Robin Cover

XML Daily Newslink. Thursday, 27 December 2007
A Cover Pages Publication http://xml.coverpages.org/
Provided by OASIS http://www.oasis-open.org
Edited by Robin Cover

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This issue of XML Daily Newslink is sponsored by
IBM Corporation http://www.ibm.com
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HEADLINES:

* XML Moves to mySQL
* W3C Drafts for XML Interchange (EXI): Format, Best Practices, Primer
* A Document Format for Expressing Authorization Policies to Tackle Spam
and Unwanted Communication for Internet Telephony
* ACL Data Model for NETCONF
* Electricity Costs Attacked Through XML
* CCTS 2.01 Data Type Catalogue
* Using CCTS Modeler Warp 10 to Customize Business Information Interfaces
* Technical Comparison: OpenID and SAML
* Five Things You'll Love About Firefox Version 3

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XML Moves to mySQL
Kurt Cagle, O'Reilly XML Blog

The unification of XML and SQL relational data has taken another
significant step forward recently with the introduction of significant
new XML functionality in mySQL, the world's most popular open source
database. In versions 5.1 and 6.0, mySQL adds the ability to retrieve
tables (and JOINS) as XML results, to retrieve SQL schemas as XML files,
to both select content via a subset of XPath and to update content using
similar functions, and the like. I think the ramifications for this are
actually quite huge. I've known for some time that much of the driving
technology behind Web 2.0? is the power of SQL databases, with the bulk
of those to date being mySQL databases. While enterprise level databases
such as Oracle 10i+, IBM db2, and Microsoft SQL Server have long had XML
capabilities, they also account collectively for a surprisingly small
amount of the outward facing databases on the web, especially compared
to mySQL. However, this has also has the unfortunate effect of promoting
a relational database model as the prime one for the web, diminishing
the utility of XML there and increasing the fragility of Web 2.0
applications. With native XML support moving into mySQL, it opens up a
chance for XML developers to start working within that community, and
and also raises some significant issues with regard to how unstructured
and semi-structured data is stored, retrieved and manipulated... The XML
support for mySQL is not yet at the level where it can support XQuery,
but I think that this will come in time given the degree of support they
have for the XPath specification. Keep an eye on this development.
Related reference: Jon Stephens, "Using XML in MySQL 5.1 and 6.0."

http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/12/xml_moves_to_mysql.html
See also Jon Stephens' article: http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/xml-in-mysql5.1-6.0.html

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W3C Drafts for XML Interchange (EXI): Format, Best Practices, Primer
John Schneider and Takuki Kamiya (eds), W3C Technical Reports

W3C's Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Working Group recently published
three documents. First Public Working Drafts have been issued for
"Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Best Practice" and "Efficient XML
Interchange (EXI) Primer." An updated WD is available for the "Efficient
XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0" specification. Efficient XML
Interchange (EXI) is a very compact representation for the Extensible
Markup Language (XML) Information Set that is intended to simultaneously
optimize performance and the utilization of computational resources.
The EXI format uses a hybrid approach drawn from the information and
formal language theories, plus practical techniques verified by
measurements, for entropy encoding XML information. Using a relatively
simple algorithm, which is amenable to fast and compact implementation,
and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings
of XML event streams. The event production system and format definition
of EXI are presented. The "Best Practices" document provides explanations
of format features and techniques to support interoperable information
exchanges using EXI. While intended primarily as a practical guide for
systems architects and programmers, it also presents information suitable
for the general reader interested in EXI's intended role in the expanding
Web. The "EXI Primer" a non-normative document intended to provide an
easily readable technical background on the Efficient XML Interchange
(EXI) format. It is oriented towards quickly understanding how the EXI
format can be used in practice and how options can be set to achieve
specific needs. Section 2 "Concepts" describes the structure of an EXI
document and introduces the notions of EXI header, EXI body and EXI
grammar which are fundamental to the understanding of the EXI format.
Additional details about data type representation, compression, and
their interaction with other format features are presented. Section 3
"Efficient XML Interchange by Example" provides a detailed, bit-level
description of a schema-less example.

nla_internal_2297169.jpg also the W3C Efficient XML Interchange Working Group: http://www.w3.org/XML/EXI/

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A Document Format for Expressing Authorization Policies to Tackle Spam
and Unwanted Communication for Internet Telephony
Hannes Tschofenig (et al., eds); IETF Internet Draft

Members of the IETF SIPPING Working Group have published an updated draft
defining SPIT authorization documents that use SAML. The problem of SPAM
for Internet Telephony (SPIT) is an imminent challenge and only the
combination of several techniques can provide a framework for dealing
with unwanted communication. The responsibility for filtering or blocking
calls can belong to different elements in the call flow and may depend
on various factors. This document defines an authorization based policy
language that allows end users to upload anti-SPIT policies to
intermediaries, such as SIP proxies. These policies mitigate unwanted SIP
communications. It extends the Common Policy authorization framework with
additional conditions and actions. The new conditions match a particular
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communication pattern based on a number
of attributes. The range of attributes includes information provided, for
example, by SIP itself, by the SIP identity mechanism, by information
carried within SAML assertions... A SPIT authorization document is an
XML document, formatted according to the schema defined in RFC 4745.
SPIT authorization documents inherit the MIME type of common policy
documents, application/auth-policy+xml. As described in RFC 4745, this
document is composed of rules which contain three parts -- conditions,
actions, and transformations. Each action or transformation, which is
also called a permission, has the property of being a positive grant to
the authorization server to perform the resulting actions, be it allow,
block etc . As a result, there is a well-defined mechanism for combining
actions and transformations obtained from several sources. This
mechanism therefore can be used to filter connection attempts thus
leading to effective SPIT prevention... Policies are XML documents that
are stored at a Proxy Server or a dedicated device. The Rule Maker
therefore needs to use a protocol to create, modify and delete the
authorization policies defined in this document. Such a protocol is
available with the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Configuration
Access Protocol (XCAP), per RFC 4825..."

http://xml.coverpages.org/draft-tschofenig-sipping-spit-policy-02.txt
See also SAML references: http://xml.coverpages.org/saml.html

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ACL Data Model for NETCONF
Iijima Tomoyuki (et al, eds); IETF Internet Draft

Members of the IETF Network Configuration (NETCONF) Working Group
have published a draft "ACL Data Model for NETCONF." The Working
Group was chartered to produce a protocol for network configuration
that uses XML for data encoding purposes: "Configuration of networks
of devices has become a critical requirement for operators in today's
highly interoperable networks. Operators from large to small have
developed their own mechanisms or used vendor specific mechanisms to
transfer configuration data to and from a device, and for examining
device state information which may impact the configuration..." The
"ACL Data Model" document introduces a data model developed by the
authors so that it facilitates discussion of data model which NETCONF
protocol carry. Data modeling of configuration data of each network
function is necessary in order to achieve interoperability among NETCONF
entities. For that purpose, the authors devised an ACL data model and
developed a network configuration application using that data model...
The data model was originally designed in a style of UML (Unified
Modeling Language) class diagram. From the class diagram ACL's XML
schema can be generated; the configuration data are sent in a style
conforming to this XML schema. The configuration application developed
using the ACL data model can open and read the file. Then, the
configuration application reads the lists of ACL line by line and
transforms them into a NETCONF request message conforming to the XML
schema listed before. And the configuration application sends the
NETCONF request message and configures the network device accordingly...
When we exchange NETCONF messages based on the data model we proposed,
security should be taken care of. WS-Security can achieve secure data
transportation by utilizing XML Signature, XML Encryption mechanism...."

http://xml.coverpages.org/draft-iijima-ngo-acldatamodel-01.txt
See also Network Configuration (NETCONF) Working Group: http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/netconf-charter.html

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Electricity Costs Attacked Through XML
Charles Babcock, InformationWeek

A power consortium that distributes a mix of "green" and conventional
electricity is implementing an XML-based settlements system that drives
costs out of power distribution. The Northern California Power Agency
is one of several state-chartered coordinators in California that
schedules the delivery of power to the California power grid then
settles the payment due the supplier. NCPA sells the power generated
by the cities of Palo Alto and Santa Clara, as well as hydro and
geothermal sources farther north. Power settlements are a highly
regulated and complicated process. Each settlement statement, which
can be 100 Mbytes of data, contains how much power a particular supplier
delivered and how much was used by commercial vs. residential customers.
The two have different rates of payment, set by the Public Utilities
Commission. The settlements are complicated by the fact that electricity
meters are read only once every 90 days; many settlements must be based
on an estimate of consumption that gets revised as meter readings come
in. On top of that, there are fees for transmission across the grid,
sometimes set by the PUC to apply retroactively. On behalf of a supplier,
NCPA can protest that fees for transmission usage weren't calculated
correctly, and the dispute requires a review of all relevant data. NCPA
sought these vendor bids three years ago and received quotes that were
"several hundred thousand dollars a year in licensing fees and ongoing
maintenance," said Caracristi. The need for services from these customized
systems adds to the cost of power consumption for every California
consumer. Faced with such a large annual expense, NCPA sought instead
to develop the in-house expertise to deal with the statements. Senior
programmer analyst Carlo Tiu and his team at NCPA used Oracle's XML
handling capabilities gained in the second release of 10g, a feature
known as Oracle XML DB. They developed an XML schema that allowed Oracle
to handle the data and an XML configuration file that contained the
rules for determining supplier payment from the data. That file can be
regularly updated, without needing to modify the XML data itself.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205203201

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CCTS 2.01 Data Type Catalogue
Mark Crawford, Blog

When the Core Components Technical Specification (CCTS) Version 2.01
was published by UN/CEFACT in 2003, it contained a list of 10 Core
Component Types, 20 primary and secondary representation terms, and
supporting Content and Supplementary Components. The Core Component
Types were simple data types that were intended to be used as the basis
for the development of data types to express the value domain for CCTS
leaf elements (Basic Core Components and Basic Business Information
Entities). It was envisioned that the 10 CCTs and the 20 Representation
Terms would be used to create a set of 20 unqualified data types and an
unlimited amount of qualified (more restricted) data types. It was
also envisioned that future updates to the data types would be published
independently of the CCTS specification. The recently published CCTS 2.01
Data Type Catalogue delivers on those expectations. It republishes the
CCTs, Representation Terms, Content and Supplementary Components, and
allowed restrictions by primitive data type that were contained in CCTS
2.01. It also, for the first time, publishes the full set of 20
unqualified data types that were implicitly expressed in CCTS 2.01.
These data types have also been expressed as XML schema in support of
the UN/CEFACT XML NDR standard. The UN/CEFACT Applied Technologies
Group is responsible for maintaining changes to the data type catalogue
and has provided a Data Maintenance Request form for interested parties
to submit their requested changes. ATG is also working on the CCTS 3.0
data type catalogue which expands the number of data types, and also
looks at closer alignment with the data types of the W3C XSD specification.
SAP actively participates in the development and maintenance of these
data types, and has contributed a number of additional unqualified data
types that are under consideration within UN/CEFACT. Additionally, these
unqualified (or Core) data types are the lowest level of data
interoperability being created across a wide variety of individual
business standards development organizations such as ACORD, CIDX, OAGi,
RosettaNet, UBL and others who have adopted, or are in the process of
adopting, CCTS and its supporting data types.

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/8160
See also the UNTMG Core Components Working Group: http://www.untmg.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=55

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Using CCTS Modeler Warp 10 to Customize Business Information Interfaces
Gunther Stuhec, Blog

SAP's Warp 10 is using the context driver principle for getting
customized business information interfaces that most closely fits your
unique requirements. This article explains how you can use this feature
of Warp 10 for especially shaping a business data interface such as a
purchase order or invoice to your business needs in a matter of seconds
rather than weeks. Manually finding the correct use from the myriad
possibilities, combinations and contextualization inherent in today's
message structures is extremely difficult. Warp 10 can dramatically
reduce the effort required by essentially performing this function for
you automatically using its revolutionary context methodology to
assembly message interfaces on demand for your specific business purpose.
The context driver principle is a combination of set logic, predicate
logic and graph theory. This unique combination enables you to discover
the correct structure through the re-use of existing elements available
in the common repository. The context driver principle enables the clear
categorization of how these entities are really used within given
contexts. In fact, it is not just a reuse; it is a classified reuse that
precisely defines what is reused and how it is reused across the myriad
context possibilities. For example it monitors, tracks, and categorizes
through its wiki concept which of the elements of an address are really
necessary in the context 'United States', 'Germany' or even 'China'.
Warp 10 makes this information visible to the data modeler and integrator
with minimal effort on their part. This increased visibility of reuse of
common building blocks in specific context offers significant improvement
over current approaches and will contribute to achieving true semantic
interoperability within and across organizational boundaries.

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/70d6c441-507e-2a10-7994-88f6f769d6e8
See also UN/CEFACT CCTS: https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn?rid=/webcontent/uuid/1baa57f9-0a01-0010-1684-c42a08982294

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Technical Comparison: OpenID and SAML
Jeff Hodges, NeuStar Whitepaper

This document presents a technical comparison of the OpenID
Authentication protocol and the Security Assertion Markup Language
(SAML) Web Browser SSO Profile and the SAML framework itself. Topics
addressed include design centers, terminology, specification set
contents and scope, user identifier treatment, web single sign-on
profiles, trust, security, identity provider discovery mechanisms, key
agreement approaches, as well as message formats and protocol bindings.
An executive summary targeting various audiences, and presented from
the perspectives of end-users, implementors, and deployers, is provided.
We do not attempt to assign relative value between OpenID and SAML,
e.g., which is 'better'; rather, it attempts to present an objective
technical comparison... OpenID 1.X and 2.0, and SAML 2.0's Web Browser
SSO Profile (and earlier versions thereof), offer functionality quite
similar to each other. Obvious differentiators to a protocol designer
are the message encodings, security mechanisms, and overall profile
flows. Other differentiators include the layout and scope of the
specification, trust and security aspects, OP/IDP discovery mechanisms,
user-visible features such as identifier treatment, key agreement
provisions, and security assertion schema and features..."

http://xml.coverpages.org/saml.html#hodges-saml-openid-compare05
See also the author's blog: http://identitymeme.org/archives/2007/12/17/draft-technical-comparison-openid-and-saml/

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Five Things You'll Love About Firefox Version 3
Barbara Krasnoff, Computerworld

Although the basic look of the Firefox 3 Beta 2 browser hasn't changed,
there are actually quite a few new features coming. For a complete list,
you can check out Mozilla's release notes. Some of the new features in
Firefox 3 are not immediately obvious -- at least, not to the casual
user. Among other things, Mozilla is incorporating new graphics- and
text-rendering architectures in its browser layout engine (Gecko 1.9)
to offer rendering improvements in CSS and SVG; adding a number of
security features, including malware protection and version checks of
its add-ons; and offline support for suitably coded Web applications.
(1) Easier downloads: While the older Download Manager was quite
serviceable, Mozilla has made some nice tweaks in the new version. It
now lists not only the file name, but the URL it was downloaded from,
and includes an icon that leads to information about when and where you
downloaded it. The new feature I really approve of is the ability to
resume a download that may have been abruptly stopped because Firefox,
or your system, crashed. (2) Enhanced address bar: In Firefox 3 Beta 2,
the autocomplete doesn't just offer a list of URLs that you've been to,
but includes sites that are in your bookmark list; it then gives you a
nice, clear listing of the URLs and site names in large, easy-to-read
text, with the typed-in phrase underlined. (3) A workable bookmark
organizer: The new Places Organizer vastly improves Firefox's management
of bookmark lists. (4) Easier bookmarking: You can now quickly create
a bookmark by double-clicking on a star that appears in the right side
of the address bar; you can also add tags to your bookmarks, which
could work nicely as an organizational tool. (5) Better memory management:
The new version of Firefox appears to have a smaller memory footprint
than its predecessor. ["Beta 2 includes over 30 more memory leak fixes,
and 11 improvements to the memory footprint."]

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9054138
See also Firefox 3 Beta 2 Release Notes: http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0b2/releasenotes/

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XML Daily Newslink. Thursday, 27 December 2007