All posts by : Inspirational Technology

1 of 50 | XQuery 1.0, XSL-T 2.0 and XPath 2.0 are finally recommendations - Wow, I never thought it would happen but XQuery 1.0, XSL-T 2.0 and XPath 2.0 have finally been released as W3C recoommendations. Eight specs in total make up this behemoth. This is an interesting claim. The XML Query Working Group catalogued over forty implementations of XQuery and reported on how fourteen of them satisfy a test [...] ...

2 of 50 | Oracle release Berkeley DB XML 2.3.8 - It’s been a while since I’ve seen a new release of Berkeley DB XML, I probably just wasn’t paying attention, but I did see Oracle has released Berkeley DB XML 2.3.8. This release of Berkeley DB XML improves many aspects of query planning and execution. Using indexed node storage, users will generally experience significant speed increase. [...] ...

3 of 50 | WS-* vs. REST, XML Schema vs. Relax NG- quit complaining. They can’t hear you - Pete Lacey has an excellent post up about why all the teeth knashing over REST vs. WS-* and W3C XML Schema vs. Relax NG doesn’t really matter within the corporate space. I’ve certainly argued about this enough to know the sad reality that he’s right … as much as I hate to admit it. No [...] ...

4 of 50 | Choose relax for XML schemas - Tim Bray is pushing an effort to choose Relax NG for XML schemas. I simply say yes, if you have to have a schema, at least use a schema language that makes sense. W3C XML Schema is an abomination that has done more harm to XML based systems than anything else. Every time I’ve seen [...] ...

5 of 50 | The S stands for Simple - I’ve been out of the SOAP vs. REST debate for a while, but Pete Lacey’s “The S stands for Simple” post just has to be mentioned. For XML geeks who’ve been constantly been annoyed with the abomination that is SOAP/WSDL/UDDI it’s quite amusing. I’ll be so happy the day that SOAP is finally dead. Of [...] ...

6 of 50 | A new Structured Blogging release - Earlier this week a new update to the Structured Blogging plugins was released. This release finally includes support in the PHP plugin for the MC Ping service that we developed at Grid7 a few months back. MC Ping is a notification service for microcontent, the intention is for it to act as a connection point between people posting microcontent and services that consume that microcontent. The data flowing through it is just a trickle right now, but should pick up as more people update to the new plugins. MC Ping includes support for Microformats as well as the Structured Blogging specific microcontent types. From my perspective, work on Structured Blogging has slowed considerably. I had bi......

7 of 50 | Microformats and Structured Blogging are not competitors - It’s been an unfortunately common misconception that Structured Blogging and Microformats are competitors. Now, even Marc Canter whose company hired me to work on Structured Blogging late last year, has fallen into the trap of thinking this way when he says “However with the demise (and inevitable dissolution of PubSub) it looks like Dave Sifry’s stampeding marketing efforts have won.”. How can they win when they’re not even competeting? I’ll lay it out in simple terms here. Structured Blogging is a Open Source project that builds TOOLs to publish microcontent including Microformats Microformats is an open effort to build FORMATs for microcontent data. Tools and formats are not the same thi......

8 of 50 | REST protocols making the rounds - Looks like one of my older posts about how to think when building REST XML protocols is making the rounds in the blogosphere. That post was originally written to vent a little while I was trying to save a project that was consuming a very poorly designed XML web service. It was a continual process of me just shaking my head about the poor design decisions made on both sides of the system and how easy it would have been to avoid if they could have just thought a little bit differently. There are many other things to consider beyond what the post talks about, but my major point there is to simply think XML. Hmm, “Designing REST protocols by thinking in XML”. Sounds like a good title for an a......

9 of 50 | links for 2006-06-09 - IBM uncoils ‘Viper’ database IBM has unveiled Version 9 of its DB2 9 database, previously code-named Viper (tags: db2 xml database) ...

10 of 50 | Five years of blogging - Tonight I started thinking about how long I’ve been at this blogging thing and I realized it’s getting really close to five years. I don’t know the exact date that I started, my original blog was lost at some point, but it was somewhere around the middle of 2001 that I started. My blog started out with the title “XML Database JuJu” and at that time I mainly wrote about XML database topics. My first use of the name Inspirational Technology was in Jan. 2002 and it started as a parallel blog to XML Database JuJu. Eventually those sites merged back together and carried forward the name Inspirational Technology. Somewhere along the way I also tried a few other names one of which was “Bright Eye......

11 of 50 | More on RDFa - This is from an email I wrote to clarify my concerns with the existence of RDFa. It was in response to an email prompted by my post on the premature creation of standards in the microcontent space. I had looked at RDFa and I agree it’s not all that complicated, in fact RDF as a basic technology isn’t really that complicated. Where RDF fails is the semantic web vision and the complexity pulled in by trying to build a globally scalable data framework. To me that’s too aggressive of an approach for real world adoption. Anyone who actually gets out in the field and works with average skill level developers will know that a disturbingly large percentage are still struggling with simple XML, let......

12 of 50 | Standards in microcontent publishing - Evan Prodromou has posted what I guess can be considered a call to action in regard to microformats and RDFa. Those are clearly two ways of solving the problem of microcontent publication, with RDFa bringing all the weight of RDF along with it. Evan’s concern is that they’ll end up competing and slowing the adoption of the technology. Probably a legitimate concern given the history of other recent W3C killer specs like XQuery and XML Schema. It actually makes me cringe to think about the presence of a W3C spec in this area. I think XQuery was the worst thing that could have happened to XML databases, it basically killed innovation and the stupid thing still isn’t done. Microcontent publica......

13 of 50 | Why is this invalid XHTML? - On the Structured Blogging mailing list the question keeps coming up on whether the plugins will generate valid XHTML. Well, until this is considered valid XHTML, I doubt they will. I have a real problem with this as it severely restricts what you can do with XHTML documents. As far as I'm concerned the XHTML validator is broken. What's the point of converting the thing into XML, if you're going to simply make the use of XML extensibility mechanisms invalid?...

14 of 50 | links for 2006-04-07 - Staffing Exchange ProtocolJob posting XML format(tags: xmlgrid7jobs)...

15 of 50 | A Requiem for Xindice - Looks like O'Reilly's on Java site published an article on Xindice and Timothy O'Brian has taken issue with the fact an article has been published on Xindice at this stage of the game. I have to say I was a little surprised to see a Xindice article come out as well. The Xindice project, while not quite dead, has definitely been on life support for quite some time. Even I generally recommend people take a look at other options like eXist or Berkeley DB XML when looking for an Open Source native XML database. We tried to accomplish a lot with the Xindice project, and despite the valiant efforts of people like Vadim Gritsenko, the project just wasn't able to maintain enough momentum to get a n......

16 of 50 | Available for consulting - Just a quick note to make it known that I'm available for consulting work. My resume is available here. I'm a software architect with particular expertise on XML, XML databases, REST web services, general distributed systems design, blogging technology, content management systems and agile methodologies. I'm extremely versatile when it comes to technology, in fact, within the last year I've worked on projects implemented in Java, Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby. ...

17 of 50 | Sleepycat's products should stay Open Source - I just wanted to highlight a couple of the comments on my previous post about the acquisition of Sleepycat Software. From Rex Wang, VP of Marketing for Sleepycat Software:I just wanted to reassure you that Oracle has no plans to discontinue any of the Berkeley DB products or change dual license business model. All of Sleepycat's employees have joined Oracle and will continue to develop, support, and promote the products. Both open source licensees and commercial licensees will be supported. Oracle will continue the business with minimal disruption. Syncato and your other projects can continue to use Berkeley DB XML under the same licenseFrom Mike Olson, CEO of Sleepycat Software:You're not ......

18 of 50 | Oracle acquires Sleepycat software - I saw some rumors floating around that this was going to happen, and today Oracle announced that they've acquired Sleepycat Software the makers of my favorite native XML database, Sleepycat Berkeley DB XML. Congratulations are in order for the guys at Sleepycat.For my own projects, I don't know if this is a good thing or not yet. It definitely won't be a good thing if Oracle makes the project closed source. I'm sure we'll find out before too much longer. This is now the second major piece of open source database infrastructure that Oracle has acquired in the last few months. Hopefully this just signals a trend that they're planning to support the open source community, rather than a trend t......

19 of 50 | Syncato and Berkeley DB XML 2 - After far too long, I`ve finally gotten around to updating Syncato to work with Berkeley DB XML 2. This was actually more work than I expected as the details of transactions have changed quite a bit and it`s extremely easy to deadlock the thing if you don`t have things perfect. It seems to be working pretty well now though.So, for anyone wondering if Syncato is still being worked on, it is and there will be a new release at some point, hopefully soon. When it`s released it will have support for the Microcontent Description (MCD) format I created for the Structured Blogging effort. That means you`ll be able to drop MCD files from the Structured Blogging tools into Syncato to create custom po......

20 of 50 | Structured Blogging Initiative brings Microcontent to the Masses - For the past couple months I`ve been working on a project with Broadband Mechanics and PubSub Concepts to build out a new version of the Structured Blogging system. Well, today was the big announcement of the new Structured Blogging Initiative at the Syndicate conference in San Francisco. It`s also the release of the first version of new Structured Blogging plugins for Wordpress and Movable Type. The Structured Blogging value proposition from the web site.Structured Blogging will make it easy to create, edit and maintain different kinds of blog posts. The major difference is the structure will let you add specific styles to each type. For example, you`ll be able to add links and pictures t......

21 of 50 | What I meant by XML is done - It seems a few people misunderstood what I was saying in the XML is done post from a couple days ago. They seemed to be reading it as if I said, "I`m done with XML". That`s not what I said, my belief in the value of XML is stronger than ever. What I said is "XML is done", meaning that the development of XML core technologies is for all practical purposes complete. And by that I meant that we`re pretty much going to have to make due with XML 1.0, XPath 1.0 and XSL-T 1.0. That`s still an incredibly powerful set of tools if you know how to use them.This doesn`t mean that things like XPath 2.0, XSL-T 2.0 and XQuery aren`t useful, it simply means that for a large set of developers, those tools a......

22 of 50 | Amazon Web Services API Namespaces - One of the projects I`m currently working on is the next version of the Structured Blogging plugins for Wordpress and Movable Type. As part of these plugins you can lookup data via the Amazon Web Services API. While building this functionality, I found that Amazon changes the XML namespace in......

23 of 50 | XML is done - As I continue to examine what it is that has put me into a year long blogging lull, I want to take a closer look at the things I used to write about. First up is XML. I`ve been a big proponent for the use of XML and Syncato was......

24 of 50 | Berkeley DB XML Speeds Up Service Oriented Architecture at Starwood Hotels - Berkeley DB XML Speeds Up Service Oriented Architecture at Starwood Hotels: "Sleepycat Software, makers of the Berkeley DB family of open source developer databases, today announced that Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has deployed Berkeley DB XML for its global property search service." This looks like a nice design......

25 of 50 | New XQuery, XPath 2.0 and XSL-T 2.0 working drafts - The W3C has just updated the mountain of specs surrounding XQuery, XPath 2.0 and XSL-T 2.0. The drafts incorporate the feedback from the last call phase. XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0 XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model XQuery......

26 of 50 | XQuery Basics with Saxon - The Abbey Workshop has posted a short tutorial on using XQuery with Saxon...

27 of 50 | An actually useful web services directory - WSFinder is a wiki that is aggregating information about various publicly available web services APIs. Unlike the overblown UDDI specification and pathetic attempts at public UDDI repositories this directory is actually useful....

28 of 50 | AJAX ... wow! - It`s amazing how fast the AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) concept is taking off and the level of polish that`s hitting even these first generation apps. Obviously Google has been doing a lot of cool stuff, but over the last week I`ve come across a number of slick apps that......

29 of 50 | Learn XQuery in 10 Minutes - Stylus Studio has published a short tutorial on XQuery written by Micheal Kay. It`s obviously light, but is the first of a series to showcase the XQuery support in Stylus Studio along with Saxon. There`s also an interesting interview with Michael Kay on the Stylus Studio site, though it contains......

30 of 50 | Native XmlDB Query Daemon 1.0.0 (Default branch) - Native XmlDB Query Daemon 1.0.0 (Default branch): "Native XmlDB Query Daemon is a client-server version of the Sleepycat native XML database deployed as an Apache module. The client is a pure Java API, supporting XQuery, XPath, and an Xml:DB API layer. It comes with a graphical admin console. Server binaries......

31 of 50 | DataMirror Releases DBXML Transform 30 - DataMirror Releases DBXML Transform 30: "DataMirror(R) today announced the availability of DataMirror DB/XML Transform 3.0(R) (DB/XML 3.0), DataMirror`s cost-effective solution for data integration between XML, text, database and EDI file formats. It includes enhancements to data integration solution deliver SOA integration, improved error reporting, enhanced platform support and embedded database......

32 of 50 | Has XQuery Arrived - Back in January I wrote "the day you see me posting XQuery example code is when you know XQuery has really arrived." Well, it actually happened a couple months ago. Sort of anyway, I didn`t post the code here, but I did write the "Introduction to Berkeley DB XML" guide......

33 of 50 | Qizx open - Qizx/open is a Java implementation of XQuery released under the GPL. Apparently it`s also serving as the basis for a new XML repository called XQuest....

34 of 50 | XQuery at Your Web Service - came across a paper today which discusses an implementation of XQuery designed for use with web services. (Via Peter Kelly.) I guess this is an interesting paper, but it just seems like so much unnecessary effort due to the fact it`s based on SOAP based web services. The more I......

35 of 50 | XML.com: Getting Started with XQuery, Part 2 - XML.com: Getting Started with XQuery, Part 2 (Via Blogdigger Search: xquery.)...

36 of 50 | Interview with Mike Olson of Sleepycat - On the Stylus Studio website there`s an interesting interview with Mike Olson of Sleepycat software talking about Berkeley DB XML and XQuery. It looks like this was just published, although it`s obvious that it`s actually several months old. Still worth a read if you have any interest in Berkeley DB......

37 of 50 | New XQuery Tools Support XML Development Using Berkeley DB XML 2.0 - New XQuery Tools Support XML Development Using Berkeley DB XML 2.0: " Summary: Stylus Studio and Sleepycat Software today announced the immediate availability of new integrated XQuery development tools which fully support XML development using Berkeley DB XML 2.0."...

38 of 50 | IBM Flexes XML Muscle - IBM Flexes XML Muscle: "Here is another article titled "IBM Flexes XML Muscle" that covers the same general theme: IBM`s appreciation of Unified Storage.As indicated in an earlier post: IBM is clearly validating what we have done with Virtuoso (as was the case initially with their Virtual / Federated DBMS......

39 of 50 | Transforming the Web - Transforming the Web: " Sam Pullara strings together an XQuery engine and TinyURL-alike to transform the web into something his mobile can understand. What I decided to do was to build a server that would let you define a source of information (either HTML or XML) and then process that......

40 of 50 | Is XML 2.0 doomed - Is XML 2.0 doomed: "XML 2.0 seems to be becoming the new buzzword and hot topic among many forums. While I think that XML 1.0 would deserve a certain amount of factoring, I don`t think that XML 2.0 is likely to ever happen nor even that it is something we......

41 of 50 | Montag - XML:DB Web Services - Montag: " Montag is a Java Web Services based system for the interaction with every Native XML Database that supplies a Java implementation of the XML:DB API. So, it`s a middleware which permits heterogeneous SOAP-enabled clients, written for different platforms in different languages, to operate over XML databases. Montag is......

42 of 50 | XOM? 1.0, a new XML object model. - I`m very pleased to announce the release of XOM? 1.0, a new XML object model.: "I`m very pleased to announce the release of XOM? 1.0, a new XML object model. XOM is a free-as-in-speech (LGPL), library for processing XML with Java. XOM supports a number of XML technologies including Namespaces......

43 of 50 | Berkeley DB XML 2.0.9 - Berkeley DB XML 2.0.9: "Berkeley DB XML is a native XML database engine for use within your product. Made available as a C++ library with language bindings for Java, Perl, Python, PHP, and Tcl, it integrates directly into your application (it is not a standalone database server). It provides XQuery......

44 of 50 | 10 things to change in your thinking when building REST XML Protocols - Do not think in terms of programming languages, XML is a data format. It is NOT a serialization of programming language structures so don`t treat it as such. In REST based systems you`re moving and manipulating data, you`re not making method calls against a remote object. The fact programming languages......

45 of 50 | Revolution postponed - Infoconomy has an article looking at the slow growth of Native XML Databases. It`s pretty obvious at this point that the technology hasn`t really caught on and based on the way the database companies market, I can`t say it`s surprising. It`s really too bad, as when I look at projects......

46 of 50 | W3C Issues XInclude 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation; XInclude Makes It Easier to Create Reusable Content (Business Wire) - W3C Issues XInclude 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation; XInclude Makes It Easier to Create Reusable Content (Business Wire): "http://www.w3.org--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2004--Strengthening the XML family, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has published XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. XInclude 1.0 provides a method for merging multiple......

47 of 50 | IBM discovers native XML databases - IBM`s `hybrid` database faces alpha test (CIOL): "This new database can handle native as well as XML data and will be available in its beta form sometime next year. NEW DELHI: IBM has handed over its newly developed hybrid database to a team of alpha testers. Said an online report."......

48 of 50 | Sleepycat Berkeley DB XML 2.0 - Sleepycat has released version 2.0 of the Berkeley DB XML native XML database system. This is a major update that adds XQuery and XPath 2.0 support based on the July draft specifications. Other notable changes include better support for larger documents and a brand new PHP API. It of course......

49 of 50 | Spring XML Database Framework - Stuart Eccles has announced the availability of a framework for working with XML databases from within the Spring Java/J2EE application framework. Seems pretty interesting. Here`s the text of his announcement As part of a much larger project i have released a framework for integrating Spring with XML databases on an......

50 of 50 | REST, REST, everywhere - The last couple days I`ve seen a lot of stuff being published about REST style web services. Brent Simmons has another interesting post reflecting on the strengths of XML-RPC driven from his exploring the ATOM API. He`s not sure about the real value of REST based approaches (more on this......