XML Editor XMetaL rounds out development with Tamino

In a recent article titled "A powerful alliance: Tamino and XML Authority", we showcased the native XML Server Tamino by Software AG and highlighted some of the advantages that powerful add-on applications such as XML Authority bring to the equation.

Perhaps their greatest benefit is that they allow documents to be generated very swiftly and easily on a graphical interface. In addition, these documents may be stored in the Tamino XML Server, which makes them excellent media for mirroring mission-critical transactions in the digital realm. 

In this article, we take a closer look at another component of the development platform Tamino X-Studio, the user-friendly XMetal tool by Softquad. An XML database such as Tamino serves as a data repository. Tamino stores data in its native form, meaning that formats do not have to be converted first, and data can be stored and accessed very swiftly. 

The requisite infrastructure for data storage is created by means of tools such as XML Authority by Tibco Software Inc., using database schema, document type definitions, and formal definitions of XML elements and attributes. Though this provides a template for content, it does not offer the tools to deal with contents, i.e. the actual information. XML Authority merely determines the formal criteria governing how database components are stored and searched, and it exports these schema to the Tamino database. 

Additional tools are necessary to generate and edit structured XML documents. Enter XMetal by Softquad. Like XML Authority, this tool ships with the Tamino X-Studio package. 

Native XML components for fast, reliable data exploitation to create customized documents 

One of the great advantages of XMetal is that - like the Tamino database and XML Authority - it is a native XML product. This means that XMetal can employ all database schema generated by XML Authority right out of the box. But better yet, it means that authors can actually check whether XML documents match the respective schema and whether the query routines they have chosen to use deliver the desired results while they are still working in XMetal. 

Documents may be examined for conformity with the XML database infrastructure at any time while documents are being prepared: Are all standard queries executed correctly, are the style sheets used properly, are all required contents loaded from the Tamino database to the interfaced application? This compatibility among native XML applications is a boon to users because it empowers them to mine XML database contents with ease, and exploit these raw resources to produce highly refined reports, analyses and evaluations - swiftly, simply and reliably. 

Browsers "speak" XML courtesy of Cascading Style Sheets and eXtensible Style Language

At present XMetal supports two different XML standards that determine the appearance of data and documents, Cascading Style sheets (CSS) and eXtensible Style Language (XSL). In fact, Cascading Style Sheets are the standard style sheet format for XMetal. 

They can do far more than merely determine the data format in an XMetal "file" in accordance with specific database schema. For example, these style sheets enable links to any document so that XML data can be presented with an appealing layout on virtually all prevailing Internet browsers. Once this data has been loaded to a browser, it may be processed further, sorted and viewed in a variety of ways without having to be reloaded. This lightens the workload of central database servers considerably. 

User-friendly XMetal - the ideal front end application for Tamino 

XMetal features a user-friendly interface designed specifically for intuitive handling. In fact, it so easy to operate that virtually every user can generate, format and edit contents and information in XML format without having to undergo tedious training. Among the hallmarks of XMetal are features such as XML and SGML document generation, support of DTDs, HTML and "well-formed" contents, import from ODBC databases, various processing views, ActiveX Controls, form tools, an integrated script editor; and full Unicode support. This extensive range of functions and features make XMetal the ideal front-end application for exploiting data stored in XML databases, and formatting and editing it to author documents. And when XMetal is dovetailed with other native products such as Tamino and XML Authority, this collective creates a system that provides valuable support in the fields of e-publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management to every enterprise with a need for these services.