Servers and Document Management

Schemas creation tools and document editors are not the only types of tools needed for the XML developers. Once you have your data and have it described, you need to utilize and manage it. You do not want changes to be applied to schemas or documents without tracking them and being able to roll back. Additionally, you want to be able to organize your schemas and corresponding documents for quick retrieval and usage. You want to be able to accurately document your schemas, and you want to publish them so they can be referenced in instance documents for validation against parsers.

Within this section of the appendix we will look at servers from Microsoft and TIBCO Extensibility.

Microsoft

When Microsoft announced its BizTalk Framework and Web site, everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before the company built applications to support this initiative. Roughly two years later the BizTalk and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 servers are out, and both are part of Microsoft's .NET line of servers. Optimized for XML data interchange, these applications offer a range of features and functionality needed while working within an XML environment.

BizTalk Server

BizTalk Server is a new server product that provides an entire suite of tools and means by which you can coordinate business problems with many different sources of data. It not only contains the XML editor we previously mentioned, but also includes other tools used for mapping one data structure to another (Figure B-8), tracking documents, and processing.

Figure B-8 The BizTalk Mapper.

Built to conform to XML-based standards, like SOAP, and to Microsoft's .NET Framework, the BizTalk Server is one of the core servers for a successful XML solution deployment. As we mentioned earlier, we covered the BizTalk Server in detail in Chapter 15.

The SQL Server

With the latest installment of SQL Server (2000 at the time of this writing), the Microsoft team has provided a rich set of tools and functionalities for all XML developers. It not only provides the ability to query a database through an XML statement, but also provides a means by which you can insert and update data within the SQL Server. This is a key component when you build .NET-enabled Web Services.

Accessing the data is only part of the XML feature set of the SQL Server. It also adds an XML view of this relational data, as well as being able to map XML data into the appropriate tables. The server also has the ability to show how XML data looks when received and how it should look after a transaction. SQL Server, through its XML Updategrams functionality, will create and run the necessary SQL queries to perform the task.

TIBCO Extensibility

As we saw earlier in the appendix, TIBCO Extensibility has created several popular tools for working with and managing XML schemas. However, schema development is not the only type of tool they provide. They also have applications ranging from acting as a repository and versioning to autodocumenting and batch dialect conversion (that is, DTD to XSD).

XML Console

XML Console, shown in Figure B-9, rounds out the offerings from TIBCO Extensibility on the XML document and schema creation and editing side. It provides features such as project management, batch conversion, and, as you can see in Figure B-6, batch validation. Additionally, XML Console allows you to automatically generate documentation on the schemas in much the same manner as XML Spy.

Figure B-9 XML Console rounds out the TIBCO Extensibility XML document editing suite.

The combination of XML Authority, XML Instance, and XML Console can be purchased in a package called XML Turbo. This suite has roughly the same feature set available in XML Spy.

Like XML Authority and XML Instance, XML Console allows you to save to a URL or to the XML Canon repository server we will introduce you to next.

The XML console runs on Windows, Unix, and Macintosh OS systems. Like XML Authority, current versions for the Macintosh OS run on OS X only.

XML Developer/Canon

TIBCO Extensibility was one of the first companies to build and release a repository server geared directly at XML development. While many of you might say that the SourceSafe or CVS systems have everything you need, XML Developer/Canon, or XML Canon (in reference to canonical) for short, not only stores and provides version control for your files, but also offers XML-specific features. These features range from those that you expect, like checkin and checkout, to features such as finding reusable portions of a schema and autodocumentation.

XML Developer/Canon is one of, if not the, most comprehensive XML-repository servers we have seen. It provides all the versioning, differencing, and source management one would expect, as well as complete Web access, searching, and browsing that can be controlled with various levels of security. This not only allows your internal development teams to store and track internal XML schemas and documents, but also allows you to provide access to partners and affiliates in a secure manner. It even allows for stage tracking (that is, life cycles such as design, testing, production, and the like), reporting, and automatic e-mail notification for those who have chosen to be notified when changes occur to a specific file.