Assignment 2

http://gzheng.cis.gsu.edu/teaching/cis8020/files/assignment2.pdf

Conceptual Integration Framework 2

This is a follow-up to my earlier post on a conceptual integration framework. Here I use a crow's foot style ERD to illustrate a high-level framework. In this framework, each of these entities (problems, solutions/strategies, and technologies) will be described by some more structured attributes (dimensions), besides textual descriptions. Then their applications (the relationships) will be described with the discussion on advantages and weaknesses. This should lead to a collection of high level patterns (both theoretical and practical). The framework is still very preliminary; more details on need to be worked out.

Integration Technologies Hype Cycle

Gartner publishes their hype cycles every year on many subjects. The image below is for the application integration domain in 2006. You can see many of the technologies we have discussed.

Visit here for more hype cycles since 1995

Is XML getting old?

We had nice discussion in the class on XML, and its advantages and weakness. There are different opinions about XML and I was a bit surprised when Phil showed that a search on "Why XML Sucks" returns many results.

The debate is not just in this class. It's just a miniature of the outside world. Here are two recent blogs (right after our session on XML) on this issue:

"XML on the wane? Say it isn't so, Jack" http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=2986
"What's the future of XML?" http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/soa-talk/whats-the-future-of-xml/

Transforming XML using MapForce

MapForce is a good visual tool for a simple XML transformation, such as that in your assignment 1 from Atom to RSS 2.0. You can download a trial version for 30 days at
http://www.altova.com/mapforce.html

You can view a tutorial or a demo for XML transformation here (click the link below and choose the "XML Mapping" Section): http://www.altova.com/videos.asp?type=0&video=mapforce

One note: you can open XSD schema and you can also directly open your Atom XML file (a schema will be automatically generated).

As you can see, MapForce is pretty easy to use for visual mapping. You can also search for "MapForce" in YouTube and you will get some more video tutorials there.

Assignments

Individual assignments will be posted on the schedule web page, in the right column, under the "Course Work" section: http://gzheng.cis.gsu.edu/teaching/cis8020/schedule.htm

Free XML/XSLT Tools

We will do some hands-on XML/XSLT work. The Notepad can help with the editing work, but a better XML/XSLT editor may be more helpful.

I posted some free tools here:
http://cubicle-h.blogspot.com/2009/09/free-xmlxslt-tools.html

If you know some other free and better ones, let us know.