Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications [Paperback]

David Carlson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201709155 | ISBN-13: 978-0201709155 | Publication Date: April 20, 2001 | Edition: 1

XML is rapidly becoming the standard platform for delivering e-Business information and integrating e-Business systems. XML developers desperately need mature software development processes and tools for developing effective applications. David Carlson fills the gap, showing exactly how to leverage the worldwide UML standard for modeling complex systems in advanced XML development. In Modeling XML Applications with UML, he presents the first comprehensive framework for modeling communications in any B2B software system. Carlson presents in-depth coverage of UML-based analysis, design, and modeling of XML content within e-Business environments. The book includes detailed coverage of using UML to support the creation of new XML-based B2B vocabularies and industry portals that reflect the requirements of several key stakeholder communities, including consumers, business analysts, web application specialists, system integration specialists, and content developers. Carlson presents several B2B use cases, and then decomposes them into scenarios illustrated with class diagrams, sequence diagrams, and activity diagrams showing how XML fits into an overall e-Business solution.Each chapter concludes with "steps for success" that distill UML's general principles into specific recommendations for action.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Writing about XML and e-Business is a lot like taking a snapshot of a speeding train. And for those readers who are new to one or both of these subjects, itis a lot like attempting to jump onto that train. In writing this book, Iive attempted to strike a balance between an introduction to these challenging subjects and a practical guide for designing realistic systems.

I make some assumptions about a basic prior knowledge of both XML and UML, but not so much that a motivated reader cannot easily meet these expectations with quick supplemental study. There are dozens of introductory books on both subjects but there is a lack of good explanation about how XML and UML can be combined in the analysis of complex systems. The goal of this book is not only to teach you about XML and UML but also how to use these technologies for practical applications.

Goals of This Book

Over the past twenty-five years of learning, teaching, and working, I have realized that there is a very significant difference between gaining knowledge about a subject and gaining actionable knowledge about that same topic. Knowledge is actionable when it directly and immediately affects what you do and how you do it. While writing this book, I had a note taped to the top of my computer monitor that read "Actionable Knowledge," so that it would continually prompt me to keep this focus in mind.

After reading this book, you will have learned the following actionable knowledge:

Guidelines that you can use to gather key stakeholder input while developing your XML application. How you can integrate XML and UML in current design projects and what this means to achieving your e-business objectives. Steps and criteria to use in the visual analysis and design of XML vocabularies. A detailed guide to how you can generate XML DTDs and Schemas from those vocabularies, plus the trade-offs you must consider while doing so. Substantial, realistic examples to base your own work on. Concrete suggestions about how to apply recently adopted (or almost adopted) XML standards. A deep understanding that is based not on the marketing materials of individual vendors but on common practice that applies to all of them. A solid grounding about how to design XML applications now and many product or system releases in the future. An understanding of what is going to happen next!

Concepts of UML modeling and a streamlined Unified Process are woven throughout this book. e-Business examples demonstrate the breadth of UML modeling capabilities but without overwhelming the primary goal of creating successful applications using XML. As a means to this goal, this book focuses on a consistent, substantial example about the analysis and design of a product catalog application. An XML vocabulary for the Catalog Markup Language (CatML) is designed first in UML, then generated to both DTD and XML Schema languages.

This same catalog example is used to model requirements for the "MyCat" Web portal application, whose content is defined by the CatML vocabulary. An example MyCat portal is demonstrated using the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) to produce an HTML presentation from the XML documents, all based on the CatML vocabulary definitions. UML is used throughout the exercise to analyze the application requirements and the vocabulary design. Finally, XSLT is described as a language for transforming the CatML vocabulary to and from RosettaNet product catalog standards. Vocabulary transformation is an essential element in most e-business applications.

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is not a guide to programming XML applications; rather it focuses on the thoughtful analysis and design of XML vocabularies and their use within distributed systems. If you have a need to develop a system using XML, or if you are considering the value of such a system, then you will find this book helpful. Although their use is not restricted to e-business applications, those examples form the central theme throughout all chapters. These examples span the range of XML applied to the content of portal presentations to the specification and transformation of message content for system integration.

System architects will find many valuable points to consider when planning the use of XML. The use case analyses in Chapters 1, 4, and 5 build a business case for e-business integration and portal design using XML. These use cases are described from the perspective of key stakeholders who determine and evaluate the goals of a successful XML application. Each chapter concludes with a list of "Steps for Success" that are especially valuable to an architect.

Complex XML vocabulary definitions are often easier to comprehend and discuss with others when they are expressed graphically. Although a few existing tools provide some assistance in this regard, they are generally limited to a strict hierarchical view of the vocabulary structure. Complex structures may be represented in schemas that are more easily analyzed from an object-oriented perspective. These object-oriented models of schema definition are easily represented using UML class diagrams. This book is valuable to business analysts, who are responsible for the definition of business vocabularies that will be implemented using XML.

Those analysts often team with designers who fine-tune the vocabularies for generation to XML DTDs or Schemas. Chapter 8 provides a detailed comparison of XML DTDs with the new, much richer possibilities available in XML Schema definitions. Chapter 9 includes detailed design heuristics for generating both DTDs and Schemas from UML class models and describes trade-offs for specifying relaxed versus strict schema validation. These decisions are the daily work of XML designers.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of XML terminology using a simple real-world example that is relevant to the topics of this book. The Rich Site Summary (RSS) is described and compared with similar use of news content in HTML. For a more thorough introduction to XML, I recommend:

Simon St. Laurent. XML Elements of Style. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.

If you are not familiar with UML, Chapter 3 includes a fast-paced overview of the essential diagrams that are used in this book. Those diagrams are applied to the same RSS XML example that is introduced in Chapter 2. For a good introduction to UML that is short and easy to read, I recommend:

Martin Fowler, Kendall Scott. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Second Edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2000.

Chapters 10 and 11 include substantial examples of XSLT vocabulary transformations. XSLT is a very powerful but somewhat complex language whose detail is beyond the scope of this book. If you are new to XSLT, I recommend the following supplemental references: Neil Bradley. The XSL Companion. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2000. Michael Kay. XSLT Programmeris Reference. Birmingham, UK: Wrox Press, 2000.

XMLModeling

Because no book covering the topics of XML and e-business can promise more than a snapshot of the speeding train, it is equally important to offer a first-class ticket for the ride into the future. A Web site has been especially prepared as the companion site for this book.

From the Back Cover

eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Unified Modeling Language (UML) are two of the most significant advances from the fields of Web application development and object-oriented modeling. Modeling XML Applications with UML reveals how to integrate these two technologies to create dynamic, interactive Web applications and achieve optimal business-to-business application integration.

This book focuses on the design and visual analysis of XML vocabularies. It explores the generation of DTD and Schema languages from those vocabularies, as well as the design of enterprise integration and portals--all using UML class diagrams and use case analysis. Also featured are extensive details on the deployment of XML vocabularies and portals, showing how to put these elements to work within distributed e-business systems. You will learn practical techniques that can be applied to both small and large system development projects using either formal or informal processes.

For those who may be new to XML and UML, the book includes a brief overview of these topics, although some background knowledge in these areas is recommended.

Topic coverage includes:

• An overview of XML vocabularies, HTML presentations, and XSLT stylesheets
• An overview of the UML diagrams and the Unified Process
• Defining business vocabulary and creating XML Schemas
• Designing and customizing e-business portals using XML
• Mapping UML to XML, including UML relationships to XML hyperlinks
• Generating XML Schemas from the UML class diagrams
• Transforming custom XML vocabularies into the RosettaNet XML standard
• Transforming XML vocabularies into HTML using XSLT
• Transforming XML documents into Portlets
• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as an XML-based messaging standard for business-to-business integration

A large-scale example runs throughout the book to illustrate important concepts and techniques. Each chapter also features "Steps for Success," a list of tips and issues to consider when planning for a more effective design effort.

0201709155B04062001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (April 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201709155
• ISBN-13: 978-0201709155
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,669,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finest XML book, June 8, 2001

By 

S. Vincent (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications (Paperback)

I just picked up "XML/UML" and am ecstatic!! I have to thank Dave for putting all of this practical info together. It is what I was so desperatly looking for. From all the dozens of books I've purused at the bookstores I can say this is the ONLY high level book about XML apps on the market. This book takes one beyond modelling and into the belly of the beast of real world application production.

I've looked at (and unfortunetly purchased) some of those tomes which are 3x the size but yet contained only 1/100th of the "actionable knowledge". I've even taken the Microsoft course "1905: Building XML Apps" but found it to be a bunch of *bs*. While it was a good primer who in the world is going to build a eCommerce app strictly with the DOM & XSLT??? The same is true of all the XML training tutorials on the web. But in all fairness all that other material just primed me for this book and the "grand schema" of things (pun intended).

Creating XML apps is much more than understanding XML/XSLT syntax, it's a high level architecture which is more complex than many of the web apps out there today. It was finally this book, which has modeled and integrated all the diverse concepts, which has allowed me to get my head around "how do I create, integrate and manage all the components surrounding XML". This isn't a beginners book but rather one for the person who is looking to weave various application protocols together and make a serious step forward with building the next generation apps today. These apps take a tremendous pooling of knowledge and resources and this book will put you and your team on the right path with the architecture & technology.

If you have some knowldege of XML & UML then this book will help you to take that to the next level of integration and more importantly, production. You don't just learn abstract "how-to's" but rather "how-to" in the context of a real project. Starting with assembling your team, working through UML models and transfering this into XML vocabularies and designing a "portal" from there. You then go through linking, validating and transforming your data and end up with a chapter on deployment options. What makes this so nice is that it all revolves around a single case study so you see how the overall process develops and flows.

The companion website is an excellent source not only for the code and updates but for all manner of info pertaining to XMl & UML.

Trust me... if you are into XML then you need it. This is THE book which will turn the tide for XML from industry hypeware into workable systems.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Title does not do this book justice, August 2, 2001

By 

Alan Strait (Golden, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications (Paperback)

David Carlson's book on "Modeling XML Applications with UML" is an excellent contribution to the business of building distributed e-Business applications. My only complaint with the book is the title which emphasizes the subject of UML over the subtitle of "Practical e-Business Applications." Mr. Carlson painstakingly builds up the requisite knowledge one must possess around XML, DTD, XML Schema, other XML schemas, XSL, XSLT, XPath, XPointer, XLink, XMI, and UML in a lucid, cogent manner; both defining each piece of the puzzle and providing an excellent overview of how they all fit together. What has emerged is an excellent overview of the W3C and OMG efforts to recommend standards that serve the building of eBusiness applications. The examples that he provides are particularly useful as he draws from industry and open source efforts to define XML vocabularly such as Rich Site Summary and Jetspeed's Portal Site Markup Language (and he practices what he preaches, one look at his XMLModeling.com web site will testify to this). Of particulary value is the soup-to-nuts example that Dave cooked up, called Catalog Markup Language (CatML), in order to take the reader to just the right and intended level of understanding. These examples and the corresponding discussion is a non-gratuitous, yet complete, resource for anyone trying to get bootstrapped into all of the moving parts around building applications that cross organizational/corporate boundaries.

Dave leaves no stone unturned in pulling the whole story together in his description of portals, vortals and related technology that sets these valuable BtoB capabilities in motion; his prescience in describing the roles of various channels such as wireless devices is much appreciated, and for including a discussion on Web Services, which will be the next big architectural holy grail, makes for an excellent resource that paints a broad picture with just the right amount of depth on each subject.

The title tells us the main objective, which is the role of UML modeling in working with XML, but I would suggest that the story built up in an effort to reach this objective is much more valuable than the objective itself. Thanks professor, nice job.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book covering an important niche, April 3, 2004

By 

A. K. Johnston "(www.andrewj.com/books)" (LEATHERHEAD United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Modeling XML Applications with UML: Practical e-Business Applications (Paperback)

Like many web-related technologies XML and its many derivatives have evolved much more quickly than the support from traditional modelling and development tools. As a result many developers creating XML-based applications are doing so with the crudest of tools, and find it very difficult to either exchange ideas with more traditional developers, or to benefit from the strengths of more powerful tools and modelling approaches. This book sets out to address that issue, and it does an excellent job.

At the same time, the book provides a valuable introduction to a range of XML and e-Business technologies for those more familiar with traditional approaches. I found it answered a lot of questions I had about XML which had not been addressed by reading more typical "how to" books, so this book bridges the divide both ways.

The book starts out by setting out its aim - to bridge the XML and UML communities, and provides a high-level overview of both areas. It then focuses in on the key issue of e-Business integration, both as a common challenge and an area which will naturally affect both communities.

In subsequent chapters the author discusses defining a business vocabulary, and shows how an XML vocabulary can be modelled in UML, or generated from it. Having established this basis the author then discusses a number of XML-related standards, including XMI, XPath, XPointer, XLink, XML DTDs and Schemas, and XSLT, in each case using UML models to explain how the pieces fit together.

Finally, the last few chapters present an overall e-Business architecture based around the examples in the rest of the book, bringing all the pieces together in the context of Web Services.

It's the curse of all technical writers and publishers that whatever you write is rapidly out of date, and this book suffers a little from that. Published in 2001 it views several key standards (such as XSD and core Web Service protocols) as "proposals", and frequently omits details from examples because of this uncertainty. A reader would be well advised to supplement it with more up to date reading around the technical details.

That said, this book is well written, easy to read, and covers a niche which is still almost unoccupied. The companion web site backs the book up with some valuable material, including a free downloadable tool for XML modelling, generation and reverse-engineering.

I'd love David to do a second edition, moderately refreshed to present a 2004 view of the various standards and how they fit together. The core of the book wouldn't have to change. Until that book turns up, I'm happy to recommend this one.