By: Robin Cover
[July 24, 2001]
American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) XML Workgroup Publishes
Draft Guidelines.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) XML Workgroup, formed
to develop guidelines and standardized terminology for internet based
steel transactions, has released a set of XML-based specifications for
business transactions in the steel industry. The workgroup has
released draft versions of the AISI guidelines "with the intent
of gathering input from interested parties; a stated objective of the
workgroup is to ensure a convergence path with other standards
bodies." Phase One activities in the XML project have included:
(1) a data requirements review and element mapping for the Shipping
Notice, Material Release, Inventory Advice, Material Receipt, Test
Report, Customer Purchase Order, Service Order, and Vendor Order
transactions; (2) construction of an XML steel industry glossary of
terms for document usage; (3) Construction of DTDs for reviewed
transactions. The published Overview document provides a discussion of
methodology, document organization, XML DTD, and the data dictionary,
while remaining documents are transaction-based and provide the
structure and content requirements of each transaction's payload
section. The primary objective of the AISI XML Workgroup is to develop
standardized XML terminology to be used throughout steel related
transactions documents. The task to be completed involves the
translation of existing X.12 based transaction documents to XML. This
process will simultaneously create a Steel XML Glossary, which can
then be used throughout the industry and by developers of internet
based applications for the industry." [Full
context]
[July 24, 2001]
Webdav Access Control Protocol Group Publishes Last-Call
Specification.
The Webdav Access Control Protocol Group, chartered to develop a
remote access control protocol, has released a final last-call
specification for public review. Version 06 of the WebDAV Access
Control Protocol defines "a set of methods, headers, and
message bodies that define Access Control extensions to the WebDAV
Distributed Authoring Protocol. This protocol permits a client to
remotely read and modify access control lists that instruct a server
whether to grant or deny operations upon a resource (such as HTTP
method invocations) by a given principal." The relevant XML
Document Type Definition is presented in an Appendix. The goal of the
WebDAV access control extensions "is to provide an interoperable
mechanism for handling discretionary access control for content in
WebDAV servers... The underlying principle of access control is that
who you are determines how you can access a resource. The 'who you
are' is defined by a 'principal' identifier; users, client software,
servers, and groups of the previous have principal identifiers. The
'how' is determined by a single 'access control list' (ACL) associated
with a resource. An ACL contains a set of 'access control entries'
(ACEs), where each ACE specifies a principal and a set of privileges
that are either granted or denied to that principal." [Full
context]
[July 23, 2001]
IBM alphaWorks Offers IBM UDDI Registry.
A UDDI registry has been made available from IBM's alphaWorks web
site. The IBM UDDI Registry is "a UDDI-compliant registry for Web
services in a private intranet environment. The IBM UDDI Registry
supports multiple users in various department- or company-wide
scenarios. It also supports the 20 SOAP-based APIs defined by version
one of the UDDI specifications, and it provides persistence for
published entities through a relational database. Also provided is a
Web-based graphical user interface that supports publishing and
querying of businesses, services, and other UDDI-compliant entities
without programming... The IBM UDDI Registry supports the UDDI Version
1 specifications for schema and API. This includes support for XML and
SOAP. Additional technologies are offered as part of the
implementation, such as UDDI4J, which is IBM's library for accessing a
UDDI-compliant registry from Java. Developers can publish and manage
their Web services described using WSDL with the IBM UDDI
Registry." [Full
context]
[July 21, 2001]
Microsoft Releases MSXML Parser 4.0 Beta 2.
Microsoft has announced the release of a technology preview 'Beta
2' version of MSXML Parser 4.0, offering "a faster SAX and XSLT,
complete XSD," and other enhancements. "The July 2001
release of the Microsoft XML Parser (MSXML) 4.0 Technology Preview is
a preliminary release of MSXML 4.0. This technology preview has a
number of improvements compared to the April release: (1) XSD
validation with SAX; (2) XSD validation with DOM, using the schemaLocation
attribute; (3) Schema Object Model (SOM) to access schema information
in DOM and SAX; (4) Substantially faster XSLT engine -- tests show
about x4, and for some scenarios x8, acceleration, except the known
serious performance bug for xsl:keys; (5) New and
substantially faster SAX parser, which is also available in DOM with
the NewParser property -- use dom.setProperty('NewParser',
true); (6) Old, non-conformant technologies are removed: Old XSL
with XSLPattern; uuid namespaces for XDR; proprietary XmlParser
object; normalize-line-breaks property in SAX. Corresponding standard
technologies [XSLT 1.0, XPath 1.0, http-based namespaces for XDR,
SAX2] have been available since MSXML 3.0; (7) True side-by-side
functionality, which ensures that MSXML 4.0 can work without any
collision with previous or future versions of MSXML. As a result,
replace mode is removed completely. XmlInst.exe will not work
with this release. Version-independent ProgIDs, such as DOMDOcument,
are also removed. You should use DOMDOcument.4.0 to get 4.0
functionality. The release uses Windows Installer 2.0." [Full
context]
[July 21, 2001]
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Advances to W3C Proposed
Recommendation.
Work in the W3C Document Formats
Domain includes a new release of the Scalable Vector
Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification as a W3C Proposed
Recommendation. The document "defines the features and syntax for
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), a language for describing
two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. SVG
vector graphics are scalable to different display resolutions, so that
for example printed output uses the full resolution of the printer and
can be displayed at the same size on screens of different resolutions.
Most existing XML grammars represent either textual information, or
represent raw data such as financial information. They typically
provide only rudimentary graphical capabilities, often less capable
than the HTML 'img' element. SVG fills a gap in the market by
providing a rich, structured description of vector and mixed
vector/raster graphics; it can be used standalone, or as an XML
namespace with other grammars." The release includes a revised
XML DTD, SVG test suite, SVG implementation report, and list of
changes in the specification since the CR version. The
"substantial implementation experience with generators, viewers
and transcoders based on the SVG specification and the amount of SVG
content that has been developed to date encouraged the Working Group
to ask the W3C Director to advance this document to Proposed
Recommendation status." [Full
context]
[July 18, 2001]
'Regular Fragmentations' Tool for Fragmenting Textual Content Into XML
Elements.
Simon St.Laurent
(O'Reilly & Associates) has released a Java SAX Filter called
'Regular Fragmentations' which uses regular expressions to fragment
content into XML elements. "Regular fragmentations are an
approach to processing textual content as if it had been represented
as more finely-grained markup. The XML Schema Dataypes specification,
for instance, offers a number of lexically compound types among its
primitive types, requiring developers to rely on extension functions
or XML Schema processing to manipulate them with XSLT. Regular
fragmentations allow developers to specify the application of regular
expression to element content (attribute content coming soon!) using
an XML-based rules syntax. An open source SAXFilter implementation
allows the use of regular fragmentations in a wide variety of XML
processing environments... XML developers are constantly faced with
questions about how fine-grained their data structures should be, and
the difficult problem of dealing with cases where other people chose
coarse-grained structures. While tools like XSLT can do an excellent
job retrieving needles from haystacks, it's much easier to extract
needles that are labelled and cleanly separated from the surrounding
content. The com.simonstl.fragment package allows developers
to specify rules using regular expressions which are applied to
element content during the parsing process. While the document is
parsed, those rules are applied to the textual content of the
specified elements and new child elements are created, adding extra
markup information to the document." [Full
context]
[July 18, 2001]
Baltimore Technologies Releases XKMS X-BULK Specification for
Digital Certificates.
Baltimore Technologies and its industry partners recently published
a working draft XML Key Management Specification Bulk Operation
(X-BULK). The new specification "extends the XKMS [XML Key
Management Specification] protocol to encompass the bulk registration
operations necessary for interfacing with such systems as smart card
management systems. X-BULK is defined in terms of structures expressed
in the [W3C] XML Schema Language and Web Services Description Language
(WSDL). The specification enables the bulk issuance of digital
certificates on devices such as smart cards, cable modems and
next-generation wireless SIM cards. XKMS is designed to simplify the
integration of enhanced Internet security features such as
authentication, encryption and digital signatures into Web
applications. The ability to have these features embedded in Internet
applications and devices, and therefore `invisible' to the user, will
be a key factor in mass adoption of the technology. However,
proprietary interfaces between device factories and PKIs are currently
limiting the ability for devices to be manufactured with digital
certificates. The X-BULK extension to XKMS will eliminate these
proprietary interfaces and replace them with an open, industry-backed
interface. This will result in much speedier implementation times for
financial institutions, wireless operators, enterprises and
governments who are actively rolling out smart cards with PKI to
enable a host of value added services aimed at increasing revenue and
decreasing administration costs." [Full
context]
[July 18, 2001]
W3C Releases CSS3 Modules for Inheritance, Values, and Units.
The W3C CSS Working Group has published two new CSS3
modules as working drafts. CSS3 Module: Cascading and
Inheritance "describes how values are assigned to
properties. CSS allows several style sheets to influence the rendering
of a document, and the process of combining these style sheets is
called 'cascading'. If no value can be found through cascading, a
value can be inherited from the parent element or the property's
initial value is used." This working draft contains nothing new
conceptually, but constitutes a redraft of relevant portions of CSS
level 2 as a CSS3 module; "all the properties and features
described which also exist in CSS level 2 are intended to be backwards
compatible." The working draft for CSS3 Module: Values and
Units "describes the various values and units that CSS
properties accept. Also, it describes how 'specified values', which is
what a style sheet contains, are processed into 'computed values' and
'actual values'. There are five main types of values in CSS: (1)
keywords -- e.g., "pitch-range: inherit"; (2) numbers
-- e.g., "orphans: 3"; (3) numbers with unit
identifiers -- e.g., "border-width: 0.2em"; (4)
strings -- e.g., "content: 'Figure: '"; (5) functions
-- e.g., "background: url(http://www.w3.org/image)";
(6) special cases -- e.g., "color: #F00" and
"font-size: Helvetica". Most properties accepts values from
several of the above types. Some properties accept space- or
comma-separated lists of values. Each CSS property has a formal
definition of what types of values it accepts which can be found in
the description of the property..." [Full
context]
[July 17, 2001]
Proposal for Basic Semantic Web Language (BSWL).
Sean B. Palmer has
announced a new proposal for a stripped down RDF-in-XML syntax called
"BSWL" or the "Basic Semantic Web Language." The
abstract syntax of this proposed language "is indeed very simple,
consisting only of a set of three elements and a handful of
attributes. The elements are: (1) <t> , denoting a
triple; (2) <po>, denoting a predicate an object pair;
(3) and <o>, denoting an object. Each of these elements
has a range of attributes that associate a URI with a particular part
of the content..." The proposed syntax features advantages over
RDF M&S [Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax
Specification], including: "(1) Simpler syntax - no typed or
anonymous nodes, allows one to form triples simply by nesting QNames;
(2) Has a special syntax for referring to XML QNames; (3) Forces you
to use xml:lang as part of the model, so it isn't lost; (4) Allows you
to nest triples so that the subject of the former triple becomes the
object of the latter triple; (5) Is possible to convert back into RDF
M&S, and vice versa -- once RDF Core decide what to do about
anonymous nodes; (6) Files using abbreviated BSWL tend to be shorter
than RDF M&S." [Full
context]
[July 17, 2001]
Idoox Releases Beta Framework for SOAP Web Services from
JavaScript.
A posting from Zdenek Svoboda
(Idoox) announces the first beta release of their SOAP JavaScript
Client, which "enables the scripting of Web Services using
JavaScript. JavaScript serves as a powerful scripting language for
flexible Web Service automation. WASP JavaScript may be used directly
in a browser without any useless server-side HTTP invocations. It also
allows the scripting of Web Services with server-side JavaScript code.
The JavaScript Client package is a part of Idoox's WASP (Web
Applications and Services Platform) and may be downloaded for free
through the Idoox Early Access Program. The Idoox JavaScript Client
currently supports MS IE 5.x and higher with MSXML 3.0 installed.
Developers may use the WSDL2Java compiler to generate all neccessary
HTML and JavaScript sources from the Web Service WSDL file. Idoox WASP
JavaScript has been tested for support with Mozilla browsers and
standalone JavaScript engines (Rhino). Principal features include: (1)
SOAP 1.1 and WSDL 1.1 support; (2) Automated JavaScript, HTML and
XML/XSL code generation from WSDL; (3) Easy customization of generated
code through XSL stylesheets; (4) Reasonable subset of XML Schema
support and Namespaces; (5) SOAP message tracking." [Full
context]
[July 17, 2001]
MarrowSoft Xselerator XSLT Editor 2.0.
A posting from Mark Tracy
announces the availability of MarrowSoft Xselerator XSLT Editor 2.0,
with a free 30-day evaluation version. Xselerator is a fully
functional XSL/XSLT IDE and debugger which "incorporates
XSL/XSLT/XML editing, transformation, testing, and debugging...
basically it's got everything an XSLT Editor should have plus a bit
more. Editing functionality supports (1) a clear and easy to use IDE,
(2) XSL/XSLT element and attribute intuitive (like Intellisense or
code insight) drop-downs, (3) Automatic tag completion -- in XSL/XSLT
tag completion follows model and, optionally, fills element with
mandatory attributes, (4) HTML element and attribute intuitive
drop-downs, (5) Full XSL, XSLT, XML and HTML color syntax highlighting
-- fully customizable, (6) All the usual editor capabilities (cut,
copy, paste, find, replace) plus special 'Copy as RTF' and 'Copy as
HTML' features allowing syntax highlighting to be preserved when
copying and pasting to word-processors, html editors and newsgroups
etc. The XSLT debugger has full stepping capability, breakpoints on
both XSLT and input XML, conditional breakpoints, view template call
stack, watch values -- including full XPath expression watches, and
support for MSXML3 transformations. The software supports
transformation testing, wizards, XPath query analyzer, project files
management, etc." [Full
context]
[July 12, 2001]
IBM's XML Parser for Java (XML4J) Supports W3C XML Schema
Recommendation.
IBM alphaWorks has released an updated version of the XML Parser
for Java (XML4J) which supports the W3C XML Schema specification and
includes other enhancements. XML4J version 3.2.0 is distributed as
source code and as a binary; it is covered by the standard Apache 1.1
license. XML4J now incorporates the following: "(1) W3C XML
Schema Recommendation 1.0 support; (2) SAX 1.0 and SAX 2.0 support;
(3) Support for DOM Level 1, DOM Level 2, and for some features of DOM
Level 3 Core Working Draft; (4) JAXP 1.1 support." The IBM XML
applications development team has also released an improved version of
the 'XML Schema Quality Checker' tool. Version 1.85 of the XML Schema
Quality Checker fixes 15 bugs present in the previous version, and
improves usability under Solaris 2.7 and Windows 98. IBM's XML Schema
Quality Checker "is a program which takes as input an XML Schema
written in the W3C XML schema language and diagnoses improper uses of
the schema language; where the appropriate action to correct the
schema is not obvious, the diagnostic message may include a suggestion
about how to make the fix." [Full
context]
[July 12, 2001]
Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) Group and OAGI
to Collaborate on XML Specifications.
Recent announcements from the Open Applications Group, Inc. (OAGI),
the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) Group, and
Drummond Group describe collaborative efforts to design XML-based
specifications for use in the automotive retail industry. Drummond
will facilitate the creation of "a set of XML-based
Infrastructure specifications and protocols for the Open Applications
Group Inc. (OAGI) and the Standards for Technology in Automotive
Retail (STAR) consortium. OAGI and STAR have partnered to lead a
series of specification building projects focused on automotive
distribution business processes and the messaging infrastructure
supporting them. Drummond Group will lead the messaging infrastructure
development effort for this group. The Open Applications Group, Inc.
announced they have been selected by the STAR consortium as their
development partner for their next generation business language and
data messaging architecture. The two organizations have formed a
collaborative initiative to design XML (Extensible Markup Language)
based messages conforming to and extending the OAGIS specification.
The STAR/XML project will enhance current systems, making them more
timely, easier to use, and more automated. The STAR/XML initiative
will use the standard collaborations and messages from the OAGIS
specification and will also build new collaborations and messages
specifically for the STAR constituency. In addition, OAGI architects
and technologists, working with domain experts from the auto industry,
will design a standardized infrastructure to streamline business data
flowing between auto dealerships, manufacturers and other auto
distribution 'value chain' companies. This infrastructure will be
Internet based and utilize elements of the recently approved ebXML
specification, which is a B2B protocol recently approved by the United
Nations. The results of this initiative will enable STAR members to
conduct business in real time by communicating data in common terms
using standardized business processes." [Full
context]
[July 11, 2001]
VICS Board of Directors Approves CPFR XML Messaging Standard.
The Board of Directors for the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce
Standards Association (VICS) recently approved the VICS CPFR XML
Messaging Model as a specification which "establishes
voluntary guidelines for XML message exchange among systems that
implement the VICS Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and
Replenishment (CPFR) principles. The CPFR XML Messaging specification
has been developed in cooperation with retailers, manufacturers,
distributors, and other software and professional services providers.
The guidelines "define a process to exchange, compare and alert
trading partners to changes in key supply chain data to reduce
inventory and improve customer service. CPFR is a process that touches
many functional areas of the supply chain, including product activity,
supply chain performance, forecasts, promotions, and product profile
information. Various other efforts are responsible for standardizing
XML messages in these areas, and the VICS CPFR XML specification has
been integrated with the broader set of EAN/UCC XML specifications
endorsed by the Global Commerce Initiative (GCI) to ensure full
coverage of CPFR process without creating overlapping or redundant
message formats. The existing core EAN/UCC messages for item
synchronization, party (trading partner) synchronization, purchase
order, invoice, despatch (shipment notice) and other information have
been augmented with the CPFR product activity, forecast and other
transactions. The CPFR XML Messaging model uses class diagrams from
the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to represent CPFR entities as a
set of object classes. The CPFR XML Messaging model includes an XML
Schema [XSD] mapping that provides a concrete syntax for messages, to
encourage interoperability." [Full
context]
[July 09, 2001]
W3C Publishes XML Protocol Abstract Model and Glossary.
An initial draft specification XML Protocol Abstract Model
has been published by the W3C XML Protocol Working Group. The draft
document has been developed "in order to provide a useful
framework for the evaluation of candidate protocols and for reasoning
about the development of the protocol itself." According to the
WD, "the challenge of crafting a protocol specification is to
create a description of behaviour that is not tied to any particular
approach to implementation. There is a need to abstract away from some
of the messy implementation details of buffer management, data
representation and specific APIs. However, in order to describe the
behaviour of a protocol one has to establish a set of (useful)
concepts that can be used in that description. An abstract model is
one way to establish a consistent set of concepts. An abstract model
is a tool for the description of complex behaviour -- it is not a
template for an implementation... although it should not stray so far
away from reality that it is impossible to recognise how the required
behaviours would be implemented... As the XML Protocol Working Group
labored on the XML Protocol Requirements document and the emerging
specification, they also set out to describe how such a technology
might ultimately be designed at an abstract level. The resulting
Working Draft, the XML Protocol Abstract Model, also
provides a shared vocabulary for both members of the Working Group,
and other developers already at work on applications that make use of
earlier versions of SOAP. Section 2 of the working draft presents an
overview of the abstract model; Section 3 presents a model for the
services provided by the XML protocol layer to XML protocol
applications; Section 4 presents a model for the extensible processing
of XML protocol messages; Section 5 presents a model for the binding
of XML protocol to underlying protocol layers." [Full
context]
[July 09, 2001] W3C Releases First Public Working
Draft for SOAP Version 1.2.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published a first working
draft specification for SOAP Version 1.2. The working draft has been
produced by the XML Protocol Working Group (WG), part of the W3C
XML Protocol Activity. "Version 1.2 implements XML schemas
and namespaces, clarifies ambiguities, and provides a refined
processing model. SOAP version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for
exchange of information in a decentralized, distributed environment.
It is an XML based protocol that consists of four parts: an envelope
that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how
to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of
application-defined data types, a convention for representing remote
procedure calls and responses and a binding convention for exchanging
messages using an underlying protocol. SOAP can potentially be used in
combination with a variety of other protocols; however, the only
bindings defined in this document describe how to use SOAP in
combination with HTTP and the experimental HTTP Extension
Framework." The Working Group has also "produced an abstract
model and a glossary of terms and concepts used by the Working Group,
together with a new issues list that describes issues and concerns
raised by mapping its requirements and the XMLP abstract model against
the SOAP/1.1." Section D.1 supplies 'SOAP Specification Changes'
in tabular format; Section D.2 XML with 'Schema Changes' documents the
envelope and encoding schemas which have been updated to be compliant
with the XML Schema Recomendation. [Full
context]
[July 06, 2001]
New Release of XML Schema Validator (XSV).
A posting from Henry S.
Thompson (HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh)
announces an update of the W3C/LTG XML Schema Validator tool. The
Validator for XML Schema REC (20010502) version is "an open
source work-in-progress attempt at a conformant schema-aware
processor, as defined by XML Schema Part 1: Structures,
May 2, 2001 (REC) version. XSV has been developed by Henry S. Thompson
and Richard Tobin of the Language Technology Group of the Human
Communication Research Centre in the Division of Informatics at the
University of Edinburgh." The new release [XSV 1.197/1.99 of
2001/07/06 10:02:16] is available interactively online from the W3C
web site. The '2001/07/06' release provides bug fixes and better
handling of attribute defaults. Python source code and Win32 binaries
have also been updated. The online version of the tool provides two
HTML forms: (1) one for checking a schema which is accessible via the
Web, and/or schema-validating an instance with a schema of your own,
(2) another for file upload if you are behind a firewall or have a
schema to check which is not accessible via the Web. Four styles of
output may be selected (verbose/concise; styled for different
generations of HTML browsers). [Full
context]
[July 06, 2001]
SWIFT and FPL Agree to Develop Securities Standard 'ISO 15022 XML' in
ISO Working Group 10.
FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) and SWIFT have "announced an agreement
under which the two organizations will seek convergence of their
respective messaging protocols." SWIFT has been developing a
financial message design rules specification as an XML standard "swiftML
for Business Messages." SWIFT is "an industry owned
co-operative supplying secure messaging services and interface
software to over 7,000 financial institutions in 192 countries; SWIFT
carried 1.2 billion messages in 2000." Through the FIX
Organization, FIX Protocol, Ltd. has been developing the
public-domain Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol as "a
messaging standard developed specifically for the real-time electronic
exchange of securities transactions. FIX is a globally recognized
messaging standard that enables the electronic communication of
pre-trade and trade messages between financial institutions, primarily
investment managers, broker/dealers, ECNs and stock exchanges."
The new agreement between SWIFT and FPL, "which centers on the
adoption of ISO 15022 XML as a common industry standard, will, for the
first time, provide a tangible link between the front and back office
operations of securities institutions. This link will enable the
seamless flow of data across the entire transaction chain. Under the
terms of the agreement, FPL and SWIFT will actively support the
efforts of the ISO Working Group 10, which aims to evolve the current
ISO 15022 scheme for securities message types to a single standard,
expressed in XML. The agreement leverages the expertise of FPL in the
pre-trade/trade domain and SWIFT in the post-trade domain. Both
organizations will work to develop mapping documentation to support
the industry's migration to ISO 15022 XML and the coexistence of FIX,
ISO 15022 and ISO 15022 XML. ISO 15022 XML is expected to be available
by early 2002." [Full
context]
[July 06, 2001]
Software AG Releases XQuery Prototype 'QuiP'.
A posting from Jonathan
Robie announces the availability of 'QuiP, a W3C XQuery
Prototype'. QuiP is Software AG's prototype implementation of XQuery,
the W3C XML query language. "QuiP can be used either with
text-based XML files or for queries against a Tamino database. QuiP is
designed to make it easy to learn and use the XQuery language."
QuiP is available on Windows 32 bit platforms, and requires a Java
virtual machine version 1.3; it may be downloaded for free. "The
QuiP distribution is a good way to get a hands-on grasp of the XQuery
language: it conforms to the 7-June-2001 draft of XQuery, and it
includes a large number of sample queries and data files, syntax
diagrams in the online help, and a GUI. There is also a developer
forum that you can use to post comments on the prototype or on the
XQuery language; follow the link from the downloads page. In addition
to the GUI tool, there is also a command-line version of QuiP. The
script file RunQuip.cmd is an example that shows how the
command-line interface can be used." [Full
context]
[July 06, 2001]
Updated XEP Rendering Engine Supports Enhanced XSL FO Formatting.
A posting from Nikolai Grigoriev
(RenderX) announces the availability of a new evaluation version of
XEP. The XEP application from RenderX is "an engine that converts
XSL FO documents to a printable form (PDF or PostScript). XEP conforms
to the W3C Candidate Recommendation for XSL, 21-November-2000. It can
take the input from a file, a byte stream, or a parsed XML document,
via industry-standard SAX1/SAX2 interfaces. XEP is a native-mode XSL
FO processor: the whole procedure of calculating the layout of every
page is performed inside, without recurring to any third-party
formatting engines like nroff, TeX or whatever else. XEP builds an
exact internal representation of page layouts and then outputs it to
the desired media using only the simplest graphic primitives.
Therefore, it is relatively easy to add more output formats to the
system. Moreover, the internal layout representation can be output in
an XML-based layout description format; this gives you an extra
flexibility in storing / manipulating formatted documents. This format
is documented in the commercial version, to give XEP's users a
possibility to implement custom output handlers." Improvements in
XEP version 2.5 are listed in the announcement. These include, for
example: "(1) support for proportional-column-width(); (2)
support for 'orphans' ('widows' are still unsupported); (3) support
for 'fo:character'; (4) support for PNG graphics; (5) some limited
support for SVG graphics; (6) more consistent support of absolutely
positioned block containers; (7) line-breaking algorithm has been
reworked to handle CJK scripts; (8) GUI-based setup program [for Sun
JDK/JRE]. Changes specific to PDF Generator include (1) support for
TrueType/OpenType fonts; (2) support for PDF bookmarks (via
proprietary extensions); (3) support for setting PDF document info
fields inside an XSL FO document, via proprietary extensions." [Full
context]
[July 05, 2001]
Initial Release of a RELAX NG Working Draft Specification.
James Clark has announced the release of an initial working draft
specification for RELAX NG. Edited by James Clark and Makoto MURATA
for the OASIS TC, this working draft is not [yet] an official
committee work product; comments are invited. The document presents
"the definitive specification of RELAX NG, a simple schema
language for XML, based on RELAX and TREX. A RELAX NG schema specifies
a pattern for the structure and content of an XML document. The WD
specifies (1) when an XML document is a correct RELAX NG schema, and
(2) when an XML document is valid with respect to a correct RELAX NG
schema. Section 2 describes the RELAX NG data model, which is the
abstraction of an XML document used throughout the rest of the
document. Section 3 describes the syntax of a RELAX NG schema; any
correct RELAX NG schema must conform to this syntax. Section 4
describes a sequence of transformations that are applied to simplify a
RELAX NG schema; applying the transformations also involves checking
certain restrictions that must be satisfied by a correct RELAX NG
schema. Section 5 describes the syntax that results from applying the
transformations; this simple syntax is a subset of the full syntax.
Section 6 describes the semantics of a correct RELAX NG schema that
uses the simple syntax; the semantics specify when an element is valid
with respect to a RELAX NG schema. Section 7 describes restrictions in
terms of the simple syntax; a correct RELAX NG schema must be such
that, after transformation into the simple form, it satisfies these
restrictions. Finally, Section 8 describes conformance requirements
for RELAX NG validators." Appendix A supplies the proposed RELAX
NG schema for RELAX NG. [Full
context]
[July 05, 2001]
XML Schema for 'Beta' Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
(METS).
A posting from Jerome
McDonough (Digital Library Development Team Leader, Elmer Holmes
Bobst Library, New York University) announces the release of a beta
version of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) XML
schema. METS "provides an XML-based framework for encoding
descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata for a digital
library object. It can be used both as a standardized mechanism for
exchanging digital library objects between repositories, and as an
encoding mechanism for local storage, retrieval and display of digital
library objects. METS has been developed as an initiatve of the Digital
Library Federation and is being maintained in the Network
Development and MARC Standards Office of the US Library of Congress."
The development team solicits feedback from the library community
regarding the design of the METS XML schema. Comments on the XML
schema should be sent to the Listserver by August 31, 2001 in
anticipation of a review meeting in September. Interested parties may
subscribe to the METS Forum, an
unmoderated computer forum open to members of the METS development
community. [Full
context]
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