Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Computers XML Extensible Markup Language XML Extensible Markup Language The World Wide Web is in the process of undergoing a radical change that allows new services and opportunities to businesses and individuals. HTML - the HyperText Markup Language - is a language that is predominately used to generate most of the web sites available today. Now, however, Extensible Markup Language is in the process of replacing HyperText Markup Language as the most favored format. Extensible Markup Language will allow the use and functionality of the web to continue to expand. Extensible Markup Language is based on Standard Generalized Markup Language. First, what is Standard Generalized Markup Language? Both HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) are based on SGML - Standard Generalized Markup Language. Standard Generalized Markup Language has been an international standard since 1986 (ISO 8879). It is a meta-language, which simply means that it can be used to create other languages. Standard Generalized Markup Language is a descendent from earlier markup languages first developed at IBM as early as 1969. The oldest direct ancestor is GML, which both stands for General Markup Language and contains the initials of the IBM researchers who created it: Charles F. Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, and Raymond Lorie. Standard Generalized Markup Language is a far more extensive markup language than Extensible Markup Language or HyperText Markup Language, and to this day remains as the ultimate language in the field. The ultimate goal and success of Standard Generalized Markup Language is that it conquered the computer-age old problem of being able to communicate across different computer platforms. It allows computers to share and communicate data regardless of the computer’s hardware, operating system, or software applications being used. Applications such as Adobe Framemaker use it for desktop publishing. But, in general, Standard Generalized Markup Language is considered much too complex for widespread e-business and other similar applications. A need for a new language to handle the new demands of the e-business world became clear. The designers of Extensible Markup Language were looking to generate a markup language that would allow the functionality of Standard Generalized Markup Language without the complexity. By strategically omitting large chunks of Standard Generalized Markup Language, they created Extensible Markup Language, which provides roughly eighty percent of the functionality with only about twenty percent of the complexity. Extensible Markup Language became the “RISC computer” of the markup language world. HTML - HyperText Markup Language - as stated above, is a limited subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language. It is a very limited subset of the parent language and provides very limited functionality. Simply, HyperText Markup Language allows the designer to mark up a document with human-readable tags that describe the document’s data and its display format. Documents created in HyperText Markup Language are static, non-interactive, and not dynamic in their generation. The power of HyperText Markup Language was that it, like Standard Generalized Markup Language, allows communication across different computer platforms to occur and that it is relatively simple to master. It is very limiting; however, in the functionality it allows the designer to put into his or her application. Something more powerful was needed. In the past the exchange of data has been hindered by the incompatible formats of proprietary hardware and software, as I mentioned above. That was less of a problem when computers rarely communicated to each other. Now, however, communication between different computer platforms is a very common occurrence. And, it is a major obstacle to the spread of global networking and the growth of business transactions through the World Wide Web. As stated above, HyperText Markup Language allows data to be tagged so that its style or format can be read on different platforms. It advanced the cause significantly but, again, is still very limiting in its functionality. We’ve been faced with the task of web data processing for a long time in various industries. For example: Reuse instead of double data storage: when parts of information are used in several works or works are published in several formats (web books, web magazine articles, online manuals, books, magazine articles, etc.); in technical documentation where parts of information are taken out of the same data pool and are then reassembled for online manuals or web pages. Currently, the generator may need to save redundant data in several places because the output requirements are different. They can’t save data in one location then put it together in various formats to satisfy different needs using HyperText Markup Language. Note: that unlike HyperText Markup Language, Extensible Markup Language is not just about the Web. Extensible Markup Language is about structured data where the Web is an output option. In addition, there are many areas about the existing World Wide Web that could see significant improvement through the implementation of the Extensible Markup Language. Search engines, for example, will not be limited to word searches. They will actually be able to find results from search requests by viewing actual data. This will be an extremely powerful improvement over the existing options. In areas of electronic commerce, the use of the Extensible Markup Language format holds incredible potential. By allowing documents to be created dynamically or personalized for each instance of a transaction, companies can generate invoices, purchase orders, etc. on the fly! Extensible Markup Language to the Rescue! The World Wide Web has been used in the past mostly as a static library. A site designer would create, through HyperText Markup Language, a page on his/her computer and upload it to a web server. When accessed from the outside by a user, the page would display to the user exactly as the designer created it. Now, through Extensible Markup Language, users are accessing the web to view “pages” that are not actually stored on a web server. Instead, the pages are generated dynamically from information available to the web server. That information can come from databases on the web server, from the site owner’s enterprise databases, or even from other web sites. It takes the information and uses it to create a custom view for the user. And, the information that is displayed does not need to be displayed as it currently exists on the originating web server. Through Extensible Markup Language technology, the information can be analyzed, extracted, sorted, styled, and customized to create a personalized web experience for the end user. Extensible Markup Language can label data in very useful ways. Extensible Markup Language is also a meta-language (a language for creating other languages). This is important because with each application, the user can essentially create the language required for successful delivery of the task. The nature of Extensible Markup Language can be difficult to explain. Extensible Markup Language can appear to be different things to different people:  For consumers and researchers, Extensible Markup Language promises to help search engines and intelligent agents return more meaningful results from inquiries for information into the World Wide Web.  For all of the companies now looking to venture into the electronic commerce (e-commerce) market, Extensible Markup Language provides a low-cost way to exchange purchase orders, invoices, and other business-related documents over the World Wide Web.  For content providers, the Extensible Markup Language can be used to automatically reformat a document to feed to many different publishing media, thus eliminating the need for redundant data storage in the process! This is incredibly powerful stuff! IBM is in the process of developing and strongly supporting Extensible Markup Language. IBM sees this language as a strategic technology for spreading electronic business across different computing platforms, much as the JAVA software environment does. In fact, the JAVA environment and the Extensible Markup Language environments are extremely complementary. JAVA, however, only allows the creator to generate platform-independent applications. The use of the Extensible Markup Language enables the manipulation of platform-independent data. In combination with the Internet, which enables platform-independent networking, they provide the three prerequisites for universal computing: The easiest way to explain Extensible Markup Language is that it is a way of tagging any kind of data to make its significance understandable even to the computers. A human may be able to tell the difference between a subtotal and a total of an invoice, say. Or, the human can easily tell the difference between a billing address as opposed to a shipping address, or a retail price vs. a sale price, because the human has logic “built in.” The computers and software, however, need additional information in order to tell the differences between the data elements. It is apparent that Extensible Markup Language’s strength and usefulness will be to benefit the computers in the future: “The most important application for Extensible Markup Language in the years to come will be computer-to-computer communications instead of computer-to-human or human-to-human communications. It is all about exchanging data.” - Simon Phipps, IBM’s chief Java/Extensible Markup Language evangelist. The tags created in the Extensible Markup Language resemble the tags created in the HyperText Markup Language used today to create Web pages. There are two important differences, however:  Extensible Markup Language tags separate content from presentation, and  Extensible Markup Language is extensible - that is, it allows for the creation of new tags for unforeseen purposes. Thus, you can “create” the language to fit the needs of your application. Both HyperText Markup Language tags and Extensible Markup Language tags enclose a keyword or character in angle brackets like this: *I*Sample HyperText Markup Language tags*/I* In the example above, the HyperText Markup Language tag *I* means the following text “Sample HyperText Markup Language tag” should appear in Italics. The */I* tag turns the italics off and returns the font format to the previous type style. Extensible Markup Language tags follow the same syntax format, enclosing content between “on” and “off” type of tags, but the meaning is very different. While HyperText Markup Language tags generally indicate only how the content should appear, Extensible Markup Language tags indicate what the content means. Content therefor grows more accessible to different kinds of software and less dependent on a specific output device. How is the Extensible Markup Language generated document formatted for display? I’ll get to that shortly. The value of the information discussed in the above paragraph is apparent when you look at the differences in how HyperText Markup Language and Extensible Markup Language might be used to label some information on the World Wide Web. The following is an example of a HyperText Markup Language code for product pricing of college books: *H3* Sale Price-The Architecture of Computer Hardware and System Software by Irv Englander $135.00*/H3* *I* (Suggested retail price: $175.00) */I* *B*Shipping and handling costs: $45.00 UPS Ground*/B* In the above example, the pair of *H3*, *I*, and *B* tags merely indicate that the enclosed text should appear in heading type, in Italics, or in bold font, respectively. The tags including the “/” character mean to end the heading, italics, or bold font. The tags used in this example give no hint as to what the enclosed content refers to. That is not a problem for human readers. It is a problem for a search engine or automated “shopbot” program seeking out the lowest price for the overpriced college textbook on the World Wide Web. They would have to be very “smart” to say the least to figure out which amount is the true selling price. Because there is no standard method of specifying the information through the use of the HyperText Markup Language, different World Wide Web sites will display the prices in different ways. Now, the Extensible Markup Language version of the same overpriced college textbook sale example: *PRICE type = “SALE” unit = “US Dollar”* 135.00 */PRICE* *PRICE type ‘ “RETAIL” unit = “US Dollar” 175.00 */PRICE* *SHIPPING type = “UPS Ground” unit = “US Dollar”* 45.00 */SHIPPING* The tags used in the above example clearly identify the sale price, the retail or regular price, the shipping cost, the shipping method, and the currency type. It is important to note that the book name and other text specific items would be contained in the XSL document (Style Sheet). This is the document that defines how the information will be formatted for viewing. Again, more on this shortly. Considering the above example, a Extensible Markup Language-enabled search engine or bot can readily and easily interpret such tags, especially if they are standardized for a particular product category or industry. Standardization, however, could prove to be a huge issue if Extensible Markup Language is to be successful. More on this topic as well later. What does all of this mean? Users of “smart” Extensible Markup Language search engines will get more meaningful hits with fewer false hits. The formats for the Extensible Markup Language are unlimited. Unlike HyperText Markup Language, the tags in Extensible Markup Language don’t specify how to display the information. Again, that is done with a style sheet written in XSL (Extensible Style Language, an Extensible Markup Language for reformatting and presentation. By separating the definition of content from the style of presentation, Extensible Markup Language makes it easier to use the content in different ways. The use of style sheets could allow a designer to create different output screens for high resolution personal computers, the lower resolution of a television, or the monochrome or LCD display of palmtop computing devices, and the colorful pages of a printed catalogue. In my business, personalized employee benefit communications, we are currently examining the Extensible Markup Language option and the related products. We generate employee-specific personalized communications for two main platforms: the Web and print. Currently our process requires the generation of two completely separate documents that are handled very differently from the creation stage, through the edit, and finally the output stages. There is a lot of duplication of effort, thus increasing project time and costs well beyond that of what our clients are willing to pay. We’d like to avoid the duplication of effort, thus allowing us to offer more to our clients for less - eliminating competition from those companies already advanced in this area. Extensible Markup Language provides a potential solution. Since the style sheets mentioned above could be used to create output for print, web, palm, or even pagers, Extensible Markup Language may well be the answer to eliminating our duplication of effort. One of the beautiful advantages of Extensible Markup Language is the ease of updating information across multiple output platforms. For example, if the book mentioned earlier was to be displayed in several formats: one for web, one for print, one for palm computers, and the sale price changed to something even more expensive, the data would only need to be updated in one place, one time. The same HyperText Markup Language result would require three separate updates. Expanding on that, it would require three updates, three separate testing phases, three times the time, and three times the cost! In Extensible Markup Language the style sheets remain the same! Looking at the Extensible Markup Language solution on an international level, the advantages over HyperText Markup Language are incredible. Let’s assume that in the US we create a site using Extensible Markup Language. The purpose of the site is to display a map of some area, and give driving distances. In HyperText Markup Language, the only way to display the driving distances to anyone from anywhere on the planet in their understanding of distance (we’ll use the mile and kilometer for the example) would be to create individual HyperText Markup Language pages for each unit of measure required. Or, you would be forced to show the distance in one unit of measure, thus reducing the usefulness or “friendliness” of the site. In Extensible Markup Language, the constructor could simply add the distances in the Extensible Markup Language code for each unit of measure required. They would add it one time and create a XLS style sheet to generate the output - one time. The site would essentially be customized for the user. Extensible Markup Language’s extensibility gives it still further advantages over HyperText Markup Language. While HyperText Markup Language tags must be blessed by an international standards body -- or chaotically imposed on the market by individual browser vendors -- new Extensible Markup Language tags can be created by anyone at any time. To prevent too much chaos, Extensible Markup Language tags used by a particular Extensible Markup Language application document can be described in a file called a “document type definition.” The DTD can reside in the same place as the Extensible Markup Language document or at any location on the Internet. By referring to the definition file, an Extensible Markup Language parser, or reader, can verify that the document is “valid.” Being “valid” means that the document is in compliance with both the Extensible Markup Language grammar and the rules of the newly created document type definition file. Also, other developers could refer to this document when generating other sites that need to communicate with the existing site. As I mentioned earlier, the new Extensible Markup Language format generation creates challenges in the industry with regard to standardization. Sarah Robers, of Inter@ctive Week, explains: “Extensible Markup Language widespread implementation has met several hurdles, not the least being compatibility around the multitude Extensible Markup Language schemas or document-type definitions that have been cropping up. Much of the future success depends on vendors efforts to set the various language schemas, or standards. “ What does she mean? Well, what you ultimately want is for two computers to talk to each other and to know what they are talking about. No problem there so far. Where the problem arises is that computer one may describe something to computer two, who “thinks” that computer one has introduced something new, when the reality is that it did not, it just referred to the item by a different name. The problem is how you define each component, whether it is a telephone number or a SKU number depends on who named it. One programmer could call a component a “overpriced college textbook”, while another could call it a college text book which is overpriced. While humans can understand that it is the same thing, the computers won’t. So, the challenge is that the e-commerce community must quickly agree upon a standard set of element names. OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information), a quasi-Extensible Markup Language standards body is working in conjunction with the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium - overall Extensible Markup Language creators and controlling standards body) to develop Extensible Markup Language standards. Although standardization efforts are underway, most agree that it will take at least a few years to iron out. Extensible Markup Language - the Other Pieces The World Wide Web Consortium mentioned above is also the controlling body for the complementary Extensible Markup Language markup specifications. Unlike HyperText Markup Language, Extensible Markup Language cannot “function” on its own. The World Wide Web Consortium is developing Namespaces architecture, which allows Extensible Markup Language documents to combine potentially conflicting sets of Extensible Markup Language tags. The Document Object Modeler (DOM) specifies a standard interface for applications and scripts to access Extensible Markup Language data. Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) as previously mentioned, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) documents provide display specifications for Extensible Markup Language documents. Extensible Linking Language (XLL) describes references among Extensible Markup Language documents. The above listed technologies assist with the success of Extensible Markup Language. While an individual Extensible Markup Language document by itself describes only the data that it contains and not its formatting nor references to external data, XSL and XLL documents help to “fill in the gaps”, if you will. In other words, with XSL and XLL technologies, Extensible Markup Language documents can markup and describe any kind of document or character-based data, display that document in a variety of different ways, and refer or link to specific parts of other documents. It is important to understand that while Extensible Markup Language allows for increased functionality on the web, it is more time consuming initially to generate than HyperText Markup Language. That is why it is important to understand your need when selecting a tool to generate the output. If your application does not require the need for the computer to understand the data, or if the output is intended solely for one platform, Extensible Markup Language is not the way to go. As Extensible Markup Language is dependent on a style sheet at a minimum, why create two documents when you can get away with one. On the other hand, if you do require a “smart” technology, why create two or three HyperText Markup Language pages that would still remain as individual static pages when you could create one Extensible Markup Language document, and a style sheet for each output requirement? Future enhancements to the latter would save both time and cost. Extensible Markup Language - The Future Although Standard Generalized Markup Language (the parent of Extensible Markup Language) is by no means new to the world (since 1969), Extensible Markup Language is still relatively new. In fact, to date the Word Wide Web Consortium, which is responsible for the creation and standardization of Extensible Markup Language, has yet to release Version 1.0. Make no mistake, however. Extensible Markup Language is the future of the Web. The decisive factor is that Extensible Markup Language can be tailored completely to the needs of the users, the information they want to display or manipulate, and the purpose of the application they are writing. In this respect, Extensible Markup Language is not an improvement to HyperText Markup Language. Extensible Markup Language is truly a change in concept from HyperText Markup Language. The enormous possibilities are at the same time a great danger to the success of Extensible Markup Language. I described a few of the issues earlier in the paper. Keep in mind, Extensible Markup Language is not a solution in and of itself, but rather a tool to develop solutions. The tools developed through Extensible Markup Language are as good or as bad as the developers and their concepts. Basically, anything is possible. A programmer can create a highly effective, information-oriented language to a layout-oriented HyperText Markup Language extension which basically does not exceed the possibilities of HyperText Markup Language and miss the potential of Extensible Markup Language. It is said that Extensible Markup Language is no “pie in the sky.” The development is in full swing with increasing pace. For many sectors, user specific formats (or Document Type Definitions) will be established which enable the interchange of related data. Soon, it is estimated that there will be a large selection of tools, applications, and programs available that will support Extensible Markup Language. The difference in quality will be enormous. It is also estimated that beyond the web, Extensible Markup Language will be felt along the lines of standardization of data interchange formats. In other words, in the effort to standardize data names in like areas of business, the same standardization could be used worldwide for applications outside of Extensible Markup Language’s spectrum. Extensible Markup Language could improve efficiency in all respects of data exchange. With companies like Microsoft, IBM, Dow Chemical Co., DuPont, BASF, and a plethora of others working together to develop standards, the future of Extensible Markup Language and data interchange is bright! Bibliography: Bibliography Goldfarb, Charles F. “XML in an Instant: A Non-geeky Introduction.” Oasis. October 1999. Internet Address: . Gonsalves, Antone. “XML Translation Wares Are On The Way.” eWEEK. January 2000. Internet Address: Halfhill, Tom. “XML: The Next Big Thing.” IBM Research Magazine. October 2000. Internet Address: Rohan, Rebecca. “New Wild Life In The XML Menagerie.” Sm@rt Partner. February 2000. Internet Address: Schindler, Esther. “Exposing XML Myths.” Sm@rt Partner. May 2000. Internet Address: Walsh, Jeff. “XML: Not Just for the Web Anymore.” InfoWorld. June 1998. Internet Address: Word Count: 3919
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