[December 20, 1999] "The Use of Profiling in XML Documents. Using Profiling for Personalized Information Delivery." By Tonua G. Brown [Program Manager, Document Management Solutions, Inc. (DMSi).] DMSi White Paper. December, 1999. "Businesses assign profiles to customers that describe their needs, requirements, and interests. These profiles are then used to target the audience of particular products. When we talk about profiling our data, we are referring to the way we mark up the data to indicate its target audience. Through the use of elements, XML allows us to mark up the data in such a way that the context of that data is described in the markup language itself. Additionally, attributes allow us to provide meta-data regarding that context. The target audience for the information is a type of meta-data and can be captured in attributes on each element. Therefore, by profiling our information according to its target audience, we can match the information profile to the audience profile in order to deliver the information that best meets the needs, requirements, and interests of our customers... there are many types of information profiles. Information can be targeted to a group, an individual, a characteristic of an individual, an output type, or even the product itself. All of these things can be combined in various ways to match specific customer profiles...profiling is a method for tracking the intended audience of your information. Profile classes define profiles categories. Each value in a class matches a specific profile for that category. Profiles can be combined to deliver highly customized information to your customers. Depending on your processes and delivery methods, you can choose to apply an information profile at the time you publish and deliver pre-assembled, tailored documents to your customers, or you can dynamically assemble the information when the customer accesses it by applying a profile that is associated with the customer's logon ID. Therefore, information profiles can be matched to customer profiles to provide your customers with information that best suits their needs." Note: now also on the DMSi web site.

[December 20, 1999] "Writing a data type-checking XML parser with Xerces." By Bob DuCharme. In IBM Developer Library. December 1999. "While most XML parser developers are waiting for the W3C Schema Working Group's proposal to become a Recommendation before they support it, the Xerces parser donated by IBM to the Apache XML project already supports much of the Working Group's September 1999 Working Draft. In particular, it supports basic data-type checking, one of the most eagerly awaited W3C Schema features. In this article, see how your XML Java applications can take advantage of data-type checking when using the Xerces parser... The first parser I know of that provided any support for the W3C Schema Working Group's XML Schema Definition Language (XSDL) was alphaWorks' xml4j-ea1, a special version of the xml4j XML Parser for Java Early Access release (see Resources). It included support for a subset of XSDL that was backward-compatible with XML 1.0 DTDs. In other words, if you rewrote an XML 1.0 DTD as an XSDL schema that didn't take advantage of any of XSDL's new features, an application using the xml4j-ea1 parser could validate a document against that schema. With xml4j-ea2 and the Xerces parser that IBM donated to the Apache project, the IBM XML Technology Group developers added the feature that developers were clamoring the loudest for: type checking. Because the Working Group still has some issues to work out in Part 2 ("Datatypes") of the XSDL Proposal, the Xerces parser doesn't yet support all the data types mentioned in the proposal. But real numbers, integers, booleans, and of course strings are supported, and your applications can take advantage of this support now." See "XML Schemas" for background and references on the W3C XML Schema work.

[December 20, 1999] "STC, Tibco boost transaction software with XML." By Eugene Grygo. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 51 (December 18, 1999), page 12. "Software Technologies Corp. (STC) is readying an adapter for its e-Gate platform that positions the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as a universal link that could allow for expanded, non-electronic data interchange (EDI) participation in supply-chain management via the Internet. Dubbed the 'Universal Exchange,' the add-on marks another step by STC into the time-sensitive, business-to-business electronic-commerce space, said James Demetriades, chairman, CEO, and president of STC, in Monrovia, Calif. 'If your partners don't get the information in less than a second, they're going to go to someone else,' Demetriades said. The add-on is aimed at clients who need to do far-flung, business-to-business links via e-Gate, he says. Time and space constraints aside, wider acceptance of supply-chain management has been hindered by the high cost of EDI, especially for smaller suppliers that lack the resources for an EDI-based private network, said Tom Dwyer, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, in Boston. The greater usage of XML will boost participation in supply chains, Dwyer said. 'It's all about 100 percent participation,' he says. For instance, the Universal Exchange add-on will give suppliers a view into the levels of their inventories at customer sites. This could lead to suppliers managing the inventories of their customers, Dwyer said. Also embracing XML for electronic-business, Tibco Software is including an XML parser and validation capabilities with an upgrade of its Java-based TIB/MessageBroker 2.5, a major rules-based data-exchange and translation piece of the TIB/ActiveEnterprise messaging suite. There's also support for the HTTP and FTP Internet protocols as well as new links to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transfers (SWIFT) network, used by financial institutions for back-office settlement.

[December 17, 1999] "Transcoding on the fly for the Web." By Nancy E. Dunn and Chris Rumble. From IBM DeveloperWorks. (November 1999). "IBM technology (now in beta) serves as a Web intermediary platform for XML and graphics conversions on the fly. A demonstration application shows how this technology makes it possible to convert Web pages (or other files) from one format to another in real time -- without changing the original pages on the Web server. Content providers or conversion service providers can use the technology for adapting Web pages for hand-held devices, for transforming XML data, and for dozens of other applications. In this interview, two IBM researchers explain how Web intermediary technology supports the conversions and provides a rich vein for more Web and XML conversion on the fly. Paul Maglio and Rob Barrett, researchers at the IBM Almaden Research Center near San Jose, have prepared a demonstration of transcoding on the fly. The initial conversions offered include graphics bit-depth and format conversion and XML conversions. Maglio and Barrett talked with developerWorks staff recently to explain how they used Web intermediary technology to support the Web-based conversion application... In the demonstration, we provide a service where people can perform some sample conversions of their data or graphics, either by inputting URLs or uploading content, and then selecting from a short list of transcoding options. We can convert graphics in a few ways -- compression, bit-depth, file format. We also demonstrate XML transcoding via XSL."

[December 17, 1999] "In commemoration of the re-birth of XHTML: The Parable of the Prodigal HTML. A self-refreshing slide presentation." Extensible Book of Luke 15:11-32. By John Robert Gardner. The referent is W3C's XHTML, which went PR with three namespaces (loud grumbling); going back, a new WD was produced, and then a new PR with one namespace (and three DTDs).

[December 17, 1999] "Object Databases Move To The Middle. Despite the prevalence of relational databases, vendors are making use of the technology." By Mary Stearns Sgarioto. In InformationWeek (December 17, 1999), pages 115-120. "... object databases are hardly extinct. Rather than fight a losing battle on the back end, vendors are finding new ways to exploit this technology on the middle tier. For the past 10 to 15 years, according to Gartner Group's Sanjeev Varma, object-oriented database-management system vendors competing on the database tier have not proven especially successful. 'In certain niches there is a lot of value to this technology; it's just that those niches aren't that big,' Varma says. According to John Singer, program director for application delivery strategies at Meta Group, object databases are finding a comfortable home as code repositories within more-specialized servers. 'While the highly granular nature of Web site visual components seem to be a natural fit for object-oriented database-management systems, we see the technology primarily as infrastructure embedded within other solutions,' Singer says. 'Object-oriented database-management products are evolving towards Java application servers, persistence managers, and XML interchange as a means of adding value above the basic database functionality. . . In spite of, or perhaps even because of, their advantages, object databases might never gain the same status as relational databases. Anne Thomas, an analyst at the Patricia Seybold Group, says she doesn't see a huge resurgence in the object-oriented database-management system market. On the other hand, she says, the Web is 'definitely driving renewed interest in object-oriented databases.' She explains that the language of the Web is objects--Java, XML, or Corba--and these map poorly to a relational database. 'That's where an object-oriented database excels. Storing by object is fast,' Thomas says. And 'fast' is what people want."

[December 17, 1999] "Directories to link up via XML." By Stephanie Sanborn. In InfoWorld (December 13, 1999). "Directory Vendors, including Novell and Bowstreet, last week formally proposed an Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based directory-services language that would provide enterprises with a standard set of programming commands to link network directories. A group of vendors led by Bowstreet and known informally as the 'DSML working group' last week submitted a draft version of the Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) to several standards associations. DSML 1.0, which is the result of a promise made in July to create a draft standard by the end of the year, is now in the hands of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), an international standardization group focused on data-exchange formats. Versions of DSML were also submitted informally to the World Wide Web Consortium and Microsoft's BizTalk group. DSML uses XML schema to represent information in the directory, becoming a common means to describe directory content. DSML-enabled directories can work together and share information without requiring knowledge of the directory interfaces. DSML also complements Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)..." See the main news entry and "Directory Services Markup Language (DSML)."

[December 17, 1999] "Plugging Into XML. New XML support and the DB2 XML Extender will give DB2 a whole new range of e-commerce and Web-publishing possibilities." By Harold Treat. In DB2 Magazine Volume 4, Number 4 (Winter 1999), pages 36-41. "A new travel service, based on the XML grammar Wireless Markup Language, is being developed by The Sabre Group, IBM, and Nokia. The Sabre Group makes the computerized reservation system used by many traditional travel agencies and the Web-based service Travelocity.com. Once The Sabre Group converts its travel-related information into XML, the information can easily be filtered and adapted to different output devices so that, for example, a mobile phone can read the same information as Web browsers. This travel service is just one example of the kind of application XML makes possible. In fact, ever since the World Wide Web Consortium approved the XML 1.0 specification in February 1998, support for XML has grown rapidly among companies in computer and other industries. XML's popularity results from its usefulness in Web publishing and content management, application integration, and e-commerce, particularly as an enabler of data interchange for business-to-business e-commerce applications. To support these capabilities, DB2 Universal Database (UDB) v.6.1 for Unix, OS/2, and Windows includes XML support. And a DB2 XML Extender is now in beta testing. . . The DB2 XML Extender includes a visual tool for mapping the extracted elements from the XML document to the columns and tables where they are stored. This mapping, called document access definition (DAD), and the DTD describing the XML document are stored in tables managed by the XML Extender, so the applications accessing the document don't have to keep track of the DADs and DTDs. Once you've defined the DAD and enabled the XML column, you can use the UDFs provided with the XML Extender to simplify the load process. When the XML document is inserted into a column defined as type XML_Column, the elements specified in the DAD are automatically extracted from the XML document and loaded into the specified columns and tables, eliminating the need for the load application to handle this parsing, extraction, and insertion. When the contents of an XML_Column are updated, the elements that were extracted and stored in side tables are automatically updated. As support for this new standard grows, XML will become more and more a part of the database environment. Just as DB2 was Web-enabled a few years ago, it is now being XML-enabled, allowing you to store new data types, perform more powerful searches, and use XML-based interchange formats. I've identified some of the ways DB2 UDB v.6.1 and XML Extender can support business-to-business e-commerce applications. However, we can only guess at all the ways XML interchange formats will facilitate new e-commerce, CRM, and other e-business solutions. It should be fun to watch." ["DB2's XML Extender provides new data types that let you store XML documents in DB2 databases and new functions that assist you in working with these structured documents. Entire XML documents can be stored in DB2 databases as character data or stored as external files but still managed by DB2. Retrieval functions allow you to retrieve either the entire XML document or individual elements or attibutes..."]

[December 17, 1999] "Semantic Name Spaces." By Didier PH Martin. Posted to XML-DEV. PDF document. [Very very preliminary doc about semantic name spaces.] (December 17, 1999). "A name space topic map contains a topic with a name identical to the name space it represents. For instance the XSL name space topic would be named XSL. The XSL topic would also point to several documents or schemas useful for both documenting and validating the name space. [Most of the actual name spaces including the name spaces used by the W3 consortium are using URLs and more particularly URL based on the HTTP protocol. Some URL are effectively pointing to a resource. For instance the XSL name space identifier, a URL, points to an HTML page... Even if this is tremendously better that an HTTP URL pointing to the limbs, it is nonetheless hard for an automated processor to decode effectively the information pointed by the URL. Thus, the actual name space identifier are most of the time meaningless for automated agents. The present document propose to add more semantics to name spaces by having their URI to point to a topic map document."] Note 1999-12-18: document now posted on the Netfolder Web site; check for updated versions.

[December 17, 1999] "Creating XML Applications With Zope." By Amos Latteier. From XML.com (December 16, 1999). ['Are you looking for an open source platform on which to base your XML applications? You may already be familiar with Zope, an open source application server written in Python. Amos Latteier presents a hands-on introduction to using XML with Zope.'] "Zope is an open source application server that enables you to rapidly develop applications for the Web. Zope's unique object-oriented flavor make it an interesting choice for developing XML applications: Firstly, it allows you to treat XML content as objects. Then it allows you to write applications by creating methods for your XML objects. At the most basic level, Zope provides an object database and a web ORB (Object Request Broker) to store XML and publish it on the Web. In addition, Zope gives you a menu of services to use when developing your XML data into an application. You can edit XML through the Web, index and search XML elements, manipulate XML with standard DOM methods, add dynamic behavior to XML elements with web-editable methods, control access to XML via a sophisticated security model, and more. Since Zope treats XML as normal Zope objects rather than plain data, you can quickly breathe life into your XML... In this article we are going to look at the process of using Zope to develop a small web application centered around XML. We will build an FAQ viewer that stores its data in XML and allows browsing and searching. This article assumes that you have Zope installed and that you have some experience with Zope..."

[December 17, 1999] "Goldilocks and SML." By Rick Jelliffe. From XML.com (December 16, 1999). ['"Simplicity is as excellent as motherhood", says Rick Jelliffe. He isn't as sure, however, about the initiative to produce a Simplified Markup Language (SML).'] "Goldilocks saw three bowls of porridge on the table. The first was too big and could only be eaten with a complicated tool: the recipe was there, but she couldn't quite understand it. 'This SGML is too big!' she cried. The second was sweet but insubstantial: 'This HTML is too simple,' she lamented. Then she tried the third bowl: 'Mmmm, this XML is just right...and the international flavor is sure to be a hit at my pajama party...' My impression of SML is not that it represents some conspiracy against the one true path of XML, but rather that it shows that some people's technical or aesthetic needs are not being met by XML. The rallying cry is simplicity, which is as excellent as motherhood, but the rationales seem wildly divergent or vague. It will be interesting to see what is ultimately produced from the effort: a syntax, a methodology, an API, an entity manager, some implementation techniques. There is lots of room in the world for innovative ideas. Let's look at some specific areas for which XML is criticized... So I think that if SML has a future, it may be in the area of closed data transport and interprocess communication, where it is generated by API, and where human reader/writers do not touch it. But that area is the one that binary formats poach easily: some of the requirements may be better solved by more sophisticated entity management capabilities in MIME."

[December 17, 1999] "Reports from XML'99." By Edd Dumbill. From XML.com (December 16, 1999). "Last week XML.com provided coverage of the GCA's XML'99 conference in Philadelphia. Over 2,200 delegates gathered to attend tutorials, see the products on show in the expo and listen to the presentations. Edd Dumbill and Simon St.Laurent reported daily from the show on XML.com, highlighting the major news and sessions together with information on interesting and innovative products from the expo. Lisa Rein was also out and about on the conference floor, gathering opinions from delegates on recent happenings in the XML world."

[December 17, 1999] "XML - The Better HTML?" By Michael Classen. From WebReference "Exploring XML [Column]". (December 1999). "So is XML better? To be honest this question has no real answer: XML is a meta language, meaning a language for defining other languages, while HTML by itself is a more or less well-defined language. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language, which is actually a bit of a misnomer as it should actually mean extensible Meta Language. The easiest way to understand the difference is to note that XML by itself does not define any tags, it only describes a way of defining your own set of tags and attributes, hence the name extensible. HTML in contrast has a fixed set of tags, and their meaning is defined in the W3C standards specifications or the implementation of a particular browser, whichever came first. So in directly comparing XML and HTML one would compare apples and oranges..."

[December 17, 1999] "Passing profiles - Keeping the customer in mind. CPEX group tackles the sensitive issue of exchanging customer profiles." By Luke Cavanagh. In The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 4, Number 4 (December 1999), page 24. "Sensing the need to find a more efficient way for enterprises to keep customer information current, a number of industry players have formed the Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) working group. Their intent is to create an XML standard and a set of guidelines for exchanging customer profiles among different systems. Started by Vignette just two months ago, the group's charter members include many of the leading players in personalization and profiling: Andromedia, DoubleClick, Engage, Net Perceptions, net.Genesis and Vignette, as well as industry heavyweights Oracle, Sun/Netscape, IBM and other smaller vendors. The group expects to publish its first draft specifications in the first half of 2000; we should begin seeing demos by next fall. Administration of the group's marketing and meetings will be handled by IDEAlliance.org, the new name for the research institute at the Graphic Communications Association. IDEAlliance also hosts the ICE and PRISM working groups." For references, see "Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) Working Group."

[December 17, 1999] "Punching up TeamSite. Interwoven adds punch to TeamSite Web content management system." By Luke Cavanagh. In The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 4, Number 4 (December 1999), pages 18-19. "Reinforcing its position as a leading supplier of Web content management software, Interwoven last month released a new version of TeamSite. The new version, 4.0, builds on the features that make the product strong to begin with (solid workflow, hybrid file system/database architecture) and adds improved XML, metadata and templating support. According to International Marketing Manager Tim Hampson, TeamSite 4.0 'heavily leverages XML.' It does so especially in the area of metadata and content entry templates. The upgrade also features a tweaked workflow process aimed at creating shorter development cycles and allows greater control for customized workflow designs. . . The new metadata support allows users to set up XML-based metadata sets based on their specific business rules. Metadata is defined by individual project, by location, or by type of project. Once the metadata set is established, its attribute values are associated with templates and workflows. . . It appears as though the added XML support has been implemented smoothly and should hit the mark in making its intended improvements. Provided the new functionality is not too complex for companies to handle in customizing their systems -- and it doesn't look to us as though it should be -- Interwoven should continue to build on its success."

[December 17, 1999] "Poet leverages its XML expertise. Poet uses XML to open business-to-business e-catalog channels. Turnkey solution will free catalog content for Web use." By Mark Walter. In The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 4, Number 4 (December 1999), page 23. "Poet, a supplier of object database technology with expertise in both content management and XML, recently introduced its eCatalog Suite, a turnkey system for extracting and managing business-to-business catalog data and distributing it over the Internet. The suite includes a data server and database with tools for collecting catalog data (often by extracting it from your existing system), normalizing it, and then transforming it as necessary for different recipients. XML is going to be the language of interchange, and Poet's background is well suited for this type of XML data server. Though it faces competition from Object Design, Bluestone and others sure to follow, Poet is on the money with this application of its database."

[December 17, 1999] "XML still waiting for the spotlight." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld (December 17, 1999). "Although Extensible Markup Language (XML) is on the lips and in the marketing materials of almost any vendor whose products touch corporate data, the XML '99 show in Philadelphia this week proved there is still much work to be done. The reasons offered for the disconnect between XML's perceived value and the reality that users are still struggling to understand how it should be implemented were numerous, but the main stumbling block seems to be a lack of vendors offering real-world XML solutions. 'My estimation is the major breakthrough needed is to get critical mass of vendors to focus their attention on XML and allow us to move forward with turnkey projects,' said Chris Wolff, vice president of publishing technologies at the West Group, an information provider for legal professionals, in Egan, Minn. That critical mass, noted Wolff, needs to start with the development of more robust tools for XML development. Many tools vendors, however, do not seem to feel the urgency to jump on the XML bandwagon."

[December 08, 1999] "Delta to deliver flight info to mobile devices." By Carmen Nobel. In PC Week (December 7, 1999). "Because its customers are by definition mobile, Delta Airlines is testing a new service that will transmit data from its Web site to a variety of portable devices, including mobile phones and Palm Computing's Palm VII organizer. The service, which will roll out nationwide early next year, will include basic same-day travel information such as flight schedules and gate information. Later in the year, Delta plans to let customers buy plane tickts and change flights wirelessly, according to officials at the Atlanta-based company. The service is now in beta testing. Delta is developing the service with a user interface from Modern Media and Java and XML technology from IBM's Pervasive Computing Group. The companies, along with Delta's subsidiary Delta Technology, are using a Java application that translates Delta's travel information into XML (extensible markup language) and IBM's transcoding technology for handheld devices. Delta is the latest among a crop of companies that have teamed up with IBM lately to take their electronic services on the road."

[December 08, 1999] "XML Goes Vertical. Standard takes hold in a growing variety of markets." By Mary Jo Foley. In Smart Reseller (December 07, 1999). "In the past two days, Laura Walker has gotten some strange phone calls, including one from a gaming industry trade group and another from WebVan, the online grocery-delivery firm. Both wanted to know how they could benefit from XML, the Extensible Markup Language standard for data interchange that's seemingly taking the world by storm. 'It's like a light went on,' says Walker, the executive director of OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, explaining the mounting industry interest in the standard. Vertical-industry associations suddenly are glomming on to XML as the panacea for sharing data in different formats across disparate platforms. Walker points to a growing number of XML working groups in finance, insurance, retail and other arenas as evidence of the standard's growing appeal and acceptance..."

[December 08, 1999] "Who Will Control XML? As XML takes off, standards processes and direction questions won't go away." By Mary Jo Foley. In Smart Reseller (December 08, 1999). "Microsoft and Sun Microsystems agree that XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is key to their future products and strategies. But in true rivalry fashion, the two agree to disagree on which groups are best suited for making sure XML remains a standard and doesn't splinter. At the XML '99 conference in Philadelphia this week, Sun and Microsoft participated in a vendor keynote panel, where they outlined their respective companies' Internet plans, which intimately revolve around XML..."

[December 08, 1999] "Oracle sharpens profile in XML standards body." By Lee Pender. In PC Week [Online] (December 08, 1999). "Oracle Corp. is getting serious about embracing XML standards for its integration technologies, and some customers say the move is coming not a moment too soon. The Redwood Shores, Calif., vendor, in an effort to further shape Extensible Markup Language standards, recently stepped up its participation in XML.org by becoming a major player in a group within the organization that is working to define horizontal XML standards, officials said last week. For instance, the group is creating standard XML formats for cross-industry items such as purchase orders and billing statements. The goal is to foster the use of uniform XML standards for basic items across industries. Nevertheless, it's not the standards themselves that have customers anxious; rather, it's lingering problems integrating Oracle technology with that of other vendors. While Oracle sells its own suite of integrated applications for ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management), many users choose to blend 'best-of-breed' applications from several vendors. That task is not always easy..."

[December 08, 1999] "Sun, Microsoft Release New XML." By Wylie Wong. In CNet News.com (December 07, 1999). "Microsoft today published its BizTalk framework, a set of guidelines that will help tie together the e-commerce systems for different industries, such as banking or manufacturing, by using the XML Web standard for data exchange. Sun today released technology that links XML and the Java programming language together, allowing software developers to build applications that use both technologies. Unlike HTML, which has a predefined vocabulary, XML allows developers to define their own vocabulary for data, such as price and product. The result is more efficient data exchange and better Internet searching capabilities. Microsoft's BizTalk, previously available in draft form, provides a set of guidelines for specific industries to define their XML vocabularies. It also defines a common way businesses can handle and route data to each other."

[December 07, 1999] "Sun set to ship next Java version." By Wylie Wong. In CNET News.com (December 06, 1999). "Sun Microsystems tomorrow will release its next-generation Java standard for writing business software and announce new Java development tools. Sun is shipping Java 2 Enterprise Edition, a mix of technologies developed over the past year that gives developers a uniform way to build business software using the popular Java programming language, according to Sun representatives. At its core is the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) programming model, which lets developers write applications using reusable pieces of code. Java 2 Enterprise Edition also includes a guidebook that serves as a blueprint for companies to build Java-based e-commerce software. Sun is also announcing more support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Java in Forte Fusion business integration software. Sun will soon add support for the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Transformation standard, which will let developers easily use XML to tie together business software. XSL technology lets users define how a document is presented, specifying color and font. The XSL Transformation technology will let developers easily map different documents together without having to write a lot of software code."

[December 07, 1999] "XML Drumbeat Intensifies." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld (December 06, 1999). "Extensible Markup Language's (XML) march to the forefront of IT infrastructures took a big step last week as more than 150 companies, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the United Nations' Center for Trade Facilitation and E-business (UN/CEFACT) kicked off a crusade for a global, cross-industry framework for electronic business. At the same time, the number of options for companies looking to get a jump on using XML for business-to-business application integration continued to swell. The goal of the global XML initiative, said Bob Sutor, a member of the board of directors at OASIS, in Billerica, Mass., is to tap into the vast technical and business experience of individuals from a number of industries and use that expertise to develop a universal framework for XML, to be called ebXML. 'With all the [XML] excitement, people are going off in small pockets to do their own thing,' said Sutor, who is also vice chairman of the ebXML project. 'Primarily what we're trying to get done is interoperability, trying to build an overall framework that anyone can plug into.' The ebXML group, which met officially for the first time last week, has outlined an aggressive strategy and hopes to have its initial offering within the next six months. That would put the group on target for delivering a final ebXML framework in 15 to 18 months. The goal of the project is to develop a cross-industry XML standard for e-business and encourage the continued development of vertical XML standards, not to pre-empt industry-specific XML standards, according to Sutor. UN/CEFACT has, however, requested a moratorium on XML development among its member groups to allow the ebXML initiative to take lead as the lone standard for cross-industry XML, according to Klaus-Dieter Naujok, chairman of ebXML and a representative of UN/CEFACT." See "Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)."

[December 07, 1999] "Schemas Top Delegate Wishlist at XML '99." By Edd Dumbill. From XML.com (December 06, 1999). "The W3C's Dan Connolly fielded questions from the floor in Monday morning's Standards Update session at XML'99. The progress of the XML Schema work was important to many attendees from the XML community. The desire for information and action on XML Schemas was reinforced by the lunchtime 'birds of a feather' (BOF) sessions, at which the schemas session was by far the most popular." A collection of references to W3C XML Schema work and related 'schema' initiatives is provided in the document "XML Schemas."

[December 07, 1999] "Standards Updates at XML '99." By Simon St. Laurent. From XML.com (December 06, 1999). "Developers gathered at the XML '99 conference were treated to a somewhat more frank standards update than is typical at these conferences. Leading a series of presentations from consortia involved in XML development, Dan Connolly of the W3C took questions from the audience rather than presenting a static list of progress reports. Supported by a few W3C participants, Connolly took some hard questions about schemas, links, and namespaces. Other groups, including the GCA's new IDEAlliance, OASIS, and Microsoft (reporting on BizTalk) presented a more traditional update. All of the organizations seemed to share a common belief that their work would move XML ahead, despite several overlaps and potential competition."

[December 07, 1999] "XML Processing with Python." By Sean McGrath. From XML.com (December 06, 1999). ['XML'99 got underway Sunday with tutorials from XML experts. Today we bring you a taste of those tutorials from Sean McGrath, who is teaching a course on XML with Python. Sean presents an overview of the popular language, and some sample XML processing programs.'] "A century ago, when HTML and CGI ruled the waves, Perl dominated the Web programming scene. As the transition to XML on the Web gathers pace, competition for the hearts and minds of Web developers is heating up. One language attracting a lot of attention at the moment is Python. In this article we will take a high level look at Python. We will use the time honored 'Hello world' example program to illustrate the principle features of the language. We will then examine the XML processing capabilities of Python..." For related references, see the section "XML and Python."

[December 03, 1999] "YML - The Why Markup Language." By Clark C. Evans. Posted to XML-DEV. History: Version .1, 03-DEC-1999. (December 03, 1999). "Summary: YML is currently an assembly of thoughts regarding the creation of a doubly recursive markup language and parser description. YML is an extension of the simple markup language ('SML'), which is a strict subset of the extensible markup language ('XML'). Further, YML is a unification of the XML document object model ('DOM') and the simple application programming interface for XML ('SAX'). Motivation: YML was motivated from two reoccurring debates on the XML list, under the titles 'SAX vs DOM' and 'element vs attribute'. It is interesting how they are interwoven. The SAX vs DOM debate often centers around which is better for processing information: random access method (RAM) or a sequential access method (SAM). Those from the DOM camp state that having the entire document in memory makes things easy to program; while those from the SAX camp point to efficiencies of stream processing...."

[December 03, 1999] "XML adds a dash of intelligence to the information age." By [Staff]. In The Sydney Morning Herald (December 03, 1999). "You can't actually see XML. It doesn't add any fancy animations or multimedia-rich content to a Web surfer's computer screen. So why does this programming language have everyone from Bill Gates to the teenager next door in such a spin? After years of consortium meetings, lengthy technical discussions on mailing lists, papers, proposals and more discussions, this new language of the Internet is ready to change completely how - and where - we use the Net and the way we do business on it. Microsoft chairman Gates, at last month's Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas, said Microsoft's next major emphasis - previous 'major emphases' have included the PC desktop and the Internet - will be XML. 'XML is very central ... it speaks to interoperability at the semantic level,' he said."

[December 02, 1999] "XML at Work - Technical Publishing." By Bill Trippe and Sabine Ocker. In The Gilbane Report - News and Analysis of E-Content Technology and Trends Volume 7, Number 9 (October 1999). "Technical publishing has always been a challenge for software applications. The need to integrate a variety of structured and unstructured data types has strained database, document/content management, and publishing software. However the fact that much technical information is truly "mission critical" (e.g., the correct procedure for replacing the emergency shut-off switch on the nuclear reactor) meant that many companies were forced to tackle the complexities head-on, and was the reason a lot of them invested in SGML. It is no surprise then that many early implementations of XML are technical documentation applications. Technical documentation is not by any means what is driving the adoption of XML. The sheer size of the markets for e-commerce solutions, enterprise solutions, and all the application and information integration necessary to connect these front and back office systems ensures that they will be driving the growth and direction of XML. There is a lot to learn from early XML adopters, especially when they are already familiar with the benefits and difficulties of working with SGML, as many in the technical documentation field are. Bill and guest contributor Sabine Ocker take a look at three companies this month. We'll look at XML at work in e-commerce and other areas in future issues. . . the projects bring the issue of technical information delivery into focus. The basic needs haven't changed, but today electronic delivery means delivery to the web; which we all know is an impatient and hungry consumer. Development cycles are shortening, while the demands of quality and accuracy perhaps increase. DHL customers want their packages on time; Nortel wants fewer outages; Jeppesen needs to get that plane back into service. And, because of the global nature of these businesses, the information needs to be available in many languages."

[December 02, 1999] "Understanding Microsoft's XML Strategy." By Frank Gilbane. In The Gilbane Report - News and Analysis of E-Content Technology and Trends Volume 7, Number 8 (September 1999), pages 1-5. "We looked at XML support in Office 2000 back in our April issue and suggested that, while useful in itself, what was really important was that it signaled a fundamental shift in computing. The promise of distributed object computing has never been realized because of a bias in favor of processing over content. XML is helping to change that, and Microsoft's support for XML in Office, though not complete, was nonetheless an early indicator that this important change had finally begun. This shift is not limited to Microsoft. Oracle, IBM, Sun, and others are moving in the same direction, and we'll take a look at some of their strategies in future issues. The announcements Microsoft made this month are rich with information about their direction and strategy, and XML has a key role throughout their product line. Microsoft understands the shift in computing as well as anyone. But they also have more specific and immediate reasons for building "pervasive" XML support into their product line. Understanding their motivation is critical to making your own judgments about their commitment to the standard, and more importantly, to making decisions about the role of XML in your IT strategy. In this issue we look at why Microsoft has invested so much in XML...What Microsoft has laid-out is in the language, and with the spin, of their own products, but it is also consistent with the way information technology and software development have been evolving. The ability to deal with various schemes for sharing data and documents and code using XML messaging will stand you in good stead for integrating your applications with platforms from Microsoft and others. It won't always be easy to keep up with the changing and competing schemas, but at least you won't have to be as much at the mercy of the cruel joke that many APIs have been."

[December 02, 1999] "A Robots Processing Instruction for XML Documents." By Walter Underwood. [Announcement] posted to XML-Dev. (December 02, 1999). "The robots processing instruction ('robots PI') is a simple mechanism to indicate to visiting Web Robots whether a document should be indexed and whether links in the document should be followed. In HTML documents, the Robots META tag (Koster 1996) serves the same purpose. This differs from the Standard for Robot Exclusion (Koster 1994, Kollar et al 1996) in that the instructions to the robot are in the document itself instead of in a '/robots.txt' file. An author often does not have permission to change the /robots.txt file stored at the root of the web server, but always has permission to change their own document."

[December 02, 1999] "OASIS XML Consortium Brewing Standard." By Wylie Wong. In CNET News.com (December 01, 1999). "A consortium of tech firms is working with a United Nations organization to develop a common way for businesses to use Extensible Markup Language to exchange data. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is an increasingly popular Web standard for businesses, in markets such as finance, manufacturing and publishing, to exchange information with each other via the Internet. The consortium is dubbed Oasis, and it includes more than 100 companies including IBM, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. It recently met with a United Nations technology group to work out plans to build a 'framework,' or a uniform model, for XML usage, said Robert Sutor, Oasis' chief strategy officer and IBM's XML industry standards liaison..." See the main reference page ("Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)") and the recent press release, "Organizations from Around the World Gather to Launch ebXML Global Electronic Business Initiative."

[December 02, 1999] "XML: It's EAI for the Rest of Us." By David S. Linthicum. In Enterprise Development (December 1999). ['Extensible Markup Language offers an easy way to move data between applications, but that gain doesn't come without some pain.'] "XML has transcended its own name. Designed to support publishing data over the Web, Extensible Markup Language provided an efficient vehicle that freed you from having to understand anything about the system sending the data. But as Enterprise Application Integration problems started to loom over many businesses, network architects and developers saw the value of also using XML for EAI -- to move information throughout an enterprise and beyond. Those same companies now see XML as a common text format to move information between enterprises and support supply-chain integration. As a result, many are calling XML the next Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system. Like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), XML is a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a venerable standard for defining descriptions of structure and content in documents. But while HTML gives you only a universal method for displaying information on a page, without context or dynamic behavior, XML takes the next step, adding context and meaning to data. As a common data-exchange format, XML encapsulates both metadata and data for movement over a network. This lets different applications and databases exchange information without having to understand anything about one another. To communicate, a source system simply reformats as XML-compliant text a message, a piece of information moving from an interface, or a data record. Then the system moves that information to any other system that can read XML. XML moves through the system by a simple file exchange encapsulated in a message, or by a request-reply scenario."

[December 02, 1999] "XML: Code Format of the Future?" By A. Russell Jones. In Technical Guide to Visual Programming (December 1999). ['Discover how XML will affect the future of programming by learning to translate code from one environment to another. Creating a universal code representation is now possible, thanks to XML.'] "The advent of Extensible Markup Language (XML) has created the potential for dramatic changes in programming languages. Although widespread changes haven't happened yet, I'll show you how to use XML to do a seemingly small task with wide-ranging repercussions for all developers. In this article, you'll learn how to translate code from one programming environment to another -- specifically, how to use Visual Basic to create Microsoft Windows Script Host (WSH) files. After I've shown you how to create these files, I'll discuss what the ability to translate code into an XML-based format means for the future. VB has also shown the world the financial advantages of widespread code reuse. Imagine the savings if code written in any computer language could be edited and compiled with any other computer language. An XML-code DTD would minimize incompatibilities between language versions. It would no longer matter if you were working in version 5 or version 6 other than inside the editor, just as feature improvements between word processors don't affect the document content. Changes and updates to the DTD could be handled generically rather than language-by-language. Finally, an XML-code DTD would eliminate the need for foreign programmers to learn to program in English. Because the code editor representation of a machine function is simply text in such a system, the keywords could appear in any language. The compiler would work on the XML representation of the code, not the code itself. XML has made a 'universal' code representation both possible and inevitable, given the business, social, and financial advantages that it creates. I'm looking forward to the XML code compiler."

[December 02, 1999] "BizTalk: Fluent in E-Business." By Kent Brown. In Enterprise Development (December 1999). ['BizTalk can make EAI and e-commerce work on a global scale. And Microsoft's shrewd support of XML could ensure its success.] "Once you cut through Microsoft's hype, you'll discover that the new BizTalk Framework is an ambitious and worthwhile EAI and e-commerce initiative. And despite the BizTalk Server being nowhere near a shipping product, it still behooves you to get up to speed on this framework. Especially since Microsoft appears to be succeeding in gathering together a critical mass of corporations that buy into BizTalk. BizTalk, though not exactly labeled as such, is essentially an attempt at a global solution to Enterprise Application Integration. The goal: for applications written independently of each other, running in different companies on different platforms, using different object models, and even communicating by different transport protocols, to be able to communicate with each other, using a modicum of custom "wrapper" or "glue" code. This would let us make the most of existing legacy apps. We could also mix and match "best of breed" apps from different vendors. There are three prongs to Microsoft's BizTalk initiative: the BizTalk Framework, the BizTalk schema library, and the BizTalk Server. The BizTalk Framework is a set of XML formatting rules and mandated tags to which every message must conform in order to be considered a BizTalk message. The library is a repository of published schemas submitted by participating companies, which is maintained on the www.biztalk.org site so that the schema for any BizTalk message is universally accessible. The BizTalk Server is a promised software product that will allow centralized configuration of the routing of messages and the translation between different schemas. Microsoft has already delivered the BizTalk JumpStart kit, which lets you convert your apps to use BizTalk messages. Then they'll work with the BizTalk Server once it's released..."

[December 02, 1999] "Take Advantage of XML Using VB and ASP." By A. Russell Jones. In Visual Basic Programmer's Journal (December 1999). ['XML provides a common method for placing content into the same file as meta-information about that content. Learn how to use Microsoft's XML parser to retrieve, update, and insert data. Use this introduction to the msxml parser to get started creating Web apps using XML.'] "If you learn only one new technology next year, it should be Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML provides a common method for placing content into the same file as meta-information about that content. That sounds difficult, but the beauty of XML is that it's anything but difficult (see Listing 1). If you've ever looked at a Visual Basic class file with Notepad, you'll notice that the code [in Listing 1] looks familiar, all wrapped up in tags (the text between the angle brackets). The XML describes a VB class module called CPerson... A database isn't much good without a way to retrieve, update, and insert data. You perform those operations with XML using a parser and a set of objects exposed by the parser. In this column, I'll show you how to get started using an XML parser. Several parsers are available on the Web, but you probably already have one; Microsoft includes an XML parser with Internet Explorer 5 (IE5). Microsoft's XML parser resides in a file called msxml.dll. msxml is a Component Object Model (COM) object, so you can use it with any ActiveX-compliant environment, including VB and Active Server Pages (ASP)."

[December 02, 1999] "DNA 2000: Opening new Windows. Will Microsoft Windows DNA 2000 usher in the next generation of the Internet?" By Kent Brown. In Enterprise Development (November 1999). ['Microsoft's Windows DNA 2000 initiative proposes to XMLify the Microsoft OS, tools, and services front to back. Will this end the proprietary platform wars, usher in the next era of the Internet and ultimately result in world peace and prosperity for all?'] "Windows DNA 2000 is, in essence, an extension of the Windows DNA model beyond the traditional Windows platform. DNA 2000 envisions the next step of Internet evolution as the proliferation of services that can be invoked remotely over the Web and integrated into customized solutions in the same way that enterprise developers use remote objects across their networks. Microsoft's outline for DNA 2000 presumes that a universal remote procedure call (RPC) mechanism is necessary to make this possible, and that this mechanism will involve messages carrying XML payloads to marshal the RPC requests and data exchanges across the wire. The rest of Microsoft's architecture plan is mostly just promised product enhancements to fill in the gaps in the Windows 2000 platform to support scalable distributed computing. In his speech, Steve Ballmer listed five areas of focus for the Windows DNA 2000 initiative: Extended programming model. Ideally, the programming model for using remote services within the enterprise and across the Web would be the same. But there are some big differences between these two environments, and while a worthy goal, a unified programming model will require a lot of compromises. Microsoft unveiled a new protocol proposal, the Simple Object Access Protocol, or SOAP, submitted to the IETF standards committee to address this problem. I'll take a detailed look at the SOAP protocol below because I think this is the most interesting aspect of the whole [MS] announcement..."

[December 02, 1999] "IBM, Extricity To Partner On B2B Solutions." By Ellis Booker. In CMPNet TechWeb News (December 01, 1999). "IBM and Extricity Software today are announcing an alliance to jointly deliver business-to-business (B2B) solutions worldwide. As part of the pact, IBM will resell and market Extricity's AllianceSeries XML-based e-commerce server platform. IBM, already the market leader with around 7,000 users of its MQSeries middleware product, believes the B2B extension is a natural addition to this enterprise application integration platform. 'We see this as enabling customers to quickly and efficiently create portals and exchanges between buyers and sellers,' said Rob Lamb, MQSeries business unit executive. For months, IBM has been adding XML support to its various software platforms, including MQSeries, as well as its DB2 database and WebSphere application server."

[December 02, 1999] "TSI To Offer B-to-B Integration Software." By Jeff Sweat. In CMPNet TechWeb News (December 01, 1999). "Enterprise application integration (EAI) vendor TSI Software on Tuesday will unveil the first fruits of its acquisition of application server vendor Novera Software -- an integration product that helps link businesses over the Internet. In the first quarter of next year, the company will roll out its business-to-business integration broker, the combination of Novera's application server and TSI's Mercator EAI software. The company said the product will transform data from legacy systems and packaged application platforms, such as SAP and PeopleSoft, into XML, which will make it simpler for businesses to share information with trading partners, customers, and suppliers. It will also transform XML into other data formats at either end of the transaction."

[December 02, 1999] "Object Databases Move To The Middle -- Despite The Prevalence Of Relational Databases, Vendors Are Making Use Of The Technology." By Mary Stearns Sgiaroto. In InformationWeek Issue 763 [Section: Application Development Java Messaging] (November 29, 1999). "The market tug-of-war between object-oriented and relational databases is long over, and it's clear that relational databases remain the chief custodians of business information...As more companies realize the benefits of the Extensible Markup Language, vendors are finding new ways to approach this market, and companies are seeing definite benefits to deploying object databases at the hub of their integration projects. The XML trend will continue to shake itself out, of course. Says Gartner Group's Varma, 'Most everybody has a story about managing in-memory data and XML. It's very early in the XML game and it's still too early for anybody to claim victory or defeat.' Hoping to end up on the winning side, Object Design Inc. in Burlington Mass., was founded on an object-database product, ObjectStore, and has positioned itself squarely in the XML space. The company sells eXcelon, a midtier, XML-based data-integration server that manages the flow of information between IT systems, business-to-consumer applications, and business-to-business information exchange applications. 'I think XML is going to explode,' says Coco Jaenicke, manager of product marketing and XML evangelist for Object Design. 'I think it's going to be the underlying format for all information. Technically, XML has every feature you need; it stands up to the job. And the industry is supporting it, so it's free of political perils.' XML and object databases would seem to be a potent combination. David Hoag, VP of development at Java engineering and consulting firm ObjectWave, says object-oriented database-management system technology is superior when it comes to storing XML. 'The component model for XML is complex enough that to store it in a relational database isn't practical,' Hoag says. 'In the relational-database world, you have to worry about foreign key references, the depth of the model. There is a lot more complexity in mapping an XML component model to a relational model.' Mapping an XML component model to a relational database requires hundreds and hundreds of round trips, Hoag says, whereas the object database simply returns the object structure. 'In an XML situation, the object database will win out in performance and simplicity,' he says."

[December 01, 1999] "Describing your Data: DTDs and XML Schemas." By Simon St. Laurent. From XML.com (December 01, 1999). ['Are you confused about which XML schema syntax to use? Concerned that your XML applications remain interoperable with future XML schema standards? Simon St. Laurent guides us through the maze of XML schema languages, focusing on DTDs and XML Schemas.'] "If you've been developing with XML for even a short period of time, you are likely to have reached the point of wanting to describe your XML data structures. Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schemas are key technologies in this area. Although neither are strictly required for XML development, both DTDs and XML Schemas are important parts of the XML toolbox. DTDs have been around for over twenty years as a part of SGML, while XML Schemas are relative newcomers. Though they use very different syntax and take different approaches to the task of describing document structures, both mechanisms definitely occupy the same turf. The W3C seems to be grooming XML Schemas as a replacement for DTDs, but it isn't yet clear that how quickly the transition will be made. DTDs are here-and-now, while XML Schemas, in large part, are for the future..." [For complete references, see "XML Schemas."]

[December 01, 1999] "Which Mailing List Should You Join?" By Edd Dumbill. From XML.com (December 01, 1999). ['Some of the best and most up to date help on programming with XML can be found in mailing lists and newsgroups. Our guide can help you to choose the right forum in which to get involved.'] "Subscribing to mailing lists or newsgroups is a great way to stay up to date on XML, contribute to discussions, and find answers to problems. There is a wealth of forums for the discussion of XML-related topics. In fact, there are so many options that it can be difficult to know where to start. The purpose of this guide is to survey the most popular forums, to communicate their strengths, and help you decide which mailing list to join." [See also: "SGML/XML Discussion Groups and Mailing Lists."

[December 01, 1999] "Microsoft Submits XML Standard." By Aaron Ricadela and Rick Whiting. In CMP TechWeb News (December 01, 1999). "Microsoft submitted a network protocol for XML communication between Windows and non-Microsoft systems to the Internet Engineering Task Force on Tuesday. The draft specification is for version 1.0 of SOAP, a method for accessing objects over the Web. SOAP employs XML to let developers write apps that call objects built with Microsoft's DCOM, as well as non-Microsoft components that use Java and Corba. Microsoft hopes interoperability between its systems and computers running Unix will spur sales of Windows 2000." For other references, see "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)." [cn]

[December 01, 1999] "Global XML framework for e-business planned." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld (November 30, 1999). "The crusade for a global, cross-industry Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework for electronic business is officially under way, with backing from over 150 companies, as well as the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and the United Nations' Center for Trade Facilitation and E-business (UN/CEFACT). The goal, according to Bob Sutor, a member of the board of directors at XML standards body OASIS, is to tap into the vast technical and business experience of individuals across a number of industries and use that expertise to develop a universal framework for XML, to be called ebXML. To accomplish that goal, participating companies have been split into eight project teams based on their respective areas of expertise, and those teams will be working over the next six months to develop the first framework for the ebXML framework. Those project teams will cover marketing awareness and education; technical requirements; business process methodology; technical architecture; core components; transportation, routing, and packaging; registry and repository; and technical coordination and support. While the goal of the project is to develop a cross-industry XML standard for e-business, it is not designed to preempt the development of industry-specific XML standards. On the contrary, said Sutor, OASIS and the UN/CEFACT will encourage the continued development of vertical XML standards." See the main reference page ("Electronic Business XML Initiative (ebXML)") and the recent press release, "Organizations from Around the World Gather to Launch ebXML Global Electronic Business Initiative."

[December 01, 1999] "How XML Enables Internet Trading Communities and Marketplaces." By Bob Glushko. From Ontology.org. (December 1999). ['Bob Glushko, XML strategist and Director of Advanced Technology at CommerceOne, overviews the challenges the the EDI community face in building a new Electronic Business standard using XML. EDI's basic premise that it is easier to interconnect business systems using 'document-based coupling' than in terms of application interfaces. Is the same true in an XML world? Bob Glushko of CommerceOne thinks so. To be presented at XML'99.'] "This paper explains why XML is rapidly becoming the enabling technology for Internet markets and trading communities. It revisits EDI's basic premise that it is easier to interconnect business systems using 'document-based coupling' than in terms of application interfaces and shows how XML can breathe new life into this philosophy. It recognizes the value of preserving EDI's years of experience in designing messages that meet business process requirements and analyzes the technical limitations in both EDI and XML that make the transformation from EDI to XML challenging. But the ease with which anyone can invent new XML models for particular industries or subject areas is both a primary attraction and a significant threat to the interoperability of messages within and between trading communities. This paper reviews efforts to create standards for XML applications, emphasizing those that consciously strive for a balanced perspective that recognizes the need for EDI and XML to interoperate. Finally, the paper introduces the challenges posed by the need for documents to be customized for a particular trading community while still being understood and interoperable with documents in other communities. The paper briefly explains how a Common Business Library encoded in an XML schema language is used in the Marketsite Marketplace Platform to meet these challenges."

[December 01, 1999] "Tradeum: Pioneering Solutions for Internet Exchanges." By [Ontology.org Staff]. The featured 'site of the week' [1999-11-28] from Ontology.org. "Tradeum's XML technology enables real-time optimized matching of buyers, sellers and third-party services to create a dynamic trading exchange on the Internet. The technology respects all parameters, from technical specifications to availability of third-party services, commercial terms and trading partner preferences. The power of Tradeum's technology is impressive, yet even Tradeum admit 'For both buyers and sellers to maximize their advantage, they must understand each other in the fullest sense, and their computers must talk to each other to do so -- delivery dates, technical specifications, commercial terms and more. This requires that goods be described accurately and comprehensively in an industry-wide standardized manner.' [...] Tradeum provides pioneering technology and services that enable B2B Internet marketmakers to realize first-mover advantage. With Tradeum's extensible exchange solution and .net operation, a net marketmaker can be up and running now and then scale up smoothly without missing a byte... Tradeum's platform is based on XML. Why? For most goods and services, many-to-many trading faced an impossible-to-climb Tower of Babel of data formats, jargon, and terminology."

[December 01, 1999] "Controlled Access and Dissemination of XML Documents." By Elisa Bertino, Silvana Castano, Elena Ferrari and Marco Mesiti. In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on on Web Information and Data Management (November 2-6, 1999, Kansas City) (November 1999), pages 22-27, with 11 references. "XML (Extensible Markup Language) is becoming the most relevant standardization effort in the area of document representation through markup languages. Through XML, it is possible to define complex documents, containing information at different degrees of sensitivity. Moreover, the processes of document exchange and acquisition, which can be very frequent in Web-based information systems, are simplified and standardized. In this scenario, there is a strong need for policies to control and regulate the access and dissemination of XML documents. In the paper, we discuss main protection requirements posed by XML documents and we present a set of authorization and dissemination policies that enable both a controlled access to XML documents in a given Source and the exchange of XML documents across different sources. [We outline] a set of authorization and dissemination policies for a controlled XML document access and exchange. Novel features of the proposed policies are related to the capability of dealing with the inter-linked, hierarchical structure of XML documents, with documents that partially conform to the existing policies, and with a dynamic subject population to which different views of the same (set of) document(s) have to be released. Future research work includes the enrichment of the set of policies we have proposed (for example, by supporting policies which appIy only to specific sets or collections of documents belonging to a given DTD), the development of a formal notation to specify the proposed policies, the implementation of access control and dissemination mechanisms enforcing the proposed policies, the development of tools supporting the security administrator. Other important research directions we plan to investigate are related to the dissemination of XML documents in the WWW environment. An important issue is how to support the Cryptolope approach with standard Web browsers."

[December 01, 1999] "Get Up to Speed With XML. Learn the basics of XML so you can get started using it in your own applications." By Boris Feldman. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 14-18. ['XML is designed to help you organize your data and easily exchange it with others. This overview gives you the basics you need to start using XML in your own applications.'] "If you've seen any computer magazine in the last year, you couldn't have missed the buzz surrounding the industry's newest darling, the Extensible Markup Language (XML). However, having heard of XML is not enough; you need to make smart decisions about how it will impact your business, Internet-related or not, and how you can best take advantage of this new technology. This article will give you a clear understanding of what XML is, what all the XML-related acronyms mean, and how you can best put XML to work for you. XML is a tag-based language similar to HTML that is designed to organize your data rather than format it. With XML you can standardize the way you exchange data with other companies, within your company, or within your application. By using XML, you concentrate on your business logic and avoid the dreary work of writing parsing code for your custom format..."

[December 01, 1999] "XML Glossary." Compiled by Stefan Grünwedel. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 20-21. "All the XML terminology you need to know, with definitions. Here are some common terms associated with XML that you'll come across not only in this magazine but in other XML-related contexts..."

[December 01, 1999] "Dun & Bradstreet Embraces XML." By Jon Udell. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 22-27, 34-35. ['Risk assessment for corporate insurance underwriters used to take days. With revamped data storage and delivery, it now can take minutes. Sure, Dun & Bradstreet's project had its minor glitches. But it's clear that XML middleware is uniquely equipped to leverage the Web's ubiquity and provide workable business-to-business solutions.'] "Users can deploy D&B's Global Access Toolkit on a server or a client, as a set of COM components or Java libraries. Harvey Bowring's credit underwriting application, for example, was built with the COM version of the toolkit and interacts with IIS, Active Server Pages, and SQL Server on Compaq servers running NT. The same COM toolkit can be deployed client-side, delivering realtime D&B data-awareness to a Win32-based application. An alternative Java version of the toolkit delivers the same functionality on non-Windows servers and clients. Either way, the toolkit hides a lot of the XML plumbing that's needed to negotiate transactions with the Global Access Server. It exposes a scriptable object model (see "The hidden middle: Global Access Toolkit's object model") to the programmer. For example, Listing 1 shows how a Visual Basic programmer might locate D&B records for IBM. Not an angle bracket or an XML parser in sight! Despite the object model's neat encapsulation, the XML machinery the toolkit hides isn't terribly complex. It's a request/response protocol called DGX (D&B Global Exchange), modelled on OFX (Open Financial Exchange), the Intuit/Microsoft standard that governs home banking (see Listing 2). OFX is currently based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), but is rapidly migrating toward XML. To create DGX, the Global Access team adopted OFX's SGML DTDs (Document Type Definitions) and recast them as simpler but equivalent XML DTDs."

[December 01, 1999] "XML Gets Businesses Talking. BizTalk and OASIS are standardizing data formats and network specifications with XML to improve business information exchange." By David Wall. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 36-39. ['As businesses move from paper documents and proprietary electronic formats toward electronic interactions with XML, there's a need for standard ways to identify all that important data properly. BizTalk and OASIS aim to please.'] "The case for XML-based exchange standards for business information gets a boost from the current sorry state of affairs in cross-application (in)compatibility. What exists now is a rat's nest of interfaces, preprocessors, translators, adapters, and converters in a typical large enterprise. If you have 10 pieces of accounting and management software in your organization and each program must talk to each of the others, there are 90 connections to be made. In many cases, building those connections is a manual job-the sort of thing you have to pay a consultant or in-house programmer a lot of money to accomplish. Heaven forbid you should ever decide to swap out one piece of software for a new one. This is why legacy software sticks around for so long. The technology and effort involved in dealing with software interoperability make up a huge industry. Not only do organizational (and contract) programmers spend too many hours building interfaces, but the entire Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) software industry-consisting of CrossWorlds (www.crossworlds.com), Bluestone (www.bluestone.com/main.html), Extricity (www.extricity.com), and others-is based on the fact that getting big management applications to talk to one another is hard. OAG's Connelly notes that managers would dearly love to save the vast sums of money they spend on integrating various applications' input and output. The OAG promotes a "common backbone" solution to this problem. It works like a bulletin board in a small-town grocery store. You can post information on the bulletin board or extract information from it. If you post something, you know to write legibly, concisely (and in the local language), and to include a way for someone to contact you. If you read a notice, you extract what you need from the bulletin based on its formatting. The common backbone that OAG promotes isn't a bulletin board in the traditional computer sense of the term, but rather a set of rules for publishing and accessing information in some kind of forum..."

[December 01, 1999] "When Do You Adopt XML? The tradeoffs involved in using XML mean you should pick your uses carefully." By David S. Linthicum. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 40-42. ['There's no denying that XML is great for data transfer. But throwing this hot new technology at too many problems can only dilute its value and cause mass confusion. Here's when to use it-and when not to.'] The vendors are all staking early claims to XML dominance. They also seem to be turning XML, which is really just a specification, into a technology, which may not be the best thing for XML right now. Some vendors see XML as a common information exchange mechanism; others see it as a database storage format; some look to the Web attributes of XML; the rest see XML as a mechanism to finally get metadata under control. The rush to make a product out of XML is pulling it in many different directions. Ariba Technologies Inc., for instance, just released Commerce XML (cXML), a set of XML DTDs that allows various organizations to define and exchange transactions over the Internet. Not to be outdone, Commerce One released Veo's Common Business Library (CBL), written in XML. CBL is part of the eCo Framework specification for business-to-business commerce, recently turned over to the CommerceNet Consortium. At the same time, Open Buying on the Internet (OBI), an existing standard defining a set of processes for Web-based procurement, is being redone as an XML-enabled standard. Moreover, we are also looking to redefine traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) as XML. You get the picture. Here's my take on it. XML, and the technology that accompanies it, makes for an excellent text-processing facility. It's able to follow a set of rules for creation and organization of documents, so we now have a common text format that many of us can agree on. This allows users of different types of middleware to share information easily. This is all possible because of the self-describing nature of XML data."

[December 01, 1999] "Oracle: Powered by XML and Java. Storing your XML in an Oracle8i database offers many advantages to managing your data." By Ken North. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 46-50. ['Databases belong in every XML developer's toolkit. If you are doing mixed projects with XML and other types of data, you'll want to use a product such as Oracle8i for common storage and querying.']The most recent release of the Oracle database, Oracle8i, features XML capabilities as one of the primary features of the newest version. Oracle8i lets you store XML and build XML-enabled applications. Storing XML in databases lets you take advantage of database administration processes, enforce rules about data and security, define type information, and improve search performance. Document retrieval and data retrieval are not synonymous. Oracle solves data retrieval problems, even though it can also manage XML as complete documents. It's harder to manage a document collection as it grows. Finding information is also more difficult when you must search hundreds or thousands of XML documents. This is a classic data management problem solved through the advent of the database management system (DBMS). Database managers maintain data integrity by providing uniform rules and consistent methods for accessing data. Software companies have refined database technology for three decades and today's DBMSs can manage tabular data, objects, video, audio, images, geo-spatial data, and text. XML is text that conforms to a hierarchy or tree structure. This structure lends itself to parsing and searching. It also lets Oracle provide section searches when you use it to manage XML collections. Oracle8i can store entire documents as columns and its internet File System (iFS) can access XML stored in external files or on the Web. Storing XML collections in databases lets you benefit from database administration tools and procedures such as scheduled backups. Because Oracle databases are not passive data stores, you can use them to enforce rules about data and security. By embedding rules and logic in a database, you can use it to block operations that compromise data integrity. XML developers understand rule processing because they can use a Document Type Definition (DTD) to express rules about documents. You can use a DTD to define the content model for a document, specifying elements, entities, and attributes. In Structuring XML Documents (Prentice Hall, 1998), David Megginson describes two types of DTDs: book-oriented DTDs and database-oriented DTDs. Database-oriented DTDs are used for data exchange and commercial transactions-for example, a DTD used to write and validate hotel reviews stored as XML."

[December 01, 1999] "From Office DOM to XML DOM. Document Object Models are the key to unlocking the power of XML." By Kurt Cagle. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 52-56. ['Although Microsoft Office doesn't really support XML, knowing how to use MS Office's DOMs lets you create complex applications with tools like VBA.'] "Microsoft identifies itself with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) more than just about any other company. The company produced a readily available component for XML parsing within months of the convening of the XML committee, and it pushed for a view of XML that emphasized its ability to transfer any data-not just documents. It also raised the awareness of Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) to new heights and started more people out with the query aspects of XML than the rest of the industry combined. Given that, you'd expect that Microsoft Office 2000, the company's flagship product, would carry the banner of data anywhere, any time, any way. Unfortunately, Office doesn't really support XML. That doesn't mean you can't put XML to use with Office-it just means that quite a bit of the work you'd like Office to do, you need to do yourself. I'll demonstrate a couple of techniques to take advantage of XML from within Office. The Document Object Models (DOMs) for all these tools are incredibly robust-perhaps too much so, but that's a different argument. With a basic grasp of XML and DOM manipulation, you can create sophisticated applications with tools like Visual Basic for Applications. Just don't expect Office to provide these things for you out of the gate."

[December 01, 1999] "Expand on Visual Basic's Functionality. XML revolutionizes structured file storage by reducing development time and improving performance." By Nachi Sendowski. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 58-63. ['No longer do you need to invent a custom data file format, define a grammar, or build a parser. XML handles it all for you. You'll put XML to use today, building a hypothetical repository. Learn proven XML techniques to maximize VB performance and compensate for missing VB functionality.'] "In the good ol' days, you had to invent your own data structure, storage, grammar, and file format when implementing structured file storage for an app. You also had to code the read and write procedures for this data and-on occasion-write your own parser and possibly an editor to administer the stored data. Extensible Markup Language (XML) eliminates the need to jump through such hoops ever again. It provides a flexible and easy-to-use object model for accessing structured data programmatically. An application can easily traverse an XML document using the provided parser and object model and have sequential or random access to any eell-formed structured information. The data kept in XML is text-based, readable, maintained easily, potentially self-validating, and accessible with a variety of tools. In this article, I'll explain the basic steps for putting XML to use, walking you through the steps necessary to implement a hypothetical repository. Along the way, I'll show you a few tricks for using XML either to maximize performance in VB or compensate for missing VB functionality, using benchmarks to illustrate the relative performance difference between various approaches. At the same time, I'll try to punch through the hype, making the case for what XML can do today, as I cover its strengths and weaknesses in the context of other present-day technologies."

[December 01, 1999] "An Introduction to XML for Java Programmers. The Extensible Markup Language and Java are a perfect duo for data exchange and more." By Piroz Mohseni. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 64-67. ['Like Java, XML has emerged from an early hype phase to become a valuable tool in handling data. Learn how Java can make an XML document's data and metadata come to life in your apps.'] "XML has often been associated with HTML and discussed in the context of content markup, content management, search engines, and meta languages, but there are some aspects of XML that are also a perfect match for Java. XML is not a programming language-it is merely a language in which you can create a markup language. XML provides a method to represent data in a universal way. Data and the logic to process data (programs) have a long-standing relationship. It should come as no surprise that such a relationship exists and will emerge fully from XML and Java...The ability to define data structures in plain text makes XML useful as a data exchange mechanism among applications. But what does this have to do with Java? Just as a browser brings HTML to life, Java can bring XML documents to life. An XML document by itself is merely a collection of data and metadata. A programming language is required to process that data and perform useful operations using the data. In the remainder of this article, we'll take a look at how Java can leverage XML documents. It should be noted that XML is inherently language independent. Other languages such as Perl, Python, and C++ can also be used to manipulate XML documents."

[December 01, 1999] "Create Extensible Web Pages with XML and CSS. Learn how to integrate XML and CSS markup to create truly extensible Web pages using your own tag set and vocabulary." By Kurt Cagle. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 68-74. ['Using XML and Cascading Style Sheets, you can create truly extensible Web pages. Find out what's possible with XML in tandem with Internet Explorer 5.'] "If HTML and the Internet have changed the ability of people to publish, it has been somewhat tempered by two significant limitations. The first is the classic conundrum of the Web designer. In order to build pages with visual complexity, you are forced to choose between supporting a lesser subset of Web page implementation that ensures compatibility, or taking advantage of a larger set of features at the expense of limiting market penetration or maintaining multiple versions. The second, more pervasive limitation of HTML is the loss of context. HTML started out as a contextual language for viewing scientific documents. It isn't terribly well-suited for creating interactive advertisements, gallery walk-throughs, online book and CD superstores, and so forth. However, each Shockwave movie, each VRML world, every DIV-based HTML element that uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) loses just a little bit more information about the Web. We're on the edge of a revolution that will prove as profound in its way as HTML, or those first word processors, or that first copy of PageMaker. The harbinger of this new revolution is XML, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5.0 provides the first inklings about how powerful this new technology will ultimately prove to be... This article covers a lot of ground. My intent was to show the potential that XML offers as a markup language, and almost accidentally, I created a number of useful behaviors to help support it. Feel free to use them and modify them for your own projects. While it will take some time for XML browsers (and make no mistake about it: IE5 is an XML browser, which just happens to support HTML) to become commonplace, their use will unquestionably change the way we create Web pages. You can define your documents to best handle your own particular tasks, rather than tasks that fit best in a language meant to format physics papers. You can create complex functionality that can be referenced as easily as a simple paragraph tag, and you can change the functionality by specifying a different style sheet. With the click of a button, you can make a document more suitable for print, or for audible reading, or for displaying as a spreadsheet. Finally, the very meta-structure of the document becomes easy to navigate; what used to take dozens of lines of HTML-centered JavaScript code can be easily accomplished in a handful of XML-centric code lines."

[December 01, 1999] "Schemas Take DTDs to the Next Level. Use schemas to prepare XML for the demands of e-business and e-commerce." By Norbert Mikula and Ken Levy. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 81-82. ['The W3C XML Schema is far from being finalized, but it offers a promising direction for document type definitions (DTDs) to prepare XML for the demands of e-business and e-commerce.'] "For XML documents to make sense, the attributes and elements of the document must be defined prior to being parsed by an XML browser or application. Traditionally, a Document Type Definition (DTD) is used to describe the elements and attributes in an XML or SGML document. The format for DTDs is an existing worldwide standard and will likely exist and be improved upon for years to come. However, because of the inherent limitations of DTDs, and the increasingly data-oriented role that XML is being asked to assume because of developments in e-business and e-commerce, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards body is promoting a new standard called XML Schemas, rather than attempting to push the current DTD standards any farther. We will describe the differences between DTDs and XML Schemas, the pros and cons of each, and will then offer a number of recommendations to help you decide which would be the best technology for your needs... To understand why XML Schemas are important, let's look at the two major shortcomings of DTDs as they relate to XML: a separate syntax and lack of support fordata-typing."

[December 01, 1999] "Transform Your Data With XSL. Here's a real-world example of how you can use XSL to convert an XML-based résumé into various data formats to suit your needs." By Kurt Cagle. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter 1999/2000), pages 76-80. ['The Extensible Stylesheet Language gives you the power to convert your data into different formats based on your needs. This real-world example shows how to transform an XML-based résumé into various formats using XSL.'] "XSL, or Extensible Stylesheet Language, is often compared to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as a way of applying specific formats to XML tags. However, this comparison is actually a little misleading. CSS reads each XML element as it is scanned in the document and applies styles in that order. In other words, CSS doesn't change the structure of the XML; it only changes the visual appearance of each node. If you put your name at the bottom of the XML document, CSS will place your name at the bottom of the document unless you explicitly position it elsewhere with position:absolute. Furthermore, CSS will treat each tag of a given type in exactly the same manner-there's no mechanism for doing things like placing a rule above the first paragraph in a set of paragraphs without explicitly renaming the paragraph class. XSL, on the other hand, is a transformational language. It can take an XML document (or a rigorously valid HTML document) and convert it to another XML document, an HTML document, a printable HTML document, a standard ASCII text file, a proprietary text format, or conceivably even a binary representation. Given that a significant proportion of all computer programs out there exist for the sole purpose of transforming one set of data into a different set of data, the potential for XSL is in some respects even broader than the already burgeoning interest in XML."

[November 30, 1999] "Microsoft Offers SOAP to IETF." By Bob Trott. In InfoWorld (November 30, 1999). "Microsoft plans to submit the first version of its Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force on Tuesday for consideration as a standard, according to a company representative. SOAP, based on Internet standards such as HTTP and Extensible Markup Language (XML), enables Remote Procedure Calls to be sent as XML syntax across the Web's HTTP architecture. The specification will be built into forthcoming versions of Microsoft's Windows Distributed interNet Applications architecture. The goal, according to the company officials, is to offer a standards-based interoperability protocol that will enable 'new and existing applications to become Web services that communicate seamlessly.' The protocol is key to Microsoft as it gears up for the rollout of Windows 2000, which is due to launch Feb. 17 2000. After getting feedback from partners and major customers who are unhappy with the prospect of ripping out and replacing legacy and non-Windows systems, the company in the past couple of years has focused on interoperability with those and other infrastructures, such as Java. Microsoft officials hope that this approach will prove to be a selling point for Windows 2000, the upgrade to Windows NT 4.0." See "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

[November 30, 1999] "Microsoft Proposes Net software Specification." By Mike Ricciuti. In CNET News.com (November 30, 1999). "Microsoft today will submit a draft of a proposed Internet communications specification to a key standards body. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will publish and submit version 1.0 of the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as an Internet draft. SOAP, based on the increasingly popular Web standard for data exchange called the Extensible Markup Language (XML), will let business software programs communicate over the Internet, regardless of the programming model on which they are based. Microsoft is attempting to gain an advantage over competitors, including Sun Microsystems, IBM and others, by establishing SOAP as an Internet standard and incorporating it into its server-based software. In many ways, SOAP, and Microsoft's plans to establish it as a standard, represent a reversal of Microsoft's past attempts to steer the software development business. The company many times has been accused of attempting to control the market with Windows, a de facto proprietary standard. With SOAP, Microsoft is proposing an open standard that would nullify a competitor's proprietary advantage. SOAP, which doesn't require any Microsoft software, is a network protocol that lets software objects developed using different languages communicate with each other. Microsoft sees it as effectively leveling the playing field between Windows and development strategies based on Java. Instead of being forced to choose one model, companies will be free to select whichever is best suited to solving the problem at hand, Microsoft reasons..." See "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

[November 24, 1999] "Presentation and Exchange of Business Models With CIMOSA-XML." By Giuseppe Salvato, I.J. Leontaritis, P. Winstone, M. Zelm, Daniel Rivers-Moore [etc.]. In Computers in Industry [ISSN: 0166-3615] Volume 40, Number 2-3 (November 1999), pages 125-139. On CIMOSA (CIM Open System Architecture) and XML, see [a hint in] CIMOSA - News from Vol. 6/1, 99-02-15: "A working group in the PRIMA project with the CIMOSA Association and Rivcom, UK has developed the Document Type Definition (DTD) of the CIMOSA-XML Meta-model. This Meta-model is the basis for a common set of modelling constructs in order to build enterprise models, which can be presented in different views to different users. The presentation of the CIMOSA model starts from the functional hierarchy (decomposition) of the domain and enterprise functions (Domain Processes, Business Processes and Enterprise Activities). The behavioural description of the XML model is presented as a graphic representation. Information view and resource view are presented by listing Object Views, Capabilities and Capability Sets with a description of the enterprise functions that employ them as function inputs, function outputs, needed capabilities etc. The specification of a Document Type Definition (DTD) for most CIMOSA constructs has been based on their formal definition in EXPRESS language. The population of an XML file with data from a particular CIMOSA model with CIMOSA DTD enables the model representation into Manager, Business and Technical type of description. The partial CIMOSA model 'Quality Document Management' described in a business functional requirements study has been used as a DTD prototyping example. The benefits can be summarised as: Exchange of CIMOSA models in a neutral form, style sheets that give users the ability to interact more with the model and the definition of logical links between information elements. The results of this work are reported in the PRIMA project deliverables and in a paper titled 'Process Repository as a management tool' by G.Salvato et.al. to be published in the upcoming special issue of Computers in Industry." See further the table of contents for Computers In Industry, Volume 40, Issue: 2-3, November 1999.

[November 24, 1999] "Web DNA: XML Builds Powerful Publications." By Liz Levy. In Imaging & Document Solutions Volume 8, Number 11 (November 1999), pages 18-26. ['XML provides the structure for living documents. We look at two very different companies that are using XML to build applications that support the dynamic assembly of content and Web delivery.'] "They're two very different companies with two different challenges, but they've both found an answer in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). What they have in common is a need to organize and add structure to their documents with an eye toward delivering the content across multiple media including the Web. Read on to find out how Practitioners Publishing company plans to customize and reuse its financial reference material for delivery via print, the Web and CD-ROM. And there's Guidant, a leading maker of life-saving pacemakers and defibrillators. Using XML, this manufacturer is creating structured documents that can be dynamically composed for each product they manufacture. (1) Practitioners Publishing Company (PPC) offers a variety of reference materials used by CPAs and financial planners. There are 300 employees in PPC's office in Fort Worth, TX, where they publish more than 125 titles a year averaging more than 1,000 pages in length... XML facilitates the reuse of content by storing information at an element level rather than a document level. This fit PPC because some of their products have the same sections and subsections but they don't have the same chapters. (2) Guidant (Indianapolis, IN) is a $1.9 billion, 6,000-employee manufacturer of cardiovascular products. The company's Cardiac Rhythm Management Group is a market leader in defibrillator systems, which treat life-threatening rapid heart rhythms. Based in St. Paul, MN, the group also produces pacemakers and other products, all of which require thousands of pages of documentation to support manufacturing processes. The Guidant group decided to rewrite all of their manuals in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) to improve document structure, organization and creation..."

[November 24, 1999] "Web DNA: WebDAV Brings the Basics Online." By Lawrence Drinkwater and Doug Henschen. In Imaging & Document Solutions Volume 8, Number 11 (November 1999), pages 29-35. ['WebDAV is a new protocol that provides a way to write, edit and share information over the Web to and from any supporting application. We compare WebDAV to other document management standards and see where the industry is headed.'] The Web is struggling to move beyond a read-only medium. WebDAV is a new protocol that provides the basics for writing, editing and sharing information across intranets, extranets and the Internet. Not only has it gained broad, high-level support, it just may leave less Web-savvy standards behind. WebDAV (short for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) will enable distant collaborators to read and write documents across the Internet in much the same way they now can in local client/server environments. A document created with a word processing or Web authoring tool from Microsoft, for example, will be viewable and revisable using different authoring tools. WebDAV extensions to HTTP will let you store files in any file system (e.g., Unix, Windows, Mac) and manage them with any WebDAV-supporting application (document management, workflow, groupware, etc.)...Two document management standards are currently in the crossfire of this controversy: ODMA (Open Document Management API) and DMA (Document Management Alliance). The ODMA standard is a client-side API specification that provides interoperability between multiple ODMA-compliant clients or applications operating on a single vendor's (proprietary) document management system. In this sense, WebDAV is similar to ODMA in that it provides multiple Web-based clients running on a Web server to interoperate. DMA delivers the full breadth of document management capabilities, including some that are currently absent from WebDAV, such as cross-repository search, multi-property and multi-condition search and auto-discovery of document management system features (though some anticipate that this functionality will eventually be supported by WebDAV). DMA also addresses both client and server interfaces, whereas WebDAV's interoperability is currently restricted to the client side..."

[November 24, 1999] "[e.docs] - Keyflow Enables E-Commerce." By Liz Levy. In Imaging & Document Solutions Volume 8, Number 11 (November 1999), page 16. ['Keyflow Enables E-Commerce Joining workflow, XML forms and Web doc management.'] "Keyflow Commerce has three core modules: a Workflow Server, an Active Document Workspace and a new XML Engine. The software's use of message-based workflow in conjunction with online XML-based forms is quite powerful. The online forms will handle transactions such as online purchasing, user registration and bill presentment, and the workflow portion will speed the processing, improving customer service and relationships. Keyflow Commerce will support Microsoft's BizTalk Framework by employing an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) workflow schema. BizTalk is a set of guidelines for publishing schemas in XML,and it will allow software programs to work together.The schemas are used within Keyfile's XML forms to define how the information will be received and processed in an e-commerce transaction. This allows Keyflow Commerce to exchange data with any application or system that also supports BizTalk."

[November 24, 1999] "Web Profiling. Marketers collect data on your Web habits. Would you like to see what they see?" By Sebastian Rupley. In PC Magazine [Online] (November 23, 1999). "There's an old saying: 'The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.' As online privacy issues have grabbed headlines in recent months, it's apparent that marketers are collecting far more information about our online shopping and surfing habits than most of us realize. At the same time, a large working group of companies, ranging from Compaq and Oracle to Net Perceptions and Andromedia, is working on a new standard, dubbed CPEX (Customer Profile Exchange), for how consumer information is collected and shared. Unlike most of the current subterranean efforts to collect information about your surfing and shopping habits, CPEX is designed on an open-source model where customers may have new levels of control over what they allow to be disseminated about them. The newly proposed CPEX standard for collecting online shopping and surfing information is gaining broad backing. CPEX is designed to integrate online and off-line customer data in an XML-based format for use by companies that want to gather information about consumers. As such, it has the potential to draw the ire of consumers." See "Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) Working Group."

[November 24, 1999] "Simpletons vs. DocHeads. SML: Simplifying XML." By Robert E. La Quey. From XML.com (November 24, 1999). ['Do you think XML is too complicated? The proposers of a move to standardize a 'Simplified Markup Language' (SML), a cut-down version of XML, certainly do. They claim that many implementations just don't use the more esoteric features of XML, such as processing instructions (PIs). That's OK, but why standardize? Well, if everyone only uses a bit of XML, there'll be conflict with exactly which bits are supported and which aren't. Hence the effort to pare XML 1.0 down to the bare essentials that implementors can agree on. So is SML a brave continuation of the XML revolution, or is it a distraction from the business of developing higher level XML applications? This week, Robert La Quey gives some background on the recent SML discussions, and makes the case for a standard simplified XML.'] "Of late, there are those that are thinking beyond this simplification of SGML into XML, and are pushing for an even simpler standard. Simple Markup Language (SML) is the newly-coined name for a de facto stripped-down variant of XML being used by two groups of developers. The first of these groups of SML users comprises those who believe that the revolution stopped too soon. The second, a much larger group, started using the core of XML and have no need for additional complexity. The first group knows its XML history and believes that SGML revisionists added document-centric complications that complicate XML beyond what is really needed for data-centric applications both on and off the Web. In fact, the reality is that many developers are already using a Simple Markup Language -- essentially XML without DTDs -- to build useful systems. In a recent message to the XML developers' mailing list XML-dev, Don Park explored a definition of SML. He characterized it as a subset of Canonical XML (a standard form of XML being specified by the W3C), but having: No Attributes, No Processing Instructions (PI), No Document Type Declaration (DTD), No non-character entity-references, No CDATA marked sections, Support for only UTF-8 character encoding, No optional features. . . A number of the leading figures in the XML community have not been amused by the SML discussions. This is understandable -- any call for experts to re-examine their basic assumptions, to go back to ground zero, is guaranteed to evoke strong reactions. Especially when it comes at a time when the experts thought they had already done just that. XML is, after all, a vast simplification of SGML..." See also: "Simplified Markup Language: Your Responses."

[November 24, 1999] "Document Management for the Masses." By Patrick D. Coleman. In Server/Workstation Expert Volume 10, Number 11 (November 1999), pages 50-57. Thanks to the Web, and emerging technologies like XML, document management systems are at last providing users with a robust environment for gathering, storing, and sharing information..." [not online yet]

[November 24, 1999] "XML: The Language Of Integration. The meta-language standard provides an easy and available way to identify and share data." By Alan Radding. In Information Week Issue 759 (November 01, 1999), pages 141-148. "Application developers are suddenly finding a better way to achieve data integration. Instead of hammering out specialized data exchange formats, writing proprietary parsers to pull data out of messages, and maintaining custom data connectors for multiple applications and data sources, they are turning to XML, the Extensible Markup Language. Unlike electronic data interchange, a cumbersome, overhead-laden approach to data exchange, XML is lightweight, easy, and increasingly available. XML is popping up everywhere. For example, Microsoft's latest Windows DNA 2000 product-strategy announcement specifies XML throughout the product line. However, Microsoft is one of many vendors turning to XML. 'It's nice to get the approval of the industry's 800-pound gorilla, but XML wasn't waiting for Microsoft,' says Mark Driver, research director with the Gartner Group's E-Business Technology service. Many software vendors are rushing to support XML. XML is not a product or a platform. Neither is it the second coming of Java, nor a latter-day SQL. It is an enabling technology, like IP itself, Driver says. XML is a meta-language standard for specifying a document-markup language based on plain-text tags. It's a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language. HTML, another subset of SGML, is a similar tag-based cousin of XML, but where HTML tags tell the browser how to display various elements on a Web page, XML tags specify what those elements are."

[November 24, 1999] "Privacy plan tied to XML. Consumers would control information about themselves." By Jim Kerstetter. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 47 (November 22, 1999), page 3. "More than 20 vendors, ranging from net.Genesis Corp. and Vignette Corp. to IBM, Siebel Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp., are trying to offer a technical solution to consumer online privacy problems. Last week, the group held a series of meetings here and unveiled the Customer Privacy Exchange, or CPEX, a proposed XML (Extensible Markup Language) standard that, when completed, will allow companies to share information about consumers while allowing consumers themselves to control the information. Unlike many such efforts in the privacy space, developers say CPEX isn't about heading off government intervention in consumer privacy. Intervention, they say, is a foregone conclusion and has already happened in most European Union countries. 'Whatever the government decides to do, we want to make sure companies can deal with it,' said Matthew Cutler, chief e-business intelligence officer at net.Genesis, in Cambridge, Mass. CPEX is still far from completion. The initial specification is expected to be published as an open-source reference by the middle of next year. Developers said they hope to have interoperability demonstrations ready late next year. They also want CPEX to work with the varied XML schemata already in development, such as the Internet Content Exchange and Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk." See "Customer Profile Exchange (CPEX) Working Group."

[November 24, 1999] "Gates: It All Starts With Software. Microsoft CEO discusses business transformation, software distribution, and more." By . In Information Week (November 22, 1999). ". . . take all these things about Extensible Markup Language and how people are having to think about XML standards. There's going to be so many standards, so how do you map from one XML schema to another schema? That's a tough software problem; in fact, there's going to be more innovation in computer languages in the next couple of years than there have been in the last 10 as we expand existing languages with XML and we get new computer languages that are really designed around XML. And that's partly why our strategy is language neutral. Visual Basic, Java, C, even the traditional languages ... and you can't tell people to go rewrite stuff because that's not where you get interoperability. By mapping their stuff in the schemas and then being able to map between schemas, we'll have a level of interoperability we've never had before. This XML thing has a lot of promise to it. Just because you use XML doesn't deliver the promise, it's just sort of the starting point of it. Again, a very tough software problem, fascinating software problem that we'll go after just like all these tool things that we've done. [Windows 2000:] There's a new version of SQL Server, which is the one designed for XML. SQL 7 has been doing super well, but this is the first time where we've got XML at the center