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XML and Web Services In The News - 30 October 2006
Provided by OASIS |
Edited by Robin Cover
This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by Innodata Isogen
HEADLINES:
Sun Introduces NetBeans 5.5, Partner Program
Andy Patrizio, InternetNews.com
Sun Microsystems today released NetBeans 5.5, an update to its Integrated
Development Environment (IDE) featuring full support for Java EE 5, the
newest version of its enterprise Java platform. In addition to the Java
EE support, NetBeans 5.5 contains new features like the Java Persistence
API and JAX WS 2.0 productivity tools, Subversion support, and
enhancements to the NetBeans GUI Builder. Along with the new IDE, Sun
announced five add-on packs for NetBeans 5.5 designed to offer specific
functionality for development projects. They are NetBeans Enterprise
Pack, NetBeans Mobility Pack, NetBeans Profiler 5.5 Pack, NetBeans Visual
Web Pack and NetBeans C/C++ Pack. Sun also announced it is expanding its
NetBeans Partner Program for companies that are building add-ons to
NetBeans and recommending the IDE to their developer communities. With
NetBeans 5.5 focused on bringing the IDE up to date with Java EE 5, it's
the value-added packs that offer many new features. The Enterprise Pack
adds tools for building, testing, and debugging service-oriented
architecture (SOA) applications using XML, BPEL, and Java web services.
The Mobility Pack 5.5 adds support for Scalable Vector Graphics in Java
ME applications, while the Profiler 5.5 adds support for several new
runtime environments and makes it easier to profile the properties of
Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs). The Visual Web Pack is designed for
building Web applications, with emphasis on Ajax-enabled JavaServer
Faces components. Finally, the C/C++ Pack makes it possible for C/C++
developers to use the NetBeans IDE.
See also: the Enterprise Pack for SOA
AquaLogic Dives Deep Into the Process Pool
James R. Borck, InfoWorld
Reforming enterprise business processes to boost productivity requires
isolating pain points through steady focus on the myriad users,
partners, customers, and applications proliferating an enterprise.
The latest silver bullet to enter the BPM chamber is BEA's ALBPM
(AquaLogic BPM 5.7) — an already well-developed platform gained
through BEA's acquisition of FuegoBPM Suite earlier this year. I found
ALBPM offers process engineers the necessary firepower for targeting
complex process flows with graphical, drag-and-drop development tools.
Features such as good workflow and exception handling, including
rollback and compensation, as well as strong dev time simulation
features are key to assessing KPIs (key performance indicators) early
in the reorg cycle. Don't be lulled, however, into false hope by the
insulating promise of graphical BPM. This package demands a hefty amount
of scripting — done primarily in BEA's proprietary PBL (Process
Business Language). Although not a tough hurdle, it's not without
consequence — and definitely not drag-and-drop. BEA has begun reloading
this suite with services features (such as UDDI registry support and
samples for integrating with the AquaLogic Service Bus) and has
enhanced dashboard functionality.
BPM Is Helping Firms Control Critical Business Processes
Heather Havenstein, ComputerWorld
After lawsuits were filed by several state attorneys general against
large businesses in the late 1990s and early 2000s for crimes like price
fixing and kickbacks, many corporations began major efforts to build
transparency into client transactions. Integro, founded last year, is
banking on business process management technology to help provide its
clients with access to real-time account information through a portal.
Integro is using San Jose-based BEA Systems Inc.'s AquaLogic BPM Suite
for a new client-services application set to go live in the first
quarter of 2007, Marcel said. In addition to providing clients with
up-to-date information, the application will give Integro executives
visibility into processes through a dashboard. The BPM resurgence is
also bolstered by the growth in companies moving to service-oriented
architectures (SOA); many of these firms use BPM software to orchestrate
the execution and linkage of the services that make up a business process.
BPM was once commonly viewed as a tool that a single department could
use to automate low-level administrative tasks, but the technology is
increasingly being used to handle mission-critical tasks across an
enterprise, users and analysts said. The growing interest in BPM is
being fueled by maturing BPM suites that allow companies to model new
processes, identify potential bottlenecks in existing processes and
demonstrate substantial bottom-line returns. According to Forrester
Research Inc., the BPM market will more than double between 2005 and
2009, growing from $1.2 billion to more than $2.7 billion. Forrester
analyst Ken Vollmer said that as stories from early adopters bubble
to the surface, more and more companies are eyeing BPM tools for
mission-critical applications.
What's New in Python 2.5?
Jeff Cogswell, O'Reilly ONLamp.com
It's hard to believe Python is more than 15 years old already. While
that may seem old for a programming language, in the case of Python it
means the language is mature. In spite of its age, the newest versions
of Python are powerful, providing everything you would expect from a
modern programming language. This article provides a rundown of the new
and important features of Python 2.5. I assume that you're familiar
with Python and aren't looking for an introductory tutorial, although
in some cases I do introduce some of the material, such as generators.
Python 2.5 includes many useful improvements to the language. None of
the changes are huge; nor do they require changes to your existing 2.4
code... Python 2.5 includes many welcome changes. For me personally, I
will get great use out of the new ElementTree classes for XML
processing and the SQLite classes for storing data. The changes to the
language itself, particularly generators and contexts, will help me
write more robust code, taking away the emphasis on how to do something,
and focusing more on what to do. For my own work, I know that moving
the emphasis in that direction always helps reduce bugs. As you explore
the changes to version 2.5, remember that many of the changes are
precursors of what will come when the big Python 3.0 eventually appears.
See also: XML and Python
W3C Looks to GRDDL for Semantic Web Sense
Sean Michael Kerner, InternetNews.com
The Web of 2006 is a cloud of loosely interconnected bits of information
and content. The dream of the Web's creator, Tim Berners Lee, is to
connect the dots in a Semantic Web. With the help of the in-development
W3C GRDDL specification, the Semantic Web takes a step closer to
becoming an implementable reality. The resource descriptions that GRDDL
(Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages) gleans can
be transformed or understood by other applications in a mashup or other
application settings. In more technical terms, GRDDL will extract RDF
(Resource Description Framework) data from XML. With the GRDDL mechanism
in place, the XML namespace document declares that namespace associated
documents or profiles include data that can be gleaned for further use.
GRDDL is the next layer allowing for RDF to be gleaned and manipulated
to connect the Semantic Web. While the regular Web is about exchanging
documents, the Semantic Web is about the interchange of data. [W3C's Dan
Connolly:] "I expect some microformats developers to pick up GRDDL and
Semantic Web tools as they reach limitations of dealing with
microformats one at a time and as the appeal of a consistent model for
data across a variety of domains grows.
See also: the announcement
New OASIS TC for Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA)
Staff, OASIS Announcement
A new OASIS Technical Committee has been formed with the goal of
generalizing from the published UIMA Java Framework implementation and
producing a platform-independent specification in support of the
interoperability, discovery and composition of analytics across
modalities, domain models, frameworks and platforms. The OASIS
Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) TC will
consider an initial draft contributed by IBM in the Research Report
based on the UIMA project entitled "Towards an Interoperability Standard
for Text and Multi-Modal Analytics". The committee will be charged with
evaluating, extending, modifying and refining the proposed eight (8)
elements of the UIMA specification. These elements are dependent on
other standards including UML, eMOF, eCore, XML Schema, XMI, OCL, WSDL,
and SOAP. The UIMA Specification is focused on supporting
interoperability across analytic implementations -- facilitating the
analytic developers to discover, reuse and compose each other's
analytics in their applications. Essential to the UIMA Specification is
its independence of any particular domain-level data model that may
describe some set of annotation types. These types vary widely and
cover a potentially infinite space of concepts and relationships.
Domain-level models may for example include "persons", "places", and
"things" or "noun phrases" and "verb phrases" or "events", "opinions",
"sentiments" and "temporal relations" or "chemical names" and "chemical
reactions," etc. The UIMA Specification therefore proposes a general and
expressive underlying representation scheme based on object modeling
standards and represents annotations as "stand-off" labels over regions
of the unstructured content. Regions may, of course, include entire
documents, segments or even collections thereof.
Justice Task Force Looks Into Privacy
John Moore, Federal Computer Week
TA task force has issued a series of recommendations regarding privacy
in justice information systems. The Privacy Technology Focus Group was
chartered to examine the exchange of personally identifiable information,
focusing on justice and public safety data. A report issued earlier
this month that stemmed from the focus group's activities offers
suggestions. Some relate to the Global Justice Extensible Markup
Language Data Model (JXDM). For example, the report recommends reviewing
and creating privacy metadata in Global JXDM. That metadata would
describe sensitivity, use limitations and other characteristics of data.
In addition, the report suggests funding and training to encourage state
and local agencies to move toward Global JXDM, the National Information
Exchange Model and a baseline definition of identity data elements.
Global JXDM is an XML standard designed for criminal justice information
exchange. The National Information Exchange Model extends Global JXDM
to other information domains. The focus group's report was prepared
under the auspices of the Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice
Assistance in conjunction with DOJ's Global Justice Information Sharing
Initiative. The group's steering committee included representatives from
DOJ, IJIS Institute, Global XML Structure Task Force and the National
Network to End Domestic Violence Fund.
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