DeltaXML Newsletter - January 2004
We're beginning the New Year by unveiling a freely accessible XML comparison service, details below. We also welcome new customers, and have a review of customers who joined us last year. We've got details of the latest XML Handbook from Charles Goldfarb, inventor of SGML, for which we were asked to write the chapter on "Managing Change in XML Content". And in the Technical Corner this month: if you want to keep your solutions 100% Java, with no XSLT processing, we show you how.
DeltaXML Sync, our generic XML synchronization technology, is on track for release this quarter, we're getting a lot of interest in the ability intelligently to combine concurrent edits, to manage variants and to merge master updates with custom edits. Please let us know if you'd like to join the Early Access team for a look at what the technology can do for you.
This looks to be an exciting year for us - if you are working with XML data or documents, and the XML is changing, do get in touch to discuss how we can help you manage that change. Free evaluation downloads are available at our website: www.deltaxml.com
- The DeltaXML Team.
Contents
In this newsletter:
- DeltaXML Customers: 2003
- FreeDeltaNet Online Comparison Service
- XML Handbook from Charles Goldfarb - Managing Change in XML Content
- Technical Corner: XML Pipelines In Java - Without XSLT
- Diary Dates
Customer Focus: DeltaXML Customers 2003
As XML has emerged as a critical technology in so many industries, so XML change control is becoming a requirement outside our traditional niches of publishing and content management, and our customer base reflects that. Here are some of the better-known customers who joined us last year - for more details please see our archive of previous newsletters.
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Vignette Corporation |
Societe Generale Investment Banking |
We're delighted that so many industry leaders have recognized the strengths of DeltaXML, we hope that you can reap the same rewards.
FreeDeltaNet Online Comparison Service
When you need to compare XML documents on the fly, and get a quick result with minimum hassle, Compare Live! is the site to bookmark. As with the original "full" DeltaNet, which is still available after free registration, this gives you instant access to comparison of XML pasted into text boxes or uploaded as files. Please publicise this free service as widely as you like - we hope it becomes a genuinely useful tool, accessible to all.
Weblink: FreeDeltaNet at http://www.deltaxml.com/services/FreeDeltaNet/
XML Handbook from Charles Goldfarb - Managing Change in XML Content
The fifth edition of this comprehensive overview of the XML world includes a chapter on XML change control, which as market leaders we were asked to contribute. Here's an excerpt:
"What's the difference? In any context, that's never been an easy question to answer. And where XML content is concerned, the answers are even tougher to come by: Did the data change? The structure? Did the markup change? Did it matter? You'll find some answers in this chapter."
ISBN: 0-13-049765-7
Chapter 33, page 527.
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0130497657
XML Pipelines in Java - Without XSLT
DeltaXML encourages the use of information "pipelines" when developing with XML. XML is particularly well suited to a "Lego™" approach to constructing applications, evident in application frameworks such as Cocoon and OXF which assemble pre-built "XML components" to develop a solution. We use this approach in configuring DeltaXML, providing standard "filters" to normalize whitespace, give detailed word-by-word differencing or to select an XHTML-specific comparison.
However, this approach is often unfamiliar to Java programmers and architects more accustomed to "single-pass" architectures. A particular hurdle is often the use of XSLT for the filters supplied with DeltaXML, for a number of reasons.
- Familiarity - skilled Java programmers may be less productive when working in XSLT because of the "paradigm shift" required when moving between an OO/procedural and a declarative/functional model.
- Performance - architects are naturally concerned that XSLT will be slow - often unnecessarily, since choosing a faster XSLT processor, using an XSLT compiler such as XSLTC or Gregor or even going for hardware acceleration will generally give excellent results.
- Management - some environments demand Java-only delivery, XSLT is excluded even if driven from Java.
So how can you have the best of both worlds? Simple - keep the XML pipeline architecture but code the filters in Java. This is straightforward, thanks to the org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLFilterImpl class which is a standard part of the JAXP API. From the Javadocs: "This class is designed to sit between an XMLReader and the client application's event handlers. By default, it does nothing but pass requests up to the reader and events on to the handlers unmodified, but subclasses can override specific methods to modify the event stream or the configuration requests as they pass through."
Expect to see examples of the use of XMLFilterImpl in sample code in the near future - or send us mail if you'd like some more pointers.
Weblink: JAXP API docs at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/org/xml/sax/helpers/XMLFilterImpl.html
Diary Dates
- Q104: DeltaXML Sync release
- 18 April 2004 : XML Europe 2004, Amsterdam (18 - 21 Apr) - hope to see you there!
Weblinks:
DeltaXML Latest Developments:
http://www.deltaxml.com/news/latest-developments.html
Please let us know whether this newsletter has been useful to you, and make suggestions about information you'd like discussed in future editions. We'll be back next month with another update.
© 2004 DeltaXML and Monsell EDM Ltd.