is "a literate programming tool written in XSLT and heavily influenced by experience with FunnelWeb, a non-XML literate programming tool. xmLP differs from traditional literate programming tools when it comes to weaving. Traditionally, weaving involves both generating cross-reference information and producing formatted output. However, tools like XSLT make it unnecessary for an XML literate programming tool to deal with display rendering. Hence the xmLP weaver is intentionally minimalist, and does nothing except add cross-reference information to the original literate document. This additional cross-reference information makes it much easier to build cross-reference hyperlinks using a simple rendering XSLT stylesheet." [Full context]


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