Unisys, IBM, Oracle, Platinum, Fujitsu, Softeam, Rational, Sprint, Sybase, Xerox, MCI Systemhouse, Boeing, Ardent, ICONIX, Integrated Systems, Verilog, NCR, NTT and Daimler-Benz are some of the vendors who are collaborating on the Object Management Group’s new XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) specification. XMI is a new open industry standard that combines the benefits of the web-based XML standard for defining, validating, and sharing document formats on the web with the benefits of the object-oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML). It provides application developers with a common language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting distributed objects and business models. The XMI specification quickly moved through the OMG’s Technology Adoption process and is currently undergoing the formal technology adoption vote by the OMG membership. Market demand for XMI is encouraging vendors such as IBM, Unisys and Oracle to expedite implementations of the technology and products as early as mid-1999. www.omg.com
Category: Web technologies & information standards (Page 58 of 58)
Here we include topics related to information exchange standards, markup languages, supporting technologies, and industry applications.
Daniel Green Company initiated a collaborative effort to develop new, open standards for data exchange among footwear suppliers, retailers, web sites, sourcing and distribution. These new standards are intended for use with XML. The working group will include representatives from a broad cross-section of the footwear industry, such as athletic, shoes, boots, women’s fashion, retail and Internet outlets. Initial plans call for the working group to define standard terms and design basic document object models that are expected to have a far-reaching impact on transaction productivity within the footwear industry. Ultimate goals include reduced inventories and waste as well as lower costs and greater variety for consumers. www.danielgreenco.com
Forte Software Inc. has announced XML-based application adapters for SAP R/2 and R/3 and Vantive Enterprise applications, the first in a line called the Forte Adapter Series. The company has also created an EAI business unit and will target its development and process-management tools for EAI tasks. Forte says its development tools are needed to link applications developed in-house. A software development kit specifically designed for integration tasks will be available in about 90 days, according to the company. Forte also said it will resell Iona Technologies’ Orbix middleware for building links to Corba-based software. www.forte.com
Optika Inc., a provider of Web commerce solutions for intranets and extranets, today announced that it has entered into a technology partnership with UWI.Com, a leading provider of secure XML forms solutions for the Internet. Under the agreement, the companies will integrate UWI.Com’s XML InternetForms system with Optika eMedia to enable businesses to engage in electronic commerce with their supply chain over Internet, intranet and extranet sites. The integration will enable companies to build forms accessible through standard browsers, providing capabilities that automate the completion and validation of the forms data. Because UWI.Com InternetForms are built on XML, they also include additional metadata used by Optika eMedia systems to automate form processing. For example, a company can use an InternetForm to order additional materials from a supplier simply by going to an extranet site. The supplier’s system will then automatically start up a workflow for processing the request, based upon order amount, shipment deadline and available inventory. www.optika.com, www.uwi.com.
The W3C has released the “Namespaces in XML” specification as a W3C Recommendation. Teaming up with W3C’s Extensible Markup Language (XML) Recommendation, this new specification allows authors to mix two or more XML-based languages in one document without conflict or ambiguity, thus promoting the modular development and reuse of XML languages and applications. The “Namespaces in XML” specification resolves potential name clashes by using the Web addressing infrastructure. Each element name in a document may be prefixed with a unique address, thus precisely qualifying the name. The modularity and simplicity of XML technology combined with namespaces paves the way for future developments, such as the work in progress in W3C’s XML Schema Working Group, and data exchange based on W3C’s Resource Description Framework (RDF) architecture. The “Namespaces in XML” specification was created and developed by the W3C XML Working Group, which includes key industry players such as Adobe, ArborText, DataChannel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Inso, Isogen, Microsoft, NCSA, Netscape, Oracle, SoftQuad, Sun Microsystems, Texcel, Vignette, and Fuji Xerox; as well as experts in structured documents and electronic publishing. www.w3c.org.
Texcel International today announced the availability of the latest release of the Texcel Information Manager (IM) Web Application. The IM Web Application allows widely distributed groups of authors, reviewers and other knowledge workers to fully collaborate in the information lifecycle by enabling them to access and manipulate the contents of remote document repositories over the World Wide Web. This latest release of Information Manager’s Web-based client offers new capabilities, including the ability to check documents and other content in and out of a repository, and to author and update information from a remote site using the Web. Content can be created or edited using any tool available to the remote contributor. Check-in/check-out and remote editing extend the IM Web Application’s capabilities beyond the set of functions provided in the previous version released in September 1998.
www.texcel.no.
Blue Angel Technologies Tuesday announced MetaDoor InterChange, an XML authoring tool that generates XML from desktop applications like Microsoft Word and Excel. MetaDoor InterChange separates the data entry process from the record structure so that data entry forms can hide XML from users. MetaDoor InterChange is the latest addition to Blue Angel’s suite of XML enabled software solutions. MetaDoor InterChange will be available January 15, 1999 and is priced at $49 per seat. www.blueangeltech.com.
Object Design, Inc. today announced that the beta software for its eXcelon XML data server is now available free-of-charge from the company’s Web site at (www.objectdesign.com). eXcelon is an XML data server that enables companies to build Web applications using XML. eXcelon can be used as an XML application cache for existing data sources, or as a data management system for new XML-based applications.
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