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XML and Web Services In The News - 12 October 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by Sun Microsystems
HEADLINES:
Updated Object for AJAX Working Draft
Anne van Kesteren (ed), W3C Technical Report
W3C's Web API Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of
"The XMLHttpRequest Object". The W3C Web API Working Group was chartered
to develop standard APIs for client-side Web Application development.
This work is to include both documenting existing APIs such as
XMLHttpRequest and developing new APIs in order to enable richer Web
Applications. The updated draft documents features of the
XMLHttpRequest object, the core component of AJAX. The interface allows
scripts to perform HTTP client functions, such as submitting form data
or loading data from a remote Web site. The XMLHttpRequest object has
been implemented for many years as ActiveX control in the Windows
Internet Explorer browser and has later been adopted by other popular
web browsers. Unfortunately the current implementations are not
completely interoperable. Based on those early implementations this
specification defines how a common subset of XMLHttpRequest should
work and this will probably result in changes in said implementations
leading to more interoperable and useful implementations of the
XMLHttpRequest object. Future versions of this specification (as
opposed to future drafts of this version) may add new features, after
careful examination from browser developers and Web content developers.
The Web API Working Group is part of the W3C Rich Web Clients Activity.
See also: the W3C news item
The Heart of Eclipse
Dan Rubel, ACM Queue
Eclipse is both an open, extensible development environment for
building software and an open, extensible application framework upon
which software can be built. Considered the most popular Java IDE, it
provides a common UI model for working with tools and promotes rapid
development of modular features based on a plug-in component model.
The Eclipse Foundation designed the platform to run natively on multiple
operating systems, including Macintosh, Windows, and Linux, providing
robust integration with each and providing rich clients that support
the GUI interactions everyone is familiar with: drag and drop, cut and
paste (clipboard), navigation, and customization. You can think of
Eclipse as a design center, supported by a development team of 300 or
more developers whom you can leverage when developing your own software.
Although designed as a universal tool-integration platform, Eclipse is
not only for creating IDEs. It is just as helpful for constructing
general-purpose applications — for example, workflow, help systems,
or contact management systems. In fact, NASA used Eclipse RCP (Rich
Client Platform) to build Maestro, a software program for managing
remote vehicles on space missions. Many organizations are standardizing
on RCP as the architecture for their internal IT applications, thus
enabling them to run as a manageable, integrated suite rather than as
disassociated units of functionality. Eclipse RCP will have serious
implications for the desktop computing strategies of enterprise
organizations because it incorporates application development tools
that are easy to use, provides an open source extensible application
framework, and creates applications that can run on a variety of
platforms.
See also: the Eclipse community web site
Open Standards: Math Functions Defined
Staff, Control Engineering
The latest revision to a technical specification that defines an open
mathematics semantics standard for numerical algorithm development
includes newly ratified functions and lays the foundation for greater
industry involvement. The Numerical Mathematics Consortium (NMC)
technical specifications are for use in a variety of application areas,
such as industrial control, embedded design, and scientific research.
This update defines an open mathematics semantics standard for numerical
algorithm development, and ratifies functions involving polynomials,
vector analysis, and other functions. NMC, a nonprofit organization
established in 2005, is focused on reducing the overall cost of
numerical algorithm development and reuse in different disciplines
through ensuring algorithm portability. It is actively seeking new
membership of individuals and organizations. The founding companies of
the consortium are INRIA, Maplesoft, Mathsoft (recently acquired by
PTC), and National Instruments. The resolved issues cover topics such
as when to specify vector orientation, how to support vectorization,
what it means to be compliant, and how to choose a semantic
representation. Settling these technical issues provides guidelines
that improve the rate of progress for new function adoption. The most
recent specification's Section on "Mathematical Function Definitions"
provides markup models in XML notation. "While content MathML enables
the 'transportation' of mathematical semantics, this specification
focuses on the 'execution' of those semantics. At least one other
relationship like this is very common in mathematics: symbolic and
numeric computation. Symbolic manipulation is extremely valuable in
reducing the complexity of mathematical problems enabling a numerical
math engine to work on a compact form and to produce fixed numeric
results.
See also: the Consortium web site
AJAX + SOA: The Next Killer App
John Crupi, SYS-CON AJAX World
The fact is that SOA is middleware — and middleware traditionally
relies on more middleware to translate data into a consumer-friendly
state. It's certainly a major disappointment when you finally get your
SOA right only to find that building a composite application requires
using a portal (middleware) and/or orchestrating it with a BPEL engine
(even more middleware). Worse yet, you may be in an organization that
deploys a UDDI registry and registers a bunch of Web services.
Unfortunately, in most cases there are very few applications built to
actually consume these services. How can this be? Should we conclude
that something is wrong if applications aren't being built to consume
these SOA services? Is it too difficult for business unit developers
to build applications that directly consume SOA services, forcing us
to rely on IT to create these applications? Is the absence of a SOA
governance architecture holding us back? I think the answer is "yes"
to all of these questions. And there is one standout reason: it has
simply been much too difficult for the business unit developer to
consume and leverage the SOA services exposed by IT. What's been
missing is an easy way to put a "face" on SOA — and that's precisely
the benefit of using AJAX in combination with SOA.
Boeing Makes Item-Level RFID Fly
Evan Schuman, eWEEK
As retailers and consumer goods manufacturers struggle with achieving
the supply-chain nirvana of complete item-level tagging, $60 billion
aerospace giant Boeing has gotten item-level RFID to soar, with 2,000
high-memory passive tags in every plane of an upcoming line. Boeing's
item-level RFID efforts are intriguing because of their scope, but
also because of the extreme environmental and frequency hardships they
must endure. Beyond the expected vibrations, altitude, air pressure
and humidity impact of routinely flying that far above the clouds, the
tags must be able to handle temperatures that range from 40 degrees
(Fahrenheit) below zero and they were tested to 1,200 degrees above
zero, which is what the exhaust nozzle right outside a jet engine
experiences. Boeing's attraction to item-level RFID came from the
extensive paperwork required to document the testing and history of
all components of an aircraft. The documentation load isn't lightened
by RFID, but Boeing is hoping that it will make the process much more
accurate. Boeing is launching this item-level effort with a new
airplane to be called the 787 Dreamliner, a jet that will transport
between 210 and 330 people with larger windows, more overall room and
more tightly-filtered air than today's commercial jets, although using
less fuel. The Dreamliner is scheduled to start shipping in 2008.
Build an SOA Application from Exisiting Services
Adrien Louis, JavaWorld
SOA proposes to provide existing functions of an information system as
"services" that can be accessed in a loosely coupled way, independently
from the technical platform. An application is seen as an orchestration
of requests for those services. That is why an SOA generally comes
with workflow or orchestration concepts. An enterprise service bus
(ESB) is an implementation of an SOA. It is middleware for connecting
heterogeneous services and orchestrating them. Related to these concepts,
the Java Business Integration specification (JBI, Java Specification
Request 208) defines a standard framework for integration. In this
article, I use the Petals ESB, an open source JBI container, to
illustrate how to connect existing heterogeneous services and put
together an online travel agency Web application. The JBI specification
leverages the best concepts of SOA and standardizes an approach for
composing applications from existing services. JBI basically standardizes
the ESB concept. Building an SOA application with the Petals JBI
container is quite simple: use some standard JBI binding or engine
components, write a few XML descriptions to explain how to connect to
your services, and deploy them in the Petals JBI container. With such
a container, the challenge becomes writing or using relevant services
with good granularity, not assembling them.
Google, BEA in Enterprise Portal Mashup Talks
Andy McCue, CNET News.com
Google and BEA Systems are in talks about partnering on a new initiative
that will let organizations create mashups between enterprise portals
and applications such as Google Maps. As part of the partnership, BEA
will get access to some of Google's hidden application programming
interfaces (APIs), which will allow developers to create mashups using
a new technology feature in BEA's WebLogic Portal, called Adrenaline.
The Adrenaline technology enables portal applications to run on other
Web sites outside of the portal framework, using AJAX and iFrames Web
development techniques, while still keeping it managed as part of the
portal. Future WebLogic Portal releases will include additional tools
around this as well as other Web 2.0 capabilities such as RSS, according
to Sauls. Meanwhile, BEA's founder, chairman and CEO, Alfred Chuang,
told delegates at the company's European conference in Prague that
MySpace-style virtual communities are coming to the enterprise. James
Governor: "We expect the same kind of experience from enterprise
technology as consumer Web sites. Given those expectations are changing,
that is something enterprise software is going to have to meet. BEA
and others need to respond to the richness of organizations like
Google. If you want to create mashups between enterprise and outside
data we are going to need technology like this."
Inside the Federal Teller's Cage
Wilson P. Dizard III, Government Computing News
Planning and implementing the Call Report Modernization Project required
bank regulatory agencies and their contractor, Unisys Corp., to go far
ahead in technology and deep into changing their business processes.
Harmonizing the three agencies' business rules was a feat in itself.
The agencies that form the Federal Financial Institutions Examination
Council — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve System — first combed
through their requirements for gathering and processing data in the
quarterly call reports that banks submit. The call report consists of
more than 2,000 data elements that must conform to more than 2,000 rules
to ensure validity and accuracy. The rules and edits are outlined in
almost 400 pages of instructions, updated quarterly. Many cover methods
of defining financial measures on bank balance sheets and income
statements. Bank regulators agree that the devil is in the details —
defining the financial data that reflects a bank's soundness. After
reaching harmony on the data definitions, FFIEC and Unisys faced the
task of embedding them in the metadata tools that constitute the online
system. The foundation of the Central Data Repository is the Extensible
Business Reporting Language, an advanced, cross-industry standard for
representing financial data. The XBRL tags embedded in the call report
data allow the system to treat the information intelligently, according
to FFIEC. The core of this process is that XBRL is the only financial
reporting model that enables a company to define semantics and business
rules, according to the system's framers. Deeper within the system,
XBRL uses other metadata specifications, such as XML Schema and Xlink.
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