Service Modeling Standards Extend Reach of XML Family

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SML, SML-IF Enable Validation of Sets of Documents

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http://www.w3.org/-- 12 May 2009 -- TodayW3C announces new standards that make it possible to use XML tools to improvethe quality of increasingly sophisticated systems and services built from theXML family of standards. Now developers can validate sets of XML documents,either in place, usingService ModelingLanguage 1.1 (SML), or as a package, usingSML Interchange Format 1.1 (SML-IF)

.Validity constraints are expressed using a flexible combination of XML Schemaand ISO Schematron, extended for cross-document use.

"These standards reduce integration costs, while preserving vendorneutrality and providing new flexibility for managing sets of linked XMLdocuments," said John Arwe, Chair of theService ModelingLanguage Working Group, which produced the new standards.

SML, SML-IF Enable Validation of Sets of XML Documents

To illustrate what SML adds to the XML ecosystem, consider what happens whensomeone purchases an airline ticket. Suppose the reservation information isstored as an XML document that includes passenger information. The reservationalso refers to a second XML document that stores departure time and otherinformation about the flight. One department manages customer information,another manages flight information. Before any transaction with the customer,the airline wants to ensure that the system as a whole is valid. SML allows theairline to verify that certain constraints are satisfied across the reservationand flight data. This makes it easier to manage inconsistencies, and to do sowithout writing custom code. As a result, the airline lowers the cost ofmanaging tasks such as informing passengers when flight times change.

An organization may also find that it needs to apply additional constraintswhen using data in a particular context, for example because of local laws.Developers can use SML to layer on context-specific constraints withoutduplicating content.

Flexibility Helps Address Social Realities

A number of social situations make clear why organizations choose to managedata in smaller pieces, while not wanting to lose the power of schemavalidation. The same airline also exchanges information with several car rentalpartners. Rather than build custom applications for sharing information, theairline can use SML-IF to lower the cost of collaboration. SML extends schemaprocessing to "follow links" to provide assurances that linked-to data has theexpected structure. SML and SML-IF can be used with any XML vocabulary, andbuild on existing standards such XML Schema and ISO Schematron.

SML and SML-IF were developed by theService ModelingLanguage Working Groupwhich included the following W3C Members: CA, HP,IBM Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation.

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

TheWorld Wide Web Consortium(W3C) is aninternational consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and thepublic work together to develop Web standards and guidelines designed to ensurelong-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of theConsortium. W3C is jointly run by theMITComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory(MIT CSAIL) in theUSA, theEuropean Research Consortium forInformatics and Mathematics(ERCIM) headquartered in France andKeio University

in Japan, and has seventeenoutreachoffices worldwide. For moreinformation seehttp://www.w3.org

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