This tutorial provides an overview of XML, its history, purpose and companion specifications. Attendees will understand the basics of the XML Recommendation, including what is meant by well-formed, valid and standalone documents, document type definitions, elements, attributes and entities. Finally, attendees will gain an appreciation of what distinguishes XML from its parent standard, SGML, and what has made XML so attractive within the internet and business communities.

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XML has become the lingua franca for exchanging variety of information ranging from structured business data to unstructured text documents over the Web. For applications to effectively handle this variety of information, a query language called XQuery is being prepared and standardized by W3C. Just as SQL was designed for querying relational databases, XQuery is a declarative query language designed to fit the novel requirements of XML data. This tutorial begins with foundation and underlying concepts, followed by detailed description of XQuery combined with real-world examples and comparisons to SQL, and ends with a proposal for updates to the language.

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The tutorial will be held by members of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) involved in the definition of the Wf-XML standard. It will provide an introduction to applications of workflow technology in B2B interactions. We will explain the Wf-XML standard in detail and describe the HTTP binding of the standard. The tutorial will also discuss its relationship to complementary standards that take care of other aspects of B2B interactions, such as OBI, RosettaNet, SOAP and the work of the ebXML consortium. In addition we will touch on future work in the area of XML-based workflow standardization.

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Now that the W3C has finalized the rules for XML Schema and the specification has become a recommendation, exactly how do I put one of these together to validate my XML documents? When do I use one? Schema are essential for large document management projects since coherence to a standard is imperative. XML Schema are the replacements for Document Type Definitions (DTD). Yes, the old warhorse is being replaced and the reasons for replacing them are valid. This tutorial will teach you how to write basic schema documents and give you a good head start on this complicated subject.Topics covered include: Simple and Complex element types Attribute declarations Occurrence constraints Element content Annotations Namespaces & qualifications Schema file location Qualified & unqualified locals and more.

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We'll explore legacy systems and the technology that is used to communicate with them; XML and the role it plays in managing state, simplifying the data model, helping with system testing, and making asynchronous communications possible; and how XSL is used on the client and the server. Secondly, we'll examine XML and Microsoft Message Queue's role in enabling and integrating legacy systems. We'll touch on the Biztalk framework and Windows 2000 (notably Queued Components).

• An expanded definition of data management to include unstructured organizational data
  
• Expanded data management roles in applications development using Portal technologies
  
• Preparation of organizational data (including data quality) for e-business