June 2000

• [June 29, 2000] "In the Grand Schema of XML." By Yasser Shohoud (devxpert Corporation). In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 3 (Summer 2000), pages 38-43. ['If you are designing an Internet, intranet, or client-server application, you should be thinking about XML schemas. XML Schema Language is a powerful feature that can be used to validate data in myriad ways and save you time in the process. Yasser Shohoud shows you how.'] "XML Schema Language is likely to become a standard in the near future. Although at the time of this writing, no validating parsers support the current version of the schema language, at least one parser, XML Authority from Extensibility, supports an earlier version of the language. XML Authority version 1.2 is planned for release soon and should support a more current version of the XML Schema Language specification. Also, the MSXML parser supports Microsoft's version of the schema language known as XML-data. Microsoft has plans to support the XML Schema Language when the W3C finalizes it. XML documents can be thought of as containers for data; they are similar to tables in a relational database and objects in an object-oriented language. In relational databases, the Data Definition Language is used to define new data types and create tables using those types, while specifying rules and constraints on columns in those tables. You can then insert data into the tables, and the database will ensure that your rules and constraints are enforced. Object-oriented programming languages let you define classes that have properties whose type may be one of the intrinsic data types or another class. You can then instantiate objects from those classes and set the values of their properties. The run-time type checking system will ensure that property values are of the correct type according to the class definition. An XML document contains one or more elements containing attributes, other elements, and text. As with database tables and object-oriented classes, you need to define rules about the structure, permissible data types, and constraints that apply to each element within the document. These rules would be equivalent to a class definition in Java. An XML document can then be considered an instance of this class definition and therefore be validated against the definition at runtime. Using the XML Schema Language, document authors can define the structure and permissible data types within their documents. Validating parsers can then be used to check conformance of documents claiming to be instances of a given schema. Going back to our database analogy, XML Schema Language is like a DDL for databases, a specific XML schema is like a specific table definition in a database, and an XML instance document is like a record in a database table. The object-oriented language analogy may be obvious by now: XML Schema Language is like the language you use to define a class (for example, Java or C++); a specific XML schema is like a class with properties, and the XML instance document is like an object instance of that class. The object-oriented analogy applies only to class properties, since XML elements are data containers with no methods of their own. . ." For other articles on XML Schema, see "XML Schemas."

• [June 29, 2000] "Merging Mobility and Middleware. Build a lightweight, easy-to-implement architecture for accessing distributed objects from an Internet-enabled PDA." By John Allen. In DevX JavaPro (July 2000). ['The true benefit of mobile, Web-enabled applications emerges when you can access critical business data and resources efficiently anywhere, anytime. This architecture uses XML and servlets to access data from a PDA.'] "The architecture I propose is based on Waba, HTTP, XML, and Java servlets. The client application is written using a Java-based toolkit from Wabasoft (www.wabasoft.com) that runs on the Palm operating system and Windows CE. The server is a Java servlet hosted on a Web server. Using HTTP and XML, the client posts a request to the servlet to call a method of an object. The servlet parses the request, processes it, and returns the results. The results are also packaged as XML. What about distributed objects? That's where XML comes into play. XML is a markup language in the same vein as HTML. A markup language is a method used to identify the structure of documents. A document uses tags that adhere to the semantics and syntax of the particular markup language. HTML defines a fixed set of tags for describing the visual appearance of a Web page. XML differs from HTML in that it does not define specific tags or their semantics; it defines a standard method to specify the elements of a document structure. XML is usually mentioned in reference to representing data in vendor-neutral formats for integration of disparate systems or business-to-business e-commerce. For this scenario, I use XML to describe the client request and server response in a distributed object method call. The concept of using XML for distributed object calls is an interesting topic. If you would like to read more about it, www.xml-rpc.com is a good starting place. . ."

• [June 29, 2000] "Using the Java programming language with XML." By Stuart Halloway. In Java Developer Connection (JDC) Tech Tips. June 27, 2000. 'This issue is covers some aspects of using the Java programming language with XML. First there's a short introduction to XML, followed by tips on how to use two APIs designed for use with XML. This issue of the JDC Tech Tips is written by Stuart Halloway, a Java specialist at DevelopMentor. [XML Introduction, Using the SAX API, Using the DOM API]."

• [June 29, 2000] "Vendor Update: IBM and Sun." By Edd Dumbill. From XML.com. (June 26, 2000). [Vendors IBM and Sun are both committed to XML, and have donated substantial code to the XML community through Apache. We talked to both organizations about their plans for XML product support, and what they have lined up for the rest of this year.'] In the current atmosphere of all-encompassing visions of the XML future, Sun Microsystems is taking a cautious, bottom-up, approach towards its own XML offerings. Sun announced today the free availability of their XSLT compiler technology Sun also plan to donate this technology to the Apache XML Project. The XSLT compiler arose from research efforts, and is viewed by Sun as an important factor in countering possible future bottlenecks in the transformation stages of e-business servers. [. . .] For IBM, this year is the 'time to deliver' on the promise of XML, according to Bob Sutor, Program Director for XML Technology at IBM. After spending last year on technical evangelism for XML, IBM is introducing XML support across their product lines, and also rolling out XML infrastructure via their global services division. The focus for IBM this year is more and more on integration, Sutor explained. It's because of this that IBM is concentrating on building web service-oriented architectures, connecting diverse businesses across the web. Core to this is the use of SOAP and XML schemas, both of which technologies IBM are firmly behind. . . [Part of the XML DevCon report. Edd Dumbill (Managing Editor, XML.com) also wrote in the XML.com newsletter introduction about XML DevCon 2000 in NY: "Andrew Layman from Microsoft opened the conference explaining how XML provides the infrastructure for the multi-device, net-connected services of the future. He emphasized asynchronous messaging rather than RPC and APIs. Layman explained that diverse devices and levels of connectivity form more of a "biological" network and require robustness and tolerance from the operating infrastructure. Layman also expressed hope that the W3C would pick up further standardization work required to bring about the vision of interoperable web application services, a wish later echoed to me by IBM's Bob Sutor. Web services are becoming the overreaching themes for XML in the second half of 2000. IBM, Sun and Microsoft are all pushing forward in this area, and we can expect to see some interesting developments -- both in terms of products and in standards work.]"

• [June 29, 2000] "Developing Wireless Applications with WAP, WML, and JSP." By David Sims. From XML.com. (June 26, 2000). ['Consultant and JSP author Chad Darby delivered a light overview of a hot topic at XML DevCon.'] "Darby's talk brought the wireless hype home to the XML opportunity that lies at its heart: there's never been a better reason to start storing data in XML, given all the predictions that more and more users will be trying to access that data over wireless phones. You can't serve HTML pages to phones, and even if you could it doesn't make any sense. Wireless users will want only a subset of the amount of information that web users expect from a page. Data stored in XML format is well suited for that kind of extraction. The aim of the course was to show how to use Java server pages to grab XML content and serve it to wireless and web users. Throughout, he showed how to use Phone.com's emulator (part of its software development kit) to test the WML (wireless markup language) code as you write it. Phone.com's microbrowser (v. 3.0 and v. 3.1) are the most common web browsers in North American Internet-ready phones. . . There are still a lot of bugs to work out before the wireless clients are as easy to serve to as web clients are. One gets the impression that the wireless telephone companies are not as used to working in an open environment as XML people may be used to. For example, most phones have the browser burned into the ROM. Want to upgrade to the 4.0 browser when it comes out? That's easy: toss your phone in the trash and buy a new one..."

• [June 29, 2000] "XML: A Disruptive Technology." By Simon St. Laurent. From XML.com. (June 21, 2000). ['XML is placing increasingly heavy loads on the existing technical infrastructure of the Internet. This article charts some of the pressure points, and speculates on the benefits of an XML-specific foundation to the Internet.'] "XML's generic syntax allows it to take advantage of XML-specific infrastructures, from parsers to repositories, while its chameleon-like ability to carry any vocabulary is putting it into situations that go far beyond the typical delivery models used by Web and Internet applications. This isn't good news for a lot of people who have already deployed infrastructure and have understandings of how that infrastructure should work. XML could be a serious problem for much of the existing Internet, as developers push the envelope on technologies that weren't built to host flexible content. Existing protocols work very well, up to a point, and at that point the troubles begin. I'd like to illustrate my point with a few examples -- we'll look at MIME content-type identifiers, URIs, HTTP, HTML, and some general security and infrastructure issues..."

• [June 29, 2000] "New XSLT Technologies Debut." By Leigh Dodds. From XML.com. (June 21, 2000). ['As XSLT adoption grows, developers from Sun and Oracle have been pushing the boundaries of the technology with "translets" and an XSLT virtual machine.'] "A big draw at the Sun Microsystems stand in the conference exhibition was the demonstration of an XSLT compiler. The compiler is capable of taking an XSLT style sheet and generating pure Java classes called 'translets.' The compiled translets showed impressive performance in comparison to XT, widely regarded as one of the fastest XSLT engines. The translets do not run as part of a style sheet engine, giving them a very low footprint -- developers were treated to a demonstration of the translets running on a palmtop. At present, the compiler only supports a subset of the full XSLT language, although it wasn't clear which features are not yet implemented. Development of the tool is continuing, and it's expected that a fully conformant implementation will be available by the end of July... In an interesting presentation on the last day of the [XML Europe 2000] conference, Anguel Novoselsky of Netfish Technologies introduced an architecture for an XSLT Virtual Machine (XSLTVM), developed in a project by Oracle. The presented architecture was fairly standard: a compiler takes an XSLT style sheet and produces bytecode, which encodes simple machine instructions that will carry out the transformation. The bytecode is then executed by a virtual machine to effect the transformation. This means that the bytecodes produced by the compiler are platform-independent, just like Java classes..."

• [June 28, 2000] "Clean Interactions. SOAP simplifies Web application development." By Timothy Dyck. In eWEEK (June 26, 2000). "Businesses wanting to integrate purchasing systems, share business data or participate in the fluid business alliances that global e-business favors will find the recently updated SOAP a key technological enabler. The Simple Object Access Protocol is an XML (Extensible Markup Language)-based RPC (remote procedure call) standard originally developed by Microsoft Corp., Develop Mentor Inc. and UserLand Software Inc. (later joined by IBM and Lotus Development Corp.) that can greatly simplify cross-language and cross-business development. Key changes in SOAP 1.1 are a switch from Microsoft's older XML-Data to XML Schema and the addition of transport protocol independence. SOAP 1.0 required HTTP; SOAP 1.1 is transport-agnostic -- e-mail or message queuing links can be used if desired to move SOAP messages around. . . 'Making it independent was one of the main things we worked on with Microsoft in SOAP 1.1,' said Bob Sutor, program director for XML technologies at IBM. Like all prestandard efforts, SOAP is, for now, a slippery target. Even so, we believe SOAP 1.1 can deliver value now in specific situations." See "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

• [June 28, 2000] "XORBA Lathers Up SOAP." By Timothy Dyck. In eWEEK (June 26, 2000). ['Version 1.1 of Rogue Wave Software's XORBA provides a quick way to connect Web applications to CORBA servers, finds eWEEK Labs.'] "Version 1.1 of Rogue Wave Software Inc.'s XML-CORBA Link (known as XORBA) significantly simplifies the job of connecting Common Object Request Broker Architecture components to other types of program objects, such as those written using Microsoft Corp.'s Component Object Model framework or as straight Java classes. However, eWeek Labs' tests showed that, as with most programming object frameworks, IT staffs will have their hands full trying to connect CORBA with competing frameworks. As one of the very earliest products implementing Simple Object Access Protocol, or SOAP 1.0, XORBA also gives organizations a way to learn about and start implementing this important new remote procedure call technology. . ." See "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

• [June 28, 2000] "Getting Value from XSL Parameters." By Kurt Cagle. Microsoft 'Extreme XML' Column. (June 23, 2000). ['In the latest Extreme XML column, guest writer Kurt Cagle examines how variables and parameters can significantly expand what you can do with XSLT, exposing ways to make your style sheets a lot more dynamic. Guest writer Kurt Cagle is filling in this month while regular columnist Chris Lovett is on vacation.'] "When I started playing with the older XSL (the one based on Microsoft's December 1998 submission for XSL and XML Patterns), I quickly realized how much power it had to radically simplify the production of output code. An XSL filter (as I call the stylesheets) could turn a database call into a table, could safely incorporate boiler-plate HTML code, and could even perform simple processing tasks. However, XSL had some limitations for serious, heavy-duty lifting. The biggest issue was parameters; there was no clean way to change an XSL structure without having an intimate acquaintance with the underlying code in the stylesheet. All too often, the only way around passing information into an XSLT transformation was to put parameters on the XML input. Another issue was retaining information internally about the current state of the processor. If you had XML markup that would be sent to the output stream, you couldn't save it temporarily and use it in more than one place. Finally, there was no real way to save state within the XSL environment itself; you had to take the results from the XSL transformation, filter that out with a document object model (DOM) call, and effectively lose any intermediate states that may have taken place within the filter. The Technology Preview XML parser provides support for the newer XSL-Transformation specification (located at http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt). This newer spec contains a number of innovative features that together make XSLT far more capable than Microsoft's December 1998 version of XSL. The spec also makes XSLT a serious competitor for scripting languages as a server tool. In addition to this, Microsoft has also introduced a new way to integrate scripting code (one that is compliant with the W3C standards, by the way), which may end up changing the way we think about server-side programming altogether. . ."

• [June 28, 2000] "Hanson Brothers Interoperability Sample." MSDN Technical article. (June 20, 2000). This sample demonstrates the SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0 and how it can be used to interact with a Web Service. It displays interaction between two Web Services: one that resides on a Windows 2000 server and a second that resides on a Sun Solaris server.'] "Hanson Brothers is an online retailer who recently expanded their product offerings through the acquisition of a sporting goods company. They wanted to integrate their e-commerce site with an operational system from the recently acquired sporting goods company. The sporting goods company's inventory management system runs on a Sun Solaris server. The company's product and inventory information is maintained in an Oracle database and the data is accessed through Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) components. Hanson Brothers' e-commerce and order management systems are based on the Windows DNA application architecture and run on Microsoft. Windows 2000. servers. Rather than rewrite the sporting goods inventory management system, the Hanson Brothers IT department decided to integrate the systems using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Toolkit for Visual Studio 6. In addition to reusing existing systems, Hanson Brothers wanted to provide systems to support its business partners. Hanson Brothers created an additional Web Service to allow partners to browse their catalog and add orders. In writing the HBInterop sample, our first goal was to provide a demonstration of how COM+ and components could be integrated using SOAP. Next, we wanted to demonstrate how SOAP could be used to integrate components on distinct platforms such as Windows 2000 and UNIX. Finally, we thought this sample provided a great opportunity to demonstrate the use of the SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0 and how it simplifies the process of calling and implementing a Web Service. To meet these goals we: (1) Used the SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0 to verify and manage inventory that is maintained in an Oracle database on the Solaris server. (2) Created a component that uses the SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0 to make calls to CORBA components on a Solaris server. (3) Provided a Web Service so remote business partners can reuse our COM+ component to browse the catalog or place orders. The resulting sample demonstrates not only the reuse of COM+ components by remote users, but how COM+ and CORBA components residing on distinct platforms can be integrated using SOAP. . ." See "Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)."

• [June 28, 2000] "Microsoft aims at Web site creation." By Bob Trott. In InfoWorld (June 28, 2000). ['Software giant to release beta Commerce Server 2000, tools to build e-commerce sites.'] "Looking to make good on its vow to boost its e-commerce offerings, Microsoft on Wednesday will announce the release of the beta of Commerce Server 2000 at PC Expo in New York. With Commerce Server 2000, Microsoft aims to give users the ability to quickly and easily build Web sites with rich business-to-business and business-to-customer functionality. Formerly called Site Server Commerce Edition, Commerce Server 2000 is expected to ship by the end of the year. . . . In particular, Commerce Server 2000 will mesh with another server from the Redmond, Wash.-based company, BizTalk Server 2000. Unveiled at the Microsoft TechEd conference earlier this month and also expected to ship by the end of 2000, BizTalk Server 2000 is an XML-based back-end integration server that will link myriad systems and applications over the Internet, thanks in large part to technology called 'orchestration,' a service that connects various business processes." See the announcements: (1) "Microsoft Releases Commerce Server 2000 Beta to Customers. Comprehensive E-Commerce System Delivers Faster Time to Market, Powerful Analytics and Broad Partner Support."; (2) "Microsoft and Interwoven Announce Content Express For Microsoft Commerce Server 2000. Industry's First Integrated Solution Provides Entry-Level Content Management For Microsoft Commerce Server 2000."

• [June 28, 2000] "The X Factor." By Bryan Morgan. In Wireless Developer Network. "The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has taken portions of the computing world by storm. Organizations looking to standardize data exchange, facilitate e-commerce, or provide standardized interfaces to enterprise data have aggressively found ways to integrate XML into their business processes. Software tool and application vendors haven't lagged far behind in their support of XML, either. A wide range of products, from WAP to Microsoft Office 2000 to the Oracle 8 database server, have quickly put this technology into the hands of users and developers. In this inaugural article, we'll examine what XML is, why it is important, and how the mobile application developer can make use of it. . . . XML holds promise for mobile, handheld applications as well due to their unique requirements. While high-bandwidth wireless communications to handheld devices may be the norm in as little as two years (depending on where you live), the current reality is that these devices are generally used to collect data out "in the field" and asynchronously submit this data at a later time. Even devices with fulltime wireless connections are limited to a low bandwidth environment. Knowing this, we wil delve into some current and future applications of XML that can greatly simplify and standardize the development process for those working on these mobile platforms. The majority of these applications deals with data synchronization and interchange after a mobile device returns from it's "disconnected" state. The final application (Distributed Computing) addresses the use of XML with a connected device. Keep in mind that XML, in this case, has a downside as well due to the additional bandwidth constraints it places upon the client connection. For every piece of data that is interchanged, XML tags must also be sent back and forth which may or may not impact your development decisions. This is yet another tradeoff in the continual give-and-take comparison of functionality, ease-of-use, and performance. . . XML is often mentioned together with terms such as lingua franca, holy grail, and glue because it offers the hope of standardized data interchange. It also facilitates advanced data display capabilities and promises to add additional intelligence and capabilities to the Web as it currently exists. Technologies such as WAP and SOAP promise to revolutionize mobile computing as well through the use of XML. Hopefully having learned lessons from HTML, XML vendors will hopefully decide to stick with the standards this time and not use this technology as yet another marketing tool in the game of technological one-upsmanship." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

• [June 27, 2000] "XSL Concepts and Practical Use." By Paul Grosso (ArborText) and Norman Walsh (Sun Microsystems). Version 1.4. Monday, 12 June 2000. Presented at XML Europe 2000, Paris, France. A presentation from slides (some 111 slides). "What's with stylesheets in the first place? - XML is not a fixed tag set (like HTML) - XML by itself has no (application) semantics - A generic XML processor has no idea what is 'meant' by the XML - XML markup does not (usually) include formatting information - The information in an XML document may not be in the form in which it is desired to present it - Therefore there must be something in addition to the XML document that provides information on how to present or otherwise process the XML. . ."

• [June 27, 2000] "Programming Guidelines Improved." By Tom Sullivan. In InfoWorld (June 27, 2000). "Microsoft on Tuesday [2000-06-27] announced the XML-based BizTalk Framework 2.0, touting increases in the programming guidelines' protocol support and reliability. First, BizTalk Framework 2.0 is designed to be fully compatible with the company's Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) for communications among platforms and applications. Second, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft added functionality to the syntax that ensures delivery of documents over the Internet. Finally, the framework now supports multipart MIME attachments, so users can attach any MIME file to XML documents. Although BizTalk Framework 2.0 is actually part of the overall BizTalk 2000 Server, it was designed by the BizTalk Steering Committee, which consists of vendors, standards bodies and customers." See the announcement.

• [June 27, 2000] "WAP: The technology everyone loves to hate." By Ephraim Schwartz. In InfoWorld (June 23, 2000). "For my inaugural column, I'm going to lay out what is increasingly becoming a contrarian view: Rumors of WAP's demise are greatly exaggerated. For better or worse, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) will become the protocol that wouldn't die -- at least not without a fight. And let's face it, what's the alternative? Sure, if you ask anyone in the industry about WAP, you'll get comments ranging from "WAP is dead, or dying, or barely adequate" to a more cautious "WAP is a transitional technology." But at the same time, research company IDC promises 1 billion cell phones worldwide by 2004, with half of them Internet-enabled. And the only Internet-enabling technology I see being adopted en masse by handset manufacturers and service providers is WAP. Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo to name a few -- as well as giants in banking, retail, and travel who are developing their mobile e-sites, including Amazon and Schwab -- all are settling on WAP. Microsoft, who came a bit late to the game, gave its grudging approval recently by redoing its cell phone browser for WAP. Once WAP is so well seeded how easily, can it be uprooted? The answer is, not very easily. . ." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

• [June 27, 2000] "BizTalk Framework 2.0 Draft: Document and Message Specification." From MSDN Online - Web Workshop. June 27, 2000. "Summary: This draft specification provides a general overview of the BizTalk Framework 2.0 conceptual architecture, including the BizTalk Document and BizTalk Message. It provides detailed specifications for the construction of BizTalk Documents and Messages, and their secure transport over a number of Internet-standard transport and transfer protocols. . . This specification provides a general overview of the BizTalk Framework conceptual architecture, including the fundamental notions of BizTalk Document and BizTalk Message. It then provides detailed specifications for the construction of BizTalk Documents and Messages, and their secure transport over a number of Internet-standard transport and transfer protocols, as described below. BizTalk Documents follow a number of rules for structure and content in order to provide rich functionality and predictable semantics. This specification describes the following aspects of BizTalk Documents and their semantics: (1) Overall structure of BizTalk Documents. (2) BizTalk headers for document routing, properties, catalog, and process management. (3) Structure and handling of BizTalk Documents that require reliable delivery. When implementing solutions using the BizTalk Framework, specific transport, encoding, and security mechanisms must be used to secure and deliver messages. This specification describes the following mechanisms and aspects of BizTalk Message encoding and transport: (1) Transport bindings for Internet protocols (HTTP only; Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to be added). (2) MIME-based transfer encoding and attachment packaging. (3) Signatures and encryption based on S/MIME and Public-Key Cryptography System (PKCS) (to be added). This specification is intended to define messaging interaction between BizTalk Framework 2.0 Compliant servers, referred to as BFC servers in this specification..." For other references, see "BizTalk Framework."

• [June 27, 2000] XML moves to the mainstream." By Andreas Pfeiffer [Pfeiffer Report on Emerging Trends and Technologies, Special to ZDNet]. In ZDNet News (June 26, 2000). "What is happening with Extensible Markup Language? Over the past few years, the markup language derived from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) has gained a lot of ground in high-end information-management applications. Lately, XML has also become an industry buzzword, a must-have feature for anybody working in modern content-processing applications. While XML has been the backbone for high-end applications for some time, the market for shrink-wrapped XML products is also starting to take off. Quark Inc. just shipped avenue.quark, its XML import/export extension for QuarkXPress. Meanwhile, Adobe Systems Inc. has released FrameMaker 6.0, which exports (but doesn't import) XML and has announced XML support for the next version of Golive, to name just a few examples. As for Microsoft Corp., the company's recently announced .Net strategy for Internet-based services is also based on XML. Twenty questions Is there a low-end XML market? What strategies should software developers use to jump on the XML bandwagon? Will XML simply stay a data format, or is there an emerging market for XML applications? There's no quick and easy answer to these questions. XML is a very powerful tool . . ."

• [June 27, 2000] "C# Introduction and Overview." By [Staff]. In MSDN Visual Studio (June 26, 2000) "The new model for developing applications means more and more solutions require the use of emerging Web standards like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Existing development tools were developed before the Internet or when the Web as we know it today was in its infancy. As a result, they don't always provide the best fit for working with new Web technologies. C# programmers can leverage an extensive framework for building applications on the Microsoft .NET platform. C# includes built-in support to turn any component into a Web service that can be invoked over the Internet-from any application running on any platform. Even better, the Web services framework can make existing Web services look just like native C# objects to the programmer, thus allowing developers to leverage existing Web services with the object-oriented programming skills they already have. There are more subtle features that make C# a great Internet programming tool. For instance, XML is emerging as the standard way to pass structured data across the Internet. Such data sets are often very small. For improved performance, C# allows the XML data to be mapped directly into a struct data type instead of a class. This is a more efficient way to handle small amounts of data." See the recent announcement: Microsoft Introduces Highly Productive .NET Programming Language: C#. New Language Enables Rapid Development of Web Services For the Microsoft .NET Platform."

• [June 27, 2000] "Standards Watch: VISTAinfo Participates in Proof-of-Concept Tests For NAR-Sponsored RETS. RETS Open Systems Architecture Provides Seamless Data Exchange for VISTAinfo's National MLS Infrastructure." By Patrick Spreng. In CMPNet CommWeb (June 20, 2000). "VISTAinfo announced its role in the proof-of-concept tests for the real estate transaction standard (RETS). RETS is the open data exchange standard sanctioned by the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) and developed with the participation of VISTAinfo and other Industry leaders. RETS open system architecture allows seamless data exchange between two different applications, regardless of the vendor. VISTAinfo is using RETS to deliver technologies that let real estate professionals and organizations share and manipulate data faster than ever before. . . . In mid-May VISTAinfo took a giant leap in empowering real estate professionals through superior technology by announcing the creation of an online, National Multiple Listing Service Infrastructure (NMI). NMI will be the industry's first national MLS infrastructure built on RETS. NMI will be available to all MLSs nationwide and is intended to enhance and add value to their services while not removing local MLS control. NMI incorporates the RETS XML open standard for open and secure communications among all real estate professionals -- agent, franchise or broker systems -- that also use NAR standards-based tools. It can also serve as the open platform for transaction engines currently under development by HomeStore.com and HomeAdvisor for seamless, secure connections to the MLS listing database and office management software to avoid duplicate or triplicate listing and prospect entry. Currently, there are few MLSs that can keep pace with every facet of the home buying/selling transaction because of the rapid technological change in the real estate industry. NMI, utilizing RETS, leverages the collective strengths of individual MLSs while mitigating weaknesses to provide a superior service to every REALTOR. This, in turn, will contribute to an enhanced agent/customer relationship through expanded customer service." See "Real Estate Transaction Markup Language (RETML)."

• [June 27, 2000] Emerging Technology: DSML and DEN: Signs of Things to Come. The Directory Services Markup Language is poised to make directory interoperability come true." By Doug Allen. In Networking Magazine (June 14, 2000). If Directory Enabled Networking (DEN) isn't the Holy Grail of most network managers, it's safe to say that enhanced service creation is. As an underlying technology, DEN is attractive (at least conceptually) because directories can efficiently store and relate subscriber profiles, service definitions, and network-resources data. This creates an intelligent pool of information that acts as the brains of the network when delivering applications. . . [But] DEN is rarely interoperable with the full variety of players found in a large private or public network. Directories themselves suffer from the lack of a common schema, which is sort of an index to the directories' contents, stored by category name. . . . Enter Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), which seeks to put interoperability problems into the past tense. The brainchild of the DSML Working Group -- which consists of leading directory vendors Bowstreet, Microsoft, Novell, the Sun/ Netscape Alliance, IBM, and Oracle it was unleashed at the close of 1999 as an attempt to solve the interoperability issue. Some observers hoped it would help jump-start DEN again. Such is not the case, but DSML is nonetheless important to understand. The DSML specification defines an open, extensible, standards-based format for publishing directory schemata and interchanging directory contents. As you might guess, it's based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is one key to understanding its usefulness. The protocol also works across a variety of Internet protocols -- including HTTP and SMTP, in addition to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 3ML as a universal translator. Because of this, DSML can access directories in cases where Internet firewalls screen out LDAP requests. It can also be used for nondirectory-based applications, such as e-commerce transactions. What does all this mean to the enterprise network manager? 'The primary goal of this initial specification is to provide a format that supports the core requirements of metadirectory tools and directory-enabled applications that need access to directory information via XML. DSML allows today's XML-capable applications to leverage directory services more easily. Any application that can parse or produce XML documents can process DSML interchangesrmediate format, such as LDAP Directory Interchange Format." See "Directory Services Markup Language (DSML)."

• [June 27, 2000] "Mobile CT: The Call of the Wireless Web." By Robert Richardson. In Computer Telephony (June 20, 2000). (June 14, 2000), pages 140-153. [WAP's the big player in the new wireless Internet -- and it's finally ready to take your calls. We look at how it works, along with some other Net-ready options.'] "Here's a walk through how WAP works, including a quick, messy job of slinging together a 'WAPlication', a look at the all the fresh-minted products you'll need if you want to do it right, and a first-pass at products and services that play in this hot new CT market. Step one begins with the realization that most people who deal with WAP are going to be dealing with the tip of the WAP iceberg. Indeed, they quite possibly won't deal with WAP at all - they'll deal with a web server. WAP applications are actually web applications, at least in the pure model envisioned by the WAP Forum, the more-than-two-hundred-member consortium that guides WAP's future. Like all good web applications, WAP applications are therefore migrating to XML. The idea is that what used to be HTML pages with lots of hardcoded information about how the page should look on a PC screen will now be pages where the content is first marked up in terms of what data it contains and how the various pieces of data relate to each other (using XML), only thereafter passing through a second step where those various data entities are mapped by a 'style sheet' into different appearances that your browser melds together into something pretty. If the web request is coming from a WAP client, then the idea is that a different style sheet kicks in and maps the content into a subset of XML called WML (wireless markup language). As we'll see, WML looks a lot like HTML, only designed to address the paltry half-dozen or so lines of display that your handheld browser's bringing to the game. For the moment, though, let's forget about the XML part. Most real-world web servers aren't using XML just yet, so why should we? Let's start instead by focusing on WML - nothing prevents us from writing our application in straight WML and sending that to the WAP browser. ALL ABOUT WML WML is different from HTML because it doesn't have pages. Instead, it has decks and cards. A deck is the page of markup data that gets sent to the phone when it requests a given URL..." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

• [June 27, 2000] "Web-Driven, POP-Delivered CT." By Ellen Muraskin. In Computer Telephony (June 20, 2000). ['A dealer-locator and fulfillment-request IVR for Sears' DieHard Security Battery campaign.]' "This month's app, by the developer's own admission, is relatively prosaic: It's a dealer-locator and fulfillment-request IVR for Sears' DieHard Security Battery campaign. The 800-number caller won't know it from any other IVR, for example, one scripted and run from a CT box sitting off a company PBX or DID'ed into a service bureau. But it's not running on a simple box - it's running on the 'new network.' The product is one of the first publishable applications from Telera (Campbell, CA - 408-626-6800, www.telera.com), a start-up formed to provide a host of distributed IVR and carrier facilities to large telecom end users (e.g., call centers, etc.). The application, written to output XML pages, retrieves XML-coded data from a database of 42,000 zip codes and 1,100 dealer locations - this, too, resides in the central Campbell server. Data dips as well as XML pages are carried from Campbell to POP over IP. Telera wrote, tested, and implemented the app for Sears in three weeks, using its own, XML-based tools. Development time for IVR can be long and drawn out if you can't put your own resources on the jo,b recalls Kevin McLinden, Sears' manager of telecom technology. But Sears couldn't spare the manpower for this relatively stand-alone application. Instead, they took the opportunity to test Telera's almost-CPE-free proposition. Now they simply FTP daily updates of an Excel file of dealers to Telera. Telera's long-term strategy advances in several directions from this simple IVR. First, they don't want to focus their energies on developing apps for clients. The whole idea behind a web-driven, XML-based application interface is putting app design and maintenance in the hands of their customers, who are already used to tending their own websites. With XML, coding the back end of e-commerce sites and IVR is one effort. In fact, 'Intelligent Communications Applications' can be developed on Windows NT using Active Server Pages and VBScript for Internet Information Server, or on Sun Microsystem's SPARC platform using Java Server Pages to run on Netscape or Apache Web servers. In April, Telera is even introducing a drag-and-drop, icon-based Rapid Application Development tool to automate creation of the XML code. It's important to understand that while the XML app (and, the plan goes, the database) remains in the hands of Telera's customer, the telephony resources that the XML pages control still sit in Telera's POPs. Between enterprise app and POP, transmission is IP. So in the same way that I change my HTML with Front Page or Dreamweaver and upload my new pages to my enterprise web server for distributed browsers to interpret, IVR developers are to design and maintain their own call flows and apps for interpretation by Telera's POPs."

• [June 27, 2000] "Best Practices. CIM is Coming." By Andy Dornan. In Networking Magazine (June 20, 2000). "In the following piece, John W. Cocula, founder and CTO of management software vendor Managed Object Solutions, explains what the Common Information Model (CIM) is, and what network architects should do with it. (The table also chronicles CIM's evolution.) In fact, consultancy firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA, www.enterprisemanagement.com) estimates that the worldwide management software market generates between $30 billion to $60 billion in revenue. Enter the Common Information Model (CIM). Spearheaded by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF, www.dmtf.org), an industry alliance of more than 200 companies, CIM is an architecture designed to eliminate the issue of interoperability between different management systems by unifying multivendor management data through a single interface. The CIM specification is the language and methodology for describing management data and includes models for systems, applications, networks, and devices. CIM is facilitated by the Extensible Markup Language (XML; see the Special Report entitled "XML: HTML Extreme", October 1999). This provides the opportunity to describe information in a common format and common syntax. Enterprises that attempt to use common models can initiate changes in organizational thinking and achieve a high level of process integration. Together, CIM and XML stand poised to launch the next generation of network management... CIM is backed by major industry players, including Compaq Computer, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Sunsoft, and Tivoli. It has even been included as a key component of the Windows 2000 OS..." See "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)."

• [June 27, 2000] "Novell's Ombudsmen to the World." By Rich "Doc" Colley. In CMPNet CommWeb (June 20, 2000). "After a remarkable comeback, the venerable father of NOSs is again spiraling downward in yet another admitted management blunder. Living on the bleeding edge of integrating directory structures world wide, Novell failed to keep one foot in the real world. As stock gurus and high tech wonder kids debate the future of this once omnipotent power, Novell continues to progress towards a dream of universal directory integration. A sort of 'ombudsmen' to all who seek workstation, internet, intranet, and DB directory compatibility. Without any public concessions in the NOS arena, Novell has started to wander into the Switzerland of OS competition. The big question is whether users of Microsoft, Linux, Solaris and others will be interested in Novell's turnkey solutions. . . Novell does have plans. And given their investment in this direction, I'd have to believe they intend to follow through. This could well be, for the foreseeable future, their bread and butter. Ed Anderson (Director, Product Management, Directory Services, Novell, Inc.) states clearly, 'For Windows 2000, Novell intends to provide the same level of functionality as the Windows NT redirection solution. The key difference, however, will be the use of synchronization technologies, i.e. DirXML, in place of redirection. In other words, there is no plan to create redirection solutions for Windows 2000. As with the NT domain redirection solution, Novell will be providing the management snap-ins to ConsoleOne for administering the Windows 2000 objects that are synchronized to NDS. The DirXML synchronization driver for Active Directory will be part of the base DirXML offering when the DirXML product ships (sometime this summer). The Windows 2000 management solution will follow shortly thereafter'."

• [June 26, 2000] "Corba & XML - Hit or Myth?" By Mark Elenko and David Clarke. In XML-Journal Date? (June 2000). ['Is XML a potential competitor to CORBA? Does it represent CORBA's nemesis? Or is it, on the contrary, too lightweight for use in distributed systems? Much heated debate has centered recently on the question of the possible combination of CORBA and XML.'] Since opinions on the topic diverge widely, in this article we're going to articulate and debunk some of the more common myths that we've encountered in our work as consultants and product developers. In the time-honored style of late-night talk show hosts and corporate executives, we've put together a Top 10 list of myths associated with the integration of CORBA and XML. It's worth noting that a lot of these observations also apply when considering the integration of XML with other distributed component systems, such as EJB.'] "XML Is a Comprehensive Middleware Infrastructure, Like CORBA - This is perhaps the single most prevalent - and insidious - myth about CORBA and XML. CORBA is a fully featured, stateful, quality-of-service-rich distributed runtime environment; XML is a means of describing document structure. XML is about structure; CORBA is about infrastructure. People talk about building their systems on CORBA in a way that's not meaningful for XML. If you have an XML document and want to transport it somewhere, it's necessary to appeal to other distributed techniques such as CORBA (for more detail on transport issues and misconceptions, see Myth #2). The part of CORBA that's most directly comparable with XML is its Interface Definition Language (IDL). This allows interfaces to servers to be specified in an implementation-neutral way. However, CORBA implementations then go further and use this information to provide a complete distributed messaging and runtime environment, complete with naming, security, transaction and persistence services. . ." See "XML and CORBA."

• [June 26, 2000] Constructing a Business Web." By George Lawton. In Knowledge Management Magazine Volume 3, Number 7 (July 2000), pages 50-56. ['XML is a tool that companies can use to do business despite inconsistent IT platforms, applications, and other formats.']

• [June 23, 2000] "Supply Chain Optimization. An Overview of RosettaNet e-Business Processes." By Malcolm Lewis (Vitria Technology). In eAI Journal Volume 2, Number 6 (June 2000), pages 12-18. "Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce promises to optimize product and service supply chains by replacing expensive and time-consuming physical inventory flows with automatic,system-to-system, real-time information flows. While an important part of the solution, standard inter-company document formats based on the XML are not the panacea for enabling this transformation. The key is the explicit definition and automatic implementation of standard business process models that describe the step-by-step exchange of these XML documents. That's what may finally unlock the significant business benefits of end-to-end supply chain optimization. . . While an obvious improvement over manual techniques, EDI has seen limited adoption due to the complexity and cost of the software required to interface internal IT systems to VANs. Also problematic is the high, transaction-based costs of the VAN itself. Fortunately, a simple, low-cost alternative to EDI has arrived in XML and the Internet. XML-encoded business documents are much simpler to understand and easier to customize and extend. Moreover, XML documents can travel the public Internet, which represents a significant advantage over EDI. The latter method requires expensive VANs with limited reach. Since XML provides little more than an alphabet to describe business documents, companies augment XML with the use of Document Type Definitions (DTDs) to unambiguously describe the structure of XML-encoded business documents. The use of XML, DTDs, and the Internet is a step toward convenient, low-cost exchange of information and transactions between trading partners. It's not, however, a panacea for end-to-end, system- to-system supply chain automation. . . RosettaNet Implementation Framework: The RNIF provides specific details on how to implement the RosettaNet process and data standards. The standard assumes partners will use XML documents and the Internet for B2B information exchange and transactions. RosettaNet PIPs define the specific sequence of steps required to complete a B2B process such as the distribution of catalog update or placement of a purchase order. They also define the specific information exchange and transactions each step in the business process triggers. RosettaNet PIPs defines the public processes -- and related data -- required to conduct common business transactions electronically over the Internet. RosettaNet uses the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to define common B2B processes, and XML to describe shared B2B data formats. As of February 2000, RosettaNet has published detailed specifications for the following 10 PIPs [ . . .] RosettaNet is significant in that it provides the first e-business standard to recognize that automatic, system-to-system, real-time partner information exchange and transactions require an explicit standard for both B2B data formats and B2B process flows. Companies that implement the RosettaNet standard may finally achieve the Utopian business dream -- end-to-end optimization of their product and service supply chains." See "RosettaNet." [cache]

• [June 23, 2000] "20 Questions for Jim Green, CEO, Active Software." By Tony M. Brown. In eAI Journal Volume 2, Number 6 (June 2000), pages 70-74. ['While attempting to solve an integration problem at Sun Microsystems, Jim Green realized the existing technologies he had at his disposal were inadequate. After completing several projects, he also realized the same code was going to be written repeatedly. Clearly,a product to help with integration was needed. So, in 1995, Active Software was formed. What started with just nine people is now a public company, worth more than $1 billion, and a leading player in the booming market for enterprise integration technologies. eAI Journal's editor-in-chief, Tony M. Brown, recently spent time visiting with Jim Green,founder and CEO of Active Software.]' " [eAIJ: XML has shot to prominence in the industry over the past year. How do you see the role of XML?] Green: It's possible that a model could emerge where all applications talk XML, reducing the amount of data transformation. That's where XML can really provide significant benefits. However, there's no finite standard set of XML formats, so we're likely to see a proliferation of different kinds of XML DTDs -- to the point where increasingly, people will convert from one type of XML to another type of XML! [eAIJ: Does RosettaNet put some shape around this problem?] Green: RosettaNet starts to provide processes for XML frameworks that can be useful in moving the standards to the next level. Keep in mind that RosettaNet is relatively new, so almost all the Partner Interface Processes (PIPs) are still under definition. RosettaNet is also focussed on the IT community and it's not clear how well that will extrapolate to other sectors. But it's a much-needed next step to make things work together. We're fascinated by what's occurring at RosettaNet and optimistic it will help advance the industry. [eAIJ: Whatever happens with XML standards, do you agree there's always going to be a need for integration technology?] Green: Yes. IT organizations don't replace their applications every year, two years, or even five years. This is especially true today -- after enterprises have recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars preparing their applications for Year/2000 compliance. Doing all that work and then replacing the applications doesn't make sense. The new model in IT is all about connecting the new with the old. Often, the old has been around for 20 years. So how long will it take for all applications to convert to XML? It could take forever. We're going to see many, many years where there'll be a need to integrate XML-based applications with non XML-based applications. Upper management will look to IT to leverage existing applications as much as possible. None of them are XML-compliant, so the game plan involves leveraging the spent investment and simultaneously adding new XML capabilities. So we've structured a product that lets people connect existing applications and add a Business-to-Business (B2B) server -- not to the applications but to the integration system. This means any application that talks to the integration system can have its application-specific format converted to XML for communication across the Web without changing any of the applications. In other words, with one piece of software, you have XML-enabled your enterprise. It's a really interesting concept. You can add an XML enabler to your integration platform and then XML-enable the enterprise. . ."

• [June 23, 2000] "Representation and Organization of Information in the Web Space: From MARC to XML." By Jian Qin (Syracuse University, NY, USA). In Informing Science Volume 3, Issue 2 (2000), pages 83-88 (with 19 references). [ISSN: 1521-4672] "Representing and organizing information in libraries has a long tradition of using rules and standards. The very first standard encoding format for bibliographic data in libraries, the MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging) format has been joined by a large number of new formats since the late 1980s. The new formats, mostly SGML/HTML-based, are actively taking a role in representing and organizing networked information resources. This article briefly describes the historical connection between MARC and the newer formats for representing information, and the current development of XML applications that will benefit information/knowledge management in the new environment." In this connection, note that an academic summmer course "IST600-8 Web Site Content Management with XML" and WebCT site is available for visitor access. Course Description: "Website content management involves creating and organizing different types and formats of documents/objects into a coherent structure. This course introduces concepts and techniques in website content design, content representation with the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), content organization, presentation, and development. Content design includes designing various document types, such as about, product listings, technical support, customer relations, white papers, by using generic and proprietary XML schemas, and how to utilize a hyperlinking system to highlight relationships across documents, directories, servers, and cross distributed systems. Other specific topics include XML specifications and syntax and examples of applications, XML schema development, creating index and catalog systems and interfaces for dynamic access, and cognitive and interactive organization of website content." [cache]

• [June 23, 2000] Charming Python: Tinkering with XML and Python. An introduction to XML tools for Python." By David Mertz, Ph.D. (President, Gnosis Software, Inc.). From IBM DeveloperWorks. June 2000. [Get a run-down on the most useful Python modules for XML in this first installment of David Mertz' new Python column. A major element of getting started on working with XML in Python is sorting out the comparative capabilities of all the available modules. In this first installment of his new Python column, 'Charming Python,' David Mertz briefly describes the most popular and useful XML-related Python modules, and points you to resources for downloading individual modules and reading more about them. This article will help you determine which modules are most appropriate for your specific task.'] "Python is in many ways an ideal language for working with XML documents. Like Perl, REBOL, REXX, and TCL, it is a flexible scripting language with powerful text manipulation capabilities. Moreover, more than most types of text files (or streams), XML documents typically encode rich and complex data structures. The familiar 'read some lines and compare them to some regular expressions' style of text processing is generally not well suited to adequately parsing and processing XML. Python, fortunately (and more so than most other languages), has both straightforward ways of dealing with complex data structures (usually with classes and attributes), and a range of XML-related modules to aid in parsing, processing, and generating XML. One general concept to keep in mind about XML is that XML documents can be processed in either a validating or non-validating fashion. In the former type of processing, it is necessary to read a "Document Type Definition" (DTD) prior to reading an XML document it applies to. The processing in this case will evaluate not just the simple syntactic rules for XML documents in general, but also the specific grammatical constraints of the DTD. In many cases, non-validating processing is adequate (and generally both faster to run, and easier to program) -- we trust the document creator to follow the rules of the document domain. Most modules discussed below are non-validating; descriptions will indicate where validation options exist. . ." See also "XML and Python."

• [June 23, 2000] "Globalizing e-commerce. Open standards like XML and Unicode are promoting truly global software." By Jim Melnick (President, Internet Interactive Services). From IBM DeveloperWorks. June 2000. ['See how open standards like XML and Unicode are helping to open wallets as e-tailing spreads across the planet; The combination of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), XML-enabled browsers, and Unicode fonts will soon make some forms of multilingual e-commerce possible. That prospect could bring about another Internet revolution. Open standards will play a critical role in producing software that is ready for the global economy. Jim Melnick describes the building blocks that will be used to construct multilingual e-commerce applications. These critical components of any global business strategy will come to fruition with a wider use and understanding of XML, the proliferation of XML-enabled browsers, and the use of Unicode as the universal encoding standard upon which truly global software can be built.'] "The nexus of Unicode and XML: Bringing Unicode and the properties of XML together now brings us to the nexus where multilingual applications can begin to take off. One of the most promising initial areas will probably be multilingual forms. These should be fairly easy to produce, will provide a mechanism with which to collect and synthesize real data from different language sets, and on that basis, will provide a foundation for eventually moving to true multilingual e-commerce. How will this work? We begin with an XML/Unicode-enabled browser pulling down a hypothetical multilingual Web site. Let's assume the user sees ten boxes to choose from, each described in a different language. The purpose of the site could be a business survey assessing to what degree the user is Internet-savvy. The user clicks on the box in his or her native language, and that takes the person to another page entirely in that language. To keep it simple, first-level types of responses are 'yes/no' or multiple-choice answers. Though the questions may be framed slightly differently to reflect cultural variances, they all ask the same thing in each language, and the range of possible answers is the same. Now XML enters the scene. The results can be tabulated across all the languages as if they were all from the same language, according to whatever XML schema has been previously devised. Then the data can be collated and manipulated across various languages according to whatever elements have been set up: <UserAge>, <NumberofComputersOwned>, <ModemSpeed>, <TypeofISP>, etc. This is a pretty powerful combination. Internet statisticians and Web advertisers are now overwhelming us (and themselves) with primarily English language-based data about our Web habits, our likes and dislikes, numbers of site impressions, and a whole host of related information. . ." For related references, see "XML and Unicode."

• [June 23, 2000] "XYZFind: Searching in Context with XML." By Daniel Egnor and Robert Lord (XYZFind Corporation, Seattle, Washington, USA). Paper submitted to the SIGIR 2000 XML Workshop. "In an attempt to improve search precision, information retrieval systems struggle to understand the context of text in unstructured documents. While not all documents have explicit structure, we believe the emergence of XML as a standard format for representing structure offers an opportunity for greatly improved information retrieval based on the logical context that is made explicit in XML documents. At XYZFind Corp., we are building an information retrieval system which indexes diverse corpora of XML documents to offer a context-based search experience that outperforms unstructured information retrieval systems. XYZFind does not merely return a better list of documents matching a user's query; instead, we engage the user in a dialogue. Using information known about the domains of knowledge (XML schemas) in the corpus, XYZFind helps the user construct a highly precise query. In some cases, XYZFind actually constructs a precise query automatically from the user's keyword query. Finally, rather than simply listing document locations, the software is able to extract and format results in a way that is highly relevant to the user's query. We are implementing this technology by extending well-known information retrieval techniques as well as drawing on database research. We have not sacrificed the traditional strengths of information retrieval systems (ease of use, flexibility, scalability and low deployment cost)..." See also (1) the software description and (2) the reference collection, "XML and Query Languages."

• [June 23, 2000] "Gates: Microsoft future rides on .Net strategy." By Mary Jo Foley. In ZDNet News (June 22, 2000). "Calling Microsoft's .Net initiative a 'bet-the-company' strategy, Chairman Bill Gates Thursday detailed plans to push into new technologies and services riding the Internet. Gates introduced what the company calls the Microsoft.Net platform, the final name for Microsoft's Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) architecture. The .Net platform described by Gates is comprised of a number of Extensible Markup Language-enabled products and services, taking the form of building blocks from Microsoft and third parties. While all .Net devices will be able to access the .Net back-end infrastructure, those running the Microsoft .Net interface and other client software will have richer access to the services, Gates acknowledged. Examples of some of the .Net building blocks that will underlie Microsoft's next-generation platform are storage; identity (an outgrowth of Microsoft's existing Passport Internet authentication service); notification/messaging; and calendaring. These building blocks interface with a database-based, network-resident XML store, on top of which Microsoft is building a new user interface, dubbed 'the new user experience.' The Windows.Net 1.0 user interface won't launch until next year. XML-enabled Visual Studio 7.0 is now a 2001 product. While Passport is available today, the next three to four key .Net services aren't due out until next year." See the full text of the announcement: "Microsoft Unveils Vision for Next Generation Internet. Company Introduces .NET Generation of Software."

• [June 23, 2000] "Microsoft Unveils Its Next-Gen." By Charles Babcock. In Inter@ctive Week Volume 7, Number 24 (June 19, 2000), page 14. "Microsoft will show developers how eXtensible Markup Language lies at the heart of future Windows operations on the Web when they gather in Seattle this week for a by-invitation-only gathering called Forum 2000, said informed sources. The Forum has been called to give Microsoft chance to sketch out its Next-Generation Windows Services (NGWS), the direction in which it plans to move to take its technology set beyond the Windows desktop onto the Internet. 'Microsoft views XML documents as little, petite databases,' which a business system may query when they arrive at its Web server, said Barbara Bouldin, chief technology officer at infoShark, an XML vendor. If the receiving system finds data that it needs, identified by XML tags, it can initiate operations with the data to further an electronic commerce exchange, she said. Microsoft and other vendors have been active in building BizTalk, an extensive XML tag business vocabulary. In addition, Microsoft has proposed Simple Object Access Protocol for use in transmitting text commands in XML over the Internet. It was joined by IBM in submitting the SOAP specification to the World Wide Web Consortium. . . NGWS is 'an evolutionary flow of Office and other applications becoming more accessible over the Internet.' By leveraging XML, other application services could be delivered through Microsoft Network servers, Smith added. Through XML, said Bill Martschenko, development engineer at Stingray Software, raw data, such as stock quotes, can be moved over the Web and arrive at a destination as XML-tagged data instead of an HTML presentation. At the destination server, it could be unloaded from the document and plugged into a client system that searches it for certain results, or processes it for a historical comparison. Currently, the Web limits the user to whatever HTML page format the data arrives in, Martschenko said. His firm, a subsidiary of Rogue Wave Software, a supplier of C and C++ components, foresees NGWS as dealing with numerous XML data feeds over the Web."

• [June 22, 2000] "Microsoft to take wraps off new Windows strategy." By Wylie Wong and Mike Ricciuti. In CNet News.com (June 21, 2000). "Microsoft is expected to disclose a new strategy to develop Internet-based software and services called Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS). Chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives are scheduled to announce the new initiative at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Core to the e-services strategy are Extensible Markup Language (XML), a Web standard for exchanging data, and new XML-based software tools that allow businesses with different computing systems to communicate with one another. Microsoft executives have said a future service could allow patients to go to one Web site for all their health-care needs, from viewing medical histories to paying doctors' bills. While consumers will use e-services, most of the money will be made in the business e-commerce market, analysts say. It will be like a virtual Yellow Pages, where a business can request a service over the Web and get responses back from companies that offer that service. A travel agency, for example, could send a request over the Web for cheap flights from San Francisco to London. Through XML technology, the travel agent could automatically receive information from airlines that fit search criteria. . . Earlier this month, Gates unveiled a key piece of the strategy, called BizTalk Server 2000. BizTalk Server is Microsoft's XML-based software for linking computing systems and applications across the Net. A new feature within BizTalk Server, called "orchestration," allows businesses to easily define how e-commerce Web sites function and how information needs to be passed among mainframe, Unix, personal digital assistants, and Windows-based computers to complete a transaction."

• [June 22, 2000] "The Merit of XML as an Architecture Description Language Meta-Language." By Steve Pruitt, Doug Stuart, Wonhee Sull, and T.W. Cook (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, TX, USA). "We investigated the use of XML, eXtensible Mark-up Language, as a way to represent software architecture models described with an Architectural Description Language (ADL). We believe XML provides a flexible and extensible framework highly suited to ADLs. Also, its adoption imparts many advantages that the ADL community can enlist to fulfil the responsibilities ADLs may soon be called to provide the industrial sector." See: "Architecture Description Markup Language (ADML)." [cache]

• [June 22, 2000] "From EDI to XML." By Emily Kay. In ComputerWorld (June 19, 2000). ['Until the emerging XML standard matures, IT managers will need a patchwork of tools and services to find their way from EDI to XML and back.'] "When advanced Marketing Services Inc. distributes its books to membership warehouse clubs, the company and its customers exchange purchase order data using electronic data interchange (EDI) technology. But when Advanced Marketing wanted to work online with SamsClub.com, it had to figure out how to send its EDI messages over the Internet using SamsClub's proprietary XML format. XML is an emerging data-description standard designed to simplify Web-based e-commerce transactions among supply-chain partners. EDI is the de facto legacy standard for automating order processing and document interchange among intracompany or intercompany applications. It enables highly secure document exchanges in a compressed, machine-readable form over private value-added networks (VANs). To compete in e-commerce, electronic businesses need to support EDI-to-XML interoperability with supply-chain partners. The problem lies in getting EDI and XML data to interoperate seamlessly - and in translating EDI data into the many XML languages. 'The biggest challenge is trying to choose an XML standard,' says Peter O'Neill, technology vice president at ECOutlook.com, a software and services supplier in Houston. 'There is no one XML standard right now.' Despite these challenges, some tools and services are available today to smooth EDI-to-XML integration. But the selection is limited. 'The whole XML world is so new, there really are not many tools that support XML, period,' says Philip Russom, director of business intelligence at Hurwitz Group Inc. in Framingham, Mass."

• [June 22, 2000] Consortium Unveils Online XML Registry. Sun, IBM and Oracle Help Launch OASIS Site." By Elizabeth Montalbano. In Computer Reseller News (June 20, 2000). "With help from Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle and other key partners, an interoperability consortium Tuesday launched the first phase of an XML registry and repository. The site -- www.xml.org -- aims to be a warehouse for XML schemas to help solution providers architect the future of e-business, says Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information). In e-business transactions -- particularly in vertical-market B2B exchanges -- it is essential for smooth data transfer that systems use the same schemas to translate XML tags. Currently, developers and XML standards bodies still are defining which schemas to use for data transfers in a variety of applications. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun and Pleasanton, Calif.-based Documentum, a document content-management systems vendor, designed the xml.org site." See the announcement: "XML.ORG Goes Live with First Phase of Open Registry & Repository for XML Specifications."

• [June 21, 2000] "Adelard: XML Data Binding for the Java Platform." [Presentation slides] By Mark Reinhold (Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Microsystems, Inc.). JavaOne. June 08, 2000. "The Adelard project aims to create an XML data-binding facility for the Java platform. Data binding makes XML easy to use in Java technology-based programs by compiling an XML schema into one or more Java programming language classes. The generated classes handle all the details of XML parsing and formatting; they also ensure that the constraints expressed in the schema are enforced. This session will review the fundamentals of data binding, present a status report on Adelard and walk through several in-depth examples." See the description of Adelard also from February 2000. [cache]

• [June 21, 2000] "Canonical Format-Serializing Graphs of Data in XML." By Adam Bosworth, Andrew Layman, and Michael Rys. Microsoft Corporation [BizTalk Framework] White Paper. Also apparently presented at XML 99 Europe and at WWW8. See also a PPT version. "XML is evolving as the standard format of exchanging data among heterogeneous, distributed computer systems and as such is used to represent data of various origins in a common format. Often, this data possesses rich structure and represents relationship among various entities. These relationships form graphs, where the relations are directed from one entity to another (and may have inverses) and where there may be multiple paths to an entity. Thus, an important goal of the encoding of this data is to preserve the exact graph structure in the serialization to XML. The aim of this paper is to describe a specific way to use XML to serialize graphs of data (such as database tables and relations or nodes and edges from directed labeled graphs) in such a way that the graph structure is preserved and can be reconstructed. A graph of data serialized according to the described rules is said to be in canonical form. Other representations of the same data can be mapped into and out of the canonical form as long as they do not lose or add information. Therefore, the canonical form provides a common basis that can be exploited for information integration across multiple sources and it can be used as a common abstraction for data interchange. This paper does not change the fact that every validatable XML document conforms to a specific grammar. Rather, it proposes a way to mechanically generate, from a database's or graph's schema, a particular grammar that can be used to serialize data from the database or graph, and into which any other serialization of that data can be mapped. The proposal here is not appropriate for every usage of XML (such as documents), but it is appropriate for those usages that are encodings of directed, labeled graphs. . ." [cache]

• [June 21, 2000] "Navigating Haystacks and Discovering Needles: Introducing the New Topic Map Standard." By Steve Pepper (Ontopia). In Markup Languages: Theory and Practice [ISSN: 1099-6622]. Volume 1, Number 4 (Fall 1999), pages 47-74 (with 19 references). [STANDARDS REPORTS.] "This article provides an introduction to the new topic map standard (ISO/IEC 13250) with particular reference to the domain of encyclopaedia publishing, and discusses the relationship between topic maps and the W3C recommendation Resource Description Framework (RDF). It is based on the author's participation in the development of the topic map standard (representing Norway in SC34, the ISO committeee responsible for SGML and related standards), and two years' collaboration with the leading reference works publishers in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and Germany." See also Steve Pepper's presentation from the XML Europe 2000 Conference: "The TAO of Topic Maps." For other references, see "(XML) Topic Maps." For other articles in Markup Languages: Theory and Practice Volume 1, Issue 4 (Fall 1999), see the annotated Table of Contents document.

• [June 21, 2000] "Topic Maps [at XML Europe 2000]." By Liora Alschuler. From XML.com. June 16, 2000. [Topic maps have made a big splash at XML Europe this year [2000], with fourteen presentations and two tutorials.'] "If there is resistance to Topic Maps, ISO 13250:2000, based on their [ISO/SGML] parentage, you wouldn't know that from the crowds attending the two tutorials, 14 presentations, and three startup technology booths at GCA's XML Europe 2000. What follows is a quick look at the specification, the three vendors with topic map code, some early implementations, some early impressions of the issues topic maps will face in the next months. . . Topic Maps describe knowledge structures and associations between structures and resources. Structures and associations, and association types can all be 'topics' that are mapped to each other and to resources, which are real-world media objects. Since this is all recursive, it is easiest to describe TMs (topic maps) with an example. In the domain of opera, using an example laid out by Steve Pepper in the his paper The TAO of Topic Maps, 'Tosca' is a topic, 'is written by' is an association, and occurrences are the instantiations of this link in identified media. If it sounds like RDF, well, it is, but it's not. . ." See "(XML) Topic Maps."

• [June 21, 2000] ADO 2.5 Embraces the Web. Use ADO 2.5's client- and server-side features to send and receive data in XML form over HTTP." By Andrew J. Brust. In XML Magazine Volume 1, Number 3 (Summer 2000), pages 44-51. "More and more of the code my company writes is in the Active Server Pages (ASP) environment. I believe this trend is fairly widespread within the Visual Basic community. Because ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) 1.0 was introduced with ASP, it makes sense that ADO should do more than function as a data-access technology running on a Web server; it should implement features to make it thrive in that environment. ADO begins to do just that with version 2.5, but it doesn't stop there. ADO also provides features that let client-side VB, VBA, and VBScript code communicate and share data with the server-based code. Although this all ties in nicely with Remote Data Services (RDS), RDS and the DataFactory server-side object are no longer required to obtain such HTTP-based client/server functionality. If you've read up on XML and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), you'll find yourself keenly rewarded: they're marvelously useful in taking advantage of ADO's new features. If you're an XML/XSL newbie, fear not: the sample code for this article gets you started, and the ADO tie-ins will motivate you to learn more. Before I get into the guts of all this, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the bad news: your ASP code must be running on Internet Information Server 5 (IIS5) to take advantage of these features easily. The good news: I'll share some workarounds that make most of the functionality available on IIS4, as well. Just keep in mind that these operations will become even easier when you migrate to IIS5. Let's start with some background. In ADO 2.1, you can save a recordset as XML. . ."

• [June 21, 2000] "XML Holds Key To Development Of Directory Applications." By Jamie Lewis. In InternetWeek (June 12, 2000), page 93. "It's fair to say that the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) has gone a long way toward addressing the first part of that equation. But to date, differences between LDAP implementations, including both schema and application interfaces, have weighed down efforts to create directory applications. In addition, there's a distinct lack of good directory-enabled development tools, as well as a lack of skilled developers who know how to use them. While LDAP directories are proliferating, the industry has yet to fully realize the value of this important infrastructure technology through directory-enabled applications. That's where the Extensible Markup Language (XML) comes in. By supplying a higher-level interface to directory services, XML will make it easier for Web application developers to leverage directories and will, in turn, increase the value of, and need for, directory services. . . In short, developers need a higher-level abstraction for directory functionality, one equal to many of the powerful, but much more simple, tools for leveraging databases. Scripting engines prove the foundation for environments such as Active Server Pages and Java Server Pages, for example, and XML interfaces provide high-level ways of discovering, retrieving and modifying data. Directory development tools of this kind will let Web programmers familiar with XML build templates that define interactions with multiple directories. They will also be able to use templates to describe how Web applications will present the information the engine retrieves from those directories to wireless devices, Web browsers on PCs and other clients. Over the next year, we'll see such tools emerge for the directory. IPlanet recently purchased Innosoft, whose DirectoryPortal provides an XML scripting engine for LDAP directories. Both Microsoft and Novell are developing XML interfaces to their directory service implementations. These tools will finish the job that LDAP started, allowing directories to take their rightful place alongside databases as a key component of e-business infrastructure, finally fulfilling their potential."

• [June 21, 2000] Network Ensures Uniform Content Presentation." By Chuck Mookakis. In InternetWeek (June 12, 2000), page 9. "To help companies eliminate the hassles associated with authoring content for disparate devices, AlterEgo Networks Inc. last week took the wraps off its Adaptive Network. The company's adaptive technology, based on software developed by SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) lets AlterEgo convert HTML content into an abstraction layer based on XML. From there, the content is adapted to wireless markup languages such as Wireless Application Protocol for delivery to untethered devices. AlterEgo goes one step further, though, by taking that content and pumping it through its nationwide infrastructure, built upon nine data centers that mesh with private network access points administered by InterNap Network Services Corp."

• [June 20, 2000] "Sun's newest StarOffice versions take to the Web. One designed for enterprises, service providers; second for consumers." By John Cox. In Network World Volume 17, Number 25 (June 19, 2000), page 16. "Sun is set to release two new versions of its desktop productivity software as part of an effort to convince enterprise users that its Internet applications are a better deal than Microsoft Office. Sun's StarOffice suite was originally built by Star Division Corp. of Germany as a group of object-oriented programs for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics and the like. Sun acquired Star Division in August 1999 and began offering the software as a free product. The new stand-alone desktop version, StarOffice 5.2, will feature better performance and greater support for file formats used in the market-dominant Microsoft Office, the company says. Another major push has been to make the software more reliable and stable, according to Sun executives. Version 5.2 will support files formatted with XML, a standard way to share data in Web documents. But most of the attention on this StarOffice release will be focused on the second version, called StarPortal. The portal version is designed to run on servers, instead of individual desktops and be accessible with a Web browser. . . The portal includes a group of device templates, which can be thought of as a set of directions on how to present StarOffice documents, or parts of them, to specific devices such as a Palm V or cell phone screen that use the Wireless Application Protocol. Using the templates, the server can read an incoming browser request, select the relevant documents or data, and format them to match the client's screen. In the future, StarPortal will import and export documents formatted in XML. One benefit of XML, Petry says, is that it will let the portal move parts of a document, instead of the entire file, back and forth between client devices and servers."

• [June 20, 2000] "Sun releases latest version of StarOffice suite." By Grant DuBois. In eWEEK (June 20, 2000). "Standing by an earlier prediction, Sun Microsystems Inc. today released version 5.2 of its StarOffice productivity suite. StarOffice 5.2 can be downloaded for free from Sun's Web site, or the CD can be purchased for $9.95 via the site. The suite includes such tools as a word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail, scheduler and presentation software. According to Sun officials, StarOffice 5.2 improvements include greater reliability and performance; increased interoperability with Microsoft Office 2000; a reduced file size for presentations to make them more transportable; full online help, wizards and documentation; an easier-to-use interface; the addition of a separate StarOffice Player to give presentations without having StarOffice fully loaded on a laptop; and simultaneous spell checking for multiple languages. Sun is also introducing Extensible Markup Language as a new file format to display different types of Web pages as well as a software developer's kit."

• [June 20, 2000] "XML and Software Configuration." By Tony Sintes. In Dr. Dobb's Journal (DDJ) #314 = Volume 25, Issue 7 (July 2000), pages 56-62. [Special issue on Distributed Computing.] "Tony explores software configuration and how it relates to XML. In the process, he presents an XML configuration markup language and Java framework that you can use as the basis for any Java configuration engine. Additional resources include xmlcfg.txt (listings) and xmlcfg.zip (source code)." The article features an implementation scenario using DCML (Dynamic Configuration Markup Language). [cache]

• [June 20, 2000] "Creating WAP Services." By Luca Passani. In Dr. Dobb's Journal (DDJ) #314 = Volume 25, Issue 7 (July 2000), pages 70-78. [Special issue on Distributed Computing.] "WAP is a communications architecture designed for wireless networks. Luca examines WAP services, then presents a WAP application used to pick songs from a database of music. To build this application, he uses the Apache web server (with PHP support) and MySQL database. Additional resources include wapserv.txt (listings) and wapserv.zip (source code)." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)."

• [June 20, 2000] "Are you prepared to face a major data quality challenge?" By David Stanvick. In SunServer Magazine Volume 14, Number 6 (June 2000), pages 15-16. ['One of the most important challenges IT departments face is managing the accuracy of data coming into a Web site. There are several steps that you can follow to increase data quality on your Web site regardless of what content management strategy you are using.'] "XML provides a richer set of tags and lets users define new tags to extend the language to fit their own needs. XML documents can also deliver data within client applications, such as a spreadsheet, and can perform operations on the data if the original column-name and data-type information is preserved. Although HTML documents contain no inherent rules or mechanisms by which the browser can check the validity of their format, XML documents can be checked for this kind of validity and well-formedness each time they are opened. The XML processor checks the document to ensure the validity of the logical structure of the elements within the document. The processor can also check for well-formedness to verify that the physical structure of the document is in order; for example, that the tags match appropriately. . ."

• [June 20, 2000] "SAP taps Commerce One for Net push." By Eugene Grygo. In InfoWorld Volume 22, Issue 25 (June 19, 2000), page 8. "Although most perceived SAP's announcement this week that it will be working closely with Commerce One as a bold move, many participants at the SAP Sapphire 2000 user conference in Las Vegas had questions about how SAP will be able to pull off what is regarded as a major integration project. . . Engineers from Commerce One and SAP will have to build a platform that includes Commerce One's MarketSite portal and its accompanying Exchange Operating System, Auction Services, and Content Engine, and SAP's mySAP.com with APO (advanced planning and optimization) for supply-chain management, product life-cycle management, and business information warehousing. The embrace of a major third-party player further underscores SAP's best-of-breed approach in contrast to competitor Oracle's pre-integrated, Internet-based, one-stop shopping pitch for its ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite. But the SAP approach will be limited best-of-breed, said Hasso Plattner, co-chairman and CEO of SAP, who cautioned that SAP will be very selective. To help users connect via trading exchanges, Commerce One and SAP will splice together Commerce One's XML Common Business Library (xCBL), an XML variant for grafting buying and selling applications, with the SAP Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs), which link non-SAP software to the SAP environment." See the announcement "SAP and Commerce One Form 'Dream Team' for the New Economy. Leader in e-business applications and leader in global trading services join to deliver the next-generation e-business marketplace solution."

• [June 20, 2000] "Commerce One partners with XML software startup." By Adam Feuerstein. In Upside Today - Tech Insider (June 20, 2000). Commerce One (CMRC) is forming an alliance with a small Internet software startup to help solve a big e-marketplace problem. The startup, XML Solutions Inc., has developed software that lets large companies set up Web-based trading networks using XML -- the lingua franca of Web-based business communications -- while still using their expensive EDI -- electronic data interchange -- commerce systems. Over the last week, Commerce One has been busy inking deals that boost its ability to actually build the Net marketplaces and exchanges it has touted over the last six months. The technology provided by XML Solutions is expected to figure prominently in the launch of Covisint, the auto exchange being formed by Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler. XML Solutions will also play a role in Commerce One's aerospace exchange for Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others. Last week, Commerce One inked a partnership with enterprise software giant SAP and its e-business arm, SAPMarkets. On Monday, the company said it was in talks to acquire AppNet for $1.38 billion, a consulting firm that helps build e-marketplaces. Founded in June 1999, closely held XML Solutions makes it easy for large companies to move their business to the Web. These companies, most of which rely on EDI to transact electronically with partners, have been reluctant to ditch the system for New Economy solutions such as Web-based marketplaces built around XML. This structural hurdle has been frustrating for small and midsize businesses as well. Smaller companies lack the millions of dollars required to invest in EDI systems, so they've been shut out from electronic trading with large customers. Adding to the problems: Almost every industry has evolved its own 'flavor' of EDI, which further hinders inter-industry electronic commerce. . ."

• [June 20, 2000] Industry consortium launches XML site." By Wylie Wong. In CNet News.com (June 20, 2000). "A consortium of tech firms has launched a new online service to jump-start the use of a Web data exchange language. OASIS, a nonprofit group that includes IBM, Sun Microsystems and Oracle, has created an online warehouse for XML (Extensible Markup Language) technology. XML is a Web standard for exchanging data that proponents say will allow companies to easily and cheaply conduct online transactions with customers, partners and suppliers. XML is related to HTML, a language used to generate Web pages. But unlike HTML, XML allows software developers to define their own vocabulary for data exchange, making it a potentially more powerful tool for linking businesses. The new online service on Oasis' Web portal site -- XML.org -- will serve as a library for XML vocabularies, or 'schemas,' developed by specific industries, such as insurance, health care, and any other industry grappling with data exchange and e-commerce. It will also include general XML specifications, such as the Trading Partner Agreement Markup Language, which provides a common format for companies to define and execute business contracts over the Web. OASIS' hopes to connect its library of XML vocabularies with other libraries being developed by companies, such as Microsoft, and other industry groups, such as RosettaNet or the Object Management Group. The goal is to link all the XML repositories together, so businesses can easily find the XML vocabularies they need to conduct e-business. . ." See the announcement: "XML.ORG Goes Live with First Phase of Open Registry & Repository for XML Specifications."

• [June 19, 2000] "Is CWMI the Holy Grail of Meta Data Standards?" By Sridhar Iyengar [and Rich Seely]. In eAI Journal Volume 2, Number 6 (June 2000), pages 36-39. "The Object Management Group (OMG), headquartered in Needham, Mass., is close to adopting the Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI) standard, which is touted as the Holy Grail sought by developers working on integration, data warehouse and e-business applications. OMG calls the specifications it has developed for the CWMI standard -- a landmark submission that follows the creation of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) and XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) by the OMG. Backed by industry leaders including Oracle, IBM, Unisys, NCR, and Sun Microsystems, CWMI is viewed as the next step toward establishing a standard for metadata interchange among all data warehousing, business intelligence, knowledge management and portal technologies. The proposed standard provides an object model with a set of Application Programming Interface (APIs), interchange formats and services for the wide range of metadata involved in the extraction, transformation, transportation, loading, integration and analysis phases of data warehouse projects. OMG also advocates CWMI as the standard which 'resolves potential integration issues by enabling users to extend the model to meet their specific needs.' The proposed standard is viewed as a boon to developers of Web-based projects. 'CWMI lowers implementation costs for our customers by extending metadata interoperability into the world of Web-based data warehousing environments,' said Sridhar Iyengar, Unisys Fellow, member of the OMG Architecture Board and architect of Unisys Universal Repository (UREP). eAI Journal recently spoke to Iyengar, who has been cast by OMG as the King Arthur in this quest for the Holy Grail of metadata. Iyengar discussed the potential for CWMI and how it will interact with XML, XMI, Meta Objects Facility (MOF), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java Beans and other existing standards." See: "OMG Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI) Specification."

• [June 19, 2000] "Oracle adds analysis tools to e-commerce software." By Wylie Wong. In CNet News.com (June 19, 2000). "Oracle is revamping its database and e-commerce software to include analysis tools designed to help managers and executives make business decisions. The database software maker traditionally sold its analysis software separately but has decided to integrate that software into its database and e-commerce products to make it easier for companies to analyze their data, an Oracle executive said. . . In related news, Oracle today announced plans to build software tools that will support a new XML-based standard that will allow different data analysis tools to work with each other. XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a Web standard for data exchange. Oracle this summer will release a developer's kit allowing software makers to build software that links Oracle's products with software from other companies, Oracle executives said. Oracle this fall will ship management tools -- called One Meaning -- that will allow businesses using the new XML-based standard to manage information." See "OMG Common Warehouse Metadata Interchange (CWMI) Specification."

• [June 19, 2000] "How AxKit Picks Stylesheets and/or Processors." By Matt Sergeant. "[Kay Michael: 'Should I run the XSL processor twice? Or is there a more efficient way to accomplish this? XSLT is a "single-pass" process, all template rules are applied to the input document (or tree), there's no standard way within the language of applying a second transformation to the result of the first...'] "Actually there is a standard way, but its outside the realm of XSLT and inside the realm of XML. Its called 'cascading' and is detailed in the HTML 4.0 spec, and referenced explicitly in http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet. The only processor I'm aware of that directly supports this model is AxKit (funny that, eh?), although I'm certain there must be others. I've written a sort of high-level overview of how this works on the axkit web site... When an XML file is encountered (determined by AxKit's XMLFinder module - which checks first for a .xml extension, then for a processing instruction), AxKit needs to determine how to process that file. To do so it needs a list of stylesheets to process that file against. The stylesheet type (a MIME type) determines the module used to actually process the XML file together with the Stylesheet. It's also worth noting that a stylesheet file isn't necessary if using a DefaultStyleMap - this benefit could be useful, for example, for a Cocoon-like XSP page where there is no stylesheet to interact with..."

• [June 19, 2000] "XSLV." - "A simple, accessible layout vocabulary targeting text-oriented display, that has XML syntax and semantics.." By Amy Lewis. June 19, 2000. [Part of the FO discussion on XML-DEV, June 2000.]

• [June 16, 2000] The Data Melting Pot. Building a business-to-business application with XML." By Brett McLaughlin. From IBM DeveloperNet. May 2000. ['In this demonstration of how to exchange data with other companies through XML, find solutions to some of the problems inherent in B2B communication. Code samples include a means to translate an XML representation of an SQL query to a JDBC-usable query and how to convert the resulting data back into an intuitive XML format.'] "The commercial world has grabbed onto the concept of electronic business with a feverish grip. As a result, an application is rarely the sum of its parts, but instead the central component of a larger system, often involving data from alien applications. Data has become the commodity in the 21st century, and the original source of that data no longer matters to most companies. Legacy systems, applications in COBOL, FORTRAN, and C, and databases from countless vendors all act as gatekeepers of data that companies must access. Often monumental format, storage, and language differences obstruct communication across the entities. Managers and executives don't care how you solve these problems, but you must come up with a way to manage an increasing variety of data formats in your applications. Enter the extensible markup language (XML). By providing a standards-based data format, XML allows communication between heterogeneous systems, while allowing both endpoints of the exchange to remain ignorant of the other application's specifics. As long as requests come in XML format, they can be interpreted. And since XML results are returned, you can achieve interoperability without having to write code to handle the hundreds of varieties of clients that may need to interact with an application. In fact, the identity of the client becomes, in a sense, a mystery: bachelor number three sits completely hidden from view, speaking only in occasional bursts of XML..."

• [June 15, 2000] "IBM, Rational to propose new e-business spec." By Roberta Holland. In eWEEK (June 14, 2000). "IBM and Rational Software Corp. announced plans Tuesday night to submit a new data interchange specification to the Object Management Group standards body, with the underlying goal of reducing costly failures of e-business systems. The specification, which the two companies intend to formally submit to the OMG at the organization's September meeting, is an extension of the XMI standard. XMI, which stands for XML (Extensible Markup Language) Metadata Interchange, is a standard way to exchange data between application development tools. The extension proposed by IBM and Rational takes that one step further, allowing tools to exchange data with applications. Essentially, companies could use the new specification to test applications while they are being developed rather than waiting until the end of the deployment cycle. Sam Guckenheimer, senior director of technology for Rational in Lexington, Mass., said a fundamental part of e-businesses is that they have a complicated mix of different software and systems. . ." See (1) the full text of the announcement: "IBM and Rational Collaborate On Proposal For XMI-Based Data Interchange Specification To Streamline e-Business Development. Open Invitation For Software Tools and Server Vendors To Participate In And Adopt Specification Proposal." and (2) "XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)."

• [June 14, 2000] "Adelard, one year later. Sun's Adelard is a robust alternative to SAX and DOM." By Todd Sundsted. In JavaWorld Magazine [JavaOne Wrapup] (June 2000). ['Sun's forthcoming technology for transforming XML schemas into Java classes has taken some new directions that promise big wins for developers of electronic business and enterprise applications. Todd Sundsted reports on the Adelard project.'] "Perhaps coincidence causes the paths of Java and XML to cross as often as they do. Or perhaps it is their linked paternity (James Gosling, of Sun Microsystems, fathered the Java programming language, and Jon Bosak, of Sun Microsystems, fathered the Extensible Markup Language). Whatever the reason, their intersection gives rise to powerful technology. Adelard, the code-name for Sun's XML data binding technology, is an excellent example. Mark Reinhold, senior staff engineer at Sun and architect of the Adelard project, talked about Adelard during a Thursday afternoon session at JavaOne titled 'Adelard: XML Data Binding for the Java Platform.' He described its status, hinted at its performance relative to existing technologies, and shared some of the insight he and his team gained from designing and implementing this exciting technology. Data binding establishes two-way mapping of XML documents to Java objects. Adelard will provide the tools necessary to transform an XML schema into one or more Java classes. These classes will make the job of building XML-enabled Java applications easier by hiding the complicated transformational machinery from the eyes of the developer in much the same way that Remote Machine Invocation (RMI) hides its networking machinery. Adelard is an alternative to existing technologies like Simple API for XML (SAX) and Document Object Model (DOM). These technologies, while useful, operate at the level of individual elements and attributes. The application code must implement the bridge from these low-level components to business-level entities. Adelard, on the other hand, will map XML documents structures directly to business-level objects. Adelard comprises two integrated parts: a binding framework and a schema compiler. The data binding framework supports the transformation of XML documents to and from Java objects. The schema compiler translates a schema into a set of related classes. These classes use the facilities provided by the binding framework..."

• [June 14, 2000] "Sun Microsystems outlines future XML plans at JavaOne: An Update on JAXP." By Mark Johnson. In JavaWorld Magazine [JavaOne Wrapup] (June 2000). ['Sun's James Duncan Davidson describes current and future work on JAXP, the Java API for XML Processing.'] "The Java programming language and XML are two complementary technologies for producing cross-platform Internet applications. As the originator of the Java language, and as a driving force behind the development of XML, Sun Microsystems has a keen interest in XML-enabling Java. At the JavaOne conference on Wednesday, Sun Staff Engineer James Duncan Davidson outlined Sun's current technology for parsing and processing XML in Java, and described Sun's future plans for XML support. XML is a language- and platform-independent data representation that uniquely complements Java's platform-independent representation of program behavior. Calling XML 'the most-hyped technology since Java (though that's a good thing),' Davidson outlined the meteoric rise in interest in XML in the past year. Sun's perspective is that XML provides access to 'portable data' in much the same way that Java provides "portable code." Davidson pointed out two viewpoints on XML data: data treated as documents, and data treated as messages. The JAXP (Java API for XML Processing, described below) treats XML data from a document point of view. XML documents represent related data, often used for eventual presentation to a human being, usually following an arbitrary series of transformations, filterings, and stylings. XML messages represent communications between systems, formatted as XML. It should be noted that there is no technical difference between these two 'points of view,' since XML is XML. The distinction has to do with how the XML is being used: for aggregating information (documents) or performing transactions (messaging). The document viewpoint is currently the most common way of looking at XML, largely because of XML's roots in SGML, a sophisticated language for document markup. The JAXP specification focuses on this aspect of XML programming, providing an API for creating, configuring, and manipulating XML parsers. JAXP supports the Document Object Model (DOM) and Simple API for XML (SAX), the two most common current interfaces to XML from Java (and many other languages). . ."

• [June 14, 2000] "Engenia brings 'Unity' to Web-based collaboration." By Anne Knowles. In eWEEK (June 13, 2000). "A company founded by a group of former IBM knowledge management executives today will launch an XML-based desktop that allows people inside and outside a corporation to collaborate. Engenia Software Inc.'s Unity is a so-called 'digital dashboard' that consolidates a user's applications, e-mail and Web-based information (such as news and stock feeds) onto a single page that can be customized and accessed from a browser. Unity users can then create workspaces to which they add any desktop element, such as a word processing or spreadsheet application, and grant access to any other Unity user available via the Internet to collaborate in the space. The collaboration is enabled by the company's Relationship Web, an object-based architecture that creates items as XML-based files and defines their relationship to everything else."

• [June 14, 2000] The Joy of SAX: a Visual Basic Sample." By Martin Naughton. MSDN Online. ['This article outlines an approach to programming the SAX2 interfaces from Microsoft Visual Basic. Includes sample code.'] "One of the key features of the May 2000 MSXML Technology Preview is an implementation of SAX2 (Simple API for XML, version 2). As an introduction to SAX2, the MSDN XML Developer Center provides an article entitled SAX2 Jumpstart for XML Developers and a downloadable Microsoft Visual C++ application. In this article, I outline an approach to programming the SAX2 interfaces from Visual Basic. Note that this sample is unsupported and is intended to assist you in prototyping SAX/Visual Basic solutions. In addition, it should be made clear that the interfaces in this sample have no bearing on Microsoft's Visual Basic support for SAX in the future."

• [June 14, 2000] "Frequently Asked Questions About XML." Updated document. June 07, 2000. MSDN Online. 'Quick and straightforward answers to commonly asked questions about XML.' For related resources: "XML FAQ Documents: Answers to "Frequently-Asked-Questions".

• [June 14, 2000] "Web Services and the SOAP Toolkit for Visual Studio 6.0." From Microsoft. June 08, 2000. ['This toolkit allows you to easily build and use SOAP Web Services with Visual Studio 6.0. Incl