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XML and Web Services In The News - 24 May 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML.org Daily Newslink is sponsored by Innodata Isogen
HEADLINES:
Nokia Opens Its Mobile Browser Code
Nancy Gohring, InfoWorld
In a bid to encourage the mobile phone industry to standardize on a
single Web browser, Nokia on has released the source code for the
mobile phone Web browser it developed last year. Any mobile phone
maker or operator can now access the engine that runs the Nokia-
developed browser and customize it for their own needs. Features of
the browser include the capability to work well in low memory
situations, a mouse pointer for a similar navigation experience as on
the desktop, and support for dynamic HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language)
and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). Developers will be able to
create their own user interface for the browser, a key way for them
to differentiate their products, Nokia's Lee Epting said. Support for
Web technologies is a positive trend, H. Lie said."If the Nokia browser
is able to run Web applications I'd say that's good for the Web and from
that perspective good for all vendors including Opera," he said.
Historically, Web site developers have had to use special code in order
to adequately display their sites on mobile devices. Nokia began
offering the browser, which is based on WebCore and JavaScriptCore
components of Apple's Safari browser, to S60 licensees, including
Siemens, late last year. The browser will ship with all S60 devices in
the future, including Nokia's Eseries phones geared toward enterprise
users and Nseries phones.
See also: the WebKit Open Source Project
Standard Issue
Antony Harrington, VNU Network
Large companies are spending millions to harmonise technology standards
and protocols throughout their organisations, but they are still a long
way from a truly integrated system The sector is in the process of
solving this [technology integration] problem through a standards-based
approach. The standard in question is XML, or Extensible Markup Language,
but agreeing and implementing the standard is a laborious and time-
consuming process and we are not anywhere near the end of it yet. XBRL
is being developed by an international, non-profit consortium of
approximately 450 organisations and already there are numerous
implementations. The basic approach is to provide a computer readable
identifying 'tag' for each individual item of data.There are already
several XML variants of electronic commerce languages, but thankfully
everyone seems to have thrown their weight behind what's known as the
Universal Business Language (UBL); a standard developed by the US-based
Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(OASIS). Ken Holman, chief technology officer of the US consultancy
Crane Softwrights, has been involved with the UBL standard from the
beginning. UBL has so far described seven key documents, including
things like an invoice, a sales order and so on. It is then a relatively
simple matter for accounting and e-business software vendors to adapt
their applications to recognise and to output UBL-conformant and
machine-readable documents. The UBL committee is currently developing
version two of the standard, which will define around 28 documents,
providing a wide suite of e-capable and universally compliant documents
that will enable companies to transact just about any business they want
on-line.
See also: the OASIS UBL TC
Update XForms Using XForms
S. Speicher, J. Kratky, and K. Kelly; IBM developerWorks
With XForms, you can revise existing XForms easily without an integrated
development environment (IDE) or specialized editor. For both advanced
authoring and simple updates, most complex forms require the use of a
form editor environment. These editors can be fairly resource-intensive.
Client-based forms processors can exist on high-end personal computers
or lower-end portable devices. Users without access to powerful computers
might not be able to update forms that need to be updated and deployed
rapidly. If you reuse the already installed XForms processor on users'
devices, such as personal computers and personal digital assistants
(PDAs), you can use another form to modify the original form. Forms are
used to modify XML data and submit it for further processing. This XML
instance data can be the XML data model for an existing form. To state
it another way, an XForms application has XForms markup as its data model.
This article looks at this approach using a sample disease-outbreak form
and its usage and subsequent modifications and redeployment. Using this
pattern, we illustrate the value of quickly editing end-user forms with
lightweight editors and deploying these forms immediately, resulting in
improved data collection.
See also: XML and Forms
XML Matters: Up and Atom
Dethe Elza and David Mertz, IBM developerWorks
Atom is really two different things, both related to syndication (blogs,
newsfeeds, and other information which gets updated periodically). The
Atom Syndication Format is an IETF standard for publishing entries
(single topics or items) and feeds (collections of topics or items). The
Atom Publication Protocol (sometimes called the Atom API or abbreviated
APP) is a means for finding, listing, adding, editing, and removing
content from an Atom repository. While Atom the Syndication Format has
gone through the IETF process to become a standard, the standards
committee is still at work on Atom the Publishing Protocol, although it
seems likely that much of it has stabilized at this point. Work is still
progressing on the Atom Publication Protocol, and other halo-effect
specifications such as Google's Calendar extensions. Sites are adopting
Atom rapidly, and both applications and programming tools are adapting
to Atom as well. With its open format, extensibility, and clear
definition, Atom could be as potent a force for the Web as the relational
database was for the enterprise. HTTP GET and View Source are still as
potent a combination now as they were in the heady early days of the Web.
See also: Atom references
Microsoft Holds Firm Against ODF
Elizabeth Montalbano, Updated W3C Working Draft
Rather than support the recently certified ODF standard, Microsoft is
sticking to its plan to make XML the default file format for Office 2007.
Microsoft's XML file format of choice is Microsoft Office Open XML,
which will become the default file format for Microsoft Word, Excel and
PowerPoint documents in Office 2007, [MS'] Capossela said. Microsoft
wants to see Office Open XML become the international standard for office
documents and submitted the technology to European standards body Ecma
International in November. Ecma published the first draft of Open XML
online last week. Ecma approval can help fast-track a technology through
the standards process of the ISO, an international consortium that works
with the United Nations to maintain and approve international technology
standards. Capossela said that Microsoft customers are more interested
in backwards compatibility between Office 2007 and older versions of the
suite than they are in seeing ODF become a file format. Microsoft does
not see ODF's approval by the ISO as a roadblock to customer upgrades
to Office 2007.
See also: ODF references
Oracle Issues First Upgrade Of Sleepycat's Berkeley DB
Charles Babcock, InformationWeek
Release 3.0 of the Java edition includes the ability to store Java
objects quickly and cleanly, to speed transactions, and to perform hot
backups. Release 3.0 can store simple Java objects, also known as pojos
(plain old Java objects) with its new Persistence API, which provides a
standard way for storing and retrieving them. In the past, Berkeley DB
customers needed to write code that links the application to the object
needed. The goal of an embedded database is to use links to retrieve
needed data. It doesn't rely on SQL statements input by the user. With
the new Persistence API, the Berkeley DB doesn't rely on breaking
objects down into rows and columns of relational data, followed by
reconstruction at a later date. Instead, it uses the new API to store
and retrieve them as simple Java objects, a process that is faster than
an object tear-down and build back up procedure.
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