“Other” Internet XML Vehicles

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Ceponkus, Hoodbhoy - Applied XML - Toolkit for Programmers

“Other” Internet XML Vehicles
Other Internet vehicles include scaled-down browsers, such as Opera, and “lite” browsers
deployed in PDAs and palmtop computers. Currently, these vehicles don’t offer much
support for XML, but that will change in so-called Internet time. Once this support is
available, however, expect a lot more interesting applications to occur—especially once
small data collection devices have direct plugs to the Internet and use XML as their
information exchange format. Concepts such as smart appliances will skyrocket into
mainstream businesses.
Standalone Applications
XML does not have to be deployed over the Internet or over intranets, although that is
primarily where XML’s benefit lies (that is, as an over-the-wire format). You can use XML
as a standalone data format as well whereby you use XML as a primary data storage
format. This is often useful when you want to distribute large volumes of data and want to
provide the users with a way of accessing that data without their having to install a
database engine at their end. Using the DOM, you have an effective way of navigating
your way through your data without having to install anything other than an XML-
compliant browser or, if you don’t want even that, a shell on top of an XML parser. Here
are several example applications where you could create such systems:
•
Product catalogs.
Distributing large catalogs of merchandise, components, or
hardware on CD-ROMs and DVDs becomes a snap using a standalone XML model.
Your development and distribution costs are minimized immediately.
•
Reference books.
You could use XML as a primary storage format for storing
reference information for distribution on CD-ROMs or DVDs. Because of the
extensible nature of the documents, you could add in all kinds of keywords and
references to other articles within the same disk and provide a very comprehensive
reference set. Examples of target applications would include encyclopedias,
dictionaries, medical references, and scientific research publications.
•
Directories.
Yellow pages, white pages, membership lists, associations lists—all
could be easily indexed and searched for using standalone XML documents.
Moreover, you can use XML as a primary data format for your own applications to ensure
interoperability with other applications. One of the promises of Microsoft for its Office
suite of applications is that it will be using XML as the primary data format. Although its
implementation of this promise is slow, other vendors will be joining this bandwagon very
quickly.

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Not too long ago, the entire Internet community was buzzing with the news of a new
Microsoft Word macro-based virus called Melissa. One of the primary reasons this virus
proliferated so much was because the data format (the Microsoft Word file) relied on
executable content. Though a lot of argument has gone on in the recent past about this,
the fundamental flaw lay in the fact that the document contained its own executable content
and therefore took control of system resources in order to operate. You can make several
arguments in favor of such a document model, but you cannot argue that XML presents
users with meaningful data that does not seize system resources—all processing is left in
the browser. That adds a lot of system security to XML documents. You are virtually
assured that they will not grab hold of your system resources.

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