Extremes of XML

Extremes of XMLPhilip Fennell

XML London 2013Extremes of XML

XML – meta language…


describes other languages

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is phenomenally successfulis phenomenally successful

Extremes of XML


every information domain imaginable


some are indeed sublime


some are, shall we say… esoteric


XML, a lingua franca for the web


XML grew out of SGML


early applications hinted at diversity


reflecting upon the nature of XML


XML sharing the stage with JSON


15 years of activity


six application categories:


DescribingModeling

ProcessingPublishingInteractingPresenting


what is fascinating is…


not how much…


or how fast…


but the breadth of application


the XML Envelope



introspection is often fruitful


should turn our attention outwards


towards the edges of the envelope


pushing the boundaries of XML


Describing


is not an edge case, it’s the centre


Modeling


captures how we model a domain


edge of current data modeling lies the Semantic Web


the boundary between XML and the Semantic Web is blurred


a mixed and, it should be said, confused relationship


XML - a singular standard


Semantic Web has managed to adopt at least four


RDF/XML has posed a problem…


it’s not a markup language


transform it with XSLT


but don’t query it with XQuery


XML in the Semantic Web is becoming sidelined


XML content does still intersect with the Semantic Web


metadata could, and should, be modeled as

RDF Linked Data


RDB to RDF Mapping Language for Relational Data Model


what about SPARQL over XML?

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schema lifting and lowering

Extremes of XML

lowering lifting


describes the process of mapping schemas to RDF ontologies


Semantic Web Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema (SAWSDL)


<xs:complexType name="entryType"> <xs:annotation> <xs:appinfo> <sawsdl:modelReference href="http://bblfish.net/work/atom-owl/2006-06-06/#Entry"/> </xs:appinfo> <xs:documentation> The Atom entry... </xs:documentation> </xs:annotation> ... </xs:complexType>


how to utilise these annotations to map from a document tree to a graph?


Type Introspection in XQueryMary Holstege, Balisage 2012


(: Get the model reference annotations for a complex type. :)$contextNode/sc:complex-type() !

sc:annotations()//sawsdl:modelReference/@href/string()


<!– Class definition. --><owl:Class rdf:about=http://bblfish.net/work/atom-owl/2006-06-06/#Entry> <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">Entry Class</rdfschema:label> <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">see 4.1.2 of the rfc 4287</rdfs:comment> …</owl:Class>


<entry> <title>Atom-Powered Robots Run Amok</title> …</entry>


# Triple from the shadow graph (Turtle).@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .@prefix awol: <http://bblfish.net/work/atom-owl/2006-06-06/#> .

[ a awol:Entry ] .


it has uses beyond the domain of web services


to build a 'shadow' graph index via the mapping rules


seamlessly mix XQuery and SPARQLover the same content


a world that's throwing itself at the notion of schemaless databases


where better should we do such a thing than in declarative languages


Processing


many processes can been seen as a series of transformations


static content and application state


application's data structures are a snapshot of its current state


crossing the line from passive state representation to active state manipulation


XProc succeeds as a mechanism for orchestrating sequences of XML processing steps


useful aspect of XProc is it’s ability to create domain-specific languages


manipulate the configuration of an application


<admin:get-configuration/>

<admin:forest-create forest-name="forest1" host-id="hp6910-772" data-directory=""/>

<admin:database-create ml-database-name="data" security-db="Security" schema-db="Schemas"/>

<admin:save-configuration-without-restart/>


application configuration can be viewed as a pipeline of instructions


source input as the current state…


a set of actions that reconfigure


an instruction to commit the changes…


sets of changes can themselves be composed into compound actions


<mla:create-database database="data" schema-db="Schemas" security-db="Security"> <p:input port="forests"> <p:inline> <mla:forests> <mla:forest name="forest1" host="hp6910-772" data-dir=""/> </mla:forests> </p:inline> </p:input></mla:create-database>


the composing of XProc processing steps is an incredibly powerful tool


define your own steps and abstractions


applications outside of XProc’s originally intended domains


Publishing


publishing content appears to be reasonably straightforward


the separation of concerns tells us to keep

the markup of content free from presentation and layout


to take publishing in an intriguing direction –

the Document Description Format


a framework that looks at documents as functions over a dataset


getting data to the point of consumption in

a manner tailored to the recipient


consume many and varied sources of information


transform them to a common structure and apply presentation and layout

constraints


build flexible page layouts that adapt to variability in the source data


data bindingcommon structure

presentation


DDF's main design decision was to 'consider the document as a function of some variable data'


when the document is evaluated, data is transformed into a common structure


from which a view can be generated for presentation


embedding XSLT syntax and semantics provides the mechanism for transformation


partial evaluation is also possible, where theprocessing results in new transformations


another aspect of DDF that is worth noting is the presentation system


going beyond simple flows, DDF supports constraints between components


with so much more and varied data, we need a new direction in document delivery


Interacting


mixed success for XML in user interaction


XForms has grown enthusiasm with the rise of native XML databases


there's another area of interaction, that goes beyond conventional form filling…

Animation!


Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language SMIL :)


has a whole subset of its extensive specification set aside for animation


SMIL Animation has, historically, been tied to its host document types


SMILHTML+Time

SVG


with the advent of SMIL Timesheetsthat dependency was broken


orchestrate animation in a web page,orchestrate steps in a workflow


the order of execution of XProc pipelines is not limited to being sequential…


allowing the possibility of asynchronous step processing


with SMIL Timesheets it is conceivable that you can define the orchestration of

step execution in a pipeline


<p:pipeinfo> <smil:timesheet xmlns:smil="http://www.w3.org/ns/SMIL30"> <smil:par> <smil:item select="#service1" begin="term-aggregation.begin" dur="30s"/> <smil:item select="#service2" begin="term-aggregation.begin" dur="30s"/> <smil:item select="#service3" begin="term-aggregation.begin" dur="30s"/> </smil:par> </smil:timesheet></p:pipeinfo>


<terms:get xml:id="service1" name="OpenCalais" href="http://opencalais.com/"/> <p:sink/>

<terms:get xml:id="service2" name="MetaCarta" href="http://www.metacarta.com/"/> <p:sink/>

<terms:get xml:id="service3" name="Yahoo" href="http://search.yahooapis.com/"/> <p:sink/>


putting together unrelated applications of XML can extend their respective usefulness


Presenting


the final step from information to presentation is the conversion of text, values and graphics…


into a visual representation, a rasterization of shapes for display or printed media


SVG is on the ascendant again!


whilst X3D never hit the prime time


experts at Pixar, who brought us Toy Story, developed a 3D image rendering architecture called Reyes


Reyes defines a processing pipeline that

applies a series of transforms to

graphics primitives


so they can be more easily processed for visibility, depth, colour and texture


what has this to do with XML?


at the edge of the XML envelope is the boundary between text and binary formats


when XSLT 2.0 came along it introduced the concept of sequences


a rasterized image is just one long sequence of integer values with some header info


push the boundaries of the XML envelope still further…


implement the Reyes rendering pipeline and a TIFF encoder with XSLT


created from a simple SVG graphic


where all the rectangles are sub-divided into pixel sized micro-polygons


depth sorting, transparency, colour and sampling calculations


finally encoded according to the TIFF format


serialized as a Base64 encoded file


this example is somewhat extreme as it is highly questionable if XSLT is the right technology


however, it was surprisingly straight forward to implement with XSLT


XSLT provides the transformation tools and XML provides the representation


Overlapping Edges


in the XML Envelope there is no clear dividing line between categories


all the categories require description


modeling relies upon processing


publishing utilises processing


interaction could drive processing


presentation is the product of processing




much has been accomplished over the last 15 years


robust tools, techniques and design patterns


XML does not have any hard and fast limits to its application


there are many more applications to which XML and its attendant technologies can be put..


than we might have originally imagined.

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Extremes of XML

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Extremes of XML

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