Glossary

Application programming interface (API)

A set of functions that an application or component exposes to external software. Programmers use an API when they create software that accesses the functionality of an application or component.

Attribute

A piece of metadata attached to an element.

See also [Attribute specification]

Attribute name

See [Attribute specification]

Attribute specification

An attribute name and corresponding attribute value in the start tag of an element.

Attribute value

See [Attribute specification]

Business object modeling

The process of representing business entities and business processes as objects, in the object-oriented programming sense, to facilitate the integration of different business application software.

CDATA

Abbreviation for character data. A string of alphanumeric characters that may not contain any white space characters .

Content model

The allowable type of content that an element may have. Possible content models include element content, data content, empty content, and mixed content.

Document element

The topmost element in an XML document's element hierarchy. All other elements within an XML document are part of a document element's content.

Document Object Model (DOM)

The W3C standard that describes a generic model that programming languages can use to interact with hierarchies of document data.

Document type definition (DTD)

A specification of the rules a group of XML documents must follow to be valid with respect to the particular DTD. Rules include the allowable types of elements, their content models, their attributes, and the allowable values of these attributes.

Element

The fundamental unit of content in an XML document. An element is composed of the element name, element content, and any specified attributes.

Element content

The content associated with an element. It appears between the start tag and end tag of the element.

Element declaration

A statement in a DTD that declares an element name and a content model for the element.

Element name

The name associated with an element. In an XML document, it appears in both the start tag and end tag of the element.

EMACS

An extensible, cross-platform text editor with many features useful for writing software code.

Entity

An XML document structuring mechanism that specifies the substitution of an entity name with a fragment of content.

Entity name

See [Entity]

Extended link

In XLink, a link that has more than one target.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

The W3C standard for describing paginated presentation rules that apply to XML documents.

Extranet

A portion of the Internet used by an organization to foster communication with its suppliers, large customers, and strategic partners .

Formatter

A software component that takes a formatting object tree as input and produces paginated output in such formats as PDF and Postscript.

Formatting object tree

The hierarchy of format-specific elements created when an XSL processor applies a stylesheet to an XML document. This hierarchy is independent of any particular page rendering technology.

FTP

Abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol. A mechanism for uploading and downloading files between two computers connected by the Internet.

Href

The HTML syntax for specifying the target document of a hypertext link as in <A Href="http://www.foocompany.com">.

HTML

Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language. The language used to author Web pages.

HTTP

Abbreviation for HyperText Transfer Protocol. A mechanism for making requests and sending responses between two computers connected to the Internet. Commonly used for transferring HTML files from a Web server to a Web browser.

HTTP 200 Return

When a server's HTTP method responds to a client, an HTTP 200 Return indicates the successful execution of the method.

HTTP POST

An HTTP method where the client submits data, such as from a form page, to the server.

HTTP tunneling

The process of wrapping protocol messages in HTTP messages. Commonly used to allow the use of a protocol across a security firewall.

IDE

Abbreviation for Interactive Development Environment. A tool for developing software applications that includes visual tools such as browsers, inspectors, and probes.

IETF

Abbreviation for Internet Engineering Task Force. The standards body in charge of the basic Internet protocols such as TCP/IP and HTTP.

Information and Content Exchange (ICE)

A trade group standard for managing the syndication of content over the Internet.

Information engineering

The process of developing a comprehensive model of the information used within an organization to facilitate the integration of business application software.

Internet

The federation of interconnected public and private networks running the standard Internet Protocol.

See also [TCP/IP]

Intranet

A portion of the Internet used to connect systems within the confines of a particular organization and not accessible to outsiders.

J2EE

Abbreviation for Java 2 Enterprise Edition. A standard from Sun Microsystems that specifies a complete server development and deployment model for Java.

JDBC

The standard Java programming API for accessing databases.

Large Objects

When databases must handle large composite datatypes like text or images, they often treat them as large objects. Typically, they store metadata about the object separately from the object itself. They may also supply manipulation functions.

LDAP

Abbreviation for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. An IETF standard describing both a lightweight version of the X.500 data model and the wire protocol for interacting with directories that use this model.

Lower Camel Case

The naming convention where variable names are constructed by connecting words, using an initial lowercase letter and an uppercase letter at the beginning of each word, as in "lowerCamelCase."

MathML

Abbreviation for Mathematics Markup Language. A W3C standard that describes an XML vocabulary for indicating the semantic and presentation properties of mathematical expressions.

Metadata

Literally, "data about data." Data used to indicate the role or meaning of other data. Database schemas and XML attributes are examples of metadata.

MIME

Abbreviation for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The IETF standard that governs how to describe the type of a document and encode it for transfer over the Internet.

Namespace

The association of names in a distributed software system with unique segments to avoid naming collisions. For example, XML uses URIs such as "http://www.foocompany.com/names/acct-REV10," and Java uses the Internet domain name hierarchy such as "com.foocompany."

Namespace name

In XML, a URI that defines the unique segment for a namespace.

Namespace prefix

In XML, the prefix that appears before element and attribute names to indicate that they belong to the corresponding namespace.

Naming collision

In distributed software systems, where two software entities developed by different organizations use the same name. For example, the accounting department and fulfillment department of a company might both use the XML element name "status" for logically different elements.

Nonrepudiation

The information security property whereby one can confirm that a particular entity performed an action. Analogous to physical signatures and implemented electronically through cryptographic signatures.

ODBC

A standard programming API, developed by Microsoft, for accessing databases.

PCDATA

Abbreviation for parsed character data. A string of alphanumeric characters that may contain white space characters

PDF

Abbreviation for Portable Document Format. A standard format, developed by Adobe Systems, for representing documents in a platform-neutral manner.

Postscript

A standard format, developed by Adobe Systems, used to represent high-resolution page layouts.

Processing instruction

A part of an XML document's prolog that enables document authors to describe the processing requirements of the document to external software applications.

Prolog

The first part of an XML document that contains processing instructions and document type declarations.

Resource Definition Framework (RDF)

A W3C standard for defining the types of resources provided by an Internet application and how to access them.

Root element

See [Document element]

SCSI

Abbreviation for Small Computer System Interface. A high-speed standard for connecting peripherals to computer systems.

Shared context

An agreement among multiple parties governing the format and interpretations of messages they plan to exchange in the future. In XML, DTDs and schema provide shared context.

Simple API for XML (SAX)

A de facto standard for event-based XML processing.

Simple link

In XLink, a link that has only one target.

Skunkworks

A colloquial term used to identify unofficial or secret projects, usually performed by a small group of highly skilled engineers . Originally refers to the division of Lockheed that worked on top-secret U.S. military airplanes.

SMIL

Abbreviation for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language. A W3C standard that describes an XML vocabulary for choreographing multimedia presentations.

S/MIME

Abbreviation for Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The IETF standard that describes how to use cryptographic techniques to secure MIME documents.

SMTP

Abbreviation for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. An Internet protocol for transferring electronic mail between mail servers.

String

A datatype declaration for strings of alphanumeric characters in many software programming languages.

Stylesheet

In XML and other structured document paradigms , a specification for which pieces of content to display, and the formatting with which to display them.

SVG

Abbreviation for Scalable Vector Graphics. A W3C standard that describes an XML vocabulary for portable two-dimensional graphics.

Tag

In a document markup language, a piece of metadata attached to an element that defines the boundaries of element content.

TCP/IP

Abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A standard low-level protocol combination used for communication in many networking applications.

Transaction Boundaries

Between the transaction boundaries of a request to an application or database, either all of the requests must succeed, or none of them must.

Unified Modeling Language (UML)

A standard from the Object Management Group that describes how to represent information during object-oriented analysis and design.

Uniform resource identifier (URI)

The Internet standard for representing the type and logical location of networked resources. For example, the URI "http://www.foocompany.com/home.html" indicates the file pathname, domain name, and connection protocol for Foo Company's Web home page.

Upper Camel Case

The naming convention where variable names are constructed by connecting words, using an initial uppercase letter and an uppercase letter at the beginning of each word, as in "UpperCamelCase."

Valid

An XML document that is well- formed and conforms to the rules of a particular DTD or schema.

Validating processor

A processor that verifies whether an XML document conforms to the rules of a particular DTD or schema.

Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)

The W3C specification that describes how authoring clients should interact with servers to manage content contribution, versioning, and access.

Well-formed

An XML document that follows all of the XML syntax rules.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

A cooperative industry organization that defines standards relevant to Web applications.

X.500

The set of standards from the International Organization for Standardization related to directory services.

XML Linking Language (XLink)

The W3C specification that describes how to define links between XML documents.

XML Namespaces

The W3C specification that describes how to define namespaces in XML documents.

XML Path Language

The W3C specification that describes how to specify a particular element using its path from the document element.

XML Pointer Language (XPointer)

The W3C specification that describes how to specify a particular piece of content with more specificity than a particular element or attribute node.

XML Processor

An XML software program that processes text, determines its logical meaning, and creates programming data structures to represent this meaning.

XML Query

The W3C specification that describes how to query collections of XML documents based on their structure and the values of their elements and attributes.

XML Schema

The W3C specification that describes how to define the structure of XML documents and the datatypes used within documents with more specificity than DTDs.

XSL Transformations (XSLT)

The W3C specification that describes how to transform XML documents from one format to another. For example, using XSLT, developers could specify how to transform a document valid with respect to one schema into a document valid with respect to a different schema.3