TheXWeb  Project

Goals

More powerful information handling than WWW

• Use XML rather than HTML to serve a wider variety of business information
• Build search into the protocol rather than adding it on later
• Better integration of other information sources
• More timely and accurate updates of indicies
• Clients which create, edit, and manage content rather than just browse
• Tracking and visualization of information change to support management and collaboration.
• Robust, scalable user identity, authentication and permissions model

More flexible information structure than centralized databases

• Uniform XWeb/XML information service protocol that supports access to a wide variety of information sources from very simple to full enterprise data stores.
• XML as a more flexible information medium than relational tuples.
• Redundant decentralized management of information
• Federation of many independently managed information sources into a unified enterprise view of the information.
• WWW-like universal clients that support browsing, searching, editing, organizing, change tracking and management of any XWeb site.

XWeb Project Planning

XWeb Project Source Code Management

XWeb Specifications

• XML - eXtensibe Markup Language
This is a W3C standard for representing information in a flexible and self describing manner. XML is used throughout the XWeb project as the form for representing information.
• XQL - XML Query Language
This is the query language used for describing objects to be retrieved from an XWeb site. It is the basis for all search activity in XWeb
• XSL - Extensible Stylesheet Language
This is a language for translating one XML representation into another. It is used to generate unique views of XML data in XWeb clients.

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• XWeb Transfer Protocol - XWeb Transfer protocol specification
 This is the communications protocol that will be used for retrieval, search, and modification of XWeb data.
• URL - XWeb URL specification
 A URL scheme for accessing XLocs and performing XQL queries using a XWeb server.

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• XLoc - XWeb Locator
XWeb syntax for uniquely referencing a particular object on an XWeb site. This is a restriction of the XQL syntax.
• XSet - XWeb set descriptor
Syntax for specifying sets of objects within an XWeb site instead individual objects. It can be used for specifying permissions, retrieving multiple objects, returning results of queries without returning all of the actual data.
• XChange - XWeb change descriptor
The is the XML format description of changes to an XWeb site or XML document. This format is not only used for requesting changes but also for recording change history.