XML 2000: New Tools, New Vendors

XML Europe 2000 was held at the Palis des Congres de Paris June 13 to 15, 2000. The XML Show, hosted by IDEAlliance provided attendees with the largest exposition of XML tools ever held in Europe. Fifty two (52) booths filled the show floor. The breakdown of participants was:

XML Publication Software (8)

XML Editing/Authoring (5)

XML Data/Content Management (7)

XML eBusiness Solutions (7)

XML Middleware (4)

XML Services (4)

XML Workflow (2)

XML Organizations (4)

Miscellaneous (11)

Highlights

Infoteria is a middleware vendor in the B2B market space. Infoteria showed a family of tools built upon their IPEX XML engine. Tools included imessenger, iconnector, and ixslt. Infoteria is providing a free XSTL engine written in C++ with a command line interface. This is an ideal tool to download and use to learn more about XSLT. You can find the free download on the Infoteria Web site by clicking on "Products".

IXIASoft showed TEXTXML Server, an XML database server for developers and integrators who need an XML database at the heart of their XML application. The database, designed to be imbedded, provides a low cost alternative to other XML databases.

Kinecta Corporation was located in booth #43. Kinecta provides a Java-based, XML/ICE compliant content syndication solution known as Kinecta Interact. ICE is the Information and Content Exchange specification hosted by IDEAlliance.

Softquad Europe announced the latest version of their XML authoring environment known as XMetal V2.0. XMetal has roots in both the SGML (Author/Editor) and HTML (HotMetal Pro) worlds. This enables Softquad to provide a robust, yet easy-to-use XML authoring environment. Advances in XMetal V2.0 include well formed editing (no DTD required), a structured view, as well as expanding the authoring environment to include inline active X controls, a script editor and a forms editor. XMetal V2.0 also boasts Unicode support.

Next Solution came from Tokyo to show DSSSLPrint 2.0, a DSSSL-based formatting engine. This engine performs batch processing of SGML/XML files and outputs PostScript or PDF. Next Solution will provide XSL support in upcoming versions.

Maris Multimedia, Ltd. introduced the XML community to Edugen, an open standards based technology for the development and delivery of educational courses known as XML-based e-learning. The Edugen™ engine is modular and delivers specific functions such as planning, reporting, and tracking.

IDEAlliance at XML Europe 2000

The IDEAlliance booth highlighted activities of the groups it hosts.Members of the ICE (Information and Content Exchange) authoring group were present to explain the new ICE Version 1.1 and to invite participation in the ICE Network. Also present in the booth were the co-chairs of the PRISM working group (Publishers Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata). A demonstration of PRISM metadata was one of the highlights of the PRISM presence. Also featured were the new CPExchange working group (Customer Profile Exchange) and the Independent Consultants Cooperative (ICC). Show attendees could view the video, "Introduction to XML" from SynthBank at the IDEAlliance booth as well. This video provides an introduction to XML from the editors of XML Version 1.0. Jean Paoli, Tim Bray, Michael Sperberg-McQueen, and Jon Bosak explain the motivation and history behind the development of XML.

IDEAlliance also highlighted upcoming shows in the booth. Extreme Markup 2000, eb-Implement, and XML 2000 were featured. You can find out more about these shows on the home page of the GCA web site.

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