webMethods Inc.
and Microsoft Corp. Monday announced
plans to jointly develop products utilizing XML technology in data-driven
Web applications. This technology includes new functions for querying XML
documents.
Microsoft said it teamed with webMethods because of the company’s previous
experience with the creation and deployment of XML-based software in
business-to-business integration and e-commerce appliations.
Both companies have been working with Texcel to develop XQL, a set of
extensions to XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) which lets developers
use XML to query their XML data. This enables applications to be able to
process queries against DOM (Document Object Model) nodes, to embed queries
within URLs, and to utilize XSL as a query language.
Getting a jump in the industry, Microsoft included XQL in the beta2 version
of Internet Explorer 5.0. webMethods will implement the specification in
the upgrade of its B2B Integration Server, part of the webMethods B2B product.
For additional information about the companies’ plans to integrate the
technology, visit the webMethods and Microsoft Web sites. To learn more
about the XQL specification, visit the W3C XQL Web site.
