XML Serialization Research Articles

COMBINE Archive Specification Version 1

Summary Several standard formats have been proposed that can be used to describe models, simulations, data or other essential information in a consistent fashion. These constitute various separate components required to reproduce a given published scientific result.The Open Modeling EXchange format (OMEX) supports the exchange of all the information necessary for a modeling and simulation experiment in biology. An OMEX file is a ZIP container that includes a manifest file, an optional metadata file, and the files describing the model. The manifest is an XML file listing all files included in the archive and their type. The metadata file provides additional information about the archive and its content. Although any format can be used, we recommend an XML serialization of the Resource Description Framework.Together with the other standard formats from the Computational Modeling in Biology Network (COMBINE), OMEX is the basis of the COMBINE Archive. The content of a COMBINE Archive consists of files encoded in COMBINE standards whenever possible, but may include additional files defined by an Internet Media Type. The COMBINE Archive facilitates the reproduction of modeling and simulation experiments in biology by embedding all the relevant information in one file. Having all the information stored and exchanged at once also helps in building activity logs and audit trails.

XQOWL: An Extension of XQuery for OWL Querying and Reasoning

One of the main aims of the so-called Web of Data is to be able to handle heterogeneous resources where data can be expressed in either XML or RDF. The design of programming languages able to handle both XML and RDF data is a key target in this context. In this paper we present a framework called XQOWL that makes possible to handle XML and RDF/OWL data with XQuery. XQOWL can be considered as an extension of the XQuery language that connects XQuery with SPARQL and OWL reasoners. XQOWL embeds SPARQL queries (via Jena SPARQL engine) in XQuery and enables to make calls to OWL reasoners (HermiT, Pellet and FaCT++) from XQuery. It permits to combine queries against XML and RDF/OWL resources as well as to reason with RDF/OWL data. Therefore input data can be either XML or RDF/OWL and output data can be formatted in XML (also using RDF/OWL XML serialization).

Xigt: extensible interlinear glossed text for natural language processing

This paper presents Xigt, an extensible storage format for interlinear glossed text (IGT). We review design desiderata for such a format based on our own use cases as well as general best practices, and then explore existing representations of IGT through the lens of those desiderata. We give an overview of the data model and XML serialization of Xigt, and then describe its application to the use case of representing a large, noisy, heterogeneous set of IGT.

The Linguistic Annotation Framework: a standard for annotation interchange and merging

This paper overviews the International Standards Organization–Linguistic Annotation Framework (ISO–LAF) developed in ISO TC37 SC4. We describe the XML serialization of ISO–LAF, the Graph Annotation Format (GrAF) and discuss the rationale behind the various decisions that were made in determining the standard. We describe the structure of the GrAF headers in detail and provide multiple examples of GrAF representation for text and multi-media. Finally, we discuss the next steps for standardization of interchange formats for linguistic annotations.

Using Semantic Services in Service-Oriented Information Systems

The development of Internet technologies has produced many advanced utilities such as Web services. The World Wide Web Consortium defines a Web service as “a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using simple object access protocol messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.”

전술데이터링크 상호운용을 위한 XML 기반 메시징 시스템

전술데이터링크(TDL)는 전술정보 및 상황정보를 실시간으로 교환하기 위한 통신체계이며, 네트워크 중심전(NCW)에서 정보우위를 점하는데 필요한 주요 요소이다. 한국군에서도 정보우위를 위해 다양한 전술데이터링크를 사용 중이나 이러한 다양한 전술데이터링크의 사용은 전체 C4I 시스템의 통합과 다른 전술데이터링크와의 연동을 어렵게 만들어 전체 시스템의 상호운용개념에 반하게 되는 문제점을 가진다. 본 논문에서는 네트워크 중심전 환경에서 다양한 전술데이터링크간의 상호운용이 가능한 XML 기반의 메시징 시스템을 제안한다. 제안 시스템은 전술데이터링크와 C4I시스템에서 사용하는 메시지와 인터페이스를 XML로 정의하여 이용한다. 그리고 제한된 네트워크 대역폭을 가지는 군 환경을 고려하여 바이너리 XML을 통해 네트워크 부담을 줄이는 것을 제안한다. 본 논문에서는 실험결과를 통해 전술데이터링크 메시지가 XML 스키마에 정의된 대로 상호운용이 가능한 메시지 형태로 변환됨과 바이너리 XML serialization을 통해 파싱과 전송시간의 감소를 가져오는 것을 보여준다. Tactical Data Links are standardized radio communication data links for military armed forces and used to transmit and receive data. Because they are the core elements of achieving information superiority in a NCW environment, various kinds of TDL are used by the Korean armed forces. Operating various types of TDL is very helpful in getting more information; however, at the same time, it is hard to integrate and make them co-operate with other TDLs or C4ISR systems. In this paper, we propose a XML based messaging system to make various types of TDL interoperable in a NCW environment. For the messaging system between TDL and C4ISR systems, we define XML message processing interfaces and suggest binary XML for serialization to save transmission loads over constrained military communication bandwidth. Our experiment results show that the TDL message can be transformed into generalized XML data that is interoperable with other TDLs and binary XML serialization, and it saves parsing and transmission time.

A Guide to the Basic Logic Dialect for Rule Interchange on the Web

The W3C Rule Interchange Format (RIF) is a forthcoming standard for exchanging rules among different systems and developing intelligent rule-based applications for the Semantic Web. The RIF architecture is conceived as a family of languages, called dialects. A RIF dialect is a rule-based language with an XML syntax and a well-defined semantics. The RIF Basic Logic Dialect (RIF-BLD) semantically corresponds to a Horn rule language with equality. RIF-BLD has a number of syntactic extensions with respect to traditional textbook Horn logic, which include F-logic frames and predicates with named arguments. RIF-BLD is also well integrated with the relevant Web standards. It provides Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs), XML Schema datatypes, and is aligned with RDF and OWL. This paper is a guide to the essentials of RIF-BLD, its syntax, semantics, and XML serialization. At the same time, some important RIF-BLD features are omitted due to the space limitations, including datatypes, built-ins, and the integration with RDF and OWL.

A Novel Cost Model of XML Serialization

Using XML as a data representation format is a common choice when integrating software systems on different platforms. The serialization of in-memory object instances of a class into corresponding XML documents heavily influences the performance of the XML-based communication, even if we send the XML over HTTP as in the case of SOAP-based XML Web Services, or with asynchronous messaging such as Java Message Service (JMS), or simply saving it into a file. Several studies have been published analyzing the performance impact of XML serialization on different platforms. No models or measurement methodologies have been proposed however, to establish a relationship between the serialization cost of primitive types (e.g. int, double, string), and the serialization cost of composite types. Such a model can be very useful when the type of the XML messages exchanged during the communication are known a priori, recorded in an interface definition, similarly to the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) in case of XML Web Services. This paper introduces a model that is validated with measurements on .NET and Java platform. The opposite direction, deserialization is covered as well. The main mathematical tool used is linear regression, but cases are also shown and explained where linearity is compromised.

XML messaging for mobile devices: From requirements to implementation

In recent years, both the number and capabilities of mobile devices have increased rapidly to the point where the mobile world is becoming a significant part of the Internet. Another recent trend is the increase in XML use for communication between applications. However, the mobile world has been reluctant to adopt XML due to its verbosity and processing needs. We consider here the problem of providing an XML-based messaging system for mobile devices. We analyze the requirements that the environment places on such a system and elaborate on these requirements by concentrating on three components that seem most amenable to improvements, namely XML processing interfaces, XML serialization, and message transfer protocols. In tandem with the analysis we also present the design and implementation of our messaging system that addresses these requirements. Our experimentation of this system is extensive and performed completely on real devices and real wireless networks. Based on our implementation and experimentation we conclude that there is potential for improvement in XML messaging. The largest gains are achieved by using an asynchronous programming style and by using a compact serialization format. The improvements are also individually integratable into existing systems.

Comparison of XML serializations: cost benefits versus complexity

More and more data are structured, stored, and sent over a network using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) language. There are, however, concerns about the verbosity of XML in such a way that it may restrain further adoption of the language, especially when exchanging XML-based data over heterogeneous networks, and when it is used within constrained (mobile) devices. Therefore, alternative (binary) serialization formats of the XML data become relevant in order to reduce this overhead. However, usingbinary-encoded XML should not introduce interoperability issues with existing applications nor add additional complexity to new applications. On top of that, it should have a clear cost reduction over the current plain-text serialization format. A first technology is developed within the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group, namely the Binary MPEG Format for XML. It provides good compression efficiency, ability to (partially) update existing XML trees, and facilitates random access into, and manipulation of, the binary-encoded bit stream. Another technique is based on the Abstract Syntax Notation One specification with the Packed Encoding Rules created by the ITU-T. This paper evaluates both techniques as alternative XML serialization formats and introduces a solution for the interoperability concerns. This solution and the alternative serialization formats are validated against two real-life use cases in terms of processing speed and cost reduction. The efficiency of the alternative serialization formats are compared to a classic plain text compression technique, in particular ZIP compression.

A Weighted‐Tree Similarity Algorithm for Multi‐Agent Systems in E‐Business Environments

A tree similarity algorithm for match‐making of agents in e‐Business environments is presented. Product/service descriptions of seller and buyer agents are represented as node‐labeled, arc‐labeled, arc‐weighted trees. A similarity algorithm for such trees is developed as the basis for semantic match‐making in a virtual marketplace. The trees are exchanged using an XML serialization in Object‐Oriented RuleML. Correspondingly, we use the declarative language Relfun to implement the similarity algorithm as a parameterized, recursive functional program. Three main recursive functions perform a top‐down traversal of trees and the bottom‐up computation of similarity. Results from our experiments aiming to match buyers and sellers are found to be effective and promising for e‐Business/e‐Learning environments. The algorithm can be applied in all environments where weighted trees are used.

Object serialization analysis and comparison in Java and .NET

This article compares binary and XML object serialization on Java and Microsoft .NET platforms from the performance and size perspective. It uses three different types of objects and different number of objects to make a comparison which reflects real-world circumstances. The article has the following contributions: (1) it compares binary and XML serialization between Java and .NET to compare the efficiency of both platforms; (2) it compares binary and XML serialization within the platforms to compare the differences between the two serialization types; (3) it studies the reasons for performance differences and provides possible performance optimizations.