LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 2/1/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate Available Today
A Visual Studio 2010 release candidate is available on MSDN.
02/09/2010 09:45 AM EST

Is Microsoft eyeing Office subscription pricing?
Microsoft may be preparing to offer a new Office pricing option called "union," which charges the same for cloud as on-premises.
02/01/2010 09:38 AM EST

Facebook rewrites PHP runtime
Facebook is about to open source its own PHP runtime, written from scratch for speed.
01/30/2010 08:53 PM EST

 

Events calendar tab
Macworld 2010
2/9/2010 to 2/13/2010
San Francisco
IDG World Expo

SPTechCon 2010
2/10/2010 to 2/12/2010
San Francisco
BZ Media

PyCon 2010 (Python Conf.)
2/17/2010 to 2/25/2010
Atlanta
Python Software Foundation

Southern Calif. Linux Expo
2/19/2010 to 2/20/2010
Los Angeles
SCALE

IBM Pulse
2/21/2010 to 2/24/2010
Las Vegas
IBM


 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Facebook brings HipHop to PHP
HipHop compiles PHP to speed up the Web layer at world's most popular social networking si...

Adobe moves LiveCycle application platform to the cloud
Release gives developers just what they need to create targeted business process-oriented ...

Syncfusion announces component suite for .NET 4
Essential Studio 2010 has business intelligence, reporting and UI controls, ready for .NET...

Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter

Organization Information Using The Language Of Change


By Lisa Nadile
July 1, 2001 — 
Simple, easy-to-use databases were thought to have gone the way of paperless offices and macram?. However, XML is slashing away at the complex tools, proprietary technologies and near-impossible integration encountered by database application developers.

The focus is no longer on mapping tables or crafting yet another interface between products. Now it is on creating database applications that tap the ubiquity of the XML language.

"XML is the de facto standard for semistructured information on the Web," said Paul Brown, president and CEO of FiveSight Technologies Inc. (www.fivesight.com), which develops tools for building transaction and workflow applications. "If you're dealing with XML in general, why store it any other way?" asked Brown. "An XML database will make [building projects] a lot easier. XML makes things easier to build, test and modify than a relational database."

XML databases allow a developer to change a schema or metadata, without having to change tables. Normally the tables in a traditional relational database would require changes. In addition, ad hoc queries are impossible, according to Brown.

The key is to decide which database, XML or otherwise, best meets a company's needs. "The relational database is still absolutely the best tool for dealing with tabular data. It will be faster, it will be more intelligent, and it's a very mature technology," he added.

USING XML TO ADVANTAGE For FiveSight, asynchronous processing support is key for tool developers who are building and deploying messaging applications. The company is planning to use an XML database for use with its XML, JMS, LDAP and Java tools.

Another vendor uses a SQL Server 7.0 database with XML middleware from B-Bop to create a unique interpretation of the content delivery concept. MemeStreams Inc. (

), which develops tools for building transaction and workflow applications. "If you're dealing with XML in general, why store it any other way?" asked Brown. "An XML database will make [building projects] a lot easier. XML makes things easier to build, test and modify than a relational database."

XML databases allow a developer to change a schema or metadata, without having to change tables. Normally the tables in a traditional relational database would require changes. In addition, ad hoc queries are impossible, according to Brown.

The key is to decide which database, XML or otherwise, best meets a company's needs. "The relational database is still absolutely the best tool for dealing with tabular data. It will be faster, it will be more intelligent, and it's a very mature technology," he added.

USING XML TO ADVANTAGE For FiveSight, asynchronous processing support is key for tool developers who are building and deploying messaging applications. The company is planning to use an XML database for use with its XML, JMS, LDAP and Java tools.

Another vendor uses a SQL Server 7.0 database with XML middleware from B-Bop to create a unique interpretation of the content delivery concept. MemeStreams Inc. (www.memestreams.com) builds custom employee performance analysis applications, which track what a user is working on and how that user moves through a system. Then that data is turned into personalization information for creating more intelligent workflow.

According to Ben Trafford, MemeStreams' vice president of product development, B-Bop's Xfinity middleware takes the XML tracking data and sends it to and from the database. The process appears seamless, and Xfinity handles working with the relational database for the developers.

"We can also use XML to talk to CRM and ERP systems, because they all speak XML. It's the lingua franca of the Web," said Trafford.

LEGACY SYSTEMS FACE LIFT The industry standardization on XML tantalizes those developers looking to overcome the productivity black hole that is their complex legacy database systems.

"Over many years, we've had interfaces with so many different systems and had all the problems associated with that. When XML came up, we thought 'this is perfect.' It merged with all our interfaces," said Lewis Cunningham, chief architect of NDS Systems, an Oracle ERP application developer.

Using JDeveloper with Oracle's XML tools, Cunningham and his staff have added an XML-driven client to their existing applications, giving new life to NDS Systems' legacy architecture. The kit contains an XML SQL utility for generating XML content from Oracle9i, while keeping its existing PLSQL stored procedures.

STICK TO THE BIG THREE Be realistic-don't expect to build an XML database application without the big three: DOM, SAX and Java, say developers.

"Everyone should be playing with them in some way. Certainly with the commitment of virtually the entire industry to XML, it makes sense," FiveSight's Brown said.

For example, MemeStreams uses Java servlets to present documents to the user. According to Trafford, the company uses them to help power the artificial intelligence of the company's performance systems.

When a user pulls up a page, a JSP drops down to a project and activity history document, which was wrapped in a servlet. The servlet collects new data and uses that information to continually return the correct page, ensuring that it is populated with the correct or personalized information. The new information is added to the history and the personalization analysis continues, he said.

FiveSight also uses the servlet wrapping technique to build similar front ends to queries, said Brown.

X-PLAN XML is fast becoming known as a language with a very complex acronym farm. However, only by braving the morass can developers create the successful database applications they need.

"What I'm hearing from a lot of software developers who work for me is that using XML cuts development time in half by giving them access to a layer of 'in-direction' between the data and the application, which previously they had to hard-code," Trafford said.

For example, developers use a combination of XML, Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) and XLINKS. The XLINKS relate the interrelationships among the bits of user-tracking data to create really powerful metadata, he said.

MemeStreams has implemented 12 of the 15 XML standards, admittedly working with moving targets, but the control gained and the successful outcome achieved are worth any future modifications, according to Trafford.

According to other application developers, creative uses of XSL are clearly necessary for any successful implementation of an XML database's benefits.

Xavier Haurie, an Analog Devices engineer who is building a catalog of semiconductor components as an XML database application, said the effective use of XSL allowed him to complete the project by himself.

"I am using XSL extensively, which is the main advantage. I can present my metadata to the end user very easily, and if I change the schema, I don't have to change my filter or I just have to make incremental changes to my XSL filter."

More important is to carefully plan the XML data application's level of compliance to the current group of APIs, said FiveSight's Brown.

"[Look at the] XPATH and XQL APIs. What sorts of services do they provide? Will the application require XA transactions? The standards provide a long list of everything you'd want from a database in terms of transactionality and data typing," he said.

"Think through the database application's structure," said Brown. "Document Type Definitions versus schemas and namespaces-what really does it support? Is it going to do validation? What will be the serialization and de-serialization strategies used? How does that affect the performance of large and small documents?"

The answers to questions such as these will not only define how to construct the application, they'll also help developers gain a clear vision of the project's end result.


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/25846
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading