XML and Portals
by Edd Dumbill
May 15, 2000
This month's XML.com Special Edition focuses on the role of XML in
portals. There are few applications more obviously well-suited than that
of XML in a portal. Portals, whether Internet or intranet, aggregate
information from diverse sources and present it in a uniform
interface. XML is capable of representing diverse information in a
uniform syntax, addressable with one consistent toolset.
In Internet portals, XML provides a great way to efficiently aggregate
and present content. Inside the enterprise, XML can go one step further,
via the ability to export from the portal. This has the effect of
turning the portal into a key integration step in internal and external
business systems.
This special issue explores the application of W3C XML technologies in
constructing portals, an approach for integrating non-XML data in an XML
portal, and open source approaches to XML portals.
Creating an HTML/WML Portal
In the first part of a two-part "Style Matters" feature, Didier Martin
instructs us in building a portal aimed at multiple devices: HTML
browsers and the WAP-enabled cell phone. Using XSLT, XLink and XInclude,
he demonstrates the advantages of an XML-based approach.
Didier creates his own mini-vocabulary to represent portal content,
and shows how both local and remotely stored content can be
integrated using and XSLT processor. This first article concentrates
on the underlying principles and the HTML rendering of the portal. In
two weeks' time, we'll be looking at the WML side of the story.
XML Portal Content Aggregation
Bryan Caporlette, VP of Product Management at Sequoia Software, explains
how non-XML data can be effectively integrated into an XML portal
server, by use of Sequoia's "EXTRA" schema. EXTRA wraps legacy data and
allows the use of the full routing and metadata features of a portal
server.
EXTRA builds on Microsoft's BizTalk framework to achieve its
routing. Caporelette writes that "this scenario will be especially
relevant as companies use the portal to support e-business processes
with trading partners, where the portal will digest and present
content required to support material and informational
transactions".
XML at Jetspeed
Finally for this special issue, I took a look at Jetspeed, part of the
Java Apache Project. Jetspeed is an open source project aiming at
producing a full-featured enterprise integration portal and groupware
solution.
One of Jetspeed's core features is support for one of the Web's hottest
content applications, Rich Site Summary (RSS). Out of the box, a user
can choose from hundreds of readily available Internet information
sources, and integrate them alongside searches and their custom applications.
A young but energetic project, Jetspeed is a great way to get
to grips with a variety of XML-oriented open source software.