XML and Web Services In The News - 15 November 2006

Provided by OASIS | Edited by Robin Cover

This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Inc.



HEADLINES:

 XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 (Second Edition)
 Apache Project Keeps Pace With Java Changes
 Microsoft Corporation Announces Interop Vendor Alliance
 Review: Jabber Inc. Jabber XCP 5.1
 XQuery and the Power of Learning By Example


XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 (Second Edition)
Jonathan Marsh, David Orchard, Daniel Veillard, W3C Recommendation
W3C's "XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 (Second Edition)" specification has been published as a W3C Recommendation. This document updates and supersedes the First Edition of XInclude 1.0, published 20-December-2004. XInclude specifies a processing model and syntax for general purpose inclusion. Many programming languages provide an inclusion mechanism to facilitate modularity. Markup languages also often have need of such a mechanism. This specification introduces a generic mechanism for merging XML documents (as represented by their information sets) for use by applications that need such a facility. The syntax leverages existing XML constructs — elements, attributes, and URI references. Inclusion is accomplished by merging a number of XML information sets into a single composite infoset. Corresponding "XML Inclusions (XInclude) Conformance Test Suites" are also available; they provide overall test coverage of W3C XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 Recommendation functionality, as amended by published errata. An "XInclude Test Suite" report, developed jointly by W3C and NIST, provides supporting documentation for all of the tests contributed by members of the W3C XML Core Working Group.
See also: the W3C news item

Apache Project Keeps Pace With Java Changes
Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
The open-source Java effort Apache Harmony has graduated to a full- fledged Apache project. Apache Harmony, started last year, is creating an open-source version of Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), software for making Java programs on PCs. About two weeks ago, the board of the Apache Software Foundation approved a change in status from incubator to top-level project, Geir Magnusson, who is the chair of the Harmony Project Management Committee, said Tuesday. On Monday, Sun Microsystems announced that it has made its Java software, including its Java SE implementation, available through the open-source General Public License version 2. In his blog, Magnusson said Harmony will continue to operate parallel to Sun's own open-source Java initiatives. "Apache and Sun have different communities, with different licenses, different conditions for contribution and different governance models," he wrote. "(It) doesn't change what we'll be doing. It just means even more open-source Java choices for users and contributors — and that's a good thing." Moving from incubator status to the top-level designation indicates that Apache Harmony has achieved a sufficiently diverse set of committers, which indicates long-term stability, according to Apache.
See also: the web site

Microsoft Corporation Announces Interop Vendor Alliance
Staff, Microsoft Announcement
Microsoft has announced the formation of a global, cross-industry group of software and hardware vendors that will work together to identify opportunities for enhancing interoperability with Microsoft systems on behalf of their customers. Founding members of the alliance include Advanced Micro Devices Inc., (AMD), BEA Systems Inc., Business Objects, CA, The Carbon Project, Centeris Corp., Citrix Systems Inc., GXS Inc., IP Commerce Inc., JNBridge LLC, Kernel Networks, Levi, Ray & Shoup Inc., Microsoft, NEC Corp. of America, Network Appliance Inc., Novell Inc., Q4bis, Quest Software Inc., Siemens Enterprise Communications, SOFTWARE AG, SugarCRM Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Symphony Services Corp., Xcalia, and XenSource Inc. The Interop Vendor Alliance community is designed to support these objectives: (1) Encourage vendor collaboration to foster interoperability; (2) Enable scenario-based testing for interoperability; (3) Communicate vendor interoperability solutions to customers. The alliance members will have opportunities to work with customers to identify their top interoperability challenges. Microsoft expects these scenarios to include systems management, virtualization, identity management, data integration, storage management, portal integration and interoperability of developer tools. Microsoft plans to host testing sessions on a per-scenario basis to validate real-life conditions for customers. Alliance members will have the ability to post best-practice guides created as a result of scenario-based testing to the Alliance Web site. Vendors will also have opportunities to post descriptions, white papers and case studies about their solutions that provide interoperability with Microsoft systems on their own page on the Alliance Web site.
See also: http://interopvendoralliance.org/default.aspx

Review: Jabber Inc. Jabber XCP 5.1
Michael Caton, eWEEK
With support for mobile devices and integration with Web conferencing systems, Jabber's Jabber XCP 5.1 is a good solution for companies focused on initiating collaboration through IM. Jabber XCP provides a rich set of tools for managing the system, although the administration interface can be cumbersome. We liked the flexibility of Jabber's Jabber XCP and Jabber client. The platform provides gateways to AOL and SIP/SIMPLE IM servers, and companies that deploy Jabber can extend the system to mobile platforms such as Windows Mobile- and Symbian OS-based smart phones. We also appreciated the extremely high degree of control we had over server configuration, although it does require a certain degree of sophistication on the part of the administrator. While the management interface is powerful, it isn't as well-organized nor as well-documented as we would have liked. Administrators can forgo the Web-based console entirely and configure the server via the command line. Overall, Jabber XCP has good tools for remote client management and for managing users either through Jabber's own directory, through LDAP or through AD.
See also: the Jabber overview

XQuery and the Power of Learning By Example
Jon Udell, InfoWorld
If you set out to explore XQuery, the XML query language, you'll soon encounter a collection of examples, or use-cases, that show how XQuery can query and transform XML data. These scenarios are elaborated in a W3C document that presents a sample data set — about books, authors, prices, and reviews — and enumerates a set of queries against that data. For each query, there's a description ('list names of users who have placed multiple bids of at least $100 each'), a solution written in XQuery code, and an expected XML output. XQuery vendors love to demonstrate that their software can run these standard tests and produce correct results. Such demonstrations help validate implementations and serve as tutorials for learning the language. The use-cases weren't just slapped onto XQuery after the fact. They actually came first, and they guided the long and difficult process of developing XQuery. Jonathan Robie was one of the prime movers in the development of XQuery. When I interviewed him last year, he said that the use-cases provided invaluable guidance, and that he'd never attempt a project of similar scope without such guidance. Now let's contrast XQuery with another XML-based standard of comparable heft, XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). Even if you're not an accountant, you may know that XBRL is building momentum. There's growing recognition that financial reporting based on a mishmash of Word, Excel, PDF, and HTML files won't suffice. We require more speed and better transparency, and the consensus is that XBRL can and must meet those needs. But where are the XBRL use-cases? Nowhere in particular. If the XBRL examples arrive late, that's better than never. But here's hoping that future projects will heed Jonathan Robie's advice and write the use-cases first.
See also: XML and Query Languages


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