Author: administrator

My new TrackBack Display (example) and the TrackBack form does not make much sense, perhaps, but this is the beginning to something big 🙂

I have installed the new standalone Trackback tool from movabletype.org.

The standalone TrackBack tool serves two purposes: 1) it allows non-Movable Type users to use TrackBack with the tool of their choice, provided they meet the installation requirements; 2) it serves as a reference point to aid developers in implementing TrackBack in their own systems. This tool is a single CGI script that accepts TrackBack pings through HTTP requests, stores the pings locally in the filesystem, and can return a list of pings either in RSS or in a browser-viewable format. It can also be used to send pings to other sites.

It is released under the Artistic License.

TrackBack uses a REST model for its pings in order to ensure that each TrackBack item has a unique URL. Although Trackback is developed for blogs, I think it can be used much more widely. But not least, it can bring blogs and other systems closer together. I wonder which non-blog kind of application first picks up on backtracking?

Architectural Principles of the World Wide Web is a W3C Working Draft published yesterday. I recommend everyone to read the draft. It is a good (technical) introduction to a restful approach to the web architecture. It is striking that the document does not mention SOAP/WSDL/UDDI at all. That’s because it doesn’t talk about web services, some may say. Well, Web Services Architecture Requirements, a W3C Working Draft 19 August 2002, doesn’t mention SOAP neither …

Yesterday, Phil Windley picked up on my comments on his paper in his comments on XML Schemas vs. DTDs and Other Issues.

I wrote: “DTDs? No, use XML Schemas, I’d say. and Phil replies:
I think using XML Schema instead of DTDs is probably the right choice. I’ll update the paper. In particular the XML Schema language gives you the power of a context free grammar (rather than a context free grammar) with little increase in complexity. They also probably have a brighter future. The main point is, however: document what you create and keep it up to date.

Nice. Good points too. I actually like(d) DTDs, but hey I also liked WordPerfect 4.1 and my old 286-machine once. Clearly, it is time to say goodbye to DTD and embrace XML Schema, if not for else just for the fact that we only then can truly say we “speak” XML all the way.

I had also written: WSIL? Hmmm. Maybe, but we (government) need to engage in UDDI too. On this, Phil writes:
I think UDDI is premature except inside the orgranization, so I stick by my recommendation to use WSIL. WSIL can be easily integrated with UDDI later when (if?) it takes off.

I (still) have to check up on WSIL. I am no particular UDDI-fan at all, and my point was more that we (government) must keep an eye to this, so we don’t get left behind anything important.

Lastly, on my raising issue with explaining all of this in more “layman’s” terms, Phil says “Boy, isn’t that the truth!” and speculates in revising his paper once more. Well, please keep the current version available, because … cool urls don’t change 😉 But don’t let that hold you back from writing more.

I hope to sometime soon be able to provide some English translations of the writings we’re doing in my office. We’ll be launching an international forum on e-gov architecture soon. Stay tuned.

Roger L. Costello presents a very sane approach to migrating to web services. In short: REST 1 = SOAP 0.

How far along is the industry in achieving the Web services vision?, he asks, and replies:

* The Web services vision is a mirage at the present. If you jump on it today you will loose.
* The only thing that’s real today is XML. Use it.

Here are his recommendations:

* Focus today on creating standardized XML vocabularies, and learning to exchange XML over the Web.
* Don’t get enticed by dynamic discovery, dynamic connectivity. That’s for tomorrow (2-5 years).Tomorrow will take care of itself.
* Don’t use SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. I believe that they will be replaced with superior technologies in short order.
* Stand up Web services using standardized XML vocabularies. Be satisfied that you have migrated your company applications from HTML (or some proprietary format) to XML. That’s a big and important step.
* Describe your Web services textually using HTML (see an example of this here). HTML is “good enough” for today.
* Search for Web services using standard search engines – Google, Yahoo, etc. They are “good enough” for today.
* Design XML vocabularies today with your favorite schema language – XML Schemas, DTDs, or RELAX – but be prepared to rip them out within a year or two. RDF and DAML promise to give you the ability to produce vocabularies with much more semantic richness, to enable dynamic understanding.
* Evolve your companies applications to Web services. Don’t take the big bang, revolutionary approach.

I haven’t had the luxury of a vacation, but took some time off blogging. Partly because I (like Alan) have moved home, and been without net access from home, and partly because I’ve had to concentrate on drafting a policy document about our national IT architecture. I hope I can soon invite reveal what we’re up to, but my boss would kill me if I did so now and here …

Anyway (yeah, right), I’m still concerned about the standardisation processes around web services in general and SOAP in particular (though I realise WSDL and UDDI are equally important).

The most interesting document on this I’ve read for a long while (and I’ve been reading a lot) is Phil Windley’s Enabling Web Services. I must follow up more in details, because there are lots of good points, but also a few places where I disagree: DTDs? No, use XML Schemas, I’d say. WSIL? Hmmm. Maybe, but we (government) need to engage in UDDI too.

In policy-making terms, however, Phil and other RESTians have a particular and peculiar problem: How do you explain what it’s all about in political, non-technical words? I’m a techie, and I hardly understand it. My collegues (and bosses) are political scientists or whatever, and simply don’t get it at all.

What are the core issues? Open standards? Loosely coupled systems? …?

A bit related, but from another area: DestiCorp ‘s White Papers, especially their Dancing with Your Customer: The Next Copernican Revolution and also Why Web Services and Grid Computing will Turn the Travel Industry on Its Head – and Why that’s a Good Thing!.