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16951 of 19643 | News: Bryce 5.5 ships - DAZ Productions has announced the release of Bryce 5.5, the latest version of the long-running 3D landscape and scenery generation software. New to this release are workflow improvements, feature enhancements and performance boosts. Bryce 5.5 costs US$99.95; 5.0 owners can get a $20 rebate....

16952 of 19643 | Open Archives Initiative Releases Specification for Conveying Rights Expressions - The Open Archives Initiative has published an Implementation Guideline specification for "Conveying Rights Expressions About Metadata in the OAI-PMH Framework". The specification defines mechanisms for data providers to associate XML-based rights expressions with harvested metadata that is queried and delivered via service providers using the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Markup examples using Creative Commons and GNU licenses are provided....

16953 of 19643 | Advancements in Java productivity - Application frameworks like Spring and Beehive are starting to have a big impact on J2EE developer productivity ...

16954 of 19643 | AXIS 1.2 Released - After 2 years, the next major release of AXIS has arrived. AXIS is the web toolkit for web services for Java, and is used by ColdFusion. Download the release.......

16955 of 19643 | Contract First: Message-based WebMethod "overloading" - Fellow _MS RD_ and a software legend, Rocky Lhotka posted an interesting entry on Message-based WebMethod "overloading" here. In it, he recommends (and I quote) that service methods use a request/response or just request method signature:     response = f(request) or    f(request)  "request" and "response" are both messages, defined by a type or schema (with a little "s", not necessarily XSD). The actual procedure, f, is then implemented as a Message Router, routing each call to an appropriate handler method depending on the specific type of the request message. I couldnt agree more. While easier to comprehend, the practice of passing pa......

16956 of 19643 | Contract First: Message-based WebMethod "overloading" - Fellow _MS RD_ and a software legend, Rocky Lhotka posted an interesting entry on Message-based WebMethod "overloading" here. In it, he recommends (and I quote) that service methods use a request/response or just request method signature:     response = f(request) or    f(request)  "request" and "response" are both messages, defined by a type or schema (with a little "s", not necessarily XSD). The actual procedure, f, is then implemented as a Message Router, routing each call to an appropriate handler method depending on the specific type of the request message. ......

16957 of 19643 | DaveO on protocol abstraction - I spent 3 days last week hanging out with Ed Pinto from EDS. We had a great time jamming on a whole bunch of SO/WS topics. Ed urged me to read DaveO`s post on problems inherent in transport protocol abstraction. It`s an excellent read, reflecting Dave`s typical extremely deep analysis of a problem. The story is actually extremely confusing, not because he didn`t explain it well, but because of how complex and hideous the problem is. In essence (correct me if I get this wrong Dave) the problem is that the message exchange patterns in WSDL and SOAP do not adequately encapsulate the different behaviors exhibited by different transport protocols, especially with regard to faults, and far from r......

16958 of 19643 | Do XML Schema collections enable data tampering - A recent weblog entry by Jim Fawcett that recaps Jon`s recap of our wireside chat contains the following sentence: Yukon`s association of XML schemas with its XML datatype exposes applications to tampering, a problem Rys believes Oracle is addressing. Let me first quote Jon`s original wording before clarifying it: Yukon can associate XML schemas with its XML datatype, and will exploit the schema information to optimize query execution. But it does not use schemas to control the automatic shredding of XML content into relational tables, a la Oracle. Rys sees two problems with that approach. First, it freezes your data and associated schema into structures that can`t easily evolve. Second,......

16959 of 19643 | Easy and FAST - Yesterday Macromedia Consulting released FAST a software toolkit that helps you develop Flex applications easier and faster. After going through the tutorial and playing around a bit, I found the following things about FAST pretty cool: Events can be logged to the echo console The echo console is a separate Flex application that can be run simultaneously to view the logs The echo console also includes an object inspector for examining objects in the client application Data services (RemoteObject, WebService and HTTPService) have been wrapped into proxy components for convenience The proxy components eliminate the need for boilerplate code...

16960 of 19643 | Hackers Beware: Keep Bad Guys at Bay with the Advanced Security Features in SQL Server 2005 - Explore security enhancements in SQL Server 2005 from a developer's perspective: endpoint authentication, support for the security context of managed code that executes on the server, and much more....

16961 of 19643 | Indigo, WS-* and the WS-I Basic Profile - The Indigo bindings that support the WS-* protocols use SOAP 1.2, not SOAP 1.1. That makes them incompatible with the WS-I Basic Profile, a standard that many companies require services to comply with. The WS-I Basic Profile was specifically designed to be not restrict either message header or body content, specifically because we knew that WS-* was going to be a big deal. So what should happen here Should Indigo support using WS-* with SOAP 1.1, or is there a reason it has to use SOAP 1.2 If the latter, should the WS-I BP be updated to support SOAP 1.2 or should companies move away from the BP If the latter, does that open the door for the return of SOAP encoding What`s the right thing to ......

16962 of 19643 | Interface Definition Languages and WSDL, and why SOAP isn`t object oriented - Dilip Ranganathan sent me mail asking me to blog about the “To Slice or Not To Slice” article recently written by by Mitchi Henning of ZeroC. The article positions WSDL against other interface definition languages (IDL’s) such as CORBA IDL and offers several critiques of WSDL specifically and IDL’s in general. Reading through the article I have several thoughts, but there are a couple of paragraphs I’d like to specifically respond to. A much more serious issue with WSDL, however, is that it lacks any notion of object-orientation. The reason for this is historical: one of the driving forces behind web services was a wish to integrate functionality provided ......

16963 of 19643 | Notes From the Startup Front - By Mitch Ratcliffe The Battle of Stalingrad. Yes, thats what the sales cycle feels like when youre in the midst of an enterprise web services company launch. Youre the Russians and you know you can winthat you are going to......

16964 of 19643 | Rich Agrees with My Definition of SOA - Rich agrees with my definition of SOA (and thus confirms its existence). Good. At the same time, I need to clarify some points... By SO I meant Microsoft`s `tenets` - autonomy, boundaries, policies, contract... Just the basics. One implication of these basics is that the service endpoints should be quite advanced not relying on `bus` - otherwise they are not......

16965 of 19643 | Services and Indigo blog - Just discovered Rich Turner`s blog on all things Indigo, including an excellent discussion on the ESB, SOA, ... landscape. Well worth reading....

16966 of 19643 | SOA and Trust - Solving mutual trust issues is one of the biggest challenges enterprises will face during SOA implementation (0.9 probability)......

16967 of 19643 | SQL Server 2000 SP4 RTM released - Finally, all SP4 bugs are fixed and all tests are passing: We have achieved lift off for SQL Server 2000 SP4. This is the best tested and most secure SQL Server 2000 yet. You can find it for download at microsoft.com for both 32-bit and 64-bit. On the XML front, this is the first release that uses the SQL Server specific MSXMLSQL.dll that removes the dependency from the MSXML 2.6 (32-bit) and MSXML 3.0 (64-bit) OS versions (SQL Server 2005 will also use MSXMLSQL). It is based on the MSXML 3.0 code-base and is used by OpenXML in a backwards-compatibility mode to provide the existing SQL Server 2000 semantics. There are a few things that will not work the same though (some are bug fixes, some......

16968 of 19643 | Subtext Roadmap - This document describes the goals for future versions of Subtext as well as a plan for achieving them. The goals for this roadmap are the following: Communicate to end users what features are planned for future releases Elicit feedback from users about upcoming releases Provides a prioritization of features This document is a work in progress and feedback is welcome. Administrative Road Map Documenting existing source code and features. (priority: high) Fill specific project roles (patch manager, forum manager, etc...) (priority: high) Set up a website and Wiki for Subtext (unfortunately subtext.com is taken). (priority: med) Set up an automated build process (NAnt) (priority: low) ......

16969 of 19643 | Toby Redshaw on SOA - Phil Windley reports from InfoWorld`s SOA Executive Forum. Read Phil`s summary of Toby Redshaw`s keynote to learn good, bad, and ugly parts of SOA. As Motorola is our customer, I have to quote this: "Why is UDDI important Its the directory. You need a Yellow Pages to find services. You need one of these. Don`t let directory projects proliferate. Set......

16970 of 19643 | .NET 2.0 prohibits DTD in XML by default - Yep, no DTD is allowed by default in the .NET 2.0 Beta2: XmlReaderSettings.ProhibitDtd Property (System.Xml) Gets or sets a value indicating whether to prohibit document type definition (DTD) processing. Return Value true to prohibit DTD processing; otherwise false. The default is true. Remarks This setting can be useful in preventing certain denial of service attacks. When set to true, the reader throws an System.Xml.XmlException when any DTD content is encountered. That`s for sure contradicts "Allow all XML syntax" gospel, but looks like Microsoft takes security very seriously nowadays. Well, at least Microsoft`s XML team. Most likely that was a hard decision, but may be not sin......

16971 of 19643 | Call for Participation in the OASIS Web Services Reliable Exchange (WS-RX) TC - OASIS has issued a Call for Participation in a new WS-RX Technical Committee chartered to define a protocol for reliable message exchanges between two Web services. The TC will continue development of the Web Services Reliable Messaging specifications (WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-RM Policy) from BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and TIBCO Software. The proposal has a broad base, supported initially by some forty-one individuals representing twenty-eight companies....

16972 of 19643 | Can I Get Another Amen - “With regards SOA, I`ll again ask the question "What does the `A` stand for” If, to you, the `A` infers `Architecture`, are you telling me that you`re going to build your enterprise architecture on top of a quagmire of quicksand The term SOA is so poorly defined, is so inconsistent and incomplete and has such little value as a term that we have to create new acronyms and terms to describe stuff that fills in the gaps that are missing in the SOA story. Enter, ESB. Some claim that in order to build a SOA you need an ESB. Others claim that by building a SOA you get an ESB. Both are claims made by salespeople selling snake-oil. The whole SOA/ESB thing is all hype, people! Once you come to real......

16973 of 19643 | Controlling the CLR Thread pool hosted by BizTalk - The CLR thread pool is global to the process, meaning that all components using the thread pool in a given process share the same thread pool and therefore compete for it. This for the most part is a good thing as it is more efficient in terms of system resources. When you do performance testing/tuning there are scenarios when you need to control the thread pool, for example when using the SOAP Adapter. I came across this little gem last week, I hadnt realized that Q886966 added the registry keys MinCompletionPortThreads, and MinWorkerThreads and then SP1 added the MaxWorkerThreads key below. These all exist under:   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTSSvc{Guid}\CLR Host......

16974 of 19643 | Controlling the CLR Thread pool hosted by BizTalk - The CLR thread pool is global to the process, meaning that all components using the thread pool in a given process share the same thread pool and therefore compete for it. This for the most part is a good thing as it is more efficient in terms of system resources. When you do performance testing/tuning there are scenarios when you need to control the thread pool, for example when using the SOAP Adapter. I came across this little gem last week, I hadnt realized that Q886966 added the registry keys MinCompletionPortThreads, and MinWorkerThreads and then SP1 added the MaxWorkerThreads key below. These all exist under:   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTSSvc{Guid}\CLR Host......

16975 of 19643 | Controlling the CLR Thread pool hosted by BizTalk - The CLR thread pool is global to the process, meaning that all components using the thread pool in a given process share the same thread pool and therefore compete for it. This for the most part is a good thing as it is more efficient in terms of system resources. When you do performance testing/tuning there are scenarios when you need to control the thread pool, for example when using the SOAP Adapter. I came across this little gem last week, I hadnt realized that Q886966 added the registry keys MinCompletionPortThreads, and MinWorkerThreads and then SP1 added the MaxWorkerThreads key below. These all exist under:   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTSSvc{Guid}\CLR Host......

16976 of 19643 | Create a Modern Extension to Your Online Business with a Public API - More and more online retailers and other technology companies are finding ways to market and extend their businesses using Web services. Don`t let the boat pass you by. Learn how to create a simple API to launch your own affiliate network....

16977 of 19643 | European Community Explores Advances in Standards for eGov, Tax, Web Services, Security, and Aerospace/Defence at OASIS Open Standards Day - Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 May 2005 - Users, vendors, governments, and researchers from Europe and around the world will gather in Amsterdam, 24 May 2005, to examine and discuss advances in e-Business standards at the OASIS Open Standards Day. Sponsored by the international, not-for-profit consortium, OASIS, the event will feature presentations on key OASIS Standards and specifications that are of particular interest to the European community. OASIS Open Standards Day will be held in conjunction with the IDEAlliance XTech 2005 Conference & Exhibition (formerly XML Europe)....

16978 of 19643 | Forming Opinions, Part Three - In this week`s XML-Deviant column, Micah Dubinko concludes his three-part foray into Web Forms 2.0. ...

16979 of 19643 | Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 Features Support for Key Web Services Standards - The Globus Consortium has released the Globus Toolkit Version 4.0 (GT4) as a stable, enterprise ready set of services and software libraries incorporating the latest web services standards, with new security and authorization features. GT4 now complies with the WS-I web services specifications for interoperability, has initial support for OASIS SAML and XACML, implements both WS-RF and WS-N, and features sophisticated authorization and security capabilities....

16980 of 19643 | Informal Chalk-Talk/Presentation on Indigo at Beantown.NET This Thursday - Due to last minute schedule constraints, we have had a change of plans this month. I (Sam Gentile) will be giving a very informal chalk-talk/presentation on Indigo. Microsoft defines Indigo as “Indigo" is a set of .NET technologies for building and running connected systems. It is a new breed of communications infrastructure built around the Web services architecture. Advanced Web services support in Indigo provides secure, reliable, and transacted messaging along with interoperability. Indigo`s service-oriented programming model is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and simplifies development of connected systems.” I have been attending Indigo SDRs for a year now and I will be presentin......

16981 of 19643 | MCMS Connector for SharePoint Technologies Review - Review of MCMS Connector for SharePoint Technologies....

16982 of 19643 | Microsoft licenses open source project from MPVs - In a major achievement for MVPs contributing to the Mvp.Xml project, a couple weeks ago I signed a license agreement with Microsoft to confer ample rights to use and distribute our code base. This has several implications: You may see more and more XInclude support in XML configuration files coming out from patterns & practices, as they were the ones that helped navigating the licensing process at Microsoft.Our code may be used anywhere Microsoft feels they want to. This is way cool for us :)We can continue to deliver new features from the project, and Microsoft will automatically have rights to use that and distribute it. The cool thing about this is that they will no longer be tied to th......

16983 of 19643 | News: SLAPPA ShockShell case offered for iPod mini - Total Impact Industrial Inc. on Wednesday announced the SLAPPA ShockShell Case for Apple`s iPod mini. The carrying case features an aluminum core, soft interior and rubberized PVC outer body. Cut-out access windows let you see the iPod mini`s screen and access the Click Wheel, while there`s Dock Connector access. The ShockShell also touts an accessories adapter plug and removable belt clip. Shipping in June, the new ShockShell case for iPod mini costs US$34.99....

16984 of 19643 | Note: Describing Media Content of Binary Data in XML - 2005-05-04: The XML Protocol Working Group and the Web Services Description Working Group have completed Describing Media Content of Binary Data in XML and published the document as a Working Group Note. The note specifies how to indicate the content-type associated with binary element content in an XML document and to specify, in XML Schema, the expected content-type(s) associated with binary element content. Use of these attributes is expected to improve the handling and description of binary data in Web services messages. Visit the Web services home page. (News archive)...

16985 of 19643 | SOA Exists! - SOA exists, it has good enough definition, and this definition helps customers to use web services. At least, by Systinet......

16986 of 19643 | Suddenly SOA does not exist!... - ...or at least that`s what Clemens Vaster thinks. A little bit radical just to explain that SOA is an Orientation, not an Architecture itself... anyways, I agree with him, and I`ve added him to my blogroll... It`s true that there`s too much hype with SO and SOA, so I`ll try to explain my point of view of SO in 3 over-simplifyed steps: I want to benefit of Service Orientation. What should I do Design different elements of the architecture to be independant each other (stateless, autonomous) For each element, separate interface from implementation. For each interface, use a technology that provides platform-independence and location-independence (SOAP over HTTP is a good example, but it`s ......

16987 of 19643 | Suddenly SOA does not exist!... - ...or at least that`s what Clemens Vaster thinks. A little bit radical just to explain that SOA is an Orientation, not an Architecture itself... anyways, I agree with him, and I`ve added him to my blogroll... It`s true that there`s too much hype with SO and SOA, so I`ll try to explain my point of view of SO in 3 over-simplifyed steps: I want to benefit of Service Orientation. What should I do Design different elements of the architecture to be independant each other (stateless, autonomous) For each element, separate interface from implementation. For each interface, use a technology that provides platform-independence and location-independence (SOAP over HTTP is a good example, but it`s ......

16988 of 19643 | The Tail does not Wag the Dog: A Cautionary Tale for Contract First Development - Web Services are network entities which exchange and process SOAP messages in order to facilitate computation, and so describing those message exchanges in a meaningful way is vital to interoperability....

16989 of 19643 | Transforming XML: The Path of Control - In his latest Transforming XML column, Bob DuCharme examines the potential contribution of XPath 2.0`s new control structures to XSLT 2.0 stylesheets. ...

16990 of 19643 | Visual Studio 2005 XML tools - video demo - MSDN Channel 9 has an interview with Ken Levy showing off the new XML tools in Visual Studio 2005.http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspxPostID=64642 Running Time - 41:52Download Size - 134 MB These new XML tools will be especially useful to developers who encounter XML, XSD, and XSLT without necessarily intending to -- in config files, specifications, ASP.NET scripts, RSS feeds, and all sorts of other little niches where one finds XML these days.  The XML tools are available from all the .NET programming languages no matter what primary programming language is used. The free beta Visual Studio 2005 beta 2 includes these new XML tools. All level versions of Visual Studio 2005 including the V......

16991 of 19643 | BizTalk Server and "Indigo" - Scott Woodgate shows a glimpse into the future with a working prototype demo illustrating BizTalk Server and "Indigo" working together....

16992 of 19643 | More speaking events: TechEd Europe and SQLPASS 2005 - Here is an update on two more events where I will be speaking and where I hope to meet some of you: TechEd 2005 Europe, Amsterdam (The Netherlands), July 5-8, 2005 I will be giving the presentation on  Together at Last: Combining XML and Relational Data in SQL Server 2005, probably give a chalkchart talk on some of the T-SQL extensions (assuming the organizers find some space on the schedule) and also give Pablo Castro`s 2 ADO.Net TechEd presentations (so time for me to ramp up on all the good stuff the data works team did for ADO.Net v2!). Note that since these will be repeats from the TechEd 2005 US presentations, they will hopefully be slightly improved based on the feedback we will have......

16993 of 19643 | OASIS Forms Committee to Develop SOA Reference Model - Boston, MA, USA; 3 May 2005-- International standards consortium, OASIS, announced the formation of a new committee to develop a core reference model that will guide and foster the creation of specific, service-oriented architectures (SOA). The new OASIS SOA Reference Model (SOA-RM) Technical Committee will promote the continued development of multiple SOAs and related standards by acting as a guide for those writing SOAs and an analysis of their functional components....

16994 of 19643 | OASIS Forms Committee to Formulate SOA Reference Model - The new Committee brings together more than 45 members to promote the continued development of multiple SOAs and related standards....

16995 of 19643 | Of the apparent 140, how many of these were XML MVP`s, those who are closest to the XML action and would have the better understanding as to the need and/or effectiveness of this position - Microsoft MVPs Petition for XQuery Support in Whidbey- ADTmag.comAs of Monday, the XQuery for All campaign had garnered a reported 140 petition signatures from members of Microsofts Most Valuable Professionals (MVPS) program.Each new day that comes into existence tends to bring more dissapointment my way in consideration to Data Directs latest attempt at gaining attention. The title of this piece is so rediculously misleading I am coming to believe that there are no longer media outlets that report the news and instead sell headlines to the highest bidder. This particular headline attempts to lead the reader into the belief that members of the Microsoft MVP group all got together and deci......

16996 of 19643 | Project Post Mortem - Since July last year I have been working on the design, development and testing of a project designed to provide wireless data access to field workers for a resources client. My role was primarily focussed on the design, development and performance/resilience testing of the EAI solution in Microsoft BizTalk 2004 and our own custom made Resequencer software. This part of the project was initially planned as being a migration from BizTalk 2002 to BizTalk 2004, however as almost anyone tasked with this type of work has learned, there is no point in migrating from one to the other without redesigning your messaging system to take advantage of all the new bits that BizTalk 2004 gives you.W......

16997 of 19643 | Reminder: If this webpage snapshot doesn`t look even remotely familiar you may want to hurry up and visit the link following it. - The Erik Meijer presentation is just under 1 hour from now and if, like me, you failed to register before now it seems its not too late. Visit here to get signed up... I just finished the wizard and got a spot so theres a chance you might too. Regarding this (the enrollment): Can we please have "Hacker" added to the official occupation list that most companies seem to use. The closest I could find was "Unofficial IT". What the hell is "Unoffical IT"!!! If you can somehow justify a slot for this you most certainly can justify one simple word -- "Hacker" -- You could even get creative and put in "Chief Hacking Officer" for those of us who are independent consultants working under an indiv......

16998 of 19643 | VOIP - Episode 2 - My SunRocket package turned up today - and so far I`m impressed.  My $199 got me one year of service, a VOIP adapter and 2 x cordless Uniden phones.  The adapter (SunRocket call it a gizmo) plugs directly between the cable modem and router - although I put mine behind the router as I didn`t have the right cross-over cables.  I plugged in the device, waited for the adapter to connect and I had a dial tone!  Easy!  I tried a quick call to my cell phone, which worked. One small thing I couldn`t work out however is how to change the IP address of the Gizmo.  The instructions claim you can browse to the default IP address (192.168.251.1) to get to an admin web page, but I couldn`t get it to work......

16999 of 19643 | XML Key Management (XKMS) Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation - 2005-05-03: W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS 2.0) and its Bindings to Proposed Recommendation. The documents specify protocols for distributing and registering public keys for use with the XML Signature and XML Encryption W3C Recommendations. Comments are welcome through 3 June. Visit the XKMS home page. (News archive)...

17000 of 19643 | "SOA meets the real world" - New in InfoWorld -- " Five big organizations launch ambitious service-oriented architecture initiatives and explain their objectives, obstacles, and solutions." What I like best is at the beginning: SOA turns the conventional model of enterprise software development on its head. Normally, programmers write software based on a set of well-defined requirements. SOA demands that organizations create an ecosystem of services that may ultimately have an army of stakeholders inside and outside the firewall. All the technology debates that circle around services orientation --Java vs. .NET, REST vs WS, simplicity vs ......