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Powered by <XML>. Putting XML to Work in portal-based business processes September 11, 2000. Point of Contact: Mike Douglass mdouglass@sequoiasoftware.com 410-952-9286. Focus. A brief introduction to XML Some US Government XML initiatives
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Powered by <XML> Putting XML to Work in portal-based business processesSeptember 11, 2000 Point of Contact: Mike Douglass mdouglass@sequoiasoftware.com 410-952-9286
Focus • A brief introduction to XML • Some US Government XML initiatives • Viewing the portal as analternative architecture for information operations • XML -- at work in the portal • Some operations in detail • Issues for planning
XML Basics • XML 1.0 is a W3C Specification Approved in February 1998. • HTML* defines how data can be displayed in a standard browser The accessibility and usability of the Web exploded when a working draft of HTML was published (1992) • XML* defines what the data is ...in context. *Derived from SGML
CONTENT CONTEXT XML Defined: Content in Context <employee> <name> <last>Smith</last> <first>Greg</first> </name> <address> <street>123ColumbiaStreet</street> <city>Columbia</city> <state>Maryland</state> </address> <college>Columbia University</college> <leisure> <athletics>Rafting on theColumbiaRiver</athletics> <travel>District ofColumbia</travel> <hobbies>Build models of the Space ShuttleColumbia</hobbies> </leisure> </employee>
Some XML Vocabularies • Legal XML Working Group • Instrument Markup Language • NewsML • PetroXML Initiative • Steel Markup Language • XML for the Automotive Industry • Weather Observation Markup Format • Chemical Markup Language • Electronic Health Record • Financial Products Markup Language • Geography Markup Language • HR-XML • Extensible Business Reporting Language • Materials Property Data Markup Language • Product Data Markup Language • WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)
DII COE* XML Registry (DISA) Namespaces* • Aerospace Operations • COE Enterprise • Combat Support • Geospatial and Imagery • General Military Intelligence • Ground Operations • Meteorological and Oceanographic • Messages • Tracks and Reports * a collection of people, agencies, activities, and system builders who share an interest in a particular problem domain or practical application SEE: http://diides.ncr.disa.mil/shade Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment *
DoD XML Initiatives • DII COE Data Access TWG • Joint Digital LIbrary • Joint Ammunition Management • Virtual Information Resource Center • Context-based Object Representation Environment • Distributed Information Agents • Defense Information Technology Testbed • Logistics Command and Control (Army R&D) • Command Post XXI (Army R&D) • Garlic Fries (track archiver and archive broker) • eCommerce for C2 and Logistics (Air Force R&D) • Intelligence XML Study Group (CIA) • Intelink • Secure Intel Data Repository • Semi-Structured Data Management (Intel R&D) • GCCS Maritime
Other Federal XML Initiatives • Federal CIO Council XML Working Group • Key documents • Recommendations of the ad-hoc XML Working Group to the CIO Council’s EIEIT Committeehttp://cio.gov/docs/xmlreport.htm • eXtensible Markup Language (XML): Greek, Esperanto, Panacea or Snake Oil?http://users.erols.com/ambur/xml.htm Owen Ambur (USFWS, Co-Chair XML WG) • Getting Started with XML in the Federal Government: Recommendations to the EIEITC XML Working Group(This is available at the XML WG website) Mark Crawford (Logistics Management Institute) • Diverse intra-agency initiatives
Sequoia Softwareis a leading provider of XML-basedinternet infrastructure software for creatinginteractivee-business & e-government portals
Common Portal Components Search INDEX-LEVERAGED EIP Taxonomy To-do listENTERPRISE APPLICATION Task support data ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS Market feedCONTENT PROVIDER Documents ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS Calendar ENTERPRISE APPLICATION News feed CONTENT PROVIDER Interactivity ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS
Enterprise Business PortalsStrategic objectives • Directly improve e-business processes • Increase worker productivity through information aggregation • Improve access to information • Facilitate on-line collaboration and user interaction • Re-purpose enterprise information • Revolutionize the architectureof information operations
Delphi Group “Next Generation Portals” (6/00) This paper is available at http://www.sequoiasoftware.com/xps/delphiwp.pdf • The interactivity and velocity required of e-business mandate a portal environment that supports the rapid integration of all business-critical information resources. • The entire value chain, including employees, customers, partners, and suppliers must be able…to modify existing information and write new information to each other’s systems through the portal
Delphi Group “Next Generation Portals” (6/00) • Today’s portals are full of one-way streetson which information travels to the user. Individuals are not able to publish information directly…nor are they able to modify existing information in those systems…. • Velocity in the portal is constrained by weak systems integration, the lack of bi-directional information flows, and limited access device options.
Delphi Group “Next Generation Portals” (6/00) • We are seeing the introduction of next generation portals today. One of these is the XML Portal Server from Sequoia Software. • XPS eases integration with other applications and information sources, including those owned and maintained by other members of an extended value chain. • The Sequoia portal enables true interactivity with these systems and speeds the flow of information…regardless of what device they use.
Customers Partners Employees E-Business Portal Framework XML Portal Server
Airlines Railroads Steamship lines & agents Pilots and towage Motor freight companies Brokers & freight forwarders Tenant operators State of _______ ________ County City of ________ US Corps of Engineers INS, US Customs US Coast Guard APHIS DOD Executive management Planning & investment Business development Operations & security Information technology Project offices Finance & accounting Acquisition & contracts Maintenance & service contracts Legal Facilities & property management Human resources Unions The public A port authority’s e-business stakeholders External Internal
Sequoia’s XML Heritage • XML server development begun in 1997 • Sponsoring Member of OASIS • Recipient of NIST ATP grant R&D on massively distributed XML document technology to support location, search, and retrieval for 270,000,000 patient records on a national-scale IP backbone • Sequoia has embedded XML as thefundamental DNA of its XML Portal Server
How Sequoia’s XPS uses XML 1 of 3 • The XML portal supports “loose coupling” of enterprise systems and personnel • Applications in XPS are tied together using XML messaging • The portal is a set of configurations stored as XML files from which agents determine their behavior • An XML message to the XPS security broker is the initial input to user authentication process
How Sequoia’s XPS uses XML 2 of 3 • XML content-in-context supports rules-based routing and workflows • XML templates are mapped to HTML data entry (e-forms) for interactive portal operations • Spiders crawl information sources to build an XML index for enterprise search-and-retrieval
How Sequoia’s XPS uses XML 3 of 3 • XML enables external web metasearches using multiple search engines to providea combined resultset • XML stylesheets re-purpose data for multiple roles, access rights, and devices • Semio's Taxonomy engine is functionally integrated with XPS using XML messaging. • XML messaging supports interoperability with external partners
Layout Content Selection Personalization Security Content Delivery Services Content Delivery Agent Content Delivery Agent XML Search Facilities XML Interface XML Application Server FTR Search Facilities Process Automation Services and XML Repository Semio Search Facilities XML Interface Crawlers Spiders InformationSource InformationSource InformationSource InformationSource InformationSource Plus Other Applications and External Web Resources Reference Architecture Any Level 4 browser Browser Browser Browser Portal Management Console XML Repository XML Portal Server
Leveraging the back-end External XML Transaction Architecture • Serves as conduit between Sequoia XPS and external systems • Accepts data in an XML messaging format (with published schema) • Allows XPS facilities to be applied to all external data • Provides for propagation of modified data back to the external data source
Information Connectors Lotus Ariba EDI SAP Oracle Notes Data Source Adapters Message Builder Transport Adapters MSMQ SMTP FTP HTTP File XML Messages
Receivers IIS HTTP Service SMTP Service FTP Service File (Hot Directory) Message Processing Queue MessageProcessors LoadBalancer Transaction Dispatcher False Agent True Agent Configuration Store
Log Messages Queue CreateWork Items SendE-mails Content-Based Routing <Content/> Routing Service Rules determineresulting action Events trigger the Routing Service
Legacy Systems Local and Network File Systems Websites Smart Summaries Automatic Categorization (optional Semio Taxonomy) XPS Index XPS Agent: Indexing Databases
Search and Retrieval • Structured and unstructured data • Index multiple content formats • MS Office, PDF, XML, WordPerfect, etc. • Enterprise search • Fulltext and contextual queries • Meta-search • Parallel query produces aggregated result-sets • Users configure internet search engines
Taxonomy & the Portal Automated categorization contributes to portal operations • Standardizes the enterprise’s business process lexicon • Provides reference for XML tagging and namespace standardization • Adds to the “information discovery” toolset • Augments the XML index repository
Taxonomy Starter File Products Router Automatic Generation Access Router Semio’s Approach to Taxonomy Building ODBC
Semio Technology S E Q U O I A Clusters Lexicon Extraction Clustering Document Collection • <tagset> <document> <docurl>http://www.nwfusion.com:80</docurl> <tag> <tagname>Ecommerce</tagname> <weight>1.289</weight> </tag> <tag> <tagname>Network Management</tagname> <weight>0.746</weight> </tag> <tag> <tagname>Skills</tagname> <weight>0.659</weight> </tag></document></tagset>
<customer app=“pharmacy”> <medrec>12345</medrec> <encdate>12/01/1998</encdate> <drug>Lithium</drug> </customer> <patient> <mrn>12345</mrn> <name>Ron Capwell</name> <address> <street>5457 Twin Knolls Rd.</street> <city>Columbia</city> <state>MD</state> <zip>21045</zip> </address> <phone> <home>410 555-8888</home> <work>410 666-7777</work> </phone> <medications> <drug>Lithium</drug> </medications> <allergies> <allergy>Pollen</allergy> <allergy>Cats</allergy> </allergies> <lastEncounter>02/15/1999</lastEncounter> </patient> Pharmacy Files <patient app=“patient record”> <mrn>12345</mrn> <name>Ron Capwell</name> <address> <street>5457 Twin Knolls Rd.</street> <city>Columbia</city> <state>MD</state> <zip>21045</zip> </address> <phone> <home>410 555-8888</home> <work>410 666-7777</work> </phone> <date>01/06/1999</date> </patient> Administrative Database <result app=“Lab” mrn=“12345”> <date>02/15/1999</date> <allergies> <allergy>Pollen</allergy> <allergy>Cats</allergy> </allergies> </result> Smart SummaryTM Lab System XPS Agent: Smart Summaries™ XML Portal Server
Data frommultiplesourcessummarized A physician’s patient-care portal
HTML Page XPS Agent: Personalization XML Document XPS IIS Dynamically associate stylesheet to XML document XML Stylesheet Stylesheet registrationand rules management Many-to-one relationship allows repurposing of data
XML Portal Server and BPR • Leverages existing IT infrastructure • No impact on enterprise information systems • Browser-as-client achieves true ‘thinness’ • Implementation is operationally focused • Promotes standardization of taxonomy • Employs intelligent, interoperable, and open specification… XML
The XML Portal Server • A powerful process framework • Robust, future-proof portal • Anticipates the emergence of e-government • Advances GPEA objectives • Enables XML interoperability • Employs SHADE Common Data Exchange Language • Adds value to information operations • Filtering and Aggregation • Personalization • Performance optimization • Opens the door to strategic data re-purposing