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XML and Web Services In The News - 23 June 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by BEA Systems, Inc.
HEADLINES:
Understanding XForms: Components
Kurt Cagle, O'Reilly Technical Forum
XForms got its start largely because the existing HTML forms just
weren't expressive enough. Consider some of the more vexing problems
associated with typical web forms. Suppose that you wished to: (1)
choose a value from a given numeric range, rather than from a drop-down
list; (2) create an invoice where you needed to add items to an invoice
list; (3) enter a date in a consistent numerical format; (4) allow data
into a text field that corresponded to a given regular expression
pattern; (5) create tabbed panes of content; (6) create a wizard for
gathering information. All of these things can, of course, be done with
the careful application of JavaScript, server side code, and perhaps
third party plugins. The problem though is that most of these things
are also fairly common operations in more traditional stand-alone
applications, which has often spelled real trouble when such
applications were then ported from the web. Moreover, there are no
consistent standards from such solutions that seem to work universally
on the web, especially from the standpoint of being able to tie such
components into the bigger framework of web pages and CSS. Thus, as the
XForms working group within the W3C tried to grapple with making web
components more application like, they also began to see the need to
define more sophisticated structures for handling the use cases that
arose in any number of business applications. This article it covers
those aspects of components that can operate without needing to
understanding the eventing model currently used by XForms, so this
seems a good point to break. In the next column on XForms I will cover
the use of CSS and XBL Bindings to change the behavior of XForms, and
in the final column will look at the XForms event model and how it
makes possible such things as wizards and multipage forms.
See also: XML and Forms
Specifying Access Controls for XCAP Data Models
H. Nair and Sumanth Channabasappa, IETF SIMPLE Working Group I-D
This document presents the need, and a proposal for defining access
control definitions for data elements, defined using XML Schemas for
use with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Configuration Access
Protocol (XCAP) protocol. XCAP is a protocol specification presented
in the IETF that can be used to manipulate per-user data in SIP User
Agents (UAs). It is a set of conventions for mapping XML documents and
document components into HTTP URIs, rules for how the modification of
one resource affects another, data validation constraints, and
authorization policies associated with access to those resources. ACL
definitions need to be clear, concise, and easy to specify, comprehend.
Further, to accommodate existing XML Schema definitions, it may be
necessary to specify ACL definitions that can be used with minimal
modifications to such XML Schemas, if any. However, newly defined
schemas could utilize optimized ACL definitions, also specified in
this document.
See also: XACML references
Atom Feed Thread Extension Approved as a Proposed Standard
James Snell, Blog
James Snell, a member of IBM's WebAhead development lab, reported that
the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has approved the "Atom
Threading Extension" specification as a Proposed Standard. It's now in
the RFC Editor queue awaiting final edits and its very own RFC number.
The "Atom Threading Extensions" document describes a mechanism that
allows feeds publishers to express threaded discussions within the
Atom Syndication Format (RFC 4287). The specification defines an
'in-reply-to' extension element, used to indicate that an entry is a
response to another resource. The element MUST contain a "ref" attribute
identifying the resource that is being responded to. The element is not
unlike the references and in-reply-to email message headers defined by
RFC 2822. However, unlike the in-reply-to header, the "in-reply-to"
element is required to identify the unique identifier of only a single
parent resource. If the entry is a response to multiple resources,
additional 'in-reply-to' elements MAY be used. A new 'replies' link
relation is also defined: an Atom link element with a rel attribute
value of "replies" may be used to reference a resource where responses
to an entry may be found. If the type attribute of the atom:link is
omitted, its value is assumed to be "application/atom+xml". A "replies"
link appearing as a child of the Atom feed or source element indicates
that the referenced resource likely contains responses to any of that
feed's entries.
See also: Atom references
Belgian Government Chooses OpenDocument
Dominique Deckmyn, ZDNet Belgium
The OpenDocument Format (ODF) is to be the standard format for
exchanging documents within the Belgian government. This proposal,
which is expected to be approved by Belgium's Council of Ministers on
Friday, increases the pressure from governments worldwide on Microsoft
to embrace open standards. From September 2008 onwards, all document
exchanges within the services of the Belgian Government will have to be
in an open, standard format, according to the proposal now before the
Belgian Ministers. Only ODF is accepted as such a standard in the
proposal. Earlier drafts of the Belgian proposal had treated ODF and
Microsoft's own Open XML format (which is to be included in Office 2007)
on equal footing. Peter Strickx, general manager for architecture and
standards of Fedict, the organization that coordinates the ICT policy
of the Belgian Federal Government, commented on the proposal in an
interview with ZDNet Belgium. "Increasingly, we are seeing e-mail and
electronic documents being used in communication between citizens and
the government and between companies and the government", said Strickx.
"To avoid becoming dependent on any particular supplier, we are moving
towards open standards." Belgium would be the first country to opt
for open document standards in this way. According to Strickx, this
Belgian strategy is likely to gain a following. He claimed France and
Denmark are considering similar moves.
RDF Metadata in XHTML Gets Even Easier
Bob DuCharme, bobdc.blog
"I've felt for a while that RDFa holds great promise for making RDF
easier to use and easier to incorporate into typical web pages,
thereby allowing the creation of a real semantic web of RDF data. I
had plans to write an XSLT stylesheet that would extract the RDF
triples from an XHTML file's RDFa markup, so I did put together a
test document that incorporates a lot of sample RDFa from a March
version of the RDFa Primer. The Elias Torres RDFa Extractor (REST
interface) makes it easy to extract RDF/XML triples from an existing
document... The history of advanced linking architectures is mostly a
series of arguments over the appropriate metadata to store with the
address (direct or indirect) of the link destination, the one piece
of information that a link can't do without. Different people have
different ideas about what "typical" applications need, and a committee
that comes up with a common set of additional metadata typically end
up with a mess. RDFa gives people the ability to add whatever metadata
they like (with the precisely defined semantics that can come from
property names in specific namespaces), which could enable some big
advances in linking applications. ["RDFa is a syntax for expressing
such metadata in XHTML. The rendered, hypertext data of XHTML is
reused by the RDFa markup, so that publishers don't repeat themselves.
The underlying abstract metadata representation is RDF, which lets
publishers build their own metadata vocabulary, extend others, and
evolve their vocabulary with maximal interoperability over time. The
metadata is closely tied to the data it describes, so that rendered
data can be copied and pasted along with its relevant structure."]
See also: RDFa Primer 1.0 - Embedding RDF in XHTML
Brewster Kahle's Modest Mission: Archiving Everything
Elinor Mills, CNET News.com
Ten years ago, Kahle founded the nonprofit Internet Archive, with the
goal of preserving the hitherto ephemeral pleasures of the Net for
posterity. But, unsatisfied with limiting himself to the saving of Web
sites, Kahle decided to broaden his scope and include existing
collections of books, television programs, movies and music in the
archive's massive digital repository. In addition to all that digitizing,
and the free hosting of audio and video content, the archive also
sponsors the SFLan.org project, which offers free wireless Internet
in San Francisco. Kahle relishes his role as Internet archivist. The
staggering volume of material to digitize -- centuries of historic media,
and new data appearing by the minute -- doesn't daunt him. Commercial
interests whose monetizing efforts threaten free universal access do.
So he readily takes up the cause to fight for freely accessible
information. Beyond his librarian and archivist role at the Internet
Archive, Kahle serves on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
and on the national digital strategy advisory board at The Library of
Congress. He's also a plaintiff in Kahle v. Gonzales (formerly Kahle v.
Ashcroft), a federal lawsuit challenging recent copyright term
extensions. Kahle lost in the lower court and has appealed.
AT&T Claims Subscribers' Data As Its Own
Stephen Lawson, InfoWorld
On Friday, when AT&T Inc. goes into its next court hearing on a lawsuit
about alleged spying on its customers, the carrier will also be
instituting a privacy policy for Internet and video services that says
it owns subscriber account information. "While your account information
may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that
are owned by AT&T. As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect
its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to
legal process," reads the policy, which becomes effective Friday. It
covers only the carrier's Internet services, such as AT&T/Yahoo DSL
(digital subscriber line), and its emerging U-verse and Homezone TV
services. U-verse delivers TV and video over a fast form of DSL, and
Homezone is a combination of DSL and satellite TV. Both are set for
commercial launch before September. AT&T is facing a class-action
lawsuit led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights
group that says the carrier handed over information on use of its
Internet access services to the U.S. National Security Agency. Alleged
law enforcement programs to collect information from carriers and
Internet companies have raised alarm about how much information people
may give up when they use the Internet or make a phone call. One new
item in the document is a policy involving AT&T's video services. The
carrier will collect information about what subscribers watch and
record, Nels said. That data will help the company "personalize the
viewing experience" through services such as show recommendations...
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