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: 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: A query language is essential, if XML is to serve effectively as an exchange medium for large data sets. The design of query languages for XML is in its infancy, and the choice of a standard may be governed more by user acceptance than by any understanding of underlying principles. One would hope that expressive power, performance, and compatibility with other languages will be considered in choosing among alternatives, but it is likely that several contenders will co-exist for some time. It is worth observing that, during the 20-year development of relational query languages, several competing languages were developed; and even today there are several relational query language standards. In spite of this, a great deal of technology was developed that was independent of the surface syntax of a query language. This included technology "below" the language such as efficient execution models and work "above" the level of language such as techniques for view definition and maintenance, triggers, etc. At Penn we are working on some of these language-independent issues. We include a summary of them here. They include execution and data models to support XML and semistructured query languages; the use of schemas and constraints in optimizing XML query languages; and tools for extracting data form existing sources and presenting it as XML. Comments Postprint version. Published in Query Language Workshop, November 1998. Publisher URL: http://www.w3.org/TandS/QL/QL98/pp/penn.html Author(s) Peter Buneman, Alin Deutsch, Wenfei Fan, Hartmut Liefke, Arnaud Sahuguet, and Wang-Chiew Tan This conference paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/db_research/14 Beyond XML Query Languages Peter Buneman Alin Deutsch Wenfei Fan Hartmut Liefke Arnaud Sahuguet Wang-Chiew Tan University of Pennsylvania fpeter,adeutsch,wfan,liefke,sahuguet,wctang@saul.cis.upenn.edu

Abstract: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) extends the flexibility of SGML to Web page creation. This is an introduction to the structure and syntax of XML and guides the reader through employing this evolving technology into their own Web projects. It discusses how to create document types that are easy to author, manage, share and transmit across the Web. It also explains how to extend HTML by creating tags and attributes to automate data delivery. This reference is also cross-referenced with "XML for Dummies".

Abstract: Why XML parts of an XML document designing a document type breaking up and document hyperlinking addressing creating style sheets characters and whitespace existing XML-based languages XML software foundations of XML.

Abstract: Status of this document This is a W3C Working Draft for review by W3C members and other interested parties. It is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Working Drafts as reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress". A list of current W3C working drafts can be found at Abstract This document specifies constructs that support addressing into the internal structures of XML documents. In particular, it provides for specific reference to elements, character strings, and other parts of XML documents, whether or not they bear an explicit ID attribute.

Abstract: As Intranet becomes popular, knowledge management systems have become increasingly important in the efforts of corporations to share individuals' experiences. Case-based reasoning provides promising techniques for use in the improvement of such systems. This paper describes a case-based reasoning (CBR) system that uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) as its case representation language on the World-Wide Web. The paper defines the issues of textual case-based reasoning, then proposes CARET/XML, a textual CBR system architecture. Cases are written in XML by first-level agents themselves in front offices such as help desks. The architecture carries out similarity-based retrieval using XML tags and values associated with these tags. When a textual case base is constructed by many first-level agents, it is natural that cases are incrementally added their definition. CARET/XML provides SELECT/OPTION and ANNOTATION tags to define mixedcase representations. A passive case adaptation mechanism is realized in a finer-grained case selection process. The proposed system runs on a commercial relational database management system (RDBMS) and the World-Wide Web.