XML and Web Services In The News - 20 January 2005

Processing EDI Documents into XML with Python
Jeremy Jones, DevX.com
You don't have to rely on expensive and proprietary EDI conversion software to parse, validate, and translate EDI X12 data to and from XML; you can build your own translator with any modern programming language, such as Python. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a generic term used to describe the exchange of electronic business documents between business partners. Specific incarnations of EDI such as ANSI X12, EDIFACT, Tradacom, and TDCC are character-delimited text files that follow a specific format. Traditional EDI data such as X12 is rarely integrated directly into back office systems. While some ERP systems (and certainly some other types of applications) provide direct support for importing EDI data, it's far more common for developers to convert the EDI data to a format more usable by the back office systems, such as flat file (either fixed length record-based files or some delimited format) or XML. EDI software vendors offer what are basically EDI development environments in which you can create custom data transformation descriptions and push EDI data through the translation tool to complete the conversion. The approach taken in this article illustrates how to build your own simple EDI-to-XML transformation framework.
See also: the Stylus Studio PR

Introducing the Amara XML Toolkit
Uche Ogbuji, XML.com
As part of my roundup of Python data bindings, I introduced my own Anobind project. Over the column's history, I've also developed other code to meet some need emphasized in one of the previous articles. I recently collected all of these various little projects together into one open source package of XML processing add-ons, Amara XML Toolkit. Amara is meant to complement 4Suite in that 4Suite works towards fidelity to XML technical ideals, while Amara works towards fidelity to Python conventions, taking maximum advantage of Python's strengths. The aim of the Amara project is versatility -- giving the developer many flexible ways of processing XML using idioms and native advantages of Python. Because of the popularity of languages such as Java, many XML standards have evolved in directions that don't match up with Python's strengths. Amara looks to bridge that gap.
See also: XML and Python

Review: Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer
E. Shane Turner, InternetWeek.com
Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer is a full-featured, heavy-weight software development and management product that is loaded with everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. As its name implies, this product gives software developers the ability to build massive, enterprise-scale applications based on the .NET framework and XML Web Services. But be forewarned that the process of installing, learning, and using Visual Studio .NET to its full potential is not easy, and not for the faint of heart. Nor is this a product that is well suited for use on low-end systems that run on outdated hardware or software. Developers who attempt to install Visual Studio .NET for the first time are likely to discover that they must first install the .NET "prerequisites." Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer is so steeped in features and capabilities that it can appear quite intimidating to the casual developer. But for those who have used previous versions of Visual Studio and wish to enter the excitingworld of XML Web Services, this product can be an excellent way to create enterprise-scale applications.

Sun Brings Compliance, Content Management to One Screen
Karen D. Schwartz, eWEEK
Sun Microsystems Inc. has introduced a product it says will help midsized and large businesses comply with regulatory requirements and corporate governance policies while managing content in a more comprehensive way than its previous offering. The Sun Compliance and Content Management Solution is built on the compliance platform from records compliance management vendor AXS-One Inc. of Rutherford, N.J. The product allows users to manage all electronic records -- including e-mail, messaging, documents, databases and images -- from a single platform. This process allows financial institutions, government agencies and others to more easily comply with a variety of federal regulations by providing fast and comprehensive access to information, said Ed Valdez, Sun's vice president of solutions marketing. The regulations include Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), SEC 17a-4 and Gramm-Leach-Bliley.

W3C Releases Revised Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P v1.1) Specification.
XML Cover Pages
An updated Working Draft of "The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.1 (P3P 1.1) Specification" has been produced by members of the W3C P3P Specification Working Group. P3P-enabled Web sites make privacy information available in a standard, machine-readable format so that P3P-enabled browsers can read the snapshot and compare it to the consumer's privacy preferences. P3P policies use an XML+namespaces encoding of the P3P vocabulary for privacy data elements.