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XML and Web Services In The News - 03 July 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by Innodata Isogen
HEADLINES:
W3C Launches Math Working Group for MathML 3.0
W3C, Announcement
W3C has announced the launch of a new Math Working Group to replace
the Math Interest Group. Patrick Ion (and Invited Expert, representing
the American Mathematical Society) and Robert Miner (Design Science)
are Co-Chairs of the Working Group. The group is chartered through 29
February 2008 to produce a new MathML 3.0 Recommendation, to improve
and expand MathML in the areas of internationalization, accessibility,
and mathematical richness. Work items for MathML 3.0 include (for
example): (1) Extension of MathML to support elementary mathematical
notations such as mixed numbers or two-dimensional notations for
addition, multiplication, and long division. So far, layout of these
notation has been achieved using tables. The introduction of explicit
markup for them will increase accessibility and searchability. (2)
Extension of MathML to enhance support for online assessment,
particularly accessible assessment. Users of MathML include a large
number of educational institutions interested in long-term standards-
based encoding of mathematical content.
See also: W3C Math Home
Adobe Pits Flex Against AJAX
Paul Krill, InfoWorld
An update to Adobe's Flex rich Internet application development
platform last week makes the technology less expensive to use, and
could make Flex more competitive with open source AJAX (Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML) development systems. Flex 2 includes a number of
free features, such as the Flex SDK (software development kit). The
real changes, though, are in pricing, where Adobe is looking to reduce
the cost of simple Flex deployments. With Flex 2, Adobe is permitting
free single CPU deployments of Flex applications using the Flex Data
Services 2 Express or XML and Web Services. Previously, Flex users paid
$15,000 per CPU to get started with the Flex SDK, which was part of the
Flex Presentation Server. The Flex 2 platform works with Adobe's
ubiquitous Flash Player and features the Flex 2 SDK; Flex Data Services,
to link data to the client; a Flex Builder 2 IDE; and the Flex
framework. Approximately 5,000 developers currently use Flex, but
Adobe wants the number of developers using the former Macromedia
technology to grow to 1 million within five years...
See also: the Adobe Flex 2 web site
Namespaces, Tables, and Schemas, Oh My
Eliot Kimber, Dr. Macro's XML Rants
A conundrum: what's the best way to enable recognition of standard XML
types that are intended to contain arbitrary stuff from non-standard
namespaces such that the schemas governing the non-standard stuff can
constrain the rules for what goes inside the standard stuff? This
question comes from my attempts to integrate standard table models, in
particular the OASIS (nee CALS) table model, into purpose-built document
types that are, per my rule that all document types should be in a
namespace, in their own namespace and that whose constraints are
formally defined using XSD schemas. For example, the OASIS Exchange
Table Model (which supplants the hoary CALS table model used in most
technical documentation doc types) does not define a namespace -- the
specification was published in 1999, before namespaces were even
finalized or in common use. This means that one can, like DocBook,
simply add the table element types to your schema and go on your way.
But that is asserting that those element types are part of your schema,
not a standard module that you are using by reference. The body of
practice with using namespaces to create compound document types
composed from multiple modules intended to be mixed and matched is
quite thin and I don't think we've yet arrived at a concensus of what
the best practice is. So I've been experiementing in the context of
document types for technical documentation where you want to create a
family of related document types that share some common structures,
use appropriate standard components such as MathML, SVG, and OASIS
tables, and are practical to author. My current working hypothesis is
that each distinct set of re-usable element types should be in its own
namespace. This follows in part from my assertion that (with a few
small exceptions) every XSD document should govern a distinct namespace
-- and conversely, every namespace should be represented by exactly
one XSD schema document in a given processing context.
See also: Namespaces in XML
Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar)
Bernard Desruisseaux (ed), IETF Internet Draft
A new IETF Internet Draft has been released for the Internet Calendaring
and Scheduling Core Object Specification (iCalendar) specification. The
document is a product of the Calendaring and Scheduling Standards
Simplification (Calsify) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task
Force. This memo has been defined to provide the definition of a common
format for openly exchanging calendaring and scheduling information
across the Internet. The memo is formatted as a registration for a MIME
media type . However, the format in this memo is equally applicable for
use outside of a MIME message content type. The proposed media type value
is 'text/calendar'. This string would label a media type containing
calendaring and scheduling information encoded as text characters.
This MIME media type provides a standard content type for capturing
calendar event, to-do and journal entry information. It also can be used
to convey free/busy time information. The content type is suitable as a
MIME message entity that can be transferred over MIME based email
systems, using HTTP or some other Internet transport. In addition, the
content type is useful as an object for interactions between desktop
applications using the operating system clipboard, drag/drop or file
systems capabilities. This memo is based on the earlier work of the
vCalendar specification for the exchange of personal calendaring and
scheduling information. An iCalendar object method is a set of usage
constraints for the iCalendar object. For example, these methods might
define scheduling messages that request an event be scheduled, reply to
an event request, send a cancellation notice for an event, modify or
replace the definition of an event, provide a counter proposal for an
original event request, delegate an event request to another individual,
request free or busy time, reply to a free or busy time request, or
provide similar scheduling messages for a to-do or journal entry
calendar component.
See also: iCalendar DTD Document
Mustang: The Fast Track to Web Services
Gautam Shah, JavaWorld
The upcoming release of Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE)
version 6.0, also known as Mustang, makes development and consumption
of Web services a breeze. It brings the power of metadata to simple
Java classes, enabling them to be deployed as Web services. It also
brings the Java API for XML Web Services to clients consuming those
services. This article takes a hands-on approach to developing metadata-
based Web services and thereafter consuming them using JAX-WS. For the
skeptic, Java SE 6 has improvements across the board, from opening
programmatic access to the Java compiler, to system-tray and splash-
screen components, to mixing scripting languages with your Java source
code (with JavaScript supported out-of-box), to a dapper look and feel
in Swing, to XML digital signatures, to the Smart Card I/O API, to JMX
monitor threading improvements, to Web services annotations for service
providers and simplified client access. The author focuses on the
improvements to the Web Services Metadata specification and Java API
for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) 2.0 in Java SE 6 that make both
development and consumption of Web services quite easy. Using these
new features, "we create a Web service from a simple Java class by
merely slapping on annotations; thereafter, we consume this service
using JAX-WS 2.0. We even add a handler to the service that intercepts
the service call and dumps the SOAP messages to System.out. Actually,
these features have been available as after-market downloads that
implement Java Specification Request 181 (Web Services Metadata) and
JSR 224 (JAX-WS). Having these features part of the standard Java
release makes them more mainstream; expect to see proliferated support
in IDEs soon.
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