Architecture and Systems Integration
Building resilient XML systems means effectively managing change - precise identification of all changes is just the the first step. In an inter-networked heterogeneous environment, XML is the common baseline for all EAI initiatives, yet managing change across diverse systems can be costly.
Integrating systems from multiple vendors, your challenge is to deliver solutions that overcome the architectural differences to expose a common interface based on XML, which is finally delivering on its promise as a lingua franca. With DeltaXML you can make this vision a reality. By enabling full XML change control you can:
- Synchronize independent changes in disparate systems - merging all changes directly in the raw XML, minimizing architecture changes elsewhere. See synchronizing concurrent changes.
- Reduce processing by handling only the changed data. By pre-processing data feeds to build an update script, database repopulation costs come right down: instead of dumping the previous feed and inserting the new one, only true changes need be handled. See reducing processing overhead.
- Reduce bandwidth by transmitting frequent changes-only updates - clients merge these update 'deltas' to keep their local copies of the master database up-to-date. See reducing bandwidth.
- Increase security by splitting sensitive data into separate streams which are reassembled on delivery. See increasing security.
DeltaXML fulfills three key functions:
- It tests whether XML has changed (straightforward but time-consuming).
- It identifies what has changed (much harder).
- It represents changes in pure XML with has the same look and feel as the original files (much harder still!), making integration much easier.
DeltaXML does more than just solve your existing problems. By representing changes in pure XML 'deltas', it allows further processing of the changes and opens up new opportunities:
- Use 'XML round-tripping' to allow separate processes to work simultaneously on a data feed, then integrate all the changes back into the original. See building an XML round trip.
- Improve your internationalized solutions - being able to automatically identify and deliver site changes to your translation team allows you to build a much more flexible maintenance process. See publishing multilingual sites.
- Enable graphical display of differences between XML documents, for example with approve/reject options. See displaying XHTML differences.
With solid change-control at the heart of your XML architecture, you just deliver better solutions.