XML in eBusiness Spring 2005 Dave Hollander Chief Technology Officer Contivo, Inc.

XML in eBusiness

Spring 2005Dave HollanderChief Technology OfficerContivo, Inc

XML Background

Information Age

XML Origins

Markup

Questions: Origins

• Why is XML such an important development?

• What are the benefits of XML compared to HTML?

• What was the most challenging thing during implementing XML?

• What was the creative process in envisioning XML from SGML? What was the spark/moment of clarity that started the process rolling?

• What was the goal behind creating XML?

Information Age – or is it?

• Guttenberg• Industrial Age• The Web• InfoGlut

• Information– It is 3º outside.

• Knowledge = info + action– It is 3º out, put on a coat.

• Wisdom = knowledge + context– Why bother, I am just jumping in the hot tub!

The Promise of XML

XML is the standard platform for information convergence

• XML Enables Information Reuse – Global interchange– Machine processing– New uses for documents

• Values of XML– Feature/Complexity balance– Enables semantic processing– User defined semantics

Data-setSize

Data-setSize

StructuredStructuredUn-StructuredUn-Structured

LargeLarge

SmallSmall

Publishing

(Full-Text)

Publishing

(Full-Text)DatabaseDatabase

WordProcessing

WordProcessing TransactionalTransactional

XMLXML

Interchangeable Parts drove the Industrial Age

Reusable Information drives the Information Age

Origins of XML

• 1988 ISO 8879 SGML

• 1996 April (WWW2)

– XML vision written in a taxiby Jon Bosak and Dave Hollander

• 1996 November - introduced to SGML Community

• 1997 March - First press articles

• 1997 April (WWW6) - introduced to Web Community

• 1998 February - XML 1.0

• 1999 January - XML Namespaces

• 2001 May - XML Schema

• 2001 October - XSL Recommendation

• 2002 February - XML Digital Signatures “I didn’t actually build it, but it was based on my idea.”

Why XML?

• XML was designed to manage documents on the web– Team included architects of HP.COM and

DOCS.SUN.COM– Reuse content made for print in multiple web pages:

• data sheets, white papers etc.

– Present a more organized view of information• We faced significant differences in how our organizations

structured information

• So, the answer was to create XML to – Interchange document information between groups– Make it easy to publish content standards– Separate content from presentation

• which makes it easy to build tools that reuse information

The design goals for XML

1. XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet.

2. XML shall support a wide variety of applications.

3. XML shall be compatible with SGML.

4. It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents.

5. The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute minimum, ideally zero.

6. XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.

7. The XML design should be prepared quickly.

8. The design of XML shall be formal and concise.

9. XML documents shall be easy to create.

10.Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance.

XML

• XML is the eXtensible Markup Language

• Evolved from ISO Standard SGML• Designed to

– Add structure to Web documents – Be simple (25 pages)

• XML has expanded well beyond its original goals

But what is it?

• XML is a meta-language for creating markup languages

– Markup – information that computers use • XML makes it easy and reliable for computers

(and humans) to identify markup in documents.

– Meta-language – a language to create languages

XML allows you to design a markup language that describes what is important to you.

Markup

• Simple Syntax that make it easy to separate “data” from “meta-data”

• Markup includes– Elements– Attributes– Comments– Entity references– Processing instructions– CDATA sections– Document type declarations

<tag> Content </tag>

Element

OpeningTag

ClosingTagContent

Meta-Language

• Meta-language– A language to create languages– User defined semantics (meaning)– HTML has fixed semantics

• Each meta-language– Defined by a schema

• May be implicitly defined

– Referred to as a dialect

<?xml version="1.0"?><ShoppingCart><ProductList> Dave’s Order </ProductList><Part> 00000-99999 </Part></ShoppingCart>

XML is a meta-language for creating markup languages

XML is Descriptive Markup

• XML is Descriptive; HTML is procedural

– Describe and assign a name to a class of data

• Multiple behaviors can be assigned to each class

– Examples: layout, search, database, eCommerce

– “find the part numbers in all shopping carts”

• Markup is only valuable if you know what it means!

<?xml version="1.0"?><ShoppingCart><List>Dave’s Order</List><Part> 00000-99999</Part>…..</ShoppingCart>

<?xml version="1.0"?><ShoppingCart><List>Dave’s Order</List><Part> 00000-99999</Part>…..</ShoppingCart>

<html><H1>Dave’s Order</H1><P><font size=“6”>

00000-99999</font>…..</html>

<html><H1>Dave’s Order</H1><P><font size=“6”>

00000-99999</font>…..</html>

Questions: Origins

• What was the creative process in envisioning XML from SGML? What was the spark/moment of clarity that started the process rolling?– Laziness– Community of practice w/ 100+ years of experience– Walk through, feature by feature asking

“is this necessary for success”

• What was the goal behind creating XML?– My favorite: information reuse

Questions: Origins

• Why is XML such an important development?– XML is foundation of information interchange

• What are the benefits of XML compared to HTML?– User defined markup– More extensive application space

• What was the most challenging thing during implementing XML?– Agreeing on “is it necessary”

XML Applications

XML SpecificationsXML ProcessorsApplications

Questions: Applications

• I know XML is very compatible to many of modern languages, is it compatible to old languages like COBOL

• Compare XML to EDI and explain the different industry-specific dialects or standards that exist today.

• What are the recent trends and forecasts for corporate use of XML in integrating the enterprise both internally and externally?

XML Specifications

• XML Instance Document = the Data• Schemas = the contract• Style-sheets = user interface• XQuery = finding data• Web Services = interchange of data

• Protocol– n 1: (computer science) rules determining the

format and transmission of data

The W3C XML Family

•XML Coordination Group– XML Core

• errata, X-Include, Information Set

– XML Schema • Parts 0, 1, 2, 3

– XML Linking WG • XML Base, Xpath, Xlink,

Xpointer

– XML Query WG• Data Model, Algebra,

Language

– XML Namespaces

•XML Protocols WG•XSL WG

– XSL, XSLT

•XML DSIG– XML Signature, – Canonical XML

•DOM ( Levels 1, 2, 3 )

•Others – XML-Encryption– VoiceXML– XForms WG – SMIL, SVG – XHTML– RDF …

More than 20 horizontal XML specifications!More than 20 horizontal XML specifications!

XQuery

• XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language– W3C Working Draft 04 April 2005– Still at least 3 months from Recommendation

• Covers – XPATH: addressing single elements in an XML document– Query: like SQL

• Limitations– No semantics– No mechanism to normalize multiple data resource results

W3C XML Schemas

• Schema defined in a .xsd file (usually)

• Schemas– Defines Classes of documents– Defines structure, constraints and datatypes – Validation – Schemas can only express part of the semantics.

• Relax NG is schema specification similar to W3C

• Schemas are a contract to interchange information.

XML Schemas

• Many Different ways to markup data

1) <BUYER_NAME> JOHN SMITH </BUYER_NAME>

2) <BUYER_NAME> <LAST> SMITH </LAST>

<FIRST> JOHN </FIRST> </BUYER_NAME>

3) <NAME role=”BUYER"> <SURNAME BSR_CODE=”NAM-01"> SMITH </SURNAME> <GIVEN BSR_CODE=”NAM-02"> JOHN </GIVEN> </NAME>

• Which is right?

Schemas Reflect Business Models

• Prescriptive vs. permissive– who pays to make the data right?

• Loose vs. tight– how many semantics are expressed?– easy to author vs. reuse

• Interchange model– blind or pre-defined partners?

• Extensibility– kept up to date vs. predictability DocBook

Shopping CartRosettaNet

Pinnacles

The “Waterloo” Model

Authors Intent

Validate your data against a business model.

CALS

XML has Namespaces

How is software to recognize markup it knows how to process, and avoid confusing it with markup designed for the use of some other software? [1]

• Namespaces allow documents to be merged without name collisions.

• Can be used to identify an authority for the element type

<?xml version="1.0"?><MyDoc xmlns=“http://mhxml.com/ns1” xmlns:hp=“http://hp.com/ns2”>

<part> 00000-99999</part> <!-- from default namespace --><hp:part> 00000-99999-hp</hp:part> <!-- from HP namespace --></MyDoc>

XML Tools

• XML enabled reuse of core technology– Parsers

• DOM, SAX, others

– Processors• App servers, java, .Net

– Databases• Native and Enabled

• Free, or at least inexpensive:– http://www.xml.com/

programming/

Lexical

Semantic

<ShoppingCart><ProductList> Dave’s Order</ProductList><Part> 00000-99999 </Part></ShoppingCart>

ISA~00~ ~00~ ~01~0819405530010 BEG~00~DS~20-P1-749833~~000114.NTE~ORI~SHIP ASAP.

<Order><PL> Dave’s Order </PL><Part> 00000-99999 </Part></Order>

Syntactic

XML as Data Model

• Relational– Entity Relation Model– Normalization Plan

• BLOBs/CLOBs

– Queries• Grievances

• Signers and states

• Declarations

• Hierarchical (XML)– Elements, attributes– Structure– Constraints

Now, tell me who’s proudest?

Legacy

• XML does not support non-XML data resources– COBOL– EDI– Others

• It is possible, and often a good idea to use XML to harmonize data.

Semantic Harmonization

Schema Reconciliation Semantic Reconciliation

Harmonized

XML

XML

XML XML

Lexical Reconciliation

Lexical

EDI

Legacy

Flat File Syntax Semantic

EDI Tech

nology

Beyond XML and B2B

demand for EDI

XML Technology

demand for XML eCommerce Technology

demand for technology Z

Per

form

ance

Met

ric

Time

Technology Z

• Volume of transactions• Security, Reliability,

Predictability• Reduced Cost of Procurement

Interoperability• Flexibility and Agility• Number of trading partners• Global supply chains• Reduced setup and TCO• One-to-one marketing

• Reuse, leverage and communities• Semantics

• Cost of new product deployment• One-to-one business

• Security, Reliability, Predictability? • Completeness?

Ref: Innovators Dilemma; Clayton Christensen

Compare to EDI

ISA~00~ ~00~ ~01~0819405530010 ~01~153734900 ~000114~0927~U~00302~000160473~0~P~|.GS~PO~COMDEX~D710-850~000114~0927~161441~X~003020.ST~850~290267.BEG~00~DS~20-P1-749833~~000114.NTE~ORI~SHIP ASAP.FOB~CC~OR.DTM~002~000114.N1~ST~LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES~92~99.N3~67 WHIPPANY RD~CAHNDANG.N4~WHIPPANY~NJ~07981.

I have no idea what this might

mean!

• EDI error rates can approach 85%.• HTML parsing requires up to 50% of the

code in your favorite browser!

The 20-80 Rule• Build for the 20% who do

80% of the business

Throughput• Primary Design Metric

• Information Design Metric

– Low Character Count

– Move context data to TPA

Interoperability– Between trading partners

Semantics– Defined in Standards and TPA

EDI Values

InteroperabilityInteroperability

SemanticsSemantics

ThroughputThroughput

XML Values

InteroperabilityInteroperability

SemanticsSemantics

ThroughputThroughput

SGML for the Web• Make it easy to interchange

documents on the web

Interoperability• Primary Design Metric• Loosely coupled systems • Information Design Metrics

– Self-describing messages– Ease of processing

Semantics– User defined– Machine and Human

Throughput– Not primary metric

New Metrics?

• eCommerce

– Process Effectiveness– Agility: flexibility, adaptability– Strategic Business Relationships– Evolution in Marketplace Dynamics– Technology ( Hubs, I-servers, portals )

• XML

– Technical Maturity – Standards ( Schemas, XSL, Query )– Interoperability ( New TLAs )– Products ( Contivo )

• New Axis?

InteroperabilityInteroperability

SemanticsSemantics

ThroughputThroughput

It is hard for me to believe that anything will replace XML for information interoperability

It is hard for me to believe that anything will replace XML for information interoperability

New Technology Adoption

New, disruptive, technology succeeds when performance metrics change

• B2B – EDI– Build for the 20% who

do 80% of the business• EAI

– Connectivity between high value, internal business applications

• Web Services– standards describing interoperability – detailed enough to be definitive– flexible enough to describe any system– scalable to be pervasive– easy to implement

EDI / VAN

XML / Content

Technology Z

Clayton Christensen; Innovator’s Dilemma

Integration and Information Silos

• Business face a challenge to sustain competencies built around their systems –and– to integrate the systems to create new business solutions.

• Requirements

ROI and TCO

Flexible – built to integrate

Evolvable – support legacy and change

Loosely Coupled - able to support independent development efforts

Integration

• Developers using middleware need three answers– How are messages moved?

• Physical infrastructure selection

– What messages are exchanged and in what order?• Delivery, Workflow and/or Collaboration

– What do the messages mean? • Logical and Conceptual understanding

Messaging

Application

Messaging System

Interface

Ad

apter

Interface

Ad

apter

Application

Interface

Ad

apter

Interface

Ad

apter

95%

5%

Interoperability requires interfaces between applications to be standardized.

The Fundamental Challenge

The remaining 95% is a function of

application semantics.

Only 5% is a function of the middleware choice.

(Gartner Group)

Taming the “Integration Hairball”

• Physical– multiple interconnect technologies– deploy middleware

• Logical– no messaging standards– deploy “canonicals”

• Conceptual– no centralized design model– deploy semantic modeling

Business ProcessRequirements

Vocabulary Driven

SAP Oracle

XML Wrapper XML Wrapper

SAPAPI

OracleAPI

SAP Service Interface

(XML Schema)

Oracle Service Interface(XML Schema)

SAPRMD

OracleRMD

DictionaryCust Account Number

Cust DUNS Number

PO Number

PO Issue Date

Routing Instrument

Ship Date

Transit Direction Code

Transport Terms

Gap Analysis

Mapping

InterfaceModeling

InterfaceModeling

DomainModeling

DomainModeling

Transport Services

Transform

Code Generation

VocabularyEnrichment

Questions: Applications

• I know XML is very compatible to many of modern languages, is it compatible to old languages like COBOL– Not directly. – There are some tools for converting their data and

some tools for programming XML w/ COBOL

Security

Security

• Security is mostly a business problem, not a technical one. – Risk, trust and security depend on human

management of relationships and assessment.– Technology just adds more risk.

• Are there any security challenges on XML?– Visibility

Data Interchange – the UUP example

• I had a question when it comes to XML in the use of the Universal User Profile (UUP).  In light of today's security and privacy concerns, do you think this concept will take off at some point?  – I already trust ebay, paypal, etc with some of this

info

• With Passport not being used by as many people as Microsoft had hoped and no other visible vendor pushing an alternate, it's acceptance seems doubtful.  – The trick will be if someone emerges with a model

that adds more value than risk—to me, the consumer.

Security

•  How can we embed security functionality in XML environment?– Encryption is just changing the visibility.

• In Schwab's case, it is mentioned that there is no security mechanism in XML or SOAP.  How can we overcome this pitfall in e-business environment?– It will take additional technology and industry initiatives.

• And as a follow-up question (to UPP), are there any security safeguards in place within XML or is that left solely up to those writing the applications that use XML. 

“Chaord”

The Emergence of the “Chaord”

“Any self-organizing, adaptive, nonlinear,

complex community or system, whether physical,

biological or social, the behavior of which

exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos.

Or, more simply stated, a Chaord is any

chaotically ordered complex system.”

Dee HockFounder and CEO Emeritus - VISA

Oct. 22, 1994

4242

Futures

Questions: XML Web Services and eComm

• What is the future of XML in e-business?

• Are there ways to apply XML that are not currently being done?

• Do you think they will be realized?

• What are the threats to XML to remain open source?

• What are some upcoming developments in Web Services and XML?• How is security implemented in XML vs. Web Services?• Any risk in deployment of XML –related technologies in e-

Commerce and any solutions to overcome?• What are the disadvantages and advantages of XML in e-

commerce?

XML Breaks “The Camels Hump”

Time

Act

ivit

y

Research Standards Billion dollar investments

Source: Dr. David Clark, head of Advanced Network Architecture research group, MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science

XML’s History

Activity does not decline, its rate of growth does.

• Industry Investment in standards

• Multiple phase Standards Development

• Investment during standards development

• Activity during lagging phase stays longer due to costs

Kann ich bitte ein Glas Wasser haben?

• Presentment– Again, louder– Reword– Reduction– Gesture– Translate

• Fulfillment– Guess– Look Up– Partial Understanding– Full Understanding

• shared context

Secondary Factors

– Trust– Policy

– Ability– Anticipation– Motivation

Wasser bitte!Wasser bitte!

WASSER!!!!!!WASSER!!!!!!

Can I please a glass of water have?Can I please a glass of water have?

Wuerden Sie mir bitte ein Glas Wasser reichen?Wuerden Sie mir bitte ein Glas Wasser reichen?

The Evolution of e-Commerce

Web services promise to bring these all together and make networks of computers useful and ubiquitous

• Silicon chips made computer ubiquitous

• GUIs made using computers ubiquitous

• The Web made accessing content ubiquitous

• XML made understanding content ubiquitous

1980scustom

applications

early 1990sERP systems

mid 1990sfax, phone, EDI

late 1990sB2C, B2B

2000sWeb Services

1975: FedEx installs the first drop box

1991: Crossing the Chasm and Virtual Corporation

published

1994: The Web carries commercial messages anywhere in the world.

1999: e-Everything, ad nauseum

2001: Crossroads -- “The P.T. Barnum

Era of B2B is over.”

Business Case

Tight coupling

• Resources – high set up costs– management attention

• Small numbers of partners– lengthy negotiations– detailed contracts – extensive monitoring of

performance

Coordination costs are steep Thousands of partners in a loose network

Loose coupling

• Focus on outcomes – not on the way the job gets

done

• Set standards – manage interfaces between

specialist’s activity – orchestrate the process

Loosely Coupled Applications

• What company can ignore the benefits of – partnering with business specialists?– outsourcing non-core activities to

focused providers?

The virtues of collaboration are clear: innovation and efficiency.

• In the quest for higher performance, companies at the cutting edge of process management:– gain flexibility and improve performance– handle critical cross-company processes

as networks rather than production lines

swap their tightly coupled processes for loosely coupled ones.

Text excerpts from the McKinsey Quarterly; 2002 Number 2Graphics from Enterprise E-Commerce

Data at the Edge

• In 1869 the transcontinental railroad enabled and accelerated the migration westward.

• In the 40’s and 50’s, the interstate system enabled and accelerated migration to the suburbs.

• In the 80’s and 90’s computing become less centralized – Accelerated by PCs, relational databases, SQL, the Web – Data migrated out of “glass houses” and closer to the user

• Web Services, XQuery, XML– The latest technologies to help people get better control over

data and processes that help them in their daily activities

and in doing so, data will migrate closer to the edge

New technologies do not create chaos, they expose and accelerate it.

Sources of Semantic Chaos

• Data at the edge enables different processes for– different payment history and methods– different customers and partners – different legal jurisdictions

• Data at the edge is more personalized – “Call Sally”

• My cell phone knows who I mean• A centralized corporate directory does not

• With personalization comes differences– with differences comes semantic chaos Don’t blame

my phone.

Managing Assets

Adding Context

Generating Intellectual Capital

Increasing Value

Capture Organize

Synthesize

Evaluate

Level of

Investm

en

t

Process Complexity

High

Low

Low High

Putting information into managed locations

Classifying documents, creating classification schemes Collecting information about the quality and usefulness of the information

Driving business processes with knowledge

Creating new knowledge from existing knowledge

The Information Continuum

Data Mgmt.Data Mgmt.

Information Mgmt.

Information Mgmt.

Knowledge Mgmt.

Knowledge Mgmt.

eXtreme Semantics

Semantics = Data + Behavior[1]

• Semantic Interoperability– Adaptive systems sharing semantic descriptions – The future requires new standards and systems

Behavior

Data

[1] Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager’s Guide Dave McComb; Morgan Kauffman; September 2003ISBN: 1-55860-917-2

– Semantics is the traction point between data and processes

– Practical: When a friend says cool... don’t put on a coat

– System: Purchase orders trigger processes to manufacture, package, ship and bill

Questions: XML Web Services and eComm

• What is the future of XML in e-business? – XML will remain a foundation of information interchange – and

information interchange is a foundation of e-business.

• Are there ways to apply XML that are not currently being done? – Validation

• Do you think they will be realized?– Yes, there is now technology that makes it affordable.

• What are the threats to XML to remain open source?– Our selves. We are making it so complex that some one can

come in and “just fix it” for us. – Complexity is creating a new priesthood– The very reason we broke SGML

XML Challenge

• Because XML was so stripped down, it was easy to adopt and extend; because it was so stripped down, adopters almost had to extend it.

• And we did. And other people did, too.   You now have – XML + XLINK + XSL + Namespaces + Infoset + XML Linking

+ XPointer Framework + XPointer namespaces + XPointer xptr() + XSLT + XPath + XSL FO + DOM + Sax + stylesheet linking PI + XML Schema + XQuery + XML Encryption + XML Canonicalization + XML Signature + DOM Level 2 + DOM Level 3.

• But it grew. It grew more complex. It grew confusing.

http://www.mhxml.com/projects/w3c/xml-is-five-final.htm

Learning XML

• Should XML be a required class for all Information Technology graduates?– Yes. Information is the core of IT– NO. It would be difficult to assure the quality of that

education.

• What is the best way to go about learning XML? – Reliable Books

– Modeling Business Objects with XML Schema – System Architecture with XML

– Just Do It– www.xpriori.com

• See Also:– http://www.xml.com/axml/testaxml.htm

Thank You

Dave’s Web Sites:

Contivo - http://www.contivo.com

Personal - http://www.mhxml.com

[email protected]

First Sheep’s Law of the universe:“Everything has both intended and

unintended consequences. The intended consequences may or may not happen; the unintended consequences always do!”