06472 Abstracts Collection - XQuery Implementation Paradigms

From 19.11.2006 to 22.11.2006, the Dagstuhl Seminar 06472 ``XQuery Implementation Paradigms'' was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

IDL-XML based information sharing model for enterprise integration

CJM is a mechanized approach to problem solving in an enterprise. Its basis is intercommunication between information systems, in order to provide faster and more effective decision making process. These results help minimize human error, improve overall productivity and guarantee customer satisfaction. Most enterprises or corporations started implementing integration by adopting automated solutions in a particular process, department, or area, in isolation from the rest of the physical or intelligent process resulting in the incapability for systems and equipment to share information with each other and with other computer systems. The goal in a manufacturing environment is to have a set of systems that will interact seamlessly with each other within a heterogeneous object framework overcoming the many barriers (language, platforms, and even physical location) that do not grant information sharing. This study identifies the data needs of several information systems of a corporation and proposes a conceptual model to improve the information sharing process and thus Computer Integrated Manufacturing. The architecture proposed in this work provides a methodology for data storage, data retrieval, and data processing in order to provide integration at the enterprise level. There are four layers of interaction in the proposed IXA architecture. The name TXA (DDL - XML Architecture for Enterprise Integration) is derived from the standards and technologies used to define the layers and corresponding functions of each layer. The first layer addresses the systems and applications responsible for data manipulation. The second layer provides the interface definitions to facilitate the interaction between the applications on the first layer. The third layer is where data would be structured using XML to be stored and the fourth layer is a central repository and its database management system

XML-based Web Services Technology to Implement a Prototype Command and Control System

A command and control system is a complex system of systems. For its ability to improvethe command and control efficiency and multiply operational capability, command and controlsystem investment is always a benchmark for military modernisation. However, most commandand control systems were independently developed, validated and approved as a stand-alonesolution to reflect service requirement rather than joint focused. These stovepipe systems notonly have an adverse impact on joint or coalition operation, but also are fairly difficult to integrateand interoperate effectively with other systems. To solve these problems, the study appliesXML standard to redefine the structured radar track and global positioning system (GPS)positioning data formats. Radar tracking data and GPS positioning data generator wereimplemented to simulate air and land targets. In addition, the static intelligence databases, suchas order of battle, were built for information exchange with other systems. Sensors, GPS, andintelligence web services, including simple object access protocol (SOAP) and web servicedefinition language (WSDL) are constructed to provide near-real-time static intelligence anddynamic track services. All relevant command and control centres may subscribe the necessaryservices from the service providers to work together with their own systems for mission needs.The implementation of result demonstrates XML-based web services technology and makescommand and control system integration easy, flexible, and cost effective

extensible Markup Language (XML) for Competitive Advantage

extensible Markup Language (XML) has received much attention in the popular press lately as a new technology designed to facilitate information sharing among business entities. One of the biggest problems that companies are experiencing today with XML is that many executives do not understand what XML is and why it is important, nor do they understand what its potential impact on their information strategy might be. In this paper, we present an overview of XML and a framework for generating IS strategic alternatives, which was introduced in its original form in the 1980s. This framework is adapted to suit the properties of XML and its usage is illustrated with XML cases. Finally, considerations for developing XML applications that are identified by the framework are presented

The Evolution, current status, and future direction of XML

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is now established as a multifaceted open-ended markup language and continues to increase in popularity. The major players that have shaped its development include the United States government, several key corporate entities, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This paper will examine these influences on XML and will address the emergence, the current status, and the future direction of this language. In addition, it will review best practices and research that have contributed to the continued development and advancement of XML

A Framework for Interoperable Healthcare Information Systems

Abstract: It is clear that in today's organizations, new and existing applications require access to data stored in several preexisting databases held at several local and remote locations. Therefore, a main criterion required by most complex organizations, is the provision of collaboration possibilities and information integration mechanisms among distributed, heterogeneous, and autonomous database systems. The development of an application provides interoperability and information integration among distributed systems, via the deployment of database standards and emerging Internet technologies. It is one of the most challenging approaches in the area of integrating heterogeneous information from autonomous sites. In this context, the work described in this paper focuses on the design and development of a Generic Information Exchange (GIE) System. The system supports a wide variety of applications with efficient means for their interconnection and interoperation, while preserving their heterogeneity, distribution, and full autonomy. An example of the interoperability problem is found in the healthcare domain, where each hospital, or even each department in a hospital, maintains its own database. In this environment it is very important to permit users to locate and access data from several remote databases, supporting the needs of patient care, daily operations of the hospitals and research consultations. It necessitates the sharing and exchange of data related to clinical, administrative, managerial and research (statistical) information. Therefore, it is necessary to propose an approach i.e. GIE System that permits interoperation among heterogeneous, distributed, and autonomous sites

An XML-based schema definition for model sharing and reuse in a distributed environment

This research leverages the inherent synergy between structured modeling and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to facilitate model sharing and reuse in a distributed environment. This is accomplished by providing an XML-based schema definition and two alternative supporting architectures. The XML schema defines a new markup language referred to as the Structured Modeling Markup Language (SMML) for representing models. The schema is based on the structured modeling paradigm as a formalism for conceiving, representing and manipulating a wide variety of models. Overall, SMML and supporting architectures allow different types of models, developed in a variety of modeling platforms to be represented in a standardized format and shared in a distributed environment. The paper demonstrates the proposed SMML through two case studies

Online Assistance

From the introduction: This project entitled Online Assistance is efficient and designed to do only one thing, facilitate communications between help desk staff and end users. The overriding design goal is to be as simple and frictionless for both users and help desk staff as is possible. It can leverage SQL server for membership and role based security or integrate with windows authentication and Active Directory groups. Software Engineering occurs as a consequence of a process called “System Engineering”. Instead of concentrate solely on software, system-engineering focuses on a variety of elements like Analyzing, Designing and organizing these elements into a system. A help desk system is designed and implemented in a business setting. (Abstract provided by OPUS staff

A supply chain collaboration solution using XQuery

Enterprises in a collaborative supply chain share information for quick and intelligent decision making. Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), a business model developed by an organization called Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards, defines a set of business processes to collaborate on planning, forecasting and replenishment activities to arrive at a common order. This involves sharing sales forecast, order forecast and promotion information among business partners. The Internet has paved the way for using Web Services to share this information as XML data in real time and to make it available across enterprises. Enterprises need to access this information and integrate it with the information available in their databases, Excel sheets and XML applications. This thesis discusses the development of an information architecture using XQuery (a declarative query language by W3C) for aggregating data from disparate data, and evaluates XQuery as a tool to enable information integration for supply chain collaboration. For this purpose, several CPFR scenarios are identified where two retailers share their sales forecast, order forecast and promotion forecast information with the manufacturer. A prototype application is developed which can fetch data from disparate data sources such as Web Service, XML databases and CSV files, aggregate it, and use it to identify exceptions in forecasts and calculate the key performance indicators (KPI). These KPIs are then presented as an executive dashboard using Visual FoxPro. This Dashboard presents information graphically and enables executives to track the performance of the supply chain, and hence enables them to make quick and intelligent decisions