XML Content Management System

How XML Technologies Are Used

Some will argue that the underlying technology of a CMS is not important. What is important is the features of the CMS. This statement is both true and false. Of course the features are important, without them certain use cases cannot be satisfied. But without a sound technical foundation, any computer software will be sensitive to cost overruns, too many bugs and maintenance problems. In fact, in many cases features are not possible in a system without a sound technical foundation. Poor technology eventually 'leaks' through to the user. For this reason, it is always prudent to ensure that the technology 'under the hood' has a sound footing. Fortunately, XML is a family of sound technologies based on a set of consistent, interlinked standards and tools. In an XML CMS these standards and tools can be exploited to not only deliver full featured software but also robust maintainable software. The key XML technologies of a CMS are:

Fundamental XML

Fundamental XML includes XML 1.1, XML Namespaces and XML Schema.

XML Database

A CMS requires a database. An XML database lends special value to an XML CMS.

XSLT

XSLT is a rule based transformation language. An XSLT processor executes programs written in the rule based XSLT language.

XSL/FO

XSL/FO is a formatted object language that addresses the layout of content onto pages.

Fundamental XML

Fundamental XML refers to:

XML Data Model

XML's data model (i.e. the InfoSet) is well suited to use for document-centric data.

XML as Text

The fact that XML has a text representation makes it more accessible. For example, if your WYSIWYG XML editor fails to support an XML feature you can usually open any text editor and make your changes. Actually XML is more than mere text, it supports encoding formats that make XML ideal for storing documents in several languages.

XML Namespaces

With the XML namespaces mechanism you can compose documents from many different namespaces and make use of specialized XML vocabularies within a compound document. For example, you may wish to insert a math formula for square root of X into your document. Note the default http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML namespace.

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
   <msqrt>
      <mi>x</mi>
   </msqrt>
</math>

The challenge, however, becomes how to display this now compound document in your WYSIWYG editor or your end published form be it XHTML or PDF. Amaya and XMetal have editor support for MathML. Strategies for browser support range from generating SVG to generating an image on the fly.

XML Schema

XML schema is a fairly large XML specification designed to replace the somewhat limited Document Type Definition (DTD) technology that is part of the XML specification.

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