Business Information Technology

Tips to make you a better XSLT programmer

This guide from IBM outlines 5 tips on XSLT programming - a helpful summary of things we learned in class, as well as more ideas on how to implement more functionality such as Javascript and such.  A great resource, like the W3C tutorials.

XML and Service Oriented Architecture

This article states that Con-Way Transportation's service oriented architecture still relies on XML feeds for interaction between its seven different business functions.  The article states that four years ago, XML was the only reliable web-service standard available, while nowadays there are new technologies such as WSDL (web-service definition language), SOAP (simple object access protocol), and UDDI (universal description, discovery and integration).

So it's been difficult enough learning XML, but I realize that there are numbers of other applications out there being used for application to application communication. 

Requirement #6

Our group has a question on requirement #6 for project 2.  It says that we need to turn in a lsttab report showing the Oracle tables and views.  We would like more clarification - is this a recap of project 1describing our tables and views?  Thank you!

Comprehensive article on SQL

This comprehensive article talks about the power of SQL and how it has evolved over the past two decades.  The author summarizes SQL as follows:

· The world’s second-largest software company, Oracle, has been built on the success of SQL-based relational data management, through both its flagship database servers and tools and its SQL-based enterprise applications.

· Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, uses SQL Server as a critical part of its strategy to penetrate the enterprise computing market with server editions of its Windows operating systems, and a key part of its .NET architecture for delivering Internet web services.

· All of the major packaged enterprise applications (Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Human Resource Management (HRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and so on) are built on SQL-based databases.

· SQL is emerging as a standard for specialized databases in applications ranging from data warehousing to mobile laptop databases to embedded applications in telecomm and data communication networks.

· SQL-based access to databases is an integral feature of Windows, available on the vast majority of personal computer systems, and it is a built-in capability of popular PC software products such as spreadsheets and report writers.

RSS Guide

This page is really helpful in explaining RSS syndication to someone who is yet familiar with it, I recommend referencing it when you explain to your family and friends what RSS is and how it can make their lives a little bit easier!  There also links for technical explanations on RSS, which is also pretty helpful. 

Outlook RSS?

I would rather have my e-mail and news information running from one program, and I found out that I can download a program add-on for Microsoft Outlook that lets me combine both into one.

It's called intraVnews from www.intravnews.com, but because I have heard too many horror stories of people downloading new add-ons and their computers crashing, I would like some opinions on whether or not it is a good choice, and if there are other programs out there to fit with Microsoft Outlook.  Thanks and best of luck on finals!

On Blogging

I think blogging is an excellent way to communicate information quickly and easily.  It allows for a different style of interaction amongst groups of people.  Combined with news readers like Sage or Feedreader, blogging greatly simplifies knowledge sharing and problem solving.  But even with all the benefits of blogging, I have yet to fully catch on to the blogging movement; call me old-fashioned, but I still hold on to preferring traditional methods of reading print materials or talking in person. 

Prior to this class I viewed blogging as a waste of time, for I knew people who spent hours posting personal diaries and useless information.  However, I've learned through this course that blogging is here to stay and that it is being used for valuable purposes, whether it be for politics or in a corporate setting.  So I better hurry up break out of my traditional ways and get caught up with the times!

Many thanks to those who shared really valuable information in regards to the projects.  It has helped tremendously.  That is where the blog gets its highest value, in the sharing of knowledge.

Matching

Understanding the XSL files is quite difficult.  I'm sure once we get through the Dummies book, I will know how to link XSL sheets to one another in order to design a final XSL sheet such as customerHTML.xsl that is inserted into the customer.HTML.xsql file.

Does anyone else wish that comments within the files were not embedded with the code?  The comments are definately helpful, but it takes some time to find the actual code...

Oversimplification

This is my oversimplified attempt at making sure I have a basic understanding of what we are learning in class.  Please let me know if I am wrong, so I am not misunderstanding it from the outset.

1) We inputed SQL statements in Oracle to create a working database. 

2) We created an XSQL file which generates queries into XML.

3) We created an XSL file which holds templates that will allow XML to be presented in a structured format on the web.

4) We take the XSL file, input it back into the XSQL page, which results in a transformed XSQL page that can be viewed online in the way we want it to be displayed.

Also, can anyone explain row sets?  Many thanks!

XML understanding

Thanks to Maulin for the link to the simple XML explanation site.

Points that stuck out to me:
+ XML is a markup specification language with which you can design ways of describing information (text or data), usually for storage, transmission, or processing by a program: it says nothing about what you should do with the data (although your choice of element names may hint at what they are for):

+ XML is not a programming language, so XML files don't `run' or `execute' . XML is a markup specification language and XML files are data: they just sit there until you run a program which displays them (like a browser) or does some work with them (like a converter which writes the data in another format, or a database which reads the data), or modifies them (like an editor).

+ Users from a database or computer science background should be aware that XML is not a database management system: it is a text markup system. While there are many similarities, some of the concepts of one are simply non-existent in the other: XML does not possess some database-like features in the same way that databases do not possess markup-like ones. It is a common error to believe that XML is a DBMS like Oracle or Access and therefore possesses the same facilities. It doesn't.