Cover Pages: XML Daily Newslink: Monday, 07 May 2007

A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
Provided by OASIS and Sponsor Members
Edited by Robin Cover

This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by:
IBM Corporation http://www.ibm.com

Headlines

Preserving XML Queries During Schema Evolution
CSS3 Module: Generated Content for Paged Media
Sun Tries Again With Consumer-Flavored Java
Oracle Unveils Tools for Spring, Rich Internet Application Development
Sun Beefs Up NetBeans

Preserving XML Queries During Schema Evolution
M. Moro, S. Maiaika, and L. Lim; IBM developerWorks

As XML gains widespread use as an information exchange standard, the ability to persist, validate, and query XML documents becomes increasingly important. Moreover, with the proliferation of Web services and mash-ups, Web application developers increasingly need to query and transform XML messages, where such messages come directly from a Web service or indirectly from a database in which they are persisted. The always evolving context of the Web imposes the challenge of accommodating new functionalities (an expansion of an organization's business, for instance) and new data types (RSS feed messages, perhaps) in the database. New schema versions can be released as frequently as once every six months—and sometimes as often as once every two weeks. Information technology architects, application developers, and database administrators often find the management of applications that operate on a column of XML documents from different schema versions confusing. Furthermore, the applications on top of the database and its users still need to interact with it regardless of its schema evolution. For all these reasons, schema evolution is a very important topic that has been researched in the context of relational, object-oriented, and XML databases. This article extends a taxonomy of changes that might apply to an XML schema during its evolution. It then examines the impact of those changes on the schema validation process (both forward and backward validations) and query evaluation. Based on the cases studied, this article proposes guidelines for XML schema evolution and for writing queries so they continue to operate as expected across evolving schemas.

See also: W3C XML Query

CSS3 Module: Generated Content for Paged Media
Hakon Wium Lie (ed), W3C Technical Report

W3C announced that members of the CSS Working Group have released an updated Working Draft for Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) "Generated Content for Paged Media." This CSS3 module describes features often used in printed publications. In particular, the specification describes how CSS style sheets can express running headers and footers, leaders, cross-references, footnotes, sidenotes, named flows, hyphenation, new counter styles, character substitution, image resolution, page floats, advanced multi-column layout, conditional content, crop and cross marks, bookmarks, CMYK colors, continuation markers, change bars, line numbers, named page lists, and generated lists. Along with two other CSS3 modules—multi-column layout and paged media—this module offers advanced functionality for presenting structured documents on paged media. CSS is the Web's most widely-implemented language for style, used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech.

See also: W3C Style Activity

Sun Tries Again With Consumer-Flavored Java
Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com

At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems will introduce a friendlier way to write Java applications for consumer devices, an attempt to fulfill Java's potential and stake a greater claim in the next generation of Web applications. JavaFX Script is a simpler scripting language for writing applications on Java-equipped desktop PCs and handheld devices. Sun executives also plan to release the last portions of Java it said it would open-source and outline the governance model for open-source projects around Java. With JavaFX Script, Sun is trying to revive the use of Java on small devices, like set-top boxes, and in PC Web browsers, which the language was originally designed to do in the 1990s. With JavaFX Script, Sun intends to broaden the audience of people writing Java-compatible applications and capitalize on growing interest in so-called rich Internet applications, or Web-connected programs with an interactive user interface. In the process, Sun intends to attack the notion that it is being outpaced in the field of rich Internet applications. There are already five million programmers who work with Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) for building Java programs on desktops, according to Sun. A shrinked-down version of Java, called Java Platform, Mobile Edition (Java ME), is already installed on two billion phones worldwide.

See also: InfoWorld

Oracle Unveils Tools for Spring, Rich Internet Application Development
Heather Havenstein, ComputerWorld

Oracle Corp. this week plans to unveil enhanced tools for Java developers to build rich Internet applications, and it is expected to announce a new software development kit for the open-source Spring application framework. The company will announce previews of new releases of its free integrated development environment JDeveloper and the Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF). Both are aimed at making it easier for Java developers to build rich Internet applications without having to learn new skills. Oracle has added new tooling and visual development for all Java Enterprise Edition 5 standards and application programming interfaces, and more than 80 AJAX-enabled, JSF 1.2-based rich client components to JDeveloper and ADF. The ADF Render Kit also has new support for Flash rendering and data visualization components such as charts. JDeveloper also includes a new JavaScript Editor and a debugger. Oracle also announced today that its has contributed its ADF Faces Rich Client technology—a set of more than 80 AJAX-enabled JSF 1.2 components—to The Apache Software Foundation.

Sun Beefs Up NetBeans
Darryl K. Taft, eWEEK

Sun Microsystems and the NetBeans community will announce the availability of the NetBeans 6.0 Integrated Development Environment Preview release at the company's NetBeans Day prelude to its annual JavaOne conference on May 7, 2007. NetBeans 6.0 extends support beyond Java and C/C++ by providing features for the Ruby and JavaScript dynamic scripting languages, as well as support for the latest Java standards while retaining NetBeans' ease of use and high productivity. Sun is also announcing enhancements to the NetBeans GUI Builder that include support for new desktop technologies, such as Beans Binding (Java Specification Request 295) and the Swing Application Framework (JSR 296). Building on NetBeans' history of providing innovative solutions to developers, the NetBeans GUI builder, formerly code-named Matisse, continues to help Swing developers build graphical user interfaces. Sun, like Microsoft and others, is beefing up its support for the Ruby dynamic language. JRuby, the implementation of Ruby for Java, which is run by two Sun engineers, is included with the NetBeans Ruby support, allowing developers to use Ruby on Rails with existing Java code. Other features of the release include improved code editing, inspection and navigation capabilities, local history, integrated support for Subversion, and extensive profiling features integrated into the standard distribution.

See also: NetBeans Software Day


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