Real Problems Real Solutions Real XML AIIM Briefing Tom Cozzolino, Tim Vattima Answerthink

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Real ProblemsReal SolutionsReal XMLAIIM
BriefingTom Cozzolino, Tim VattimaAnswerthink
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Todays Agenda

• What is XML?
• What are the target areas for XML?
• How has XML been used in Real Solutions?
• What is on the horizon for XML?
• Wrap-Up

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Todays Agenda

• What is XML?
• What are the target areas for XML?
• How has XML been used in Real Solutions?
• What is on the horizon for XML?
• Wrap-Up

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What is XML?

• Brief History
• What it is (and what it isnt)
• Key Components
• XML and the Web
• XML and Applications

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What is XML? - Brief History

• Based on Standard Generalized Markup Language
  (SGML), but omits obscure features
• Developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),
  originally as Web SGML
• First spec completed November 96
• Created to help the extremes of HTML and SGML

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What is XML? - (and what it isnt)

• XML is an extremely simple dialect of SGML..
  with the goal to enable generic SGML to be
  served, received, and processed on the Web in the
  way that is now possible with HTML (source XML
  specification)
• It is not a programming language or a protocol
  but a structured text format

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What is XML? Sample Document

• lt?xml version 1.0?gt
• ltproduct barcode3456789A7gt
• ltmanufacturergtSonylt/manufacturergt
• ltnamegtDVD-5000-5lt/namegt
• ltquantitygt75lt/quantitygt
• ltcolorgtblacklt/colorgt
• ltdescriptiongt5-Disc DVD Changerlt/descriptiongt
• lt/productgt

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What is XML?
(source xml.darmstadt.gmd.de)
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What is XML? - Components Document Type
Descriptor (DTD)

• A Formal statement regarding what a valid
  document may contain
• Lists all elements, attributes, and entities used
  and associated contexts
• Documents that do not conform to the DTD are
  invalid
• Human Readable

... lt!ELEMENT first_name (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT
last_name (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT profession
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT name (first_name,
last_name)gt lt!ELEMEN
T person (name, profession)gt ...
Source OReilly
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What is XML? - Components Parsers

• Check documents for well-formedness (i.e., are
  all tags closed, etc.?)
• Checks for validity (i.e., does it conform to
  the DTD?)
• Parsers exist or under development for most
  platforms (W2K, Unix, PDA, Phone)

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XML and the Web Namespaces

• A namespace is a collection of element and
  attribute names identified by a URI reference
  (source XML FAQ)
• Namespaces are necessary to allow software
  modules..to be able to recognize the tags and
  attributes which they are designed to process,
  even in the face of collisions occurring when
  markup intended for some other software package
  uses the same element type or attribute name
  (source W3C.org)

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XML and the Web Namespaces (contd)
lt?xml version"1.0"?gtlt!-- both namespace
prefixes are available throughout --gtltbkbook
xmlnsbk'urnloc.govbooks'
xmlnsisbn'urnISBN0-395-36341-6'gtltbktitlegtChe
aper by the Dozenlt/bktitlegtltisbnnumbergt15684913
79lt/isbnnumbergtlt/bkbookgt
Source http//www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/
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What is XML? - Components Internationalization

• XML Documents contain Unicode Text (supports
  about 50,000 characters)
• All XML documents should have an encoding
  declaration
• lt?xml Version1.0 encodingKOI8-R?gt
• xmllang attribute can specify the language of a
  specific element

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XML and the Web Options

• XHTML - Retrofit HTML Documents to be
  XML-compliant (i.e., ltpgt with lt/pgt, etc.)
• XML files Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) -
  combines content (XML) with display (CSS) to
  produce HTML for browsers
• XML files Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
  Transformation (XSLT) - very important!

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XML and the Web XLINK, XPOINTER

• XLINK HREF on steroids bi-directional,
  actionable, arcs are supported
• ltFOOTNOTE xmlnsxlink"http//www.w3.org/XML/XLink
  /0.9" xlinktype"simple" xlinkhref"footnote7.xm
  l"gt7
• lt/FOOTNOTEgt
• ltSTORE xlinktypelocator
  
  xlinkhrefhttp//www.amazon.com/bookinfo?
  theisbn0192343451
  xlinklabelbuygtAmazonlt
  /STOREgt
• XPOINTER Links portions of documents
• xpointer(/people/person/name/first_name/text())

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XML and Applications SAX, DOM

• Two Alternatives to store/parse XML documents in
  memory
• DOM - Document Object Model - read the entire XML
  object into memory before operating on it (better
  for random access)
• SAX - Simple API for XML - process the XML object
  on lttaggt lt/taggt basis
  (better for large documents)

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XML and Applications RDF

• Resource Description Framework (RDF) consistently
  and unambiguously describes products, services,
  and content for non-human consumers

Source http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources
/rdf/examples/2/
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XML and Applications RDF (contd)

• ltrdfRDF
• xmlnsrdf"http//www.w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-syntax"
• xmlnsdc"http//purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/"
• xmlnsdcq"http//purl.org/dc/qualifiers/1.0/"gt
• ltrdfDescription about"http//www.ariadne.ac.uk
  /"gt
• ltdcTitlegtAriadne - The Web
  Versionlt/dcTitlegt
• ltdcSubjectgt
• journal magazine elib electronic
  libraries digital libraries
• networking Web IT higher education
• lt/dcSubjectgt
• ltdcDescriptiongt
• A Web magazine of Internet issues for
  librarians
• and information specialists
• lt/dcDescriptiongt
• ...
• lt/rdfRDFgt

Source http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources
/rdf/examples/2/
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Todays Agenda

• What is XML?
• What are the target areas for XML?
• How has XML been used in Real Solutions?
• What is on the horizon for XML?
• Wrap-Up

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B2B Pressures

• Say Goodbye to EDI
• EDI is batch - XMLB2B is near real-time
• EDI is point-to-point - adding partners is
  difficult and tedious
• Uses the inexpensive Internet
• No costly WAN connections
• XML-B2B uses simple protocols like HTTP(S)
• Leverage Vertical Industry Standards
• Finance/Banking uses ebXML or SOAP to allow
  real-time query/update for customers and partners
• Information Services such as News, Weather, and
  Investment services use XML and SOAP to provide
  open B2B services to customers

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Leveraging Investments in Legacy Systems

• Streamlines Internal Processes by allowing Modern
  and Legacy Systems to coexist through a common
  interface to information
• Flexible
• XML can be easily changed to add / delete /
  change new business functions
• Combining with XSLT typically means little or no
  reprogramming of old code
• Self-Describing Data
• XML contains not only the data but the metadata,
  so data definitions are always up to date

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Delivering to Multiple Channels

• Presentation Tier can support (m)any clients
• Browsers - HTML
• Phones - WML
• Voice Processing - VoiceXML
• PDA - HTML
• XSLT transforms XML to appropriate client
  response, saving considerable effort and
  maintenance

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XSLT

• eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
• Language for expressing style sheets
• Like CSS, XSL is a file that describes how to
  display an XML document

... ltscenegt ltFXgtGeneral Road Building
noises.lt/FXgt ltspeech speaker"Prosser"gt Come
off it Mr Dent, you can't win you know. There's
no point in lying down in the path of progress.
lt/speechgt ltspeech speaker"Arthur"gt I've
gone off the idea of progress. It's overrated
lt/speechgt ...
... ltxsltemplate match"FX"gt ltfoblock
font-weight"bold"gt ltxslapply-templates/gt
lt/foblockgt lt/xsltemplatesgt ... ltxsltemplate
match"speech_at_speaker"Arthur""gt ltfoblock
background-color"blue"gt ltxslvalue-of
select"_at_speaker"gt ltxslapply-templates/gt
lt/foblockgt lt/xsltemplategt ...
XML
XSL
XSLT
HTML
Source http//www.w3.org/Style/XSL/WhatIsXSL.html
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Dealing with Heterogeneous Environments

• Support for multiple operating systems and
  component models
• Supported on Windows / UNIX / Midrange /
  Mainframe
• XML Messages easily passed via Message Oriented
  Middleware
• SOAP, ebXML

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Easing Application Development

• Time Savings
• Human-Readable tools automate Application
  building (ANT Build Tool)
• XSLT can Promote Pattern-based automatic Code
  Generation

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Easing Application Development (contd)

• Flexible Design
• Java API for XML Binding (JAXB) for marshalling
  and unmarshalling XML and Java objects

ltorder id1225678gt ltdategt12/15/2001lt/dategt
ltcustomer id00067gtlt/customergt ltlineitemsgt
ltlineitem id1 qty4gt ltproduct
id145gtlt/productgt lt/lineitemgt
ltlineitem id2 qty2gt ltproduct
id201gtlt/productgt lt/lineitemgt
ltlineitem id3 qty10gt ltproduct
id357gtlt/productgt lt/lineitemgt
lt/lineitemsgt lt/ordergt
DTD
J A X B
Order
Id1225678 date12/15/2001 custId00067 lineitems
ArrayList
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Easing Application Development (contd)

• Flexible Design
• Naming and Directory Services for
  location-transparent design (Universal
  Description, Discovery and Integration Services -
  UDDI)
• Configuration Management, Application Properties
• XML and SQL Databases
• ltroot xmlnssql"urnschemas-microsoft-comxml-sql
  "gt
• ltSuffolkgt
• ltsqlquerygtSELECT name FROM tgr361030c WHERE fips
  ! 0 FOR XML AUTO
• lt/sqlquerygtlt/Suffolkgt
• ltrootgt

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Todays Agenda

• What is XML?
• What are the target areas for XML?
• How has XML been used in Real Solutions?
• What is on the horizon for XML?
• Wrap-Up

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How has XML been used in Real Solutions?

• Freight Company Expanding into the Dot Com World
• Wireless Infrastructure Provider Supporting
  Multiple Wireless Devices with the same content
• Pharmaceutical Company Publishing Internet-based
  subscriptions from multiple sources
• Telco Increasing Operating Efficiencies by
  adding multiple sales channels and partners

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Freight Handling Company Expanding into the Dot
Com World

• 375MM Freight Handler
• How do non-Brick-and-Mortar Companies handle
  timely warehousing and fulfillment?
• Customers demanding a Glass Pipeline to track
  end-to-end Logistics
• Business Problem Existing warehousing software
  solutions cannot easily handle multiple
  independent companies in the same warehouse

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Freight Handling Company Technical Solution

• Use well-known Messaging infrastructure to
  provide highly-available connectivity between the
  new Order Management System and the Legacy
  Transaction processing system
• Define XML-based message structure as the
  payload for messages between the disparate
  systems
• Tools Used IBM MQ Series and Microsoft Message
  Queue (MSMQ)

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Freight Handling Company Technical Solution
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Freight Handling Company Benefits of using XML

• Enabled the developers to focus on the design of
  Order Management System, not point-to-point
  communications
• Legacy Led to a flexible, open architecture for
  integrating with the legacy transaction
  processing system (easy to add / modify
  transactions)
• Heterogeneous Common XML denominator allowed
  straightforward integration of IBM and Microsoft
  Technologies

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Wireless Infrastructure Provider Supporting
Multiple Wireless Devices with the same content

• Startup Company funded by Major device, Telco,
  and Financial Services Investors
• Provides Infrastructure to link Multiple channels
  with information through the use of barcodes
• Business Problem Provide fast linkages between a
  large array of channels and back-end services,
  including
• Database, LDAP
• Messaging
• Voice Processing
• Data Import and Export

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Wireless Infrastructure ProviderTechnical
Solution

• All responses to client are formulated as XML
• XSLT is used to transform the XML response to the
  appropriate content for the target client
• As new client-types become available, all that is
  needed is a new XSLT template for that client
  type no rewriting of code

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Wireless Infrastructure ProviderTechnical
Solution
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Wireless Infrastructure ProviderTechnical
Solution (contd)

• Integration with many types of servers
• Message-Oriented Middleware server queues XML
  messages among many services providing a fault
  tolerant, guaranteed delivery mechanism for
  messages
• Each service is attached to a particular message
  queue to process the incoming XML

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Wireless Infrastructure ProviderTechnical
Solution (contd)

• A Custom Data Migration Service allows import and
  export of a clients product list for maintenance
  and batch loading
• Due to potentially large datasets, SAX is used to
  provide complete control over XML generation and
  parsing
• Tools Used Castor, SAX, XSLT, ANT, BEA Weblogic,
  Tibco

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Wireless Infrastructure Provider Benefits of
using XML

• Application Development Cost savings
• Code generation
• XML templates for many similar Java Objects are
  run through an XSLT transformer to produce
  ready-to-compile java source files
• ANT Application Build Tool
• Castor allowed XML to be used to marshall and
  unmarshall to and from Java objects - no
  additional coding was necessary beyond the
  objects DTD
• gt 100 hrs. of work saved
• Heterogeneous XML allows non-proprietary
  messaging across a variety of services
• Flexible Design
• Pluggable architecture

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Pharmaceutical Publishing Internet-based
subscriptions from multiple sources

• 14BN Annual Revenue
• Grow top-line revenue by providing
  subscription-based information to Research
  Communities over the Internet
• Business Problem Create a uniform approach to
  handling various content styles and formats to be
  searched and browsed using a single taxonomy
• Transform XML to HTML for presentation
• Target 90K documents loaded per month

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Pharmaceutical Technical Solution

• Use XSLT to convert various content styles to
  common internal XML format
• Use Industrial-strength RDBMS for indexing and
  retrieval of data stored in internal format
• Tools Used Oracle DB and Parser, XSLT, BEA
  WebLogic

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Pharmaceutical Architecture
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Pharmaceutical Benefits of using XML

• Heterogeneous Transforming all content to a
  standard XML format greatly simplified the
  loading, indexing and presentation of data from
  multiple sources
• Development Strategy allowed developers /
  architects to focus on the taxonomy browsing
  capabilities of the application

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Telco Increasing Operating Efficiencies by
adding multiple sales channels and partners

• 5BN Revenue, 15MM Subscribers Worldwide
• High Investment in Legacy Systems
• Requires seamless Integration among many
  services Authorized Resellers (including
  LightBridge - Credit Check, Payment Plus -
  Deposit Settlement, External Billing, others)
• Business Problem Reduce operational friction
  between external partners and Company, provide
  lower delivery time for new customer services

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Telco Technical Solution (Authorized Resellers -
200K Transactions per month)

• Commerce XML (cXML) DTD used to communicate to
  BrightPoint
• Purchase Order sent as XML with response
  containing shipping information
• cXML allows Company to use standards-compliant
  fulfillment vendors with no changes in its
  interfacing systems
• Credit Check request sent to LightBridge via XML
• LightBridge processes request and sends XML
  response with a credit rating in real time
• Tools Used Java-based XML Parsers, SOAP, iPlanet
  Application Server

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Telco Technical Solution (Authorized Resellers)
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Telco Benefits of using XML on the project

• B2B SOAP / Web Services reduces the amount of
  knowledge trading partners need about each
  others technologies
• Development Loosely-coupled interfaces are more
  scalable and provide guaranteed delivery of
  transactions
• Development Using SOAP over HTTP sidesteps messy
  architectural / security constraints

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Todays Agenda

• What is XML?
• What are the target areas for XML?
• How has XML been used in Real Solutions?
• What is on the horizon for XML?
• Wrap-Up

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What is on the horizon for XML? Web Services

• Allows dynamic Program-to-Program Assembly of
  Services
• Leverages Public and Private Universal
  Description, Discovery and Integration Services
  (UDDI)
• Huge amount of Industry Emphasis (IBM, Microsoft,
  BEA, Sun)
• Standards Efforts (ebXML, others) coalescing
  around Web Services
• Bottom Line 6 mos. - 18 mos.

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Web Services Sample Architecture
A Simple Approach.. (source ibm.com)

• Leads to Real
• Integration..
• (source webservices.org)

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What is on the horizon for XML? Next-Generation
Information Management

• Current Web is Unsearchable - 2 Billion pages
  cannot be effectively leveraged using
  conventional crawler technology
• XML, RDF, DAML, and shareable Ontologies will
  bring the Semantic Web into being
• Agents will be able to find Web content, and
  Understand its value and context
• Bottom Line 1-4 yrs.

(source w3c.org)
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Conclusions

• XML is hugely applicable to a number of important
  business and technology problems of today
• XML has been successfully applied to the
  Logistics, Wireless, Telco, Pharmaceutical and
  Content Management spaces to great benefit
• XML-based technologies are exploding in all
  dimensions of the IT space
• Change will be rapid, but investments in
  XML-based systems now will be leverageable in the
  future

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Thank You

• Tom Cozzolino
• TCozzolino_at_Answerthink.com
• Tim Vattima
• TVattima_at_Answerthink.com
• Jim Hopkins
• JHopkins_at_Answerthink.com