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XML and Web Services In The News - 16 January 2007
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by SAP, AG
HEADLINES:
XML in 2006: Notable Happenings in the World of XML This Past Year
Elliotte Rusty Harold, IBM developerWorks
2006 was a steady and productive, if not especially exciting, year for XML.
There weren't any game-changing products or standards, just slow,
incremental improvements to existing technology. Increasingly, XML faded
into the infrastructure, usually meriting about as much concern and thought
as the paint on the wall. Nonetheless, progress continued, even if no one
shouted about it. The browser wars rekindled as Microsoft returned to the
field for the first time in half a decade, and office software started
seeing real competition for the first time in twice that long. Atom, XForms,
and XQuery all made significant progress by the end of the year by taking
a lot of small steps each month. Several interesting new technologies saw
the first light of day, including Gleaning Resource Descriptions from
Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) and XProc; and more than one independent
developer filled a niche the big boys had missed... Office suites and
office file formats were also the subject of much debate, including a lot
going on outside normal tech channels. The importance of open, documented,
standard file formats has suddenly become a critical issue to governments
ranging from Massachusetts to Germany. One piece of that debate is now over,
though: Both sides have agreed that the preferred file format will be
zipped XML. The debate about binary versus text formats is over. Text won.
What remains to be decided is the schema for that XML text. Ten years ago,
the grunt programmers and network admins were installing Web servers on
surplus PCs reformatted with Linux while the CEOs and CTOs played golf
with salespeople and mandated corporate-wide Exchange Server deployments.
Those same low-level techies made XML a success by throwing out decades
of legacy binary gook and replacing it with off-the-shelf, open source
parsers. Today, these people are quietly installing REST, Atom, and
RELAX NG.
SAP Launches New Scaled-Down All-in-One version
John Blau, InfoWorld
Simple PC-like interfaces and integrated reporting capabilities are
among the features of a new version of SAP's All-in-One business
software targeted at midsize companies. The new version is a scaled-
down version of the company's latest ERP (enterprise resource planning)
application, mySAP ERP 2005, which includes its road map for enterprise
SOA. Usability was a top priority in the development of the new
All-in-One for small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs), according to
Michael Schmitt. Key tasks are positioned on one screen to provide a
quick overview, and users are guided intuitively to other screens. The
new interfaces provide role-based access to relevant information.
Another priority for the new SOA-based All-in-One was to provide
greater system architecture flexibility in coping with changing business
processes, according to Schmitt: "Our customers in the midmarket have
to deal constantly with change and need to adapt their business processes
— quickly and easily — to handle their growing business, or even their
shrinking business, to remain competitive," he said. "These changes
require changes in the underlying system architecture, which we are
able to make because of SOA and the flexibility it provides." An
additional feature is integrated CRM (customer relationship management)
functionality; SAP has taken its enterprise CRM offering, scaled it
down to meet the needs of midsize companies and integrated the
functionality directly into the product. In addition, the new version
offers improved reporting capabilities, offering a comprehensive view
of business operations by accessing information directly from all
business processes. The reporting capabilities will enable greater
flexibility in analyzing data and creating standard and ad hoc reports
integrated with Microsoft's Excel.
Sun to License OpenSolaris Under GPLv3
Peter Galli, eWEEK
Sun Microsystems is set to license OpenSolaris under the upcoming GNU
General Public License Version 3 in addition to the existing Common
Development and Distribution License [according to eWEEK]. OpenSolaris
currently is licensed only under Sun's CDDL, but company executives
have previously floated the idea of a dual license with GPLv3... this
is very likely to happen after the release of that version of the GPL,
which currently is being rewritten and is expected to be made final
soon: "The next version of Solaris will include things like GNU
Userland, which is already being attempted with OpenSolaris, while
open-source solutions from other communities for things like package
management also look very promising. Dual-licensing OpenSolaris with
GPLv3 could make this even easier... DTrace and the Solaris SMF
(Service Management Facility — a framework that handles system boot-up,
process management and self-healing) will also lead to really useful
development and management tools unlike those available today on any
other operating system... Moreover these things are scriptable and
could easily be tied into the business management processes used by
an organization to account for and manage their IT resources." While
Sun officials would not confirm the plan to dual-license OpenSolaris
under the CDDL and GPLv3, Tom Goguen, vice president of Solaris
software at Sun, told eWEEK that other open-source technologies will
play a big role in Solaris going forward: "You can also expect to see
a renewed focus on the needs of developers and system administrators
with Solaris going forward, while individual pieces of the next version
will also likely be increasingly delivered first as components or
technologies targeted at vertical markets." The key is making these
technologies easy to drop into an established network, where they would
not be intrusive or damaging and where people could continue to work
the way they are used to, but that have open-source software and
standards at the back end.
See also: GPLv3
Symlabs: Interoperability for Liberty Alliance Federated Identity
Symlabs, Company Announcement
Symlabs, a global leader in identity management and directory
infrastructure solutions, announced that it has demonstrated the
highest level of interoperability for Federated Identity products
during testing conducted by the Liberty Alliance in December 2006.
Symlabs Federated Identity Access Manager v3.1 successfully passed a
complex suite of tests to verify that it is fully interoperable in a
multi-vendor Liberty Web Services environment. This testing certified
all available roles for Liberty ID-WSF 2.0, plus Liberty People Service
and SAML 2.0 conformance. Brett McDowell: "Interoperability is key to
the successful wide-scale deployment of secure and privacy-respecting
digital identity management solutions; by demonstrating that their
products truly interoperate, Symlabs and all of the organizations
passing Liberty Alliance interoperability testing are building the
foundation of a more trusted Internet for businesses, governments and
users worldwide." Symlabs Federated Identity Access Manager (FIAM) v3.1
is a complete Federated Identity solution conformant with SAML 2.0 and
Liberty ID-WSF 2.0. Symlabs FIAM is a very rich implementation that
incorporates simultaneous support for the newly certified profiles plus
previously certified ID-WSF 1.1 and ID-FF 1.2, as well as SAML 1.1 and
WS-Federation / WS-Trust profiles. Simultaneous support for multiple
protocols and versions ensures ease of migration and integration for
any environment, and adherence to standards allows full participation
by components from multiple vendors, while FIAM's broad coverage of
service specifications enables a single vendor solution for streamlined
support. The result is a state-of-the-art identity management
environment that delivers a seamless online experience to customers
without compromising a company's control of identity or privacy
requirements, and provides the widest range of implementation options.
The testing specifically certified Symlabs' solution with Liberty
People Service, the industry's first open web services framework to
offer a secure, trusted, privacy-respecting federated social network
for consumer and enterprise applications.
See also: the Symlabs web site
W3C Announces European Symposium to Study EGovernment and the Web
Staff, W3C Announcement
A European W3C Symposium on eGovernment is planned for 1-2 February
2007, in Gijon, Asturias, Spain. Sponsored by W3C and organized by the
W3C Spain Office and Fundacion CTIC, this Symposium may lead to
suggestions for improvements in W3C specifications or further W3C
energies devoted to eGovernment initiatives. 'eGovernment' refers to
the use of the Web or other information technologies by governing
bodies to interact with their citizenry. Like any information provider,
governments have found it useful and efficient to interact with
customers — citizens — online, allowing them to file tax returns
online, take drivers education classes, access forms, and vote. Access
to information, and efficient and secure interactions, help ensure
fair governance. Following interoperable, open Web standards helps
ensure access to information to people with diverse capabilities, using
various devices, and helps ensure that "the people's data" will remain
available long into the future. Attendees will meet to discuss
eGovernment services, identify aspects that put Web interoperability
at risk, and find how governments can deliver better and more efficient
services through computer technologies. Speakers participating in this
symposium include Peter F. Brown (Founder of Pensive.eu and eGovernment
Focus Group Chair, CEN), Serge Novaretti (Project Officer, European
eGovernment Services - IDABC, European Commission), Eric Velleman
(Director, Bartimeus Accessibility Foundation), Vassilios Peristeras
(Senior Researcher), and Tomas Vitvar (Group Leader SIB - National
University of Ireland, DERI Galway), as well as W3C experts. Symposium
registration is free and open to the public.
See also: the announcement
OASIS Members Approve OASIS ebXML Business Process (ebBP) Specification
Staff, OASIS Announcement
OASIS announced that its members have approved the ebXML Business
Process Specification Schema (ebXML BPSS or ebBP) version 2.0.4 as an
OASIS Standard. ebXML BPSS defines a business process foundation that
promotes the automation and predictable exchange of business
collaboration definitions using XML. ebBP supports robust business
process methods as part of an collaborative processes among business
partners using business transactions in the eBusiness domain or
between collaborating parties. The ebBP design is based on the actual
needs of eBusiness users around the globe-many of whom provided domain
expertise and business requirements to the OASIS Technical Committee.
Collaborations supported by ebBP are easily manageable and fully
traceable. Monica Martin: "ebBP defines an open-architecture for a
collaborative business process module that's freely available and
compatible with the 2.0 suite of ebXML OASIS Standards (ISO 15000) and
many rules, notations, Web services, EDI, BPMN, and other prevalent
specifications and systems; ebBP is royalty-free and infrastructure
agnostic." The ebBP is part of the ebXML (Electronic Business using
eXtensible Markup Language) suite of specifications. The original ebXML
project was initiated in 1999 by OASIS and the United Nations Centre
for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), in an effort
to enable enterprises of any size and in any location to conduct
business over the Internet. In addition to business processes, the
original framework defined four layers of substantive data
specifications, including standards for core data components,
collaboration protocol agreements, messaging, and registries and
repositories. Five other ebXML specifications, including four OASIS
Standards and one UN/CEFACT recommendation, were approved by ISO in
2004. Today, these specifications, including the ebBP, work effectively
with and have been integrated to use other emerging technology
specifications to meet evolving eBusiness requirements.
Update on the Service Modeling Language (SML)
Sam Ramji, Microsoft Open Source Labs
The author reports on an update to the Service Modeling Language draft
specification created by Microsoft and a number of other leading
technology companies. SML is designed to model complex IT services and
systems, including their structure, constraints, policies, and best
practices. SML is based on a profile on XML Schema and Schematron. SML
was created by the SML working group whose members are BEA, BMC, Cisco,
Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Sun. SML will allow for the
creation of best practices and policies that automate the services'
validation, development, operations, updates and end-of-life -- the
full lifecycle. SML does not prescribe a specific IT model or set of
models; instead, it defines the syntax and semantics that all SML
models must follow: their base vocabulary, the rules of composition,
the grammar and the syntax. SML Specifies: (1) Profiles for the use of
XML 1.0 Schema and Schematron to define service models; (2) Extensions
to support and constrain inter-document references in those models;
(3) Inter-document uniqueness and key definitions plus the ability to
use them across documents; (4) Rules to capture best practices and
policies. Ramji says: "On September 12th the public feedback workshop
was held and a good deal of feedback was provided both by community
members in attendance and by those submitting feedback via email. One
of the key topics was the name of this language as many felt the SML
title didn't full capture the intent or capabilities of the
specification. Pratul Dublish, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, has
a blog entry regarding this discussion. The Working Group has announced
an Interoperability Workshop for interoperability testing between
different implementations of the specifications. The workshop is open
to companies and individuals willing to bring an implementation of the
latest published specifications to the workshop.
See also: the SML Working Group
Convert XML to JSON in PHP
Senthil Velayudham, Edward J Pring, and John Morar, IBM developerWorks
With the growing popularity of Web 2.0, a new data interchange format
called JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is emerging as a useful way to
represent data in the business logic running on browsers. Learn how
PHP-based server programs can convert XML-formatted enterprise
application data into JSON format before sending it to browser
applications. JSON is just beginning to gain momentum among Web
developers. Its success, seen mainly with JavaScript developers, is due
to its elegance and simplicity. JSON can be a worthy alternative to XML
in certain situations. This article sums up the need for XML-to-JSON
conversion at the middleware server layer. It further stresses the
rationale behind leveraging existing XML-encoded enterprise data as
JSON-formatted data so that browser-side programs can consume it easily.
It provides PHP code that can do the XML-to-JSON conversion. You can use
the source code provided in this article in multiple ways — as a
standalone tool, as a shared class library to be used in an existing
server-side program, or as a SOAP/REST Web service function to
participate in an enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
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