Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Information transfers that have not been cost effective until now:
Custom-
built or EDI-based information transfer systems have traditionally been used
for high-value or high-volume requirements. Other information transfers have
not been addressed, although organizations would clearly benefit from the abil-
ity to transfer information between a wide variety of business partners.
A classic example of information transfer is catalog content management.
Buyers would like access to the most current catalog information, but the cost
and complexity of accepting and processing catalog information from a variety
of suppliers is generally too high. XML-based catalogs are a mechanism by
which a supplier can publish a catalog, confident that buyers will be able to
process it. There is also the XBRL (or Extensible Business Reporting Language)
standard for business reporting.
Intelligent searching:
XML-based searching guarantees better results. Not only
can content be searched (as is the case today), but content can be cross-checked
with meaning (structure). An XML search for “mark price” will not return lists
of preprinted pricing labels when what you want is information about Mark
Price, the basketball player. Not only can data and meaning be searched to-
gether, it is possible to search based on meaning only. An XML-enabled Web
site can effectively publish which documents (or Web pages) contain informa-
tion about certain data types.
Intelligent agents:
Applications can be built that will browse an environment
(the Internet, your local systems, or perhaps just the hard drive on your PC) and
detect items of interest. If you are interested in eventually buying at auction a
500-MHz PC when the price drops below $500, an agent can scan an auction
site's XML-based auction status catalog for this information and create an e-mail
for you when a system meets your target price.
E
XERCISES
In the Chapter 16 subdirectory of the Exercises directory on the CD-ROM is a sim-
ple Java program that illustrates how a Java XML parser works.
ON THE DVD
1. Copy the XMLDocAnalyzer.java to your java4cobol directory and compile it.
2. Copy the library.xml to your java4cobol directory.
3. Now run the program using the library.xml file as the file to analyze by typ-
ing the following command:
➔
java XMLDocAnalyzer library.xml
