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XML and Web Services In The News - 20 March 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML.org Daily Newslink is sponsored by Innodata Isogen
HEADLINES:
COVERPAGES:
Why XForms Matter, Revisited
Kurt Cagle, O'Reilly Developer Weblogs
Very quietly, over the last few weeks, the Mozilla team has been
upgrading their XForms capabilities through the use of an XForms
extension... I've been working a lot lately with mixed XML/Javascript
frameworks, and curiously enough, the more complex the applications
become, the more that they in fact begin to resemble -- well, XForms.
You have one or more XML data stores that can represent anything from
a personal schema to a description for an entire set... XForms is not
a complete solution, though its usually close to it. Sometimes you need
to write extensions, and many XForms engines have mechanisms for
extending the default XPath implementation in various ways. Additionally
occasionally you will run into situations where you want to replace
the default XForms standard controls -- for example, turning an
'xf:output' element into an image display control. The XForms model in
this case works very well with other binding languages, such as Mozilla's
XUL or the SVG sXBL binding language... Given the rising proliferation
of component toolkits, I see a coming period where everyone's going to
be trying to get THEIR component interfaces accepted as the 'standard'
ones. The XForms components actually handle almost all of these cases,
provides a standard, open, non-proprietary solution that suffers only
from lack of education and exposure, and with its presence now in
Mozilla -- and numerous versions available in IE, including both
ActiveX and pure Javascript versions — I see XForms poised to
become the de facto forms technology within the browser world.
See also: XML and Forms
The Holy Grail: Industry-Wide System Management Standards at Last?
Ian Foster (Globus Management Committee), The Grid Today
HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft have announced their intention to work
together on specifications for resources, events and management that
can be broadly supported across multiple platforms. The roadmap proposes
an approach to reconciling two similar but competing approaches: the Web
Services Distributed Management (WSDM) family of specifications,
including Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF) and WS-Notification
(WS-N), supported by IBM, HP and others; and the WS-Management family
of specifications (including WS-Transfer, WS-Eventing and WS-Enumeration),
supported by Microsoft, Intel and others. The published roadmap
suggests that the new specifications that are to be developed will
include essentially all of the core concepts introduced back in 2001 in
the Open Grid Services Infrastructure (OGSI) and subsequently incorporated
in WSRF/WS-N. So this initiative is good news: it promises to deliver
what the Grid and Globus communities have been working towards for close
to five years: industry-wide standards for Web services-based systems
management. The strong commitment stated by HP, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft
to the concepts, mechanisms, and interfaces encoded in WSDM/WSRF/WS-N
and WS-Man/WS-Transfer/WS-Eventing should provide developers and users
with considerable confidence that this technology is here for the long
haul. Similarly, Globus' intention to both implement these new
specifications and address migration issues means that developers and
users should feel confident designing and coding programs that target
Globus (GT4) WSRF/WS-N interfaces. As the new specifications solidify,
developers and users will be able to evolve their software to use those
new specifications, at a pace of their choosing.
See also: the news story
W3C Working Draft: Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies
Alistair Miles, Thomas Baker, Ralph Swick; W3C SWBPaD-WG
W3C's Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has
published the First Public Working Draft of Best Practice Recipes for
Publishing RDF Vocabularies. Produced by the group's Vocabulary
Management Task Force, this cookbook offers step-by-step instructions
for choosing and publishing an RDF Schema or OWL vocabulary or ontology
on the Web, giving example configurations for the Apache HTTP server.
The paper discusses the notion of a vocabulary URI (or ontology URI),
including the 'hash namespace' and 'slash namespace' variants, expressing
how the URIs for the classes and properties in the vocabulary are
constructed. SKOS Core is an example of a vocabulary that uses a hash
namespace: the URIs for the classes and properties are constructed by
appending first a hash character ('#') and then a 'local name' to the
vocabulary URI. FOAF is an example of a vocabulary that uses a slash
namespace: the vocabulary URI ends with a forward slash character ('/'),
and the URIs of classes and properties are constructed by appending the
'local name' of the class or property directly to the vocabulary URI.
Both hash namespaces and slash namespaces are supported within the
architecture of the Web. However, certain behaviors are required of the
Web server that differ between these two choices; the mechanics of
setting up an HTTP server to satisfy some or all of the requirements
differ somewhat.
See also: the Semantic Web home page
Microsoft Eyes XAML to Wed Designers, Developers
Elizabeth Montalbano, InfoWorld
The author describes how Microsoft bills WPF/E, based upon XAML, as a
more flexible alternative to Adobe Systems' Macromedia Flash. Bridging
the gap between application developers and Web designers has always
been a problem for companies building high-impact Web sites; Microsoft
thinks it has the answer through its use of an XML-based language
called XAML. The language will be used in two forthcoming technologies
-- Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E) and Microsoft
Expression Interactive Designer -- one of which was discussed in detail
for the first time Monday at MIX 06 in Las Vegas. WPF/E lets graphics
created for Windows Vista applications run on other OSes as well as on
the Web, said Forest Key, a director of developer tools product
management for Microsoft. Key described WPF/E as a runtime for reusing
rich graphic elements built specifically for a Windows Vista application.
At the core of the technology is XAML (Extensible Application Markup
Language), Microsoft's language for creating graphical presentation
elements in Windows Presentation Foundation, the next-generation GUI
framework for Windows Vista. WPF/E can be used in two different ways.
Developers can use it to embed XAML code for graphics in an application
so it can run on another platform, for example, the Macintosh, Key said.
Then there are WPF/E plug-ins for browsers, which can be downloaded
when a WPF/E-enabled applications pops up on the Web. The plug-ins will
allow those XAML-based graphics to be rendered in various browsers.
Media Server Markup Language (MSML)
Adnan Saleem and Garland Sharratt, IETF Internet Draft
The Media Server Markup Language (MSML) is used to control and invoke
many different types of services on IP Media Servers. Clients can use
it to define how multimedia sessions interact on a Media Server and to
apply services to individuals or groups of users. MSML can be used,
for example, to control Media Server conferencing features such as
video layout and audio mixing, create sidebar conferences or personal
mixes, and set the properties of media streams. As well, clients can
use MSML to define media processing dialogs, which may be used as parts
of application interactions with users or conferences. Transformation
of media streams to and from users or conferences as well as IVR dialogs
are examples of such interactions, which are specified using MSML.
MSML clients may also invoke dialogs with individual users or with
groups of conference participants using VoiceXML... MSML is a derivative
of two earlier IETF drafts known as Media Sessions Markup Language and
Media Objects Markup Language. These two drafts were first introduced
by Convedia in 2003 and were designed to complement RFC 4240, Basic
Network Media Services with SIP (previously known as Netann) and
VoiceXML. The consolidation of the Media Sessions Markup Language and
Media Objects Markup Language into the new MSML is fully backward
compatible and simplifies adoption, use, and evolution of the control
interface.
French on to Something with iTunes Law, Say Analysts
Reuters, via CNet News.com
The French parliament is set to vote early this week on a new law that
would allow consumers to legally circumvent existing software that
protects copyrighted material. Analysts say the French are on to
something that the rest of the world has yet to figure out: It needs
to set rules for this new market now or risk one or two U.S. companies
taking control of online access to music, video and TV. The possibility
of one or two proprietary U.S. standards dominating the market is not
just a concern in France, whose leaders have recently been touting
"economic patriotism." It also unnerves any company that has content to
sell or distribute, since songs or videos purchased from one store will
often not play on systems from another store, locking in users.
Telecommunications operators and consumer electronics companies joined
forces several years ago to develop an open standard called Open Mobile
Alliance (OMA) DRM. Until a year ago, the protection standard appeared
destined to be the preferred antipiracy system for media companies,
telecommunications operators, mobile phone vendors and consumer
electronics companies. However, negotiations over licensing fees have
been deadlocked for nearly a year and a half, with the six companies
controlling the patents on the technology for OMA DRM 2.0 resisting
calls for lower fees. This has hampered the uptake of OMA DRM by
hardware vendors and service providers.
Selected From The Cover Pages, by Robin Cover:
WS-Transfer, WS-Eventing, and WS-Enumeration Specifications Submittedto W3C
Concurrent with the release of a White Paper "Toward Converging Web
Service Standards for Resources, Events, and Management" by HP, IBM,
Intel, and Microsoft, W3C has acknowledged receipt of three related
WS-* specifications as Member Submissions. The roadmap outlines planned
development and support for WS-Transfer Addendum, WS-ResourceTransfer,
WS-EventNotification, a new common Web services management specification,
and updating of WS-MetadataExchange.
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