- From: Janet Daly <janet@w3.org>
- Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 10:04:53 -0400
- To: w3t-pr@w3.org, w3c-news@w3.org
World Wide Web Consortium Issues XML Schema as a Candidate
Recommendation
Implementation testing the key to Interoperability
Contact America and Europe --
Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Asia --
Kazuhiro Kitagawa <kaz@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170
Web resources:
Press Release
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/xml-schema-pressrelease
Testimonials
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/xml-schema-testimonial
(also included below in plain text)
XML Schema Specifications:
XML Schema Part 0: Primer, ed. David C. Fallside
24 October 2000
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-xmlschema-0-20001024
XML Schema Part 1: Structures
ed. Henry S. Thompson, David Beech, Murray Maloney, Noah Mendelsohn
24 October 2000
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-xmlschema-1-20001024
XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes
ed. Paul V. Biron and Ashok Malhotra
24 October 2000
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/CR-xmlschema-2-20001024
http://www.w3.org/ -- 24 October 2000 -- The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) has issued XML Schema as a W3C Candidate Recommendation.
Advancement of the document to Candidate Recommendation is an invitation
to the Web development community at large to make
implementations of XML Schema and provide technical feedback.
XML Schema Accelerates the XML Revolution
Simply defined, XML Schemas define shared markup vocabularies and allow
machines to carry out rules made by people. They provide a means for
defining the structure, content and semantics of XML documents.
"Databases, ERP and EDI systems all know the difference between a date
and a string of text, but before today, there was no standard way to
teach your XML systems the difference. Now there is," declared Dave
Hollander, co-chair of the W3C XML Schema Working Group and CTO of
Contivo, Inc. "W3C XML Schemas bring to XML the rich data descriptions
that are common to other business systems but were missing from XML. Now,
developers of XML ecommerce systems can test XML Schema's ability to
define XML applications that are far more sophisticated in how they
describe, create, manage and validate the information that fuels B2B ecommerce."
The XML Schema specification consists of three parts. One part defines a
set of simple datatypes, which can be associated with XML element types
and attributes; this allows XML software to do a better job of managing
dates, numbers, and other special forms of information. The second part
of the specification proposes methods for describing the structure and
constraining the contents of XML documents, and defines the rules
governing schema-validation of documents. The third part is a primer,
which explains what schemas are, how they differ from DTDs, and how
someone builds a schema.
By bringing datatypes to XML, XML Schema increases XML's power and
utility to the developers of electronic commerce systems, database
authors and anyone interested in using and manipulating large volumes of
data on the Web. By providing better integration with XML Namespaces, it
makes it easier than it has ever been to define the elements and
attributes in a namespace, and to validate documents which use multiple
namespaces defined by different schemas.
XML Schema Introduces Flexibility, Data Fidelity for Users
XML Schema introduces new levels of flexibility that may accelerate the
adoption of XML for significant industrial use. For example, a schema
author can build a schema that borrows from a previous schema, but
overrides it where new unique features are needed. his principle, called
inheritance, is similar to the behavior of Cascading Style Sheets, and
allows the user to develop XML Schemas that best suit their needs,
without buidling an entirely new vocabulary from scratch.
XML Schema allows the author to determine which parts of a document may
be validated, or identify parts of a document where a schema may apply.
XML Schema also provides a way for users of ecommerce systems to choose
which XML Schema they use to validate elements in a given namespace,
thus providing better assurance in ecommerce transactions and greater
security against unauthorized changes to validation rules.
Further, as XML Schema are XML documents themselves, they may be managed
by XML authoring tools, or through XSLT.
XML Schema is Ready for Implementors
Candidate Recommendation is W3C's public call for implementation, an
explicit invitation for W3C members and the developer community at large
to review the XML Schema specification and build their own XML Schemas.
This period of implementations and reporting allows the editors to learn
how developers outside of the Working Group might use them, and where
there may be ambiguities for implementors. Public testing and
implementation contribute to a more robust XML Schema, and to more
widespread use.
XML Schema Has Broad Support
The working group roster reads as a who's who of information technology
leaders in research and industry. The members include: Academia Sinica;
ArborText, Inc; Bootstrap Alliance and LSU; Calico Commerce; Commerce
One; Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA); DevelopMentor;
Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC Pty Ltd); Graphic
Communications Association; Health Level Seven; Hewlett Packard Company;
IBM; Informix; Intel; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Lexica LLC;
Lotus Development Corporation; Microsoft Corporation; Microstar; MITRE;
NCR; Oracle Corp.; Progress Software; SAP AG; Software AG; Sun
Microsystems; TIBCO Software; University of Edinburgh; webMethods, Inc;
Xerox; and XMLSolutions.
Many are committed to current and future product support for XML Schema
as it progresses to W3C Recommendation.
About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the
National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the
Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web
for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications
to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 460 organizations
are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/
=======================================================
Testimonials for W3C XML Schema Candidate Recommendation
Calico Commerce | Commerce One | Contivo, Inc. | Health Level Seven |
IBM | Lotus Development Corporation | Microsoft Corporation | Oracle
| Progress Software | SAP | Software AG | TIBCO Software, Inc. |
University of Edinburgh |webMethods, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The promise of the Internet is very much tied to interoperability.
And the value proposition of e-business depends on the ability to
truly collaborate with partners and customers in a meaningful and
efficient way. This emerging XML Schema specification is a key
enabler in turning these visions into reality. By establishing
standards for managing XML data, W3C is meeting its mission of
maximizing the potential of the Web. We at Calico Commerce are
also dedicated to this mission, and we are committed to working
with other industry leaders to make software more robust and
systems more able to change and adapt to evolving situations. In
this day when multi-vendor IT environments are the norm in most
enterprises, it is critical that we continually find ways to speed
application integration and improve data exchange between
disparate platforms. It is for this reason that we're
incorporating the XML Schema specification into the Calico
eBusiness application suite." -- Mary Holstege, Distinguished
Engineer, Calico Commerce
Commerce One recognized in 1997 that the next generation of
XML-based applications cannot be built on the same old DTD
technology. DTDs are insufficient to support the features required
for B2B e-commerce. Since then, Commerce One has been the thought
leader in XML schema development through its "Schema for
Object-Oriented XML" (SOX). This introduced and implemented ideas
such as inheritance, polymorphism, local scoping, a modern
modularity mechanism, user-defined datatypes, attribute and model
groups, and a multi-level architecture, among others, that are
found in this Candidate Recommendation.
Commerce One is pleased to see the development of XML Schema move
to the Candidate Recommendation phase and calls on the community
to make this phase successful by providing implementation feedback
to the Working Group. This will ensure a final Recommendation that
truly addresses the community's needs and provides a solid
foundation for electronic commerce in the 21st Century. We
congratulate the Working Group on achieving this important
milestone. -- Dr. Matthew Fuchs, Senior Architect, Commerce One
Databases, ERP and EDI systems all know the difference between a
date and a string of text, but before today, there was no standard
way to teach your XML systems the difference. Now there is.
Released today, W3C XML Schemas bring to XML the rich data
descriptions that are common to other business systems but were
missing from XML. W3C XML Schemas have a strong data type system
and improved information modeling features. Now, developers of XML
eCommerce Systems can create standard XML applications that are
far more sophisticated in how they describe, create, manage and
validate the information that fuels B2B eCommerce. -- Dave
Hollander, CTO Contivo, Inc.
Health Level Seven (HL7) congratulates the W3C XML Schema WG on
the advancement of the W3C XML Schema specification to Candidate
Recommendation status. The XML Schema language will give HL7 a
vendor neutral way to more accurately express the constraints of
our models in our XML serializations than is currently possible
with DTDs. In particular, the addition of datatypes, inheritance
in the type system and locally-scoped element declarations are
seen as concrete improvements in expressiveness over DTDs. The
near-term stability offered by Candidate Recommendation will allow
HL7 to begin actively developing the next version of our own
standards based on the XML Schema Language. -- Wesley Rishel, Vice
Chair of the Technical Steering Committee, Health Level Seven
IBM applauds the W3C on this significant step forward, and notes
the critical role of XML Schema in the continuing evolution of XML
as the preferred vehicle for e-business applications. IBM is
committed to open standards and has been involved with XML Schema
from the beginning, both in terms of the development of the
specification and implementations that have tracked the emerging
standard. -- Robert Sutor, Director of e-business Standards
Strategy, IBM
XML Schemas supply the missing link for applying XML to a broad
range of industrial strength e-business, collaborative and
database applications. Lotus Development is pleased to have
contributed to the development of the W3C XML Schemas Candidate
Recommendation, and we congratulate the W3C on reaching this
important milestone." -- Nick Shelness, Chief Technology Officer,
Lotus Development Corporation
XML Schemas will enable new levels of distributed functionality
and interoperability among software products and computer
services, and so we are greatly pleased by the advancement of the
XML Schema specification to Candidate Recommendation. As one of
the original proponents of this work, we have been active
contributors to its development and are working to integrate XML
Schema in our products. In addition to adding support to our XML
parser, XML Schemas are at the foundation of the Microsoft .NET
Framework and play an integral role in Visual Studio.Net. -- Dave
Reed, General Manager, Data Access and XML Technologies, Microsoft
Corporation
The XML Schema Candidate Recommendation Release is a major
milestone towards the overall adoption of XML, and we are very
excited to announce its support as part of the Oracle XML
Developers Kit. XML Schema is essential to B-to-B integration
allowing information to be automatically and instantly exchanged
among trading partners." -- Jeremy Burton, Senior Vice President,
Product and Services Marketing, Oracle Corporation
Progress Software is proud to have participated in the development
of the XML Schema specification and its progressing to Candidate
Recommendation. By standardizing the way in which the meaning,
usage and relationships of XML constituent parts are defined, XML
Schemas allow Progress to create a robust infrastructure for B2B.
Combining the reliable, scalable and secure transport of
business-critical data via the SonicMQ Messaging Server, with the
XML Schema Mapping facility in Progress 9.1B, will enable the
integration of the more than 5,000 Progress-based business
applications, with each other as well as with non-Progress
applications. -- Pete Sliwkowski, Vice-President, Progress
Software
SAP is pleased to see that XML Schema has become Candidate
Recommendation. XML Schema will play an important role in enabling
collaborative business scenarios among different application
components. SAP is committed to embracing XML Schema throughout
its e-business platform, mySAP.com, and to supporting this
critical technology to be widely adopted. -- Dr. Peter Barth,
Director Corporate Marketing mySAP Technology and mySAP Workplace,
SAP AG
Software AG believes that the W3C XML Schema Specification will be
central to many software systems. the Candidate Recommendation
phase is vital to provide real implementation experience, receive
user feedback, and produce a formal model that provides a firm
foundation for future work such as the W3C XML Query algebra. We
believe this phase is essential to ensure that XML Schema is
understandable and implementable, and that implementations that
follow the specification are interoperable. -- Jonathan Robie, R&D
Fellow, Software AG
As a leading provider of XML schema solutions, TIBCO Extensibility
enthusiastically and fully supports the Candidate Recommendation
of the XML Schema Standard from the W3C. As a sign of our
commitment we are currently integrating the candidate
recommendation into the upcoming releases of our products,
including the industry leading Turbo XML(tm) and our enterprise
class solution XML Canon(tm). By agreeing upon a comprehensive
worldwide schema standard, the W3C has provided the Internet its
semantic foundation. By adopting XML Schema, business
relationships can now be articulated, integrated, and automated
via the Internet with unprecedented speed. -- Leonard Buck - Chief
Scientist and Vice President XML Technologies, TIBCO Software Inc.
We welcome the advance of the XML Schema W3C Working Drafts to
Candidate Recommendation status. This event is important not only
because of the practical benefits it will bring to the World Wide
Web, but also because it represents a major success for
collaboration between science and industry: The design of XML
Schema depends on a not only on the practical experience of
industry, but also on a unique confluence of scientific inputs,
from disciplines as diverse as formal language theory,
computational linguistics and type theory. We are pleased to have
contributed to this work, and are committed to continuing to
support it. -- Henry S. Thompson, Reader in Artificial
Intelligence and Cognitive Science,University of Edinburgh
webMethods continues to introduce open, innovative solutions that
allow companies to overcome traditional B2Bi challenges and
quickly create integrated trading networks. We are proud to have
been an active member of the XML Schema Working Group and to have
delivered support for the April draft. Our webMethods B2Bi
Solution Suite will continue to track this emerging standard as we
believe the W3C XML Schema will play a major role in streamlining
the process of transacting business over the Internet by making
the exchange of information between trading partners simpler and
more interoperable. -- Jim Green, CTO and Executive Vice President
of Product Development, webMethods, Inc.
###
--
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Janet Daly, Head of Communications
MIT/LCS NE43-363
200 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA USA 02139
voice: +1.617.253.5884
fax: +1.617.258.5999
http://www.w3.org/
janet@w3.org
Received on Tuesday, 24 October 2000 09:59:25 UTC