eXpert
Opinions
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by Juliane Harbarth, Technical Consultant R&D Technology,
Software AG
This document is intended to provide an easily readable description of the XQuery XML Query language, and is oriented
towards quickly understanding how to create queries. This primer describes the language features through a contiguous example that roughly sketches an XML system for scheduling concerts. The example is complemented by extensive references to the normative texts.
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XML has evolved to become the standard format for
platform- and system-independent data exchange. Ever more data
sources are able to export content in XML format, making it
available to many other XML-enabled databases and applications. Even
leading vendors of conventional relational database management
systems such as IBM, Oracle and Microsoft have seen fit to modify
their products to support XML data. However, it is not enough to be
able to view this data. To make the most of XML's remarkable
potential, users must be able to query, retrieve, edit and, above
all, update information as they see fit.
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The Internet is evolving from a static to a dynamic
communication and transaction medium. Originally conceived as purely
a presentation platform, it is fast becoming a network with a
measure of discriminating intelligence. This evolution is ushering
in a new era for the Internet, and with it a new breed of Web
services based on internationally accepted standards. Featuring a
modular design, these services may be mixed and matched at will. For
enterprises, developers and solution providers, this presents an
excellent opportunity to vault into new lines of business on a
global scale.
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The focus of recent developments in the fast-growing
field of mobile Internet is on presenting Web contents on portable
end devices - mobile telephones, handheld computers and personal
digital assistants (PDAs) similar to the way they appear on Web
browsers. But there is a drawback to some technologies such as
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Wireless Markup Language (WML)
or Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) - content is displayed on
far smaller screens. Fortunately, squinting at screens the size of a
postage stamp is not the only way to access the Internet's vast
information offering. The convenient alternative is voice-enabled
Web access. In this installment of the newsletter we'll take a
closer look at VoiceXML, the remarkable technology that makes this
possible.
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Intellor Group, Inc., an independent e-business
intelligence and integration knowledge exchange company, and
Wilshire Conferences, a provider of high quality educational
conferences to Information Technology (IT) professionals, announced
today the completion of a research summary, titled XML Database
Trends And Influences, that analyzes how IT professionals' need to
manage unstructured and structured data within their companies is
influencing the adoption of XML databases.
In this interview with Intellor Group (Gaithersburg,
Maryland, USA), Champion discusses the current hype around XML and,
the future of XML, and provides some insightful comments on XML
Query, analogies to SQL and XML schema. He also bares his candid
thoughts about database architectures that are suitable to store XML
and describes Software AG's XML activities and products, and the
vertical markets at which the company's products are targeted.
This article takes a closer look at how the marriage
of a Tamino database and the infrastructure development tool XML
Authority by Tibco Software, Inc. provides a solid underpinning for
successful e-business solutions.
This article takes a look at how the marriage of
Tamino XML Server and the XML editor XMetaL from Softquad Software
Ltd. provides a solid basis for successful e-business solutions.
By Frank Jung, Software AG
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By Michael Champion, Software AG
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by Michael Champion, Senior R&D Advisor, Software AG
The market is currently laden with so-called "XML-enabled" products that support XML as an input/output format. While these products clearly have many advantages over others without XML support, another class of products referred to as "native XML" offer significant additional advantages. These products, which support XML down to their internal architectures, are more scalable, reliable, and even more truly interoperable than those that merely use XML as a data exchange format.
XML can provide great benefit to enterprises that
have invested heavily to build an effective information technology
infrastructure, but are challenged to exchange data between the
legacy components of this infrastructure and newer
"web-enabled" e-business applications.
All companies that introduce electronic business are
typically confronted with very similar obstacles and restrictions.
They are: incompatible data formats; customized information
exchange; management of distributed business data; and inadequate
Internet solutions.
An Interview with Dr. Anthony Picardi, Senior Vice President
of Global Software at IDC
When Edison invented the modern light bulb, did he think about the Hoover dam?
Nobody could have predicted where the great inventions of the past
would take us. Simplicity and broad appeal are more critical to
success than complexity. XML may prove as significant to the industry-at-large
than any other major invention in the history of humankind.
by Gert Schroeter, Electronic Business Evangelist, Software AG
Healthcare is a woefully uneconomic industry when it comes to
information management. But recent medical industry initiatives are
demonstrating how XML-based applications and standards can improve the
state of things.
by Juliane Harbarth, Technical Consultant for Database Management
Systems R&D, Software AG.
XSLT (XSL Transformations) is a standard way to describe how to
transform the structure of an XML document into an XML document with a
different structure. As a Recommendation of the World Wide Web
Consortium,
XSLT has established itself as a widely accepted standard in the XML
field.
The first chapter of Michael Kay's book "XSLT Programmer's
Reference"
"This chapter is designed to put XSLT in context. It's about
the purpose of XSLT and the task it was designed to perform. It's
about what kind of language it is, and how it came to be that way; and
it's about how XSLT fits in with all the other technologies that you
are likely to use in a typical web-based application. I won't be
saying much in this chapter about what an XSLT stylesheet actually
looks like or how it works: that will come later, in Chapters 2 and 3."
Source: "XSLT
Programmer's Reference", Author: Michael Kay, Wrox Press Ltd,
June 2000
by Michael Champion, Senior R&D Advisor, Software AG
There's no shortage of XML data available on the Internet, and there are lots of ways
to convert legacy data to XML relatively easily. The amount of data and number of support
tools has increased very noticeably in the past year, and will surely grow exponentially
in the years to come.
by Juliane Harbarth, Technical Consultant for Database
Management Systems R&D, Software AG.
X-Query, the XML query language interface included in the latest version
of the XML database Tamino, is the only query language that combines the features from the
latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards plus numerous features that are currently
on the drawing board. This article also brings you up to date on developments in the XML
query-standards front.
by Frank Jung, Product Marketing Manager, Software AG
- This booklet describes the inner workings of XML and related technologies such as XPath,
XSL, XSLT, DTDs and XML schema.
by Frank Jung, Product Marketing Manager, Software AG
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by Michael Champion, Senior R&D Advisor, Software AG
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by Frank Jung, Product Marketing
Manager, Software AG
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by Etienne Defalque, General Manager, ACSE, Belgium
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by Michael Champion, Senior R&D Advisor, Software AG
XML offers a widely adopted standard way of representing text and data in a format that
can be easily processed and exchanged across diverse hardware, operating systems,
applications and the Web.
by Philippe Vijghen, ACSE, Belgium
This paper proposes the use of a pivot format when developing EDI
applications, based on the experience of three operational projects. The role of SGML/XML,
as pivot, is presented in a broader context, with regard to other relevant candidates for
structuring data.
by Michael Champion, Senior R&D Advisor, Software
AG
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by Jürgen Harbarth, XML Database R&D, Software AG
XML is a metalanguage which can be used to describe content-related
structures for data of all kinds. Given this universal and flexible approach, XML's
application areas are almost limitless.
by Jürgen Harbarth, XML Database R&D, Software AG
"XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is increasingly finding
acceptance as a non-proprietary standard and is suitable not only for describing
documents, but also as a data description language for information stored in
databases..."
The limits of HTML have become visible and a new standard is on the
rise: XML (extensible markup language).
by Jürgen Harbarth, XML Database R&D, Software AG
This article explores the potential of XML as a data description
language
by Nigel Hutchison, XML Database R&D, Software AG
"The XML markup language is a new standard for describing the
content of documents and can be adapted to suit different applications. Its possible areas
of application range from Web pages through electronic commerce to complex database
solutions"
The tutorial discusses the simplest XQL queries, which are also likely to
be the most common.
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