Abstract: From the Book: Preface The Extensible Markup Language is a powerful publishing and document interchange format. Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, it was released, to widespread acclaim, in 1998. XML has a superficial resemblance to HTML, the established language of the Web, but information held in this format is self-describing - it can be extracted, manipulated and formatted to the requirements of any target audience or publishing medium. XML should be of interest to HTML designers who need more flexibility to manage and customize their documents, to SGML users seeking advanced yet modestly priced applications, and to software developers requiring a flexible storage or interchange format that has powerful supporting tools. The XML Companion serves the programmer, analyst or consultant involved in the management, processing, transfer or publication of XML documents. Detailed study of XML is supported by the inclusion of cross-referenced 'road maps' of the building blocks that comprise the standard, and an extensive glossary. Related standards for cataloguing, linking and styling XML files are also covered in detail. This edition The first edition of this book was completed within weeks of the release of the XML standard. Since that time, no significant pressure to modify or enhance the core standard has emerged. Justification for a new edition of this book therefore rests upon the high degree of activity surrounding XML. Complementary standards for processing, presenting and merging XML data have since been released, and this edition provides detailed coverage of DOM 1.0, SAX 1.0, CSS 2 andNamespaces 1.0. Other standards have progressed, but are still being refined, so this edition simply describes later, more stable drafts of XSL (now divided into XSL and XSLT) and XLL (now divided into XLink and XPointer). Other proposed standards have only very recently emerged. The next version of HTML (XHTML) will be an application of XML (instead of SGML), and the XML Catalog proposal defines a standard scheme for managing the mapping of entity identifiers to local system files. A new scheme for navigating around XML documents, called XPath, will be utilised by the linking and styling standards. This opportunity has been taken to rectify a number of minor syntactic and grammatical mistakes, as well as a few factual errors, and thanks are due to readers of the first edition for highlighting many of these issues. Very little material from the first edition has been omitted, so the new book is a little larger than before. Despite this, it is hoped that the book can still serve as a 'companion' for those who are constantly on the move. Acknowledgements A repeated thanks to all those mentioned in the first edition of this book, as their contributions remain relevant. In addition, a number of readers of the first edition have contributed suggestions and observations that have helped improve the quality of this work, and their efforts are appreciated. Finally, thanks once again to Adobe for FrameMaker+SGML (which was used both in the preparation and publication of this book). Feedback Comments and suggestions for a possible future edition are welcome. They should be sent to the author, who can be found at neil@bradley.co.uk. Updates, additions and corrections can be obtained from the author's Web page, located at 'http://www.bradley.co.uk', which also contains links to various XML and SGML related sites. Neil Bradley August1999

Abstract: This paper describes a framework for applying templates to applications and documents on the Web. The primary motivation is the need of Web application developers to separate program logic from presentation logic. A template is a prototypical document or part thereof. It consists of content in the target language, HTML, XML, or plain text, plus markup specifying variable parts of the document. The Template Markup Language (TML) is an application of XML which defines a generic and flexible set of template markup elements. TRIX (Template Resolution in XML/HTML) is a framework for processing TML. It excels in being highly extensible — both in the types of values variables can take, variables being URLs, and in the set of template elements recognized.

Abstract: It is hard to manage the software design documents within a distributed development team. The issues include the format, distribution and evolution of data. This paper mainly focuses on the issues of the format and distribution, and addresses how we can manage the software design documents for the distributed software development in the standard based way. In the software engineering community, Unified Modeling Language (UML) has been widely accepted as an object-oriented software analysis/design methodology, since it provides most of the concepts and notations that are essential for documenting object oriented models. UML, however, does not have an explicit format for interchanging its models intentionally. This paper addresses this lack and proposes UXF (UML exchange Format), which is an exchange format for UML models, based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). It is a format powerful enough to express, publish, access and exchange UML models and a natural extension from the existing Internet environment. It serves as a communication vehicle for developers, and as a well-structured data format for development tools. We demonstrate some proof-of-concept applications that show the merits of UXF. We are especially interested in a distributed model management system that manages the software design documents over the Internet with UXF. This system leverages the team development, reuse of design documents and tool interoperability by publishing a set of CORBA interfaces. Our work shows an important step in sharing and exchanging software design documents, and indicates the future direction of the interoperable software development tools.

Abstract: From the Publisher: You spend hours designing and formatting your Web pages to look just right, but when users log on to your site -- wham! -- all your carefully formatted data is scattered helter-skelter across the page! Now there’s no need to curse the quirks of HMTL. Instead, skip over all those cumbersome and redundant HTML tags and jump to the head of the class with XML (eXtensible Markup Language), the new technology being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. XML offers all the power of HTML and SGML scripting without all the headaches, giving developers a robust new tool in managing information and page formatting with increasing flexibility and usability that's just not possible with today's HMTL. XML: A Primer takes Web developers through the ins and outs of XML, including tips on integrating XML with Dynamic HTML and Cascading Style Sheets; creating custom search tools, Document Type Definitions (DTDs), customized tips, and commercial Web solutions; managing documents with XML; and using XML for data-driven applications. XML offers developers the opportunity to create documents with built-in frameworks that make getting consistent results much easier, time after time. Best of all, XML is backward-compatible to help ease your transition from HTML into the next phase of Web-based formatting and architecture. XML combines the strength of SGML with simplicity, versatility, and readability by people and machines. Now designers and developers can create and manage their own formatting tags, content, and hyperlinks, instead of relying on the idiosyncrasies of HTML. "XML," says author Simon St. Laurent, "is HTML done right."

Abstract: CBR (case-based reasoning) has considerable potential for developing intelligent assistants for the World Wide Web. Several case-based intelligent applications already exist on the web but these applications follow a thin client model with the intelligence located at the server side. In this paper we explore the advantages of making these applications more distributed. We illustrate the kinds of application where the dialogue with the case-base is long-lived and network latency or server load would suggest that some of the processing should be distributed to the client side. We present an architecture for such a distributed CBR system and describe how a case-representation language based on XML can facilitate this distribution. The advantages of adopting an XML case-representation language are interoperability and flexibility of reuse and these are discussed in the second half of the paper.

Abstract: A visual editor is automatically generated from an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema and then used to edit the data contained in corresponding XML documents. The entities within an XML schema are mapped to components of the visual editor, such as forms, widgets, etc., that are generated as class specifications. These class specifications can be customized through the use of a customization specification file, as desired. The class specifications are then instantiated as objects in a Java Virtual Machine to perform the functions of the visual editor.

Abstract: From the Publisher: Now there is a guide to the often arcane language of XML, computer science and standards that you find in the official spec - XML: The Annotated Specification In this book, XML insider Bob DuCharme presents the entire official spec - and all the help and interpretation you need to make the most of it DuCharme doesn't just tell you what's in the XML spec; he reveals why decisions were made as they were - the information you need to achieve maximum results With XML: The Annotated Specification, you have an authoritative source for the final word on everything XML - and the more you work with the language, the more valuable this book will become

Abstract: With XML, true Web-based information management has arrived. This is a complete guide to building XML Internet applications that can automate and simplify virtually every form of electronic communication. Learn why your organization needs XML -- and how it combines SGML's legendary power with the simplicity and accessibility of the best Web-based applications. Walk step-by-step through the fundamentals of XML usage and design: not just basic syntax, but the real-world processes you must understand to achieve XML's full benefits. Discover specific approaches for building a robust, effective XML-based intranet communications infrastructure -- techniques you won't find anywhere else. Build six full-scale, practical XML applications, including bulletin boards, order entry systems, document conversion tools and more. All the Java, C++, C and perl source code you need is included on CD-ROM.

Abstract: About this book. Part I-Jumpstart. Part II-XML by Example. Part III- A Closer Look at XML and Related Standards. Part IV-Commerce Initiatives Based on XML. Acknowledgments. A Note about URI and URL. Disclaimer. I. XML JUMPSTART. 1. XML-An Executive Summary. Can you explain XML in less than half a page? Where did XML get its name? What does it do? Sounds complicated. Can you explain the term "markup language?" So XML is just another markup language? What does XML look like? So XML is extensible because I can use it to make up my own tags? But why would people bother to invent their own XML-based markup language (DTD)? Is some philosophical stuff going on here that I need to know? Ah! So that is what they mean by "structured documents!" Did someone just sit down and, you know, "invent" XML? Is something wrong with SGML? Can you draw me a picture of how all these languages are related? Can the structure of an XML document be checked somehow? What if I do not want my structure checked? But how do I make XML look nice in a browser? What about hypertext? So XML is based on truly international standards? Where does all this leave HTML and the concept of a browser? Why not just let people invent proprietary languages - why base them on XML? Where does XML fit in with other information technology standards? If XML is so clever, how come the Web was not designed that way in the first place? Okay. Sounds good, but let's cut to the chase. Who out there is using XML and for what purposes? 2. XML in Action. Push Technology with Microsoft Active Channels. Online banking. Software distribution. Web Automation. Database Integration. Localization. Intermediate data representations. Scientific Publishing - Chemical Markup Language. 3. The Commercial Benefits of XML. Letting the browser do the work. Authors should generate content, not formatting. To summarize. 4 Gaining Competitive Advantage with XML. Setting up shop. Creating the product catalog. Publishing the catalog. Keeping the catalog accurate. Keeping it pretty. Helping surfers to help themselves. Keeping customers informed. Enhancing the experience. Money matters. Integrating existing systems. Saving on browse time. Keeping ahead of the customer. Working the market. Preparing for change. 5. Just Enough Details. The big picture. Two views of an XML document. Two classes of XML documents. Two classes of XML processors. Introducing msxml. A minimalist XML document. Creating XML documents. Creating XML DTDs. Entity declarations. Putting it all together. Validating an XML document against its DTD. II. XML BY EXAMPLE. 6. Using XML with Internet Explorer 4. Displaying XML in an HTML browser. Converting XML to HTML with XSL. 7. Database Publishing with XML. Generating XML from a database. Serving up the XML to a Web browser. 8. Web Automation with WIDL (Web Interface Definition Language). Creating the WIDL document. The WIDL service definition document. Advantages of the WIDL approach. Further capabilities of WIDL. The complete Java program for the Disk Selector Service. 9. Push Publishing with CDF (Channel Definition Format). A simple channel. Adding a new item to the channel. Scheduling. Personalization. 10. Developing XML Utility Programs. The ESIS parser output format. To parse or not to parse -that is the question. Read-only utilities. Read/Write Utilities. III. A CLOSE LOOK AT XML AND RELATED STANDARDS. 11. The XML Standard. Design goals. The big picture. Some more terminology! Constraints on special characters. White space handling. Comments. Processing instructions. CDATA Sections. The XML declaration. Start-tags, end-tags, and empty elements. Attributes. The Document Type Declaration. Element type declarations. Element Type Content Models. Attribute List Declarations. Attribute defaults. Entity declarations. Notation declarations. Conditional sections. 12. XML Hypertext Linking with XLL. Some hypertext terminology. Relationship to existing standards. Link recognition. LINK information attributes. The show and actuate attributes. Specifying the addresses of resources. Xpointers. Extended links. Using fixed attributes. Attribute mapping. 13. XML Formatting with XSL. The purpose of XSL. The need for a scripting language. Relationship to CSS. Relationship to DSSSL. Relationship to HTML. Design principles. XSL architecture. Construction rules. The root rule. Multiple target element patterns. Ancestor patterns. Descendant patterns. Combined ancestor/descendant patterns. Wildcard patterns. Attributes. The position qualifier. Solitary element qualifier. Multiple elements in any order. Style rules. Style macros. Actions. The import element. The define-macro and invoke-macro elements. The default rule. Scripting. Built-in functions. 14. The Unicode Standard. The origins of Unicode. Unicode and the World Wide Web Consortium. Unicode overview. Unicode and ISO 10646. Design goals. Surrogates. Transformation formats. The Byte Order Mark. Unicode and programming languages. Unicode and XML. UTF-8. 15. The Document Object Model (DOM). Design goals. The DOM specification language. DOM object types. Node objects. Element objects. The document object. The DOM object. The DOMFactory object. The NodeList object. The EditableNodeList object. The NodeEnumerator object. The AttributeList object. The Attribute object. The Comment object. The PI object. The Text object. HTML-specific components of DOM. XML-specific components of DOM. 16. Raiding the SGML Larder. Useful features of SGML not in XML (a personal choice). The NSGMLS parser. A simple SGML document. SGML-to-XML conversion. Some examples. SGML viewers. The Jade DSSSL engine. IV. E-COMMERCE INITIATIVES BASED ON XML. 17. OFX - Open Financial Exchange. Some of the design principles of OFX. OFX architecture. For more information. PC Application software supporting OFX. 18. XML/EDI-XML and Electronic Data Interchange. XML/EDI. XML as an EDI format. Data manipulation agents (databots). XML/Editors. Electronic Catalogs. For more information. 19. Open Trading Protocol. Design of OTP. Benefits of OTP. Trading types in OTP. Structure of an OTP message. Miscellaneous points. For more information. Appendix A Some Details. White space handling. System and public identifiers. Attribute value normalization. Language identification. Deterministic content models. Pernicious mixed content. Character encoding in external entities. Recognizing character encodings in XML. Rule arbitration in XSL. Appendix B About the CD-ROM. The software subdirectory. The gallery subdirectory. The docs subdirectory. Appendix C Open Trade Protocol. Preface. Commerce on the Internet - A Different Model. Benefits of OTP. Baseline OTP. Objectives of the Document. Purpose. Scope of Document. Intended Readership. Document Structure. Related Documents. Index.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To report on the use of SGML and XML (a proper subset of SGML) as transfer syntaxes for HL7 Version 2.3 and Version 3.0 messages. METHODS: The methodology has focused largely on two questions: Can it be done? How best to do it? The first question is addressed by attempting to build an SGML/XML representation of HL7 messages. The second question requires a consideration of several metrics: message length, speed of message creation and parsing, interversion compatibility, local customization, conformance determination, and the availability of software tools and skill on the format. RESULTS: Detailed specifications for expressing HL7 in SGML and XML have been developed. Some HL7 requirements are not readily expressed, while some ambiguous areas of the HL7 standard are made explicit in the SGML/XML representation. With the current design, an SGML/XML parser can extract any component of any data type from a message. CONCLUSIONS: SGML and XML can both serve as implementable message specifications for HL7 Version 2.3 and Version 3.0 messages. The ability to explicitly represent an HL7 requirement in SGML/XML confers the ability to validate that requirement with an SGML parser. The optimal message representation will be a balance of functional, technical, and practical requirements.

Abstract: XML lets developers capture, manipulate and exchange virtually any kind of document or data, without loss of integrity. Because XML lets you create common formats for sharing information between devices and platforms such as mobile phones, Web browsers and company data stores many experts have begun calling it the "lingua franca," or universal language of the Digital Age. Developers, especially developers for the Web and intranets, can't afford to be XML illiterate. But that powerful markup language has a lot of rules and can be a bit tricky to master. And that's where this book comes in. XML For Dummies offers you a fast, fun, and easy way to become XML literate. With a minimum of technobabble and tons of sample applications and case studies, the authors get you on track with XML and all its special features. You'll: Make the most of XML's extensible characteristics Combine XML and XHTML Get the hang of DTDs, XML Schema, XLink, and XPath Design XML applications to support graphics, complex linking, document navigation, multimedia, and more Use XML with style sheets and XSL From the abc's of markup languages to XML Web services, XML For Dummies covers all the bases. Designed to give you the practical experience you need to put XML to work right away, it offer hands-on, step-by-step coverage of: Planning and defining XML documents Creating custom DTDs Using XML schema Using and delivering XML content Linking languages, including the XML linking language, path language, and pointer language Creating documents with authoring tools Using XML parser engines and conversion tools XML Web services As an added bonus, XML For Dummies comes with a CD-ROM containing a goldmine of powerful XML development tools, including: Example markup from the book XML Spy, Epic Editor, and IBM XML Schema Quality Checker AElfred, XML4J, Amaya and other freeware and open source products With XML, the dream of total data connectivity and exchange is at last a reality. Don't get left behind. Get XML For Dummies and join the XML revolution.

Abstract: In such an environment a query language will serve for more than "a souped-up version of X-Pointer". Our position focuses on the use of an XML query language as a view definition language that drives XML mediator systems. A mediator selects, restructures and merges information from multiple autonomous sources/sites. It exports an integrated XML view document. Possible applications of such mediator systems are numerous (e.g., virtual shopping malls, virtual agencies, ...).

Abstract: XML has been proposed in order to bring to the Web a markup language free of the shortcomings of HTML, in particular the inextensibility of the set of valid elements (tags). Stylesheet languages have been proposed for XML, in order to provide precise and sophisticated typographical control over the appearance of text-based data. We have developed a rendering engine for HTML and XML documents, providing rudimentary support for typography, but allowing easy extensions (displets) for any kind of data, including non-textual ones, such as math, charts, graphs, etc. Some extensions have already been developed: here we present the one for supporting Z, a notation for formal specifications of software systems.

Abstract: Called "the emerging technology of the year" after it was endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), XML burst onto the scene in February. It was called the successor to HTML and, according to some, the future lingua franca for the exchange of structured data. As XML emerged from the obscurity of its W3C beginnings, it was perhaps inevitable that this new data format would begin generating misconceptions as fast as it has attracted enthusiasts. The article heads off four myths about XML before they become permanent misunderstandings: XML is a conspiracy led by Microsoft; XML is an extension of HTML; XML can drive Web browsers by itself; and XML is just for data.

Abstract: We describe Junglee’s Virtual Database (VDB) technology, which makes the World Wide Web and other external data sources behave as an extension of an enterprise’s relational database (RDBMS) system. We provide examples of powerful applications enabled by the technology. We then consider XML, a new markup language standard; we conjecture how XML will transform the web, and the role that will be played by Virtual Database technology in this transformation.

Abstract: The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a newly adopted Internet protocol for data interchange designed to bring the key features of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML; ISO 8879:1986)--extensibility, complex structures, and validation--to the World Wide Web. In this paper, we describe an architecture that uses XML to mediate between disparate client-server systems for structured reporting and decision support.

Abstract: As Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides most of the concepts and notations that are essential for documenting object-oriented models, it has been widely accepted in the software engineering area. However, UML does not have an explicit format for exchanging its models intentionally. The ability to exchange the models is quite important, because it is likely that a development team resides in separate places on the network environment, and because most current development tools don’t provide the interconnectivity of the model information. This paper addresses this problem and proposes UXF (UML eXchange Format), which is an exchange format for UML models, based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). It is a format powerful enough to express, publish, access and exchange UML models and a natural extension from the existing Internet environment. It serves as a communication vehicle for developers, and as a well-structured data format for development tools. UXF shows an important step in sharing and exchanging the model information, and indicates a future direction of the interconnectivity between UML compliant tools.

Abstract: XML has been attracting a lot of attention recently. This article providesa five-minute overview of XML and explains why it matters to you

Abstract: of my best friends are XML proponents. But I don't get it. In case you haven't heard, XML is The Next Big Thing. It will enable wonderful new applications, electronic commerce will take off, and the world will be one. But there's a high-tech oddity here. The problem with HTML is that it's only a presentation standard. 1 The syntax only determines something about the appearance of the content. In other words, what is machine executable is the presentation. There is nothing that would help formalize the semantics of the content. It's all show and no tell. A Dirty Little Secret Enter XML with its user-definable tags. You can add new tags, such as 2.00. A suitable parser can read the tag and pluck out the price for use in computation. Once you can do that, you can do anything. You can define any tags you like and then write software that attaches content semantics to the tags. Is this not wonderful? But there's a dirty little secret: you can do this now in HTML. My research group does it for some agent applications. An authoring tool allows the user to highlight text and click on icons that then embed invisible (to the user) new tags that can be used by a proxy agent processor to send messages to other agents. We got the idea from ABSML (a better standard markup language), which was used at Lockheed for the Multimedia Engineering Collaboration Environment, an engineering design documentation system. Some companies today are quietly doing server-side processing of application-specific HTML tags. What does XML add? It adds formal ways to define the presentation of user-defined tags and to check their syntax, which defines the presentation semantics. But XML adds nothing to aid with the semantics of the content. For example, it does no better than HTML at ensuring different browsers reading the same document mean the same thing by \" price. \" What does XML take away? It takes away the simplicity of HTML. Moreover, if you want to convert your old HTML, you must make many small changes. Yes, you can run scripts to do this. (No doubt a cottage industry in shareware for running these scripts will emerge.) And what you get for your trouble is the ability to display the formerly invisible tags in a consistent manner in all browsers. I'm pushing this …

Abstract: Much of the electronic publication community is buzzing with discussion about Extensible Markup Language (XML). For those initiates of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), XML holds much promise. Others who have developed web-sites and web-based documentation in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) may not fully understand just how XML will impact how they develop content for the World Wide Web. However, the promise of XML goes far beyond content development for web pages and could make many of the goals for SGML attainable.