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Visualizing XML in manufacturing systems: XML spurs SVG adoption.

Article Excerpt
The manufacturing industry has been a leader in adopting XML technologies, recognizing the benefits of enterprise-class open standards. Applications in the manufacturing industry often need to live as long as the capital equipment itself--a time frame that can stretch as long as 30 years. The need for an extended life span has driven the adoption of markup languages, guaranteeing the longevity of data and applications.

Manufacturers are turning to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to extend the power of XML open standards even further. Application developers who serve the manufacturing market are mandated to update business processes to improve profitability and achieve a significant return on investment. SVG provides a powerful interface technology that makes this a reality.

This article will explore how SVG is providing significant benefits for manufacturers by Web-enabling thee Human-Machine Interface (HMI). Using the same XML framework, we will discuss how these technologies can also support interactive electronic technical documentation in manufacturing. In both of these areas, traditional closed applicationns and publishing systems are being broken open and distributed using XML and SVG.

What Is SVG?

SVG is the W3C standard for vector graphics presentation over the Web. The standard was created by more than 20 major corporations, including AOL, Adobe, Canon, Corel, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Nokia. The most recent SVG 1.1 recommendation continues to evolve to support small devices and print. It's lightweight and can be read from any browser using a standard-compliant viewer without requiring any specialized applications running on the enterprise desktops.

SVG is XML for graphics. A human-readable markup language, SVG can be developed using specialized tools or edited in a simple word processor. As a vector format, it differs from bitmaps in that SVG is described as points, curves, and fills, and can therefore be "zoomed" into without loss of quality. Most important, because SVG is data, it can be driven by data from any location (i.e., Web services, ODCB, etc.) (see Figure 1). In addition, SVG can be made to support bidirectional interaction with the graphic, allowing the user to interact with the SVG graphic to affect changes on the target server, database, or machine.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

One Technology, Many Uses

With any broad technology platform there are obvious questions. What are the best applications of this technology? What is the best way to prove its capabilities?

Some of the...