W3C Interop Tour, Brussels June 3, 2002 Interoperability in Content Management Vincent Buller...

W3C Interop Tour, Brussels

June 3, 2002

Interoperability in Content Management

Vincent Buller

Technical Product Manager / W3C AC-Rep

Presentation Overview

• BackStream introduction

• Content Management

• The Web, interoperability and Content Management

• Client Case: Mobile Information Display in Trams

Corporate information

• Founded: 2000 (Content Management experience back to 1989)

• Products and Services: content management & distribution software and implementations

• Offices:

• Amsterdam and Brussels

• Focus:

• BackStream provides high performance solutions to companies that wish to manage and distribute quality content with informative, financial or entertaining value. BackStream also provides the means to track, trace and bill content.

Content Management

What is Content Management?

• A very diverse application area

• Puts content and content workflow at the heart of the process

• Structured way of working with the content

• Treat content as a valuable asset with a lifecycle

• Repurposing of content

• Manage acquisition and distribution of content

Content Management Applications

• Web Content Management (Internet, intranet, extranet)

• Document management

• Workgroup systems

• Editorial systems for print

• Database publishing (catalogues)

• Content Syndication

• Knowledge management

• Enterprise Content Management

Traditionally, many application areas apply dedicated systems

Content Management Trends

• Increasingly applied when CM is not core business

• Has to be implemented in an existing infrastructure

• Increasing demand for a centralized management system, with distributed management and content maintenance (avoid having 6 different mission statements on a single intranet)

• Increasingly blurry boundaries between application areas (prev. slide), some examples:

• Workgroup information needs to be published on the intranet

• Traditional print publications move to digital media

CMS Environment

• Content management not always at the heart of the business (not mission critical, but efficiency improvements)

• Has to operate in an environment with

• User databases (LDAP)

• Corporate systems

• Generic databases (Relational, XML)

• External content feeds

• Content responsibility users often part-time

Sample Scenario ICorporate Intra / Extranet for large insurance company

• Content acquisition

• Lotus Notes databases with corporate information

• External feed with financial / insurance business news

• Content editing

• Distributed responsibility, multiple offices, multiple countries

• Content storage

• Inter/tranet specific content in Oracle RDBMS

• Content publication

• Both to employees (intranet) and insurance intermediaries (extranet)

• To the Web, later perhaps mobile devices

• Notifications by e-mail

Sample Scenario IINews Syndicator / Portal

• Content acquisition

• External feeds from news agencies

• Automated classification

• Content editing

• None

• Content storage

• Temporary

• Content publication

• Subscription based, delivery by e-mail and Web-portal

• Through delivery in XML

Sample Scenario IIITraditional publisher of TV program guides moves to multi-channel

• Content acquisition

• Continuous external feeds with program guide information

• Manual entry from unstructured e-mail, fax, printed info

• Content editing

• Intensive, cyclic process with translation, content editing, check against movie databases, etc.

• Content storage

• Dedicated rdbms

• Content publication

• To paper program guide through connection with DeskTop Publishing (DTP) software

• To the Web, possibly mobile devices and e-mail

How to fulfill all different requirements with a single

system?

Single Core, Application Specific Extensions

Document Management

Editorial systems

Web Content Management

Database Publishing

Common Content Management Functionality

• Acquisition of external content

• Content transformation logic

• Content classification

• Content Storage, Search and Retrieval

• User and rights management

• Distributed editorial functionality

• Workflow management

• Content tracking, tracing and billing / reporting

• Channel independent publishing

CM Core and Periphery

Common Functionality

ContentManagement

AcquisitionModule

PublishingModule

WebsitePublishing

Legacy Data

Content Feed

Database Database

Content EditingAdapter

Content Processing

XML Editor Web InterfaceGraphics editor...

Content StorageAdapter

BinaryContent

XMLContent

AnyContent

...

0100100100100010100010101010010010010

1010010101010000101010101010100

1010101010000101001001000100101010

10010010100110011010101010101010

010101001001000101011010101010101

00101010101001000101101010101100

0101010100100101001010010010101010101

0101000100101010010101010101001001010

0101010100100101001010101010101

010100100100101010101010100101001101

0101010101001001010100110100101111

Acquisition / Publication Channels

• Acquisition

• Databases

• Manual input

• Automated feeds

• Publication

• Web, mobile Internet

• Print

• PDF

• SMS

• E-mail

• Information screens (billboards, etc)

Open approach to CM required

• Integrated solution necessary

• Integrated management and tracking of content

• But a single system cannot provide all pieces of the puzzle

• Effort

• Focus

• Market knowledge and insight

• Customers will not accept vendor lock-in or high proprietary training costs

• Interoperability with existing or market specific tools essential

W3C Specifications(“Recommendations”)

W3C Domains

• “The World Wide Web Consortium was created in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.”

• Related Activities are grouped into five domains

• Architecture (XML, Web Services)

• Document Formats (HTML, SVG, MathML, XSL(T), CSS)

• Interaction (Device independence, SMIL)

• Technology and Society (Semantic Web, Encryption and Signature)

• Web Accessibility Initiative

XML

• eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and related specifications created and managed by W3C

• Since its creation, XML is increasingly becoming the core specification for all W3C domains

• Extending beyond “the Web as we know it”

• Web Services help in A2A en B2B Integration

• The Semantic Web helps bringing order to (large) collections of information

• XQuery defines searching XML data collections

XML versatility

• Initially thought of as “a better HTML”

• Use “as INI-file replacement” for system configuration

• Data storage

• Document storage

• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) / Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)

XML in Content Management

XML in Content Management

XML a natural at the Core of Content Management

• Derived from SGML (originated from publishing and documents world)

• Content XML Dialects: SVG, MathML, XHTML, DocBook (originally specified in SGML), etc.

• Unicode ‘automatically’ provides multi-language capabilities

• Meta-data also expressed in XML (XML itself, RDF)

XML in Publishing

• XML at the heart of the latest HTML version, XHTML (Rec 26 Jan 2000) (mind: not an alternative rewrite, but the only next version!)

• The promise this holds is integration of SVG and MathML into XHTML

• Modularization of XHTML also means increased interoperability between mobile and normal Web

• WAPForum defines XHTMLMP – Mobile Profile as replacement for WML; iMode’s CHTML based on HTML

• WAPForum’s User Agent Profile (UAPROF) defined based on CC/PP

• Generic Web browsers and special viewer software accept XML for display

XML Related Standards in CM

ContentManagement

AcquisitionModule

PublishingModule

WebsitePublishing

Legacy Data

Content Feed

Database Database

Content EditingAdapter

Content Processing

XML Editor Web InterfaceGraphics editor...

Content StorageAdapter

BinaryContent

XMLContent

AnyContent

...

Web ServicesXSLTXML Schema

XformsXHTMLWeb Services

XSLTWeb ServicesDRM(Encryption,Signature)XHTML

XqueryRDF

XHTMLSMILSVGMathML

Use of XML in Content Acquisition and Access

Content Acquisition

• Applicable to “true” external content and content outside immediate control (separate editing system)

• Physical content access

• For example: Relational databases, Lotus Notes data, Data feeds

• FTP, HTTP, e-mail

• Web Services to access remote systems

• Content validation

• XML Schema

• Content Transformation

• XSLT

Relational Databases• For RDBMS generic XML Translators exists

• Translation to specific XML format may be done using XSLT transformations

Generic XML Table FormatGeneric XML Table Format

Application Specific FormatApplication Specific Format

Use of XML in Content Editing

Content Editing

• Web based interface

• XML Editor

• Desktop Publishing application

Content Editing Interfaces

• Web based interface

• XForms – a specification for creating a user interface for editing a specific XML document

• XML Editor

• Direct client side editing of XML

• Desktop Publishing application

• Interaction between a DTP application and the CMS by means of Web Services

Summary

• W3C Interoperable standards enable a common approach to core content management functionality, by

• Enabling open interfaces to domain specific software

• Providing methods for transforming content

• Unifying display languages of normal and mobile web around XML and XHTML

Case: Falcom

News and Localized content in Trams in Belgium

How Web technologies apply to non-Web applications in Content Management

Falcom Application

Project goal: “create a system to display highly localized content on public transportation vehicles”

Live since September 2001

Falcom Implementation

Graphic © Falcom N.V.

The Content Processing Platform™

Next stop: <street name>

Next stop: <street name>

Next stop: <street name>

The BackStream solution (1/7)

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The BackStream Content Processing Platform delivers:

• Content input, creation, storage and distribution

• Content management, versioning and workflow

• Content transformation and conversion

• Keyword classification

The BackStream solution (2/7)

Content providers:

• Radio station: sends MP3 files and playlists

• Ad agency: sends MPEG movies (commercials)

• Public transportation company: adds service updates

• VRT (Belgium’s “BBC”): sends news articles and photos

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The BackStream solution (3/7)

Content intake:

• All textual content is converted to XML

• All content is scanned for keywords and meta data is created

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The BackStream solution (4/7)

Content management:

• Internal and external editors:

• write new articles

• add photos

• modify playlists) for multiple cities

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The Management Interface (1/3)

The Management Interface (2/3)

The Management Interface (3/3)

The BackStream solution (5/7)

Content distribution:

• All articles (in XML format) are converted to the tram’s board computer slide show format

• Playlists are generated (multiple cities and for different routes)

• Images are scaled automatically

• MP3 and MPEG files are sent

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The BackStream solution (6/7)

Redistribution servers:

• Files are transported…

• At night: via the Internet to the central tram stations

• During the day: via a wireless connection using DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

The BackStream solution (7/7)

Trams:

• The trams are equipped with on-board computers with a PowerPoint-like slide show application

• The trams are equipped with GPS. This enables the display of location-based content (e.g. tram stops and street names)

• The trams have two wireless network cards (narrowband when moving and broadband when inside the central tram station)

Contentproviders

Contentintake

Contentmanagement

Contentdistribution

Redistributionservers

Trams

Discussion