New
XML Tools Announced in March
HyBrick
Browser, V0.82
The
latest version of Fujitsu's "HyBrick"
browser, V0.82, with expanded support for XLink/XPointer,
is now available from Fujitsu Software Corporation's
Web site at: http://www.fsc.fujitsu.com/hybrick/
HyBrick
now has "Document Group" sub-menu in
the "XLink/XPointer" menu. Users can
navigate between inter-linked documents by using
Document Groups as well as through individual
links. There is also a "select link"
dialog, where link element "role" values
are displayed. This feature, as well as the "Document
Group" display feature, are particularly
useful for creating and navigating "Topic
Maps."
HyBrick
is supplied as a self-extracting file for Windows
95 and Windows NT. When the files are installed,
start HyBrick from the bin directory. Readme files
are available both in English and in Spanish.
XMLBars:
XML-Driven Menu Bars
XMLBars
is a nice Web GUI tool for menu-bar rendering.
With XMLBars, menu bar rendering and formatting
information is stored in XML and cashed in DOM
by a parser. Submenus are rendered only when the
parent menu is activated. Action to be fired on
a menu click event is also stored in XML. Action
can be a Link to a Web page or JavaScript code.
It can also be a Sub-Action. In this case child
menu inherits the parent's action.
XMLBars
was implemented by Nikita Ogievetsky, nikita.ogievetsky@csfb.com,
(Cogitech Inc.) using the IE5 beta parser. It
can be found at http://www.cogx.com/XMLBar.
MAJIX
1.1
TetraSix
(Paris) announced the release of Majix 1.1 in
March. Majix, short for Multi Application Java-generated
Interactive XML, is the very first converter entirely
written in Java which produces XML from RTF. Majix
is based on James Clark's XT parser. It includes
utilities that split XML documents into fragments
that can be used for Web publishing. Majix works
by a matching process between predefined Word
styles and XML data items and claims to be "pleasantly"
easy to use.
Majix
is freeware you may access by visiting http://www.tetrasix.com.
Netscape
XML E-Commerce Applications
This
month Netscape announced plans to integrate comprehensive
support for XML across its portfolio of e-commerce
applications to enable business customers to streamline
interoperability between companies. Support for
the XML language is a key ingredient to Netscape's
e-Commerce strategy that will enable new cross-company
business models. The Netscape CommerceXpert family
of packaged applications enable Internet commerce
exchange, corporate procurement, online selling
and customer information services. Netscape CommerceXpert
products that are scheduled to support XML include
Netscape BuyerXpert, Netscape ECXpert, Netscape
SellerXpert and Netscape TradingXpert.
The
Netscape CommerceXpert solutions are expected
to use XML to facilitate management of cross-company
business processes between trading partners. For
example, ECXpert and TradingXpert allow companies
to send and receive data transmissions over the
Internet, an intranet or an extranet in an encrypted
manner. Using XML as the enabling technology,
customers can integrate ECXpert's or TradingXpert's
communications features with other industry-defined
processes to build their own e-Commerce structure.
Netscape's
Internet procurement and selling solutions are
expected to support XML-based catalog exchanges,
allowing both enterprise buyers and suppliers
to conduct communications with all partners on
one flexible standard to streamline processes
and dramatically cut costs. Using the XML language,
companies can increase the number of suppliers
and customers with which they interact to expand
business relationships, increase catalog content,
and help drive revenue.
Microsoft
Releases the Long-Awaited IE5.0!
You
first saw the Beta of IE5.0 from Microsoft on
the GCA XML '98 proceedings CD-ROM. Now you can
purchase the real thing, with dramatically improved
XML capabilities, including XML rendering! Internet
Explorer 5 claims support for new technologies
like Dynamic HTML Behaviors, as well as support
for XML 1.0, XSL, HTML 4., CSS 1.0 and 2.0, Document
Object Model, and ECMA-compliant scripting.
The
new browser is characterized as the "World's
Fastest Modern Browser Available Today."
According to Microsoft "with Internet Explorer
5, users can experience page-rendering performance
improvements of up to 60 percent in comparison
with Netscape Navigator 4.5 on top sites; average
start-up is an average of 39 percent faster with
Internet Explorer than with Netscape Navigator
4.5. . . "Already, more than 140 Internet
service providers, seven of the top nine portal
sites and more than 300 radio stations worldwide
have chosen Internet Explorer 5 technologies as
the best way to serve their customers."
DB2XML
Released
DB2XML
is a tool for transforming relational databases
into XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents.
DB2XML provides two main functions:
- Transforming
the results of database queries into XML documents
- Providing
attributes describing characteristics of the
data
DB2XML
is written in Java and can be used as a servlet
or as a standalone tool. The DB2XML tool comes
with an easy to use graphical user interface and
accesses databases using JDBC drivers. It requires
JDK 1.1.6 (or higher) and a database with a JDBC
driver (or an ODBC driver using the JDBC-ODBC
bridge). DB2XML is well documented and can be
used freely. The DB2XML servlet transforms the
results of database queries into XML documents
which are delivered to the client. Two online
demos show how to use DB2XML in conjunction with
XSL style sheets." Changes in the latest
version: introduces the attribute NAME; is a java
servlet version; provides support for style sheets;
and offers a new GUI for the main panel.
You
can learn more about DB2XML by mailing to Volker Turau. You can download
DB2XML from http://www.informatik.fh-wiesbaden.de/~turau/DB2XML/default.html.
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