News
Web site offers tips on 'drawing' XML
- By Rich Seeley
- December 17, 2003
Developers as well as business users with little XML knowledge or experience
can view samples of how to 'draw' Web services applications at a new Web site
launched this month by SmartDraw.com.
The San Diego-based provider of business graphics software is showing off its
XML drawing software, VisualScript XML at http://www.VisualScript.com. The site
includes 'XML scenarios' where users can see how XML visual modeling tools can
be used to create Web services applications.
One scenario explains how a computer manufacturer built a Web services
inventory application controlled by BizTalk server. The developers write BPEL
modules for the basic operations, including checking parts availability and
starting a manufacturing request. The Web service itself is drawn out in a
flowchart-style diagram using the SmartDraw tool, which can be used to generate
the XML code. Because all of the Web services elements are represented in the
kind of diagram business users see in PowerPoint presentations, they can
understand and have input into the development process, according to the
SmartDraw scenario.
''In fact, using the developer's scripted symbols, a business manager will be
able to quickly sketch a familiar business process in VisualScript --
automatically composing a script to drive the BizTalk server -- without actually
understanding XML,'' the Web site scenario concludes.
The basic concept behind VisualScript is to improve that kind of
communication between developers and business users, said a SmartDraw
spokesperson.
About the Author
Rich Seeley is Web Editor for Campus Technology.