Distributed Solutions
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) provide the basis for effectively managing information in large enterprise-wide environments. SoftRoots has been actively involved with XML and SGML for over 10 years, and have developed sound strategies to enable effective use of these languages in many different environments.
The use of XML for exchanging data from one information system to another is invaluable. Having acquired considerable experience with XML and SGML application and database integration, the SoftRoots team well understands related development issues. Solutions may involve exchanging data among components, applications, organizations, or industries. SoftRoots provides custom XML Schema and DTD development, as well as XML and SGML tagging services. In addition, custom mapping and data conversions are also available to assist our customers with special needs.
Service Orientation
Our data conversion specialists, provides a reliable means to support data exchange activities. Whether the data conversion is for a one-time project, or an on-going customer service, SoftRoots has the tools, process, and expertise to support complex data conversions, and provide consistent, quality results.
SOA Supported Technologies
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provide the basis for effectively managing information in large enterprise-wide environments. Several large document management systems available today use SGML for this purpose. Although, many large organizations today still have much of their information locked-up in legacy formats; SoftRoots can provide various integration solutions to organizations for unlocking their existing information, and making it more-readily accessible to document management system(s).
Service Design
XML is considered a data exchange language. However, it goes far beyond the bounds of the data exchange formats (i.e., comma separated values – CSV formats, fixed width, etc.) utilized in the past. XML has the inherent capability to enforce standard mappings of data, so that one business can utilize the data obtained from another business. This type of data exchange can be supported for businesses in the same industry, or a business in unrelated industries – as long as an agreed to standard (XML Schema) has been setup to support this data exchange. This concept of exchanging business data with other businesses is sometimes referred to as B2B (business-to-business).
It is often thought that XML is only for the Internet - a so-called extension of HTML. Holding fast to this notion can blind-side the IT division(s) within an organization. It is common for IT departments to be actively involved with the exchange of data from one information system to another. Often times, mapping and exchanging data from spreadsheets or flat files to databases and/or the converse. This type of data exchange is often custom mapped for the specific application at hand, and generally not reusable. However, establishing standards within an organization for the purpose of data exchange and management can greatly reduce the data inconsistencies, and associated IT effort generally related with this type of activity. In addition, the data exchange standards can provide a means to exchange and share select information with other businesses or industries, and gain a greater visibility alongside your market competitors.
In this information age, the ability to exchange, analyze, and utilize data from a large variety of different organizations can greatly increase our understanding of the industries that propel us through the 21st century and beyond.
Web Services
XML version 1.0 was officially approved as an ISO standard by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) on February 10, 1998. Currently, the XML standard and many associated standards are undergoing revisions to support a more complete framework for information architectures. It is anticipated that XML will find it’s way into a wide-variety of information processing disciplines. Today, the primary focus is supporting the exchange of data on the Internet, which is why the W3C is actively involved with establishing the XML standards.
With all the breakthroughs in Web technologies over the past several years, identifying the best approach for a Web-based solution can be challenging. One should consider the flexibility of design, as well as the technologies utilized for Web development. The tools used to create and maintain Web solutions are key to effectively supporting change, and building upon today’s Web investments.
For more than 15 years, the technical team at SoftRoots has been involved with Internet-based technologies, Web applications, electronic commerce, markup languages (e.g., SGML, XML, XHTML, SOAP, WSDL, etc.), data exchange, as well as many other Web initiatives. Our hands-on expertise with complex Web development projects enables us to develop practical, robust applications for organizations today, and provide technical services to support the Web-based solutions of tomorrow.
SOA Initiatives
Other XML initiatives, by leading corporations around the world, are also in the works to support the XML framework. One such initiative is known as the BizTalk initiative, which is not a standards body, but brings together a large number of standards users with the goal of driving the rapid, consistent adoption of XML to enable electronic commerce and application integration using the Internet. The BizTalk Framework™, defines a set of guidelines for how to publish schemas in XML and how to use XML messages to easily integrate software programs together in order to build rich new solutions. The design emphasis is to leverage on the information systems that are in place today - your existing data models, solutions, and application infrastructure - and adapt it for electronic commerce through the use of XML.
