The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. XInclude 1.0 provides a method for merging multiple XML documents into a single composite document. XInclude 1.0 is a generic mechanism for merging XML documents. This function is important for software applications that need to easily combine XML documents. XInclude 1.0 can be used in environments without DTD (Document Type Definition) support, more common since the adoption of XML schemas. Unlike the mechanism used in DTDs, i.e. XML external entities, XInclude gives the content author a fallback mechanism in cases where the external document cannot be retrieved, for whatever reason. XInclude allows an application to leverage the syntax in existing XML constructs – elements, attributes, and URI references. XInclude allows an author to choose how to include another XML document in new composite content – either as markup or text. In addition, no XML entity declarations, which were required in the older method when using DTDs, are required for XInclude. XInclude 1.0 can be used with any version of XML, as well as other existing XML-related specifications, such as the XML-family components XML Schema and XSLT, as well as with XML applications such as the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and VoiceXML 2.0. XInclude 1.0 also takes advantage of the XPointer Framework and can be used to include sub-resources, such as fragments of XML documents, that are identified by a separate xpointer attribute. www.w3.org
Day: December 19, 2004
Enterprises plan to increase IT spending by 3.9 percent in 2005, according to a new survey of 1,368 IT decision-makers at North American and European enterprises from Forrester Research, Inc. It affirms the 7 percent increase in overall North American IT spending that Forrester projects for 2005, which includes spending by small and medium businesses, as well as spending outside IT departments. Fifty-four percent of the executives polled have a positive outlook for their business in 2005, compared with 44 percent last year. Business services, financial services, and insurance were the most optimistic industries. Public sector organizations are increasing IT spending by 7 percent in 2005, compared with a decrease last year. Applications are the big winner for budgets in 2005. Fifty-nine percent of decision-makers surveyed identified deployment or upgrade of major packaged applications as a priority, replacing security as the top priority from the past year. Thirty-eight percent of decision-makers consider support for governance, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, a critical priority, while 65 percent said it was a priority. Demand for business intelligence (BI) increases 9 percent. Content management could be the next “killer app.” Purchase plans for content management increased 15 percentage points from last year, as firms adopt enterprise-wide strategies for managing Web content, documents, records, and digital assets. www.forrester.com
