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XML and Web Services In The News - 17 April 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML.org Daily Newslink is sponsored by SAP
HEADLINES:
What XForms Does, and What It Doesn't Do
John Boyer, IBM Blog
The purpose of XForms is to express the core XML data processing asset
used in sophisticated data collection scenarios. In fact, it would be
better if XForms were called the XML data processing language (XDP or
XDPL) because XML is about standardizing data and about 80% of business
transactions are based on filling out some kind of form to collect the
transactional data. An XForm contains one or more XML data instances.
An instance is an arbitrarily structured XML data document that is
typically an instance of some XML schema that expresses the static
validation rules for a target namespace. One can write an XForm without
an XML schema by just expressing the XML data in an instance. This is
because XForms provides other channels of data validity checking that
can be easier to work with when only simple data type validation is
needed. For example, you can use an XForms type declaration to associate
an xsd:date or similar data type to an XML data node without writing an
XML schema for your XForm. But XForms validity checking is also dynamic,
in recognition of the fact that validity of some values can be based on
other values or the aggregation of other values. For example, in an
interlibrary article request, the upper bound page number in the journal
must not be less than the lower bound page number. Or, the user is only
authorized to make a purchase order with less than $10,000 total value.
The latter example is important because it leads to the conclusion that
we not only need a way of testing data values relative to other data
values, but also that we need a way of calculating data values that are
then used in validity tests.
See also: XML and Forms
Center Unveils Online XML Toolkit
Dibya Sarkar, Federal Computer Week
A New York applied research center today released its first version of
an online toolkit designed to help government agencies use Extensible
Markup Language for managing Web sites. The product, called the XML
Toolkit, can be found at www.thexmltoolkit.org. Researchers at the
Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the State University of
New York at Albany have been formally investigating and assessing the
use of XML to replace HTML. HTML is the predominant language used to
define and structure the layout of a Web document. The center formed a
partnership with the Governor's Office of Employee Relations and the
Office of the Chief Information Officer for a test project. In January,
it presented results of the project in which five participating state
government agencies established business case analyses and prototype
Web sites using XML. The results led to the development of the online
toolkit. Using XML can improve workflow and decrease the time, effort
and costs related to Web site management, according to CTG officials.
The center converted its Web site to an XML format several years ago
and dramatically reduced the effort necessary to manage the site.
See also: the web site
Analysis: BPM Vendors Tap AJAX to Put Process in Context
Doug Henschen, IntelligentEnterprise.com
The hot AJAX development approach isn't just for pretty, consumer-
oriented Web sites such as Google Earth and Netflix.com. Business
process management (BPM) vendors Pegasystems and Appian use AJAX
(Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) in their latest releases to deliver
interfaces that are not only rich, dynamic and user-friendly, but much
more process-relevant and personalized. Much has been made of AJAX's
ability to deliver rich Internet applications (RIA) that are up to
thick-client standards, but in fact, the best of these interfaces outdo
thick clients in terms of dynamic delivery and personalization.
Pegasystem's SmartBPM Suite upgrade uses AJAX for "hover and see"
functionality that provides immediate user feedback. Hover-and-see is
typical for an AJAX implementation, but Pegasystems takes it one step
further by using its rules technology to drive AJAX personalization.
As you interact with the system it instantly generates new windows and
views in response to changing business rules -- without an army of
Java programmers.
Authoritative Metadata
Roy T. Fielding and Ian Jacobs (eds), W3C TAG Finding
On 12 April 2006, W3C released a TAG Finding, produced by members of
the W3C Technical Architecture Group, concerning agent handling of
metadata received in an encapsulating container. W3C created the TAG
to document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture
and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary; the TAG
also resolves issues involving general Web architecture brought to
the TAG, and help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments
inside and outside W3C. In the Authoritative Metadata published TAG
finding, the suthors review the architectural design choice that
metadata provided in an encapsulating container, such as the metadata
provided in the header fields of a received message, be considered
authoritative. They examine why recipient behavior that fails to respect
authoritative metadata can be harmful and under what conditions such
behavior is allowed. Finally, they consider how specification authors
and implementers should incorporate these design constraints into their
work. In Web architecture, communication between agents consists of
exchanging messages with predefined syntax and semantics: a shared
expectation of how each message's control data and payload
(representation data and metadata) will be interpreted by the recipient.
When supported by the communication protocol, the Web architecture uses
representation metadata to indicate the sender's intentions regarding
how the recipient should interpret the representation data. For
example, HTTP and MIME use the value of the "Content-Type" header
field to indicate the Internet media type of the representation, which
influences the dispatching of handlers and security-related decisions
made by recipients of the message.
See also: W3C TAG Findings
French Could Outlaw Open Source DRM, Peer-to-Peer
Peter Sayer, InfoWorld
On May 4, the French Senate will debate a copyright bill that is widely
expected to have a chilling effect on the development and distribution
of open-source software for digital rights management (DRM) or P-to-P
(peer-to-peer) file sharing. That's because the bill's provisions include
a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of 300,000 Euros
(US $363,171) for publishing, distributing or promoting software in
France that is "manifestly intended" for the unauthorized distribution
of copyright works. The developers of the open-source multimedia player
VLC, which can read DRM-protected DVDs, consider themselves targeted.
But the legal uncertainty over the term "manifestly intended" makes the
bill's coverage so broad that it could even cover the open-source Web
server Apache, which hosts over 60 percent of Web sites, opponents of
the bill say. Open-source projects are thought to be more vulnerable
than commercial operations because they typically have few resources at
their disposal to defend legal actions. France has been a strong
supporter of open-source software, with many publicly funded bodies
either using it or developing it. Legislation that punishes development
and distribution of open-source applications could weaken projects
based there, and tarnish the image of the open-source movement with users.
BEA Supports ColdFusion Apps
Darryl K. Taft, eWEEK
BEA Systems is offering ColdFusion users the ability to run their
ColdFusion applications on the BEA WebLogic Server without requiring
a rewrite. BEA has announced the availability of BlueDragon, BEA
WebLogic Edition. The BlueDragon software is from New Atlanta
Communications, in Alpharetta, Ga., and BEA licenses the technology.
ColdFusion has supported WebLogic Server for some time. As early as
January of 2003, Macromedia, now Adobe Systems, announced the
availability of Macromedia ColdFusion MX for BEA WebLogic Server,
allowing Web application developers without Java programming skills
to leverage ColdFusion MX to build and deploy applications on the BEA
WebLogic Enterprise Platform. According to the announcement:
"BlueDragon is designed to help enable customers to modernize and
extend legacy ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) applications to run
on BEA WebLogic Server, which can thereby allow companies to reuse
existing technology to help meet evolving business needs. The solution
is tuned for BEA WebLogic and is designed to allow customers to
unlock and extend their legacy applications to new platforms and
accelerate the delivery of service-oriented architectures (SOAs),
helping to make the free flow of information, processes and services
across the business possible."
Subversion On Demand: CollabNet Offers Software Version Control Service
Paul Krill, InfoWorld
CollabNet is unveiling a hosted service for Subversion, an open source
version-control system for enterprise software development. By hosting
Subversion, CollabNet is taking on version control, which has been no
one's core competency in development teams, said analyst Stuart Selip,
vice president and service director for application platform strategies
at the Burton Group. CollabNet Subversion On Demand makes software
development assets available around the clock, an attractive option,
given the trend toward offshoring of development projects. Subversion
On Demand is a more economical offering than CollabNet Enterprise Edition,
with collaboration tools and a project workspace inside a secure
environment. Web-based administration is also included. CollabNet
Subversion On Demand supports team-based collaboration but lacks features
such as issue tracking and project management that are part of
CollabNet's Enterprise Edition Subversion hosted service.
Java Services Orchestration for Actions: Business Flow vs Actions
Masayuki Otoshi, JavaWorld Magazine
Thus far, Web application development has focused on encapsulating
business logic as services. In this article, Masayuki Otoshi proposes
a separation of business flow as well by applying the concept of
describing processes in XML-based documents like business-process-
management/workflow products, but here he looks at lower granularity in
actions. This article also shows how inheritable XML allows developers
to express processes effectively based on object-oriented concepts.
The concept of describing business flow in XML-based documents is
already implemented in BPM and workflow products. However, so far,
it has been mainly used for higher-level business concerns. The
services orchestration framework will help direct developers in
deciding which flows should be described in process XML and what logic
should be implemented as services. As a result, applications will be
designed and developed based on SOA, and reusability will be improved.
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