4D, Inc., publishers of the 4th Dimension RAD/RDBMS environment, 4D Business Kit and 4D WebSTAR Server Suite, today announced it is shipping 4th Dimension 2004, with a new streamlined Design environment, new deployment features that lower its already legendary low cost of ownership, enhanced Web serving capabilities, new XML and Web services technologies, and much more. 4D 2004 has been radically designed to take advantage of new exciting Windows XP(R) and Macintosh Panther(TM) technologies. Boasting a completely redesigned interface, 4D Developers can now build truly native, beautiful applications for both Windows XP and Macintosh OS X. 4th Dimension 2004 is available today directly from: http://www.4D.com.

JAPISoft announces the availability of EditiX 2.0. EditiX is a cross-platform and easy to use XML / XSLT Editor and Debugger designed to help web authors and application programmers take advantage of the latest XML and XML-related technologies such as XSLT, XSL-FO, DocBook, SVG or various XML schemas.

IDEAlliance, a leading industry association dedicated to fostering XML and other information technology standards, today announced the full program for XML Conference and Exposition 2004, being held Nov. 15 - 19 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The Applied Technologies Group (ATG) of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) has announced the release of a UN/CEFACT XML Naming and Design Rules (NDR) specification for public review.

In Part 1 of this article we looked at how XML can be scripted using Internet Explorer. In Part 2 we take a look at how the same application, a weather page, can be created using the XML capabilities in Flash. The resulting Flash page can be view by clicking here.

New Hampshire based Ektron, has recently updated their popular eWebEditPro+XML web-based editing component. Of note is an enhanced API, giving developers further abilities to manipulated data and behavior in server-side code. eWebEditPro+XML integrates with Web content management systems and other Web-based applications to enable non-technical users to create smart forms and capture and validate data based on specific criteria, all from a browser window.

FeedStream Inc., a Canadian software company that has been growing steadily since early 2000, today announced the launch of FLUiD CMS 4.5, the latest version of their Web Content Management System (CMS). FLUiD CMS 4.5 is an XML-based CMS that simplifies creating and managing a professional Web site. Sites are developed using the FLUiD CMS 4.5 template so they are easy to navigate and optimized for search engine ranking.

Richmond, VA-Tridium Inc. reports that it's playing a key role in the Open Building Information Xchange (oBIX) technical committee recently organized under the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), which is an international standards development consortium. The oBIX group consists of technical professionals working to develop a standard Web-services protocol for connecting facility systems to the enterprise.

The Forumzilla project has been around since about May/June of 2004. It is an extention of the Mozilla Thunderbird mail client that allows you to use it as a RSS/XML feedreader.

Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q) today announced it has signed contracts with more than 400 business customers to provide Qwest Web Contact Center(TM) (QWCC) services as part of the customers' call center solutions.

If you are up-to-date on XML features in RDBMSs, then you know that ASE, Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server are leapfrogging each other in a race to add XML features to their relational databases. With each new release comes a new array of features. If I were to read a competitive analysis of the products, I'd have to ask what day it was written on in order to know which point release of each product is being covered. The products are changing that quickly.

As I explained last month, in my final XML Q&A column, my new monthly column will focus on the ways people use XML. The XML ocean is a big one, populated with a good number of whales (EDI, web services, RDF, and so on). But there are also plenty of pilot fish and guppies swimming around -- on up to lesser whales that you may simply have missed. It's these unsung applications I'm interested in.

IDEAlliance, a leading industry association dedicated to fostering XML and other information technology standards, today announced the full program for XML Conference and Exposition 2004, being held Nov. 15 - 19 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Atom is an emerging standard for XML workflow: web editing, web publishing (including syndication), and archiving. It has recently become the basis of an IETF working group, co-chaired by Paul Hoffman and Tim Bray. (Yes, that Tim Bray). Since joining the IETF, the formerly ad-hoc but relatively noisy mailing list has exploded into a cacophony of ideas and opinions.

In this final article in his series on UML and XML, Benoît wraps up the technique. He discusses the need to simplify the model by burying some of the logic in the XSLT stylesheet. He also points out several common pitfalls. Share your thoughts on this article with the author and other readers in the accompanying discussion forum. (You can also click Discuss at the top or bottom of the article to access the forum.)

Ben Chen, CTO at Snapbridge Software, an XML technology start-up in San Diego County, Calif., adds another Holy Grail to the list -- content management of all text and graphics for the publishing industry. He calls this goal of creating content once and automatically publishing it in multiple print and electronic formats "cross media." The good news, Chen says, is XML tools and technologies are close to making cross-media management a reality.

The recent interview conducted by IT-Director.com with Ronan Bradley the CEO of PolarLake was an interesting vendor view of the changing requirements for integration software. It stirred a number of thoughts concerning the ability of the FS providers to keep ahead of the technology race with yet another new acronym hitting their in-trays.

I think the most pervasive problem in XML adoption is ingorance and even wilful sabotage of the international foundation on which XML is built. In several recent incidents, both in my consulting work and in my OSS/community work I have come across systems that ignore or break XML's Unicode character model.

Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q) today announced it has signed contracts with more than 400 business customers to provide Qwest Web Contact Center™ (QWCC) services as part of the customers’ call center solutions.

Speakers Include Executives from IBM, Microsoft, DaimlerChrysler; World's Largest XML Trade Conference Slated for Nov. 15-19 in Washington, D.C.