Other XML Feature Pack Beta 3 Highlights

Yesterday I blogged about one of the major focus areas of the Beta 3 of the XML Feature Pack. In today's video demo, I show the other major items of note in Beta 3. The major features of Beta 3 are:

- Spec complete on XPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0, and XQuery
- Changes to the XML Feature Pack API to adjust for new features and results of usability studies
- Focus on development and deployment issues with full command line support to pre-compile XML artifacts for performance, ANT commands to do the same, and support for running with Java 2 Security enabled.
- As always, more samples. In addition to the end to end sample of XQuery I demoed yesterday, we have over 40 samples that show the new features of the new standards.

Here is the video that overviews these features:

Demo 6 - XML Feature Pack Beta 3 Highlights

Direct Link (HD Version)


For more information on the WAS V7.0 XML Feature Pack Beta, please go here to download the code, samples, documentation as well as see other demos.

Interviews of WebSphere architects

Recently we have made a set of informal videos interviewing various WebSphere architects about the numerous advantages of WebSphere Application Server in the areas of developer and management efficiency, application innovation, and performance. These are focused on the difference between WebSphere and JBoss but also cover in detail many of the WebSphere Application Server strategical focus areas.

There are two playlists which can help you view all the videos. This playlist of WebSphere vs JBoss Developer Discussions walks through the specifics around how development is getting better and easier. This playlist covers WebSphere vs JBoss Operations discussions and covers more of the systems management side of the product.

Here is one of the videos (you'll note I didn't include one of mine ;-) ) on developer efficiency.

CEA Feature Pack available for download!

We are happy to announce that the CEA Feature Pack is available for download. The CEA Feature Pack can be downloaded here: http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/featurepacks/cea/.

Additionally, the new documentation (aka InfoCenter) is available here: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/library/v70/fp-cv/index.html.

Finally, here are the support pages: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg27016107.

You can learn more about CEA at its blog, http://ibmcea.blogspot.com/ (Link also in the sidebar). If you need a refresher on some of the cool features, here is a YouTube video showing the widgets helping solve problems in the contact center.

Web communications enhancing interactions

One of the common questions as people are learning about our WebSphere Communications Enabled Applications (CEA) function is if we are trying to replace interactions with "real people" when they see features such as the cobrowsing. The real idea behind CEA is using an interactions via the web to enhance real time communications which could be phone calls or instant messaging. There are several scenarios that we try to show in the demo video below, but here are some of the common issues that a web based interaction could solve in a contact center:

- More -

XML Feature Pack (XPath 2.0/XSLT 2.0/XQuery 1.0) Beta Links

I have been discussing the WAS V7 Feature Pack for XML Beta (XML Feature Pack for short) with enough folks lately to realize that a single link that listed all the links that can help you start would be useful. So here goes. Go ahead and bookmark this link as I'll be updating it as the Beta moves along.

- General Availability Release Data Announcement - Nov 20th.

- Open Beta Website
-- Download code
-- Online documentation - Online Javadoc
-- Download documentation
-- Forum for discussion

- The WebSphere Community Blog (where I frequently post updates)
-- Beta 1 Blog Announcement
-- Beta 2 Blog Announcement
-- Beta 3 Blog Announcement
-- Beta 4 Blog Announcement
-- Release Date Annoucement

- Demo #1 (Introduction to the XML Feature Pack)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)
-- Part 2 (Standard/HD)

- Demo #2 (An end to end XPath 2.0 Application)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)
-- Part 2 (Standard/HD)

-Demo #3 (An end to end XSLT 2.0 Application)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)
-- Part 2 (Standard/HD)

- Demo #4 (Beta 2 Refresh valuable features)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)
-- Part 2 (Standard/HD)

- Demo #5 (An end to end XQuery 1.0 Application)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)
-- Part 2 (Standard/HD)

- Demo #6 (Beta 3 Highlights)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)

- Demo #7 (Thin Client for XML - Beta 4)
-- Part 1 (Standard/HD)

- W3C Specifications
-- XPath 2.0
-- XSLT 2.0
-- XQuery 1.0

- Great books on the standards
-- XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)
-- XQuery

- Coverage of XML Feature Pack by news sites
-- Coverage of XPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 (Beta 1)
-- Coverage of thin client (Beta 4)

Last updated: 2009-11-11

WAS XML Feature Pack Demo #4 - More XSLT 2.0 Features and Compilation

I released the first demo two months ago introducing the XML Feature Pack:

Demo 1 (Part 1, Part 2).

Two days ago I released the second demo showing how to use XPath 2.0 in an end to end J2EE application:

Demo 2 (Part 1, Part 2).

Yesterday I released the third demo showing how to use XSLT 2.0 in an end to end J2EE application:

Demo 3 (Part 1, Part 2).

Today, I'll wrap up the demos with demo 4 which talks to about XSLT 2.0 schema awareness, validation and various other XSLT 2.0 features we've added to round out the XSLT 2.0 standard support. Finally, I show a demonstration of how to use the pre-compilation support added in the Beta refresh.

Demo 4 - XSLT 2.0 Features (Part 1)

Direct Link (HD Version)

Demo 4 - XSLT 2.0 Features (Part 2)

Direct Link (HD Version)

WAS XML Feature Pack Demo #3 - End to End XSLT

I released the first demo two months ago introducing the XML Feature Pack:

Demo 1 (Part 1, Part 2).

Yesterday I released the second demo showing how to use XPath 2.0 in an end to end J2EE application:

Demo 2 (Part 1, Part 2).

In this third demo, I expand upon this same basic application to show how to use XSLT 2.0 in an end-to-end J2EE application. In the demo, I show some of the new valuable features of XSLT 2.0. I show how to bridge the gap between Java and XML processing by showing binding of Java data to the XSLT stylesheets and calling user defined Java extension functions as part of the XSLT processing. As compared to the XPath 2.0 example where data was stored in JavaBeans then JSP formatted to the user, this sample directly transforms data from XML to XHTML user presentation. Also, I show how some of the Java logic used in the XPath 2.0 example can be recoded in simpler XSLT 2.0 temporary trees and stylesheet functions.

Demo 3 - End to End XSLT 2.0 (Part 1)

Direct Link (HD Version)

Demo 3 - End to End XSLT 2.0 (Part 2)

Direct Link (HD Version)

WAS XML Feature Pack Demo #2

As announced last week, I have created three new demos for the WAS XML Feature Pack.

I released the first demo two months ago introducing the XML Feature Pack:

Demo 1(Part 1, Part 2). Remember to click, view in HD.

In the second demo, I expand upon this same basic application to show how to use XPath 2.0 in and end-to-end J2EE application. In the demo, I show some of the new valuable features of XPath 2.0. Also, I show how to bridge the gap between Java and XML processing by showing binding of Java data to the XPath queries and calling user defined Java extension functions as part of the XPath processing. Finally, I show how to gather data from the returned XPath sequence cursors and how to integrate that data with Java beans.

Demo 2 - End to End XPath 2.0 (Part 1)

Direct Link (HD Version)

Demo 2 - End to End XPath 2.0 (Part 2)

Direct Link (HD Version)