XML Collaborator: Features

Collaboration

Flexibility and ease of use

Management of the design process

Registry

Planned enhancements in future releases

Atomic versioning: Within XML Collaborator, each information component that makes up an information structure—data elements (values), data structures, enumerations, datatypes, and services—carries its own version information. As each of these information components is modified over its lifetime, changes are tracked along with the user who made the changes and a short description of the change made. This makes it easy to track who has changed each component of an information model and when.

Version tagging: When an information model is deemed finalized and is ready to be released to the registry side of XML Collaborator, the root data structure in the model is tagged for release. This automatically locks the version for all of the descendants of that composite (both data elements and composite structures) for that release, ensuring that all derivations of that data model (XML Schema, DTDs, etc.) will remain static regardless of other changes to the information components that make up that data model after the release is generated.

Namespace hierarchy: The XML Collaborator platform allows the information components stored in the system to be partitioned into a tree structure of nested subgroups—essentially, allowing the information to be grouped for easier manipulation through the user interface (and to control the security at a more granular level). This allows a sophisticated design process with hundreds of participants to be efficiently managed. Each branch of the information hierarchy is assigned a namespace URI. If the information model is exported to a form that understands namespaces (such as XML Schema), the namespace will be reflected in the created structure.

Fine control of data points: The XML Collaborator platform permits the allowable values for data points to be constrained. This includes a comprehensive enumeration management interface, as well as the typical range and precision constraints.

Description fields available at every level: Descriptive information may be provided for each information component in the system. This information may optionally be included as annotations in exported XML Schemas or comments in DTDs, and is used to build HTML documentation for the information structures.