Cover Pages: XML Daily Newslink: Tuesday, 15 July 2008

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:
Sun Microsystems, Inc. http://sun.com

Headlines

ISO Publishes Three WS-I Profiles
W3C First Public Working Drafts for XQuery 1.1 and XQuery 1.1 Use Cases
IANA Announces Project Update: Convert Registries to XML
Flexibility vs. Interoperability When Implementing PREMIS in METS
NISO/ALPSP Releases Best Practices for Journal Article Versions
Build Configurable Workflows with WS-BPEL and IoC
Certificate Exchange Messaging for EDIINT

ISO Publishes Three WS-I Profiles
Staff, Web Services Interoperability Organization Announcement

The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) announced that three of its Profiles—Basic Profile Version 1.1, Attachments Profile Version 1.0, and Simple SOAP Binding Profile Version 1.0—have been published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO/IEC 29361:2008, ISO/IEC 29362:2008, and ISO/IEC 29363:2008. The Profiles are available now for download from the ISO web site, and (for free) from the WS-I web site. WS-I's Basic Profile 1.1 provides interoperability guidance for a core set of non-proprietary Web services specifications, such as SOAP, WSDL and UDDI, along with interoperability-promoting clarifications and amendments to those specifications; Attachments Profile 1.0 complements the Basic Profile to add support for interoperable SOAP Messages with attachments-based Web services; and the Simple SOAP Binding Profile 1.0 consists of the Basic Profile requirements related to the serialization of the envelope and its representation in the message. The three Profiles now published as ISO standards were submitted by WS-I to ISO's JTC1, the joint technical committee (with IEC, the International Electrotechnical Commission) that deals with international information technology standards. Following comprehensive internal review and favorable consensus, JTC1 submitted the Profiles to ISO members for final approval as international standards, which required a two-thirds positive vote. The process to publish this set of WS-I Profiles as international standards involved rigorous review and voting by ISO members, which are the national standards bodies of 157 countries all over the world, each with one vote. The ISO designation is by no means automatically awarded: during ISO development and approval, a standard can be modified, augmented or even rejected. WS-I is an open, non-profit industry organization chartered to promote best practices for deploying secure, interoperable Web services across platforms, operating systems, and programming languages. It comprises a diverse community of Web services leaders from a wide range of companies and standards development organizations (SDOs). WS-I committees and working groups create Profiles and supporting Testing Tools based on Best Practices for selected sets of Web services standards. The Profiles and Testing Tools are available for use by the Web Services community to aid in developing and deploying interoperable Web services. WS-I also submits selected deliverables to standards bodies for eventual publication as international standards. WS-I deliverables may be downloaded at no charge.

W3C First Public Working Drafts for XQuery 1.1 and XQuery 1.1 Use Cases
Don Chamberlin, Jonathan Robie, and Tim Kraska (eds), W3C TRs

Members of the W3C XML Query Working Group have published the First Public Working Drafts for "XQuery 1.1" and "XQuery 1.1 Use Cases." The XQuery 1.1 specification is an extended version of the XQuery 1.0 Recommendation which was published on 23-January-2007. It adds a small number of new features. The Working Group believes that this document, published is ready for initial public review and feedback, but is concerned that there are insufficient resources to continue development of the Static Typing feature (defined in the Formal Semantics specification). Individuals who are interested in participating in on-going development of the Formal Semantics are urged to contact the Chairs of the XML Query Working Group. The "XQuery 1.1 Use Cases" document specifies usage scenarios for XML Query (XQuery) 1.1. Each use case is focused on a specific application area, and contains a Document Type Definition (DTD) and example input data. Each use case specifies a set of queries that might be applied to the input data, and the expected results for each query. XQuery is designed to be a language in which queries are concise and easily understood. It is also flexible enough to query a broad spectrum of XML information sources, including both databases and documents. The Query Working Group has identified a requirement for both a non-XML query syntax and an XML-based query syntax. XQuery is designed to meet the first of these requirements. XQuery is derived from an XML query language called Quilt, which in turn borrowed features from several other languages, including XPath 1.0, XQL, XML-QL, SQL, and OQL. As increasing amounts of information are stored, exchanged, and presented using XML, the ability to intelligently query XML data sources becomes increasingly important. One of the great strengths of XML is its flexibility in representing many different kinds of information from diverse sources. To exploit this flexibility, an XML query language must provide features for retrieving and interpreting information from these diverse sources.

See also: XQuery 1.1 Use Cases

IANA Announces Project Update: Convert Registries to XML
Staff, IANA IETF Liaison Announcement

As first announced in April 2008, IANA is improving the formatting of its protocol registries by migrating the source format of these registries to structured XML format. IANA has consulted with the IETF XML directorate to make sure that the XML schemas are properly formulated. We are pleased to announce the first set of migrated registries have now come online. Prior to this migration, typically protocol registries were formatted in a plain text version. Now, with XML formatted source documents, IANA will publish a number of different formats for converted registries. In particular, converted registries will initially be available in XML, XHTML and plain text versions. It is intended that XHTML become the preferred format for viewing registries, with plain text being made available for accessibility reasons. The remainder of the registries which are not yet converted require further consultation on formatting issues. It is intended that over the coming months these issues will be resolved and the conversion will be completed. Some registries that have specific formatting requirements, such as Management Information Base (MIB) files, will not be converted. In order to make the transition as smooth as possible, IANA will continue to maintain the legacy plain text formats until 30-November-2008. After this date, plain text versions will only be provided that are derived from the XML formats. However, implementors who intend to parse the contents of an IANA protocol registry should migrate to using the XML versions, rather than the plain text version. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is the body responsible for coordinating some of the key elements that keep the Internet running smoothly. Whilst the Internet is renowned for being a worldwide network free from central coordination, there is a technical need for some key parts of the Internet to be globally coordinated—and this coordination role is undertaken by IANA. Specifically, IANA allocates and maintains unique codes and numbering systems that are used in the technical standards ('protocols') that drive the Internet.

See also: IETF's XML Automation Tools

Flexibility vs. Interoperability When Implementing PREMIS in METS
Rebecca S. Guenther, D-Lib Magazine

The PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata1 specifies the information that a repository needs to maintain for the long-term preservation of digital objects. Many institutions use the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) to implement metadata in digital library applications. Since an important goal is the exchange of objects with their associated metadata between repositories, many implementers of PREMIS are looking at METS as a container to include PREMIS metadata along with other information about and links to the digital objects. To do this, the ambiguities in using PREMIS with METS need to be clarified in a set of guidelines. Because XML is commonly used for expressing metadata, the original Working Group provided XML schemas to facilitate implementation; these could be used alone or with other standard XML schemas. Use of the PREMIS data model is evident in the design of the schemas, since they associate appropriate XML elements with each of the applicable PREMIS entities (Object, Events, Agent, or Rights). In April 2008 the PREMIS Editorial Committee issued a much-revised version 2.0 of the PREMIS Data Dictionary. It also significantly restructured the XML schemas and combined the five separate PREMIS schemas into one. The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) is "a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library". Actually, the semantics of only structural metadata are defined in METS, including the (possibly hierarchical) structure of digital objects, the names and locations of the files comprising those objects, and a small number of their technical properties. METS is written in XML schema language. It uses "extension schemas" to link to or to embed metadata for management or use of the digital object(s). Many institutions implement complementary XML metadata schemas by combining vocabularies from different XML namespaces. METS is neutral about which particular metadata schema is used in its placeholder metadata sections... As Managing Agency for the PREMIS Maintenance Activity, the Library of Congress is commissioning the development of a tool that will either take a PREMIS instance in XML and create a METS document with embedded PREMIS metadata or do the reverse (parse a METS document with embedded PREMIS into a PREMIS-only XML document). This development will provide an opportunity to further analyze requirements for being prescriptive versus flexible in the choices that are needed. To accomplish this task choices will need to be made where the guidelines are not currently prescriptive enough.

See also: the METS Standard

NISO/ALPSP Releases Best Practices for Journal Article Versions
Staff, NISO Announcement

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO), in partnership with the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), has published the "Recommended Practice Journal Article Versions (JAV): Recommendations of the NISO/ALPSP JAV Technical Working Group (NISO-RP-8-2008)." These recommendations provide a simple, practical way of describing the versions of scholarly journal articles that typically appear online before, during, and after formal journal publication. The Recommended Terms and Definitions for Journal Article Versions define journal articles at seven stages: Author's Original (AO), Submitted Manuscript Under Review (SMUR), Accepted Manuscript (AM), Proof (P), Version of Record (VoR), Corrected Version of Record (CVoR), and Enhanced Version of Record (EVoR). The appendices include a set of use cases showing application of the recommended terms and a graphical representation of journal article versions and relationships with formal and gray literature.

See also: the JAV spec

Build Configurable Workflows with WS-BPEL and IoC
Bilal Siddiqui, IBM developerWorks

Inversion of Control (IoC) and Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) can be effective tools for implementing dynamic business workflows. Business operations consist of steps or tasks that are performed in a sequence. The sequence of tasks in a typical real-world business workflow is dynamic in nature: the sequence is normally not fixed and depends on factors that can be decided only during execution. This two-article series demonstrates the use of WS-BPEL and IoC in building configurable dynamic business workflows. Article Part 1 describes the overall architecture of implementing business workflows using WS-BPEL and IoC. Part 2 will demonstrate how you can use WS-BPEL to implement a production-management workflow. The author demonstrates the dynamic nature of business workflows using manufacturing as an example. Most real-world manufacturing companies produce a large variety of products, some of them in bulk and some in smaller quantities. To do this, they must implement a mix of two relatively simple workflows to form a real-world dynamic workflow. The author presents a two-layer model to analyze dynamic business workflows and also discusses all the major components of a configurable workflow application.

See also: BPEL references

Certificate Exchange Messaging for EDIINT
Kyle Meadors and Dale Moberg (eds), IETF Internet Draft

The growth and acceptance of EDIINT (Electronic Data Interchange-Internet Integration) protocols, AS1, AS2 and AS3, in numerous supply-chains was due in part to the security feature which was provided. The security is not possible without the digital certificates which enable it. To maintain the level of security necessary to transmit business documentation, existing certificates must occasionally be replaced and exchanged with newer ones. The exchanging of digital certificates is unavoidable given how certificates can expire or become compromised. Complicating this is supply-chains which cannot afford to shutdown their business transactions while trading partners laboriously upload new certificates. Certificate exchange must be accomplished in a reliable and seamless format so as not to affect ongoing business transactions. This document describes how EDIINT products may exchange public-key certificates. Since EDIINT is built upon the security provided by public-private key pairs, it is vital that implementers are able to update their trading partners with new certificates as their old certificates expire, become outdated or insecure. Certificate Exchange Messaging (CEM) described here utilizes XML data to exchange the certificate and provide information on its intended usage and acceptance within the trading partner relationship. There are two types of CEM messages. The CEM Request which presents the new certificate to be introduced into the trading partner relationship and the CEM Response which is the recipient's response to the CEM Request. CE messages can be exchanged through AS1, AS2, or AS3 message transports. However, it is possible to leverage CE messaging through other transport standards besides EDIINT. CEM messages use the underlying EDIINT transport, such as AS2, to communicate information on the certificate, its intended use and its acceptance. Both digital certificates and the XML data describing their intended use are stored within a multipart/related MIME envelope (RFC 2387). For the CEM Request message, the certificates are stored in certificate chains through SMIME, certs-only MIME envelope, and processing information is XML data which is identified through the MIME content-type of 'application/ediint-cert-exchange+xml'.


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