<?xml version="1.0"?>
<MyDocument>
  <MyTitle>Document Title</MyTitle>
  <MySection>
    This is the text
    of my section.
  </MySection>
</MyDocument>

Top

What is XML?

XML can encode data, not just documents for reading

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Order supplier="Babies Online">
  <Item code="XYZ-2000"
        name="No-Leak Nappies"/>
  <UnitPrice currency="AUD">5</UnitPrice>
  <Volume>10000</Volume>
  <ValidUntil>2000-12-31</ValidUntil>
</Order>

Top

What is XML?

XML is a simple and underwhelming concept

Tags can contain other tags or text or both

XML is Unicode, not ASCII, and is 100% case-sensitive

Top

Why XML?

Lots of information is tied up in documents with custom formats

To use these documents in automated processes is difficult, because you need to create readers for each document format

This makes computer-to-computer transactions difficult to implement across and between enterprises

Custom formats have software maintenance requirements which are a black hole for recurrent expenditure

How many organisations can still use their legacy WordPerfect 1.0 or Word 1.0 documents?

Top

Why XML?

XML is simple and (generally) human-readable, capable of representing complex data structures

Simpler for computers to read than other formats

Easy to transmit using Web servers through firewalls and over an Intranet or the Internet

Easier to learn and quicker to implement than heavyweight distributed software technologies like CORBA or DCOM, at some penalty in raw speed

Top

Why XML?

Rapidly being accepted as the industry standard portable data format

Not controlled by any one vendor, but contributed to by many

Microsoft and Sun may disagree on which OS's and languages are best, but both now support XML as the data format of choice

Oracle, IBM's DB2, & Microsoft's SQL Server all support XML input and output, as do a growing number of databases

Lots of software support, much available free of charge (open source)

XML saves development time, and hence money

Top

XML in Business

SOAP

Simple Object Access Protocol

Despite its name, actually a message format for distributed app-to-app communications

Supported by Microsoft & IBM among others

Could become the preferred way for all software components to communicate, even within the same program on the same computer

Top

XML in Business

SOAP

Trades off raw speed for flexibility & robustness

Basis for XML Protocol specification from W3C

Should be the basis for your future messaging requirements, as it will have strong vendor support

Top

XML in Business

UDDI

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration

Supported by Microsoft, IBM, & Sun among others

An on-line directory service for white, yellow, & green pages

Green pages are a computer-readable description of what services are available, and how to use them

Top

XML in Business

UDDI

Addresses a limitation of Web commerce - not straightforward to find products and services unless you already know who the vendors are

Will allow automation of "best-price" purchasing

www.uddi.org

Top

XML in Business

ebXML

An initiative of the UN & OASIS

While EDI is well established among Fortune 500 companies, it is only used by 1% of businesses worldwide

UN wants a scalable e-commerce solution that can be used by small & big business in developing & developed countries

Ease of entry is important, and Web technologies have proven that they are inexpensive to deploy

Top

XML in Business

ebXML

IBM has donated their tpaML (Trading Partner Agreement ML) as an input for ebXML

ebXML overlaps with both SOAP & UDDI

UN has asked SOAP & UDDI groups to engage with ebXML to develop a unified solution

Top

XML in Business

ebXML

You should be keeping an eye on ebXML

Has the potential to overhaul product/service delivery & open new markets

Participation is free & open to everyone from individuals to corporations

www.ebxml.org

Top

XML in Finance

XBRL

eXtensible Business Reporting Language

This is how your company reports will be submitted (but when?)

Simple XML structure specifies how to add/subtract figures to produce various subtotals

Majority of work is in building up agreed taxonomies of accounting terms

US GAAP (Commercial & Industrial) completed, others to follow

Different countries will have their own taxonomies (at least for now?)

Top

XML in Finance

XBRL

Designed so XBRL fragments can be embedded and recognised in other XML documents

Companies are free to create their own internal accounting terminology, using XBRL to relate these internal figures to the standard ones

Internal terminology & figures can be stripped before publishing externally

Will speed distribution of reports from companies to investors

Will allow automated analysis of company data across geographical regions or classifications

Top

XML in Finance

XBRL

You could use XBRL just for external reporting

You could use XBRL to help implement a real-time accounting system in your organisation

The value of XBRL can be as great for internal reporting as for external reporting

Contributers include various institutes of accountants, Arthur Anderson, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft, IBM, Reuters

www.xbrl.org

Top

XML in Finance

FpML

Financial Products Markup Language

Extensible message format for transactions of OTC derivatives

Addresses issue of how to speed settlement

Allows automatic checking that both parties agree on conditions

Contributers include J.P.Morgan, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deutsche Bank, IBM, SWIFT, Reuters

Top

XML in Finance

FpML

Message formats defined for interest rate swaps

Proposal for credit derivatives (Credit Default Swaps, Asset Swap Options & Total Return Swaps)

Clean architecture standard maintains common style or "feel" across product types

If defining a financial market standard, you could do worse than copy the FpML architecture, which is not FpML specific

www.fpml.org

Top

XML in Finance

IRML

Investment Research Markup Language

New initiative to facilitate automatic processing of investment reports

Initially will concentrate on "front page" material

Contributors include Multex, Dresdner KB, ABN AMRO, Reuters

Will effect usage of investment reports, due to ease of summarisation

Which reports will be read, which will only be used in summaries?

www.irml.org

Top

Standards Bodies & Industry Consortia

The usage of standard in this talk is colloquial

Only a few bodies, like ISO & the UN, can legally create standards

Common usage of "standard" corresponds to industry standard or de facto standard

The W3C creates recommendations for the World Wide Web

XML is one of these

Top

Standards Bodies & Industry Consortia

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) supports the development of vertical "standards"

Provides a pre-fab committee process, mailing lists, and a schema repository

Members include IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, SAP, Commerce One, Boeing, Reuters; open to all, including individuals

Many "standards" being developed by single issue groups such as XBRL.org, FpML.org, IRML.org

Overlaps & gaps in domain coverage are a growing but unresolved issue

Top

How to profit from XML

As organisations grow, internal communications become major cost issues

This also applies to computer-to-computer communication

Your legacy systems need to talk, your systems need to talk with those of your suppliers & customers

XML has become the lingua franca of the computer world, the common language we all understand

Top

How to profit from XML

Your PCs can talk XML

Your mainframes can talk XML

Windows, Solaris, Unix, Linux, Macintosh, etc. can all talk XML

Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, etc. can all talk XML

Top

How to profit from XML

As long as your divisions are using the same XML formats, you save money by re-using data & message formats

Suddenly, everyone sees your business information the same way across the company

When you share the data format, you can share software & infrastructural costs

If every business unit does its own thing with XML, you may not save money

Top

How to profit from XML

You can get the greatest gains by basing your internal XML formats on external XML standards, particularly those you use with suppliers, peers, or customers

Understand the standards that are out there, their scope, and how they overlap with your business

Understand that commerce standards start out modelling data, but often end up modelling business processes (especially transactions)

Standards mean standardising your processes with your competitors'

You need a clear vision of what your business differentiators are & will be, and how that will be reflected in your products/services

Top

How to profit from XML

Go for open standards. Proprietary or closed "standards" are not well received

Get involved in the standards that affect your core business

Develop products & services in parallel with developing standards; deploy ASAP after ratification

Standards usually require infrastructure which is outside of the standard itself

The companies that provide the infrastructure first will have the competitive advantage

Top

How to profit from XML

XML standards evolve with time.

Don't build systems that cannot cope with change!

Use 3rd party XML tools & standards whenever possible, including open source

Top

How to profit from XML

Case Study - Reuters & NewsML

Reuters is most well known for its news service

Reuters initiated NewsML, an XML format for packaging multimedia news

NewsML 1.0 spec has recently been approved by the IPTC

Reuters is building a news delivery system with NewsML as its foundation

Top

How to profit from XML

Case Study - Reuters & NewsML

Reuters could have tried to continue with its old news system

News could have been converted to NewsML as the last stage of the process, but labour intensively

However, there is far more to gain by building a flexible workflow around NewsML

Maintenance of proprietary applications can be phased out as off-the-shelf XML software is phased in

Top

How to profit from XML

Case Study - Reuters & NewsML

When the news format is the same at all points in the flow, it becomes possible to continuously refine the process

Equally, it becomes possible to add new products

The value is in being able to progressively adapt without having your systems break

Enormously difficult & expensive unless there is a common foundation for data & messaging

You may like to visit the Reuters NewsML showcase

Top

How to profit from XML

XML is multilingual - are you? Multinational? Multicultural?

What are your services now; what could they be in the future?

How will you compete if your products/services become commoditised?

Be creative in analysing what your business is

Top

Summary

XML is a simple concept whose strength lies in its open structure and software support

XML is influencing all large players, like Reuters, and will affect smaller organisations too

XML has made standards the flavour of the moment

Top

Summary

Co-operate on standards

Compete on implementations or infrastructure

ebXML, SOAP (XML Protocol) will affect your business

Top

Summary

My tip: consider joining OASIS, which provides infrastructure to fast-track the creation of vertical XML standards

Special thanks to Nic Fulton, Chief Technology Strategist, Reuterspace

Top

References

References - XML

XML.com: http://www.XML.com/
A good place to start learning about XML. The Annotated XML Spec is noteworthy, but not compulsory reading.

xmlhack.com: http://www.xmlhack.com/
News and articles for XML developers.

The XML Cover Pages: http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgml-xml.html
Robin Cover's encyclopadic reference for XML Specifications, articles, and tools.

Top

References

References - Business/Financial Specifications

ebXML: http://www.ebxml.org/
UN/OASIS initiative to create "EDI for the rest of us".

XBRL: http://www.xbrl.org/
eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

FpML: http://www.fpml.org
Financial Products Markup Language.

IRML: http://www.irml.org/
Investment Research Markup Language.

IBM XML specification for business-to-business transactions: http://www-4.ibm.com/software/developer/library/tpaml.html
One of the inputs to ebXML.

Top

References

References - XML Specifications

XML @ W3C: http://www.w3.org/XML/
The W3C's XML site. This is where the official XML recommendations are. Some of them can be heavy reading.

XML Protocol @ W3C: http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/
Status of the XML Protocol activity, based on SOAP 1.1.

SOAP 1.1: http://www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/
The SOAP 1.1 submission, given to the W3C as the basis for its XML Protocol work.

XML Namespaces: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names
Namespaces are used to identify sets of XML tags which might otherwise conflict.

XML Schemas #0: Primer: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/
XML Schemas can be used to describe the structure & data of the XML format for a particular application.

XML Schemas #1: Structures: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/

XML Schemas #2: Datatypes: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/

XHTML: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1
XHTML is the modular XML replacement for HTML 4.

Top

References

References - XML Specifications

SAX: http://www.megginson.com/SAX/index.html
Simple API for XML. Converts XML into a stream of events.

DOM @ W3C: http://www.w3.org/DOM/
Document Object Model. Converts XML into a tree of nodes.

XSL @ W3C: http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL
Extensible Stylesheet Language.

XSLT Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
XSL Transformations.

XSL Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xsl/
XSL Formatting Objects.

XPath Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath
How to specify a location in an XML document.

Top

References

References - XML Specifications

CSS @ W3C: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS
Cascading Style Sheets.

XPointer Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xptr
How to specify a location or range in an XML document.

XLink Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xlink/
How to do hyperlinking in XML.

XML Query Requirements: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlquery-req
The latest progress on the XML Query specification.

Top

References

References - XML Tools

IE5: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm
Displays XML as a tree by default, and can display XML using CSS or XSLT.

Mozilla (& Netscape 6 preview): http://www.mozilla.org/
Can display XML using CSS or XSLT. Uses XML to define "look & feel" of browser.

Apache XML Tools: http://xml.apache.org/
Xerces parser, Xalan XSLT, FOP XSL Formatting Objects, Cocoon servlet for transforming server-side XML to client-side HTML or XML, Xang dynamic page generator, SOAP. Xerces and Xalan available either as Java or C++.

James Clark's XML Resources: http://www.jclark.com/xml/
XP parser (Java), expat parser (C++), XT (XSLT in Java), and XML test cases. Self-funded, James Clark produces some of the best XML & SGML software available today, and makes it available for free.

Java Technology & XML @ Sun: http://java.sun.com/xml/
JAXP (Java API for XML Parsing) is Sun's new standard API for pluggable Java XML parsers, based on SAX and DOM.

XML @ IBM developerWorks: http://www.ibm.com/developer/xml/
News, articles, and software.

IBM alphaWorks: http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/
IBM's alphaWorks has an amazing range of XML (and other) tools to try for free; some of them very useful.

Top

References

References - XML Tools

XML Developer Center @ Microsoft: http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.asp
Check out Microsoft's XML parser and XSLT engine here.

Oracle XML Developer's Kit: http://technet.oracle.com/tech/xml/
Includes Oracle XML parser and XSLT engine. Java, C/C++, and PL/SQL.

JDOM: http://www.jdom.org/
An XML API designed specifically for Java developers.

JXML Tools: http://www.jxml.com/
Quick, Qare, & Coins - tools for transforming between XML & Java.

Top

References

References - XML Tools

Arbortext Epic Editor: http://www.arbortext.com/Products/Selection_Guide/Epic_Editor/epic_editor.html
A good, high-end XML editor.

SoftQuad XMetal: http://www.xmetal.com/
A good, high-end XML editor.

XML Spy: http://www.xmlspy.com
A very useable editor for XML, XSLT, DTDs, & XML Schemas (among other things).

Extensibility Tools: http://www.extensibility.com/
Extensibility have a family of cross-platform (Java) XML tools, including XML Instance (XML editor), XML Authority (DTD/Schema editor), XML Canon (repository).

Top

References

References - XML Repositories

XML.org: http://www.XML.org/
The OASIS repository for XML specifications, schemas and vocabularies.

BizTalk.org: http://www.biztalk.org/BizTalk/default.asp
This repository revolves around Microsoft's BizTalk product.

schema.net: http://www.schema.net/

Top

References

References - Articles

XML for the Absolute Beginner: http://www.javaworld.com/jw-04-1999/jw-04-xml.html?032499txt
JavaWorld article.

Design Patterns in XML Applications: Part 1: http://xml.com/pub/2000/01/19/feature/index.html?wwwrrr_20000119.txt
If you are familiar with design patterns, and article worth reading. If not, worth reading anyway before you design an XML DTD or Schema.