Integration Realities and XML

Adapters are important. In order for applications using XML to be integrated, the applications must externalize the information as XML. Currently, few applications are capable of doing so. In order to be most successful, the existing applications must either change so they produce and consume XML or, better yet, they must leverage XML-enabled middleware technology and adapters.

XML-enabled middleware technology manages the extraction of information from the source system (or systems) as well as the conversion of the information into XML (if required) and the placement of the information in the target system (or systems). All this occurs automatically and is transparent to the end user.

However, XML does not make a good message format for information exchange, either with B2B application integration or enterprise application integration. XML is text based, and thus information that would normally exist in a binary message as "512 KB" could easily map to an XML document 20 times that size.

Although XML provides a good point of integration when communicating with source or target applications within or between enterprises, moving information using native XML demands a huge overhead. As a result, most integration server vendors still use a binary message format, either proprietary or open, to move XML data and metadata from one system to another. These systems consume and produce XML, but use their own internal formats for efficiency. This fact is not well known because most middleware vendors promote their products as using "native" XML, although they merely interact with the XML standard.