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Microsoft Corp. Friday raised the curtain on two XML tools for application developers intended to speed the deployment of cross-platform analytical database solutions.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software juggernaut released a beta version of the XML for Analysis software development kit and also released the XML for Analysis protocol specification, designed to allow the transfer of information between analytical databases and client applications, regardless of the computer language used to write the application.

The XML for Analysis protocol leverages the XML, SOAP and HTTP standards to standardize data access interaction between a client application and an analytical data provider. Microsoft said XML for Analysis is a vendor- and platform-independent extension to its OLE DB for Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and OLE DB for Data Mining protocols.

The development kit enables developers to add analytic capabilities to any client on any device or platform using any programming language, including Microsoft's Visual Basic, C++, C# and Java.

The beta version of XML for Analysis is available here.