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By Jeff Walsh
Sun Microsystems will deliver its long-awaited Extensible Markup Language (XML) plans this week at the XTech developer conference in San Jose, Calif., detailing where the technology fits within its enterprise products and Java strategy. Also at the conference, IBM will promote several of its partners that are already using its XML tools.
Sun's presentation at the conference will spotlight four of its employees, including Jon Bosak, online information technology architect at Sun, who is also head of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Working Group and a co-chair of the XTech conference.
The company has previously delivered XML technologies to its Java developers under the code-named Java Project X. The company is expected to announce a standard Java API to support XML at the show.
IBM will tout some of its customers and partners that are using its XML technologies as part of their solutions.
IBM has noted that it has 500 developers devoted to creating XML technologies, and that 17 technologies for XML are available on the company's alphaWorks Web site (alphaworks.ibm.com).
Vervet Logic now uses IBM's XML parser in Version 2.0 of its XML Pro editor, due out in late April, after switching from Microsoft's XML parser.
NC.Focus also uses the IBM parser on XMLWeb, a Java-based application server that renders XML as HTML, controls page references within an XML database, and processes Web requests.
XMLSolutions will announce the Exeter E-Commerce Engine on Monday, which uses the Lotus Extensible Stylesheet Language processor to convert XML data to electronic data interchange and vice versa. The product will ship in the next quarter.
First Union uses IBM's parser to mark up Cobol messages for a proprietary system that enables developers to reuse legacy transactions within the company.
Also at XTech, Inso (www.inso.com) will demonstrate the new version of its XML-based DynaBase Web content management system that it announced last week at the Seybold publishing show.
DynaBase 3.1 adds features for both content personalization and searching, as well as Java-based management capabilities for versioning and revision control. The product can also manage and search multiple content repositories. Server plug-ins for Microsoft Internet Information Server and Netscape Enterprise Server running Windows NT 4.0 and Solaris 2.6 are available immediately. Pricing for the DynaBase system starts at $50,000.
Arbortext (www.arbortext.com) is also expected to unveil new technology that will enable XML editing without the use of a Document Type Definition, according to a source familiar with the company's plans.
Sun Microsystems Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., can be reached at www.sun.com. IBM Corp., in Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at www.ibm.com.
IBM touts partners
At the XTech conference, IBM will announce four partners using the company's XML technologies.