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XML for powering business on the Web
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Abstract
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No abstract was provided for this paper.
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Contents
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Introduction
XML promises to dramatically change the way businesses interact with
customers, with partners, and with suppliers. In this paper, we discuss the
impact it is having in three areas: e-commerce, e-publishing and knowledge
management for conducting business on the Web.
It's no secret that most commercial Web sites are driven from databases
these days. What is less well known is that increasingly the databases are
holding not just fielded data, but content as well. This enables sites to
provide rapidly updated and personalized content, whether it is the latest
news headlines, the results of a catalog search, or information about related
products on a shopping site.
Many Web sites have recognized the fact that XML is the ideal format
in which to store and manage this kind of content. And there are vast amounts
of content to deal with. The ability of XML to separate presentation from
content is just what is needed, because the content changes more rapidly than
the layout. For example, a Web designer creates the site architecture and
layout and several, perhaps hundreds, of contributing writers churn content
through it.
The XML content is stored in a database or document management system
and then assembled on the fly by a publishing application that puts together
the elements of relational data, multimedia and XML content.
How do you get content from those who create it into the databases that
power today's e-businesses and Web sites? Content contributors are often writers
who do not know, and do not want to know, the details of the publishing system
in general or XML in particular. So a publications group designs a complete
architecture for publishing. The DTDs for XML content and the schemas for
fielded data are part of that architecture.
What is required is an authoring tool that hides the technology, but
ensures that the created content has the required structure and validity to
flow into the application, without conversion. The tool must be easy to use
for the authors and must have a minimal learning curve. It must be easy to
configure for any DTD and have a low overall cost of integration and setup.
Finally it must be affordable, to enable widespread adoption by the content
contributors.
This paper discusses several case studies of e-business applications
that have been built around XML content stored in databases, content that
has been created with XMetaL, SoftQuad Software's authoring tool that lets
non-technical writers create valid XML content without having to know XML.
Previous
Table of Contents
The benefits of XML
One of the key benefits of XML is that it enables content updates, which
otherwise would have to be done manually, to be automated. Regardless of whether
you are talking about updating a Web site or a product catalog, the requirements
are similar:
- rapid updates
- accuracy
- scalability
Because XML provides a consistent, expressive, and standard format,
it enables the automated processing, delivery and updating of information.
XMetaL
In the following sections, we present an amalgamation of case studies
of the use of XML for e-publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management. Because
each is centered around the use of XMetaL, we introduce that first.
XMetaL is a comprehensive XML content creation tool from SoftQuad Software
that is designed to be used effectively even by non-experts. Without knowing
anything about XML, authors and contributing content creators are able to
create valid XML documents. XMetaL is designed to be easy to learn, use, customize
and deploy. It offers rich customization capabilities (via a COM-based interface)
that include an extensible interface, customizable dialogs, programming scripts
and more.
XMetaL can create documents that conform to arbitrary DTDs, both plain
text and compiled, and provides real time validation during the authoring
process. It has three editing views, as shown in the figure below. In Normal
view, authors are presented with a familiar word processor-like interface.
In Plain Text, experienced users operate in a detailed text oriented view,
complete with in-line tags and attributes. And in Tags On view, authors have
an intermediate view: a word processor-like view with collapsible tags for
immediate access to all elements. XMetaL uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
for styling the display and includes a comprehensive CSS editor to create
and modify formatting options
Figure 1
. Three editing views
The context-sensitive Attribute Inspector and Element List (see figure
below) are available in all views to show valid markup options at the current
point in the document. All attribute values can be viewed and set in the Attribute
Inspector. The Element List lets authors insert or change elements and is
fully context-sensitive.
Figure 2
. Attribute inspector and element list
XMetaL's Asset Manager is an extensible, drag-and-drop object management
system that allows users to easily manage boilerplate text, images, document
fragments, logos, macros and more, whether they're on a local disk, a network
or the Internet.
Figure 3
. Attribute inspector
Customizing XMetaL
Authors who are knowledgeable about XML can use the out-of-the-box editing
features described above, but typically there are many content contributors
in an organization who do not know much about XML, and don't need to know.
You can customize XMetaL for them to create an interface that is precisely
matched to the nature of the content being created and their level of experience.
Customizers can create templates with replaceable text and custom dialogs
for inserting required information. Word processor style drop down lists can
be created. Macros can be developed to automate repetitive tasks. Various
features and capabilities can be exposed or hidden based on a user's level
of experience. XMetaL also has several built-in heuristics and editing behaviors
that give the customizer a head start
Integrating XMetaL with document management systems
XMetaL also offers complete control over file events, which enables
integration with databases and document and content management systems. One
way to do this is to add a repository browser to the Asset Manager (see figure
below).
Figure 4
. Integration with document management systems
The figure above shows how the POET CMS 2.0 content repository might
be viewed from the Asset Manager. From this view, documents can be checked
in or out, dropped into XMetaL for editing, and composed from components in
the repository.
XMetaL has been successfully integrated in a similar fashion with Object
Design's eXcelon, Chrystal's Astoria, POET CMS 2.0, Vignette V/5 and Documentum
(including the new 4i document management system). Development with other
integration partners is ongoing.
XML in action
Businesses are already using XML content in a wide variety of applications
in e-publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management. But to deploy an effective
XML solution, you need to provide your users with the ability create XML content
directly and work with that content within a real world, production environment.
This involves providing your entire user base, regardless of their familiarity
with XML, an editing environment that both matches their level of experience
and is easy to use. It also requires the tight integration with your content
management system and other back end systems, to support both document creation,
and workflow.
The following case studies will outline how XML is being used today
in real world business environments
Case study 1: customer support system
Our first case study will examine a vendor that wanted to improve its
Web-based customer support system to reduce costs, and improve customer service.
Their existing process was very labor intensive and ad hoc. Since people in
the organization with the product knowledge to feed their customer support
system were not Web knowledgeable, transferring their information to a web
deliverable format was time consuming and subject to error. Knowledge workers
would create documents in an office productivity program like Word and send
it off for approval to their supervisors via e-mail. Once the copy was approved,
it would be sent to their overloaded Web team for transformation to HTML.
The process was slow, and inefficient. And in general, maintaining accurate
and up to date information, was a nightmare.
They decided that to improve this essential service delivery channel,
using XML with a content management system was the answer. Their the motivation
for using XML in this type of application is obvious:
- XML makes it easier to manage, update and keep current a large volume of corporate information
- XML enables the automatic delivery of targeted knowledge over the Web, an intranet or a knowledge management system
- XML allows more effective searches of your knowledge base so both internal and external users can find the right information the first time
- XML lets you create knowledge once, and deliver it accurately, and automatically over all your service delivery channels
To create XML content, they gave their knowledge workers, tech support
staff in this case, XMetaL, customized for their customer support DTD. The
customization included templates with replaceable text, custom dialog boxes
to help fill in required information and metadata, and word-processor style
drop down lists. By providing this word-processor style interface for XML
content creation, the tech support staff were able to create content directly
in XML.
The validated XML content was then routed to a Documentum content management
system, for workflow and subsequent publishing to the Web.
By working directly with XML, but without having to know XML, content
experts were able to provide their information in a way that flowed smoothly
through the rest of the content system and allowed for a highly automated
delivery mechanism. The cost savings were realized almost immediately.
Case study 2: e-Publishing (news)
TipWorld publishes advice, news and learning by e-mail. Each business
day, TipWorld delivers over 3.5 million newsletters to subscribers in 170
countries around the globe. TipWorld is developed and produced by the Online
Services Group of PC World Communications, Inc.
When TipWorld wanted to streamline their production process and enable
it to scale up, they turned to XML for the following reasons:
- XML increases publishing efficiency by allowing authors and editors to concentrate on writing and approving content, not presentation
- XML allows automatic custom formatting through stylesheets for different delivery channels
- XML lets you streamline the dynamic delivery of content from internal contributors and external content partners
- XML lets you easily package information for distribution
Content is produced in XMetaL and stored in Vignette's StoryServer from
which it is published via e-mail in either plain text or HTML format, depending
on user preference.
Again, a customized version of XMetaL for TipWorld's DTD was developed
to make it easy for editors to create content in a word processor like environment.
Also, a tight integration with StoryServer made working with the XML content
throughout the review and approval process highly productive.
Documents could be checked in and checked out of StoryServer's workflow
using XMetaL's HTTP capabilities. Editors, working at remote locations, could
use StoryServer's browser based workflow to select the tip they wished to
work on. By clicking on a link, XMetaL is invoked and the article, along with
any updates to the DTD and customization files are downloaded via HTTP. When
the editing work is complete, an XMetaL command is invoked to submit the article
back to the Vignette server using an HTTP POST command..
Case study 3: portals, e-Zines
Creating and managing an e-zine does not have to be the labor-intensive
nightmare it used to be. The Auto Publishing Engine (APE), a content management
tool recently developed by Communicate.com combines a smart file management
system with XML content that can be converted to HTML for Web site construction.
Used together these tools create a structure for formatting and organizing
documents, creating links to other sites and printing or emailing documents
to potential customers.
Two separate tools are used together in the Auto Publishing Engine:
XMetaL, for XML content creation, and Communicate.com's Perl-based Content
Management System, which parses XML into HTML for the Web site.
Most e-zines, regardless of their content, have two characteristics
in common. They are a combination of raw content and organizing principles.
They contain documents (which may also contain pictures, graphics, or, on
a Web site, even video and sound) and they are organized according to a few
basic categories. These are often subject, author and title, but any of these
categories could be replaced with others, such as date, product, price range
or even color.
Communicate.com's XML Parsing and Publishing Engine takes advantage
of the structure and component labelling embedded in the XML document, to
manage the appearance and presentation of the magazine in a consistent way.
This is done by using an intelligent file management system and Perl scripts.
To facilitate XML content creation, XMetaL was customized to work with
Communicate.com's system. Because most of their content was created first
in Microsoft Word, they required a way to transform the content from the Word
document into valid XML. Automatic conversion, based on Word style information,
was considered too unreliable and would require an inordinate amount of manual
correction. The solution was bring the content into an XMetaL template as
flat text, with the different Word sections imported as paragraphs. The process
of adding structure to the document--by identifying summary and conclusion
sections, or adding a section and subsection structure to the content--is
accomplished in XMetaL using a point and click method. For example, a section
of text identified as a Headline is selected, and using XMetaL's context sensitive
Element List, the user double clicks on the appropriate element to insert
the appropriate tag.
Case study 4: retail e-Commerce
On-line retailers have complex content requirements. Large volumes of
information must be must managed. Rich content must be added to raw product
information to provide a good customer experience. Multiple sources of content,
some from suppliers, some from syndicators, must be transformed into a consistent
format. And product catalogs must be rapidly updated to reflect the addition
of new products, and pricing changes.
For one on-line retailer, XML was the perfect solution for managing
their on-line catalog information.
- XML makes it easier to manage, update and keep current a large volume of product information
- XML enables the automatic assembly and formatting of custom product literature.
- XML lets you combine rich content with transactional data to provide an enhanced customer experience.
- XML lets you easily collect and deliver highly targeted product packages to customers
Their solution was to develop original content in XML and coerce supplied
content into XML. The content is then stored in an Oracle database, and Perl,
along with various parsers and validators is used to transform their XML into
HTML.
Although they were originally using Notepad to write their markup by
hand, a lot of time was spent debugging the documents. A more effective solution
was found using XMetaL.
The company uses a simple set of DTDs, that combine relational data
about products, unique product identifiers that are used to link to a product
database, as well as graphics, product descriptions and specifications, and
price. To coerced supplied content into XML, they employ the same point and
click methodology used in our previous example. Original content creation
is facilitated by using templates with replaceable text. Graphics are dragged
and dropped into the document using XMetaL's reusable object repository, the
Resource Manager. Relational data stored in their Oracle database is searched
and accessed using XMetaL's Database Import Wizard.
The final XML content is also stored in Oracle and templates and Perl
scripts do the work of assembling product data and content, and formatting
it for the Web.
Conclusion
There are several lessons to be learned from these brief descriptions.
First, it is possible to create effective XML based applications for content,
not just data. And, because the DTDs used in most of these applications are
simple, it is possible to create an effective, easy to use editing environment
for users of a wide variety of skill levels.
Also, we can learn that authoring valid XML documents is only one step
in the process of developing an effective content solution. You must also
make it easy to for your users to access different sources of information,
from different locations, whether this information is relational data that
resides in one of your legacy databases, graphics residing in a local or networked
file system, reusable content residing in a content management system, or
content created in other formats. And you must be able to support the entire
production process, from creating the original content, to approvals, to delivery
to a file system, a database or full fledged content management system for
final publication.
When it comes to conducting business on the Web, in all its facets,
you can do it with XML today. The XML standards are there to be used and the
tools and applications are readily available. And it seems certain that you
will be doing it with XML tomorrow.