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XML drives the Humvee

In an exclusive interview with DCLnews, Brian Travis of Architag goes into the issues of printing from XML and reveals that the popular mark-up language is the driving force behind the Humvee...

Brian Travis is chief technical officer and founder of Architag International Corporation, a consulting and training company based in Englewood, Colorado. He has 25 years experience in the field of mark-up languages and is a great believer in the advantages of XML, both for firms who publish technical documents and other content, and for those involved in web services.

The main thrust of Travis's work involves composition - turning XML data into viewable and publishable documents. DCLnews caught up with him during a brief hiatus in his busy schedule and asked him what the issues are in bringing XML to print or the screen?

BRIAN TRAVIS: Just like HTML or other computer code, you can view or print any XML document. The problem is it is full of angle brackets, which doesn't do anybody any good! What you have to do is take the information stored in the XML document and process it in an intelligent and appropriate manner. That way, you get a deliverable that is useful to somebody. The deliverable might be paper (usually output in PDF format), or it might be HTML or other on-screen format.

About Brian Travis

Since founding Architag (then known as Information Architects) in 1993, Brian Travis has created content management systems and e-business solutions for organizations around the world using technologies such as XSLT, XPath, SOAP and web services. Travis is also a noted instructor and lecturer in XML and related standards. He speaks and leads tutorials and seminars for the largest internet and e-commerce conferences in the world, including Internet World, Web Design and Development, TechEd, and Comdex. Travis is author of a number of acclaimed industry books, including The SGML Implementation Guide and Web Services Implementation.

DCLNEWS: What are the difficulties of rendering an XML document to paper?

BRIAN TRAVIS: Well, for one thing, you've got to deal with the fact that paper is big. It's normally A4 or 8 ^1/2 by 11 inches. And you have to deal with page numbers, running headers and footers, references, and so on. All of which can be big issues when it comes to outputting a document in a form that is pleasing to the eye and useful from a research or reference point-of-view.

DCLNEWS: How easy is it to go to web format?

BRIAN TRAVIS: If you compose your data as HTML, you no longer have to worry about page breaks and page numbers because an HTML page can be as long as you want - you just scroll down. Saying that, of course, you don't want to overwhelm your user; so you wouldn't send them 300 pages worth of material in one call! But there are additional things to worry about in HTML; like making sure your links are properly formed and that they go where they are supposed to go.

DCLNEWS: Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs) have been embraced by the automotive industry. Could you tell us how XML fits into this?

BRIAN TRAVIS: XML is the driving force behind IETMs. Anyone running a modern car will have seen it in action. You drive into a repair shop and the first thing the technicians do is hook up your car's computer to their computer. The shop computer detects when something is out of whack on your vehicle - maybe the timing is off on the electronic fuel injection. This information is then sent to a rolling cart computer, which runs the ITEM. The computer knows that an adjustment needs to be made and the IETM displays the re-adjustment procedure. The technician simply follows it step-by-step. All of this comes from an XML source.

DCLNEWS: Can IETMs be delivered in other formats?

BRIAN TRAVIS: You can render the XML source in any way you choose. If the technician is in a tight spot on a vehicle and can't easily get to his or her computer, the sections needed can be printed out on paper. Or if the technician simply wants to do a little research, some or all of the IETM can be rendered as an HTML page.

DCLNEWS: Your firm Architag runs an XML composition service - what does this entail?

BRIAN TRAVIS: It's called PubNow and is a service-based publishing system that lets you manage and publish your XML documents in whatever format you require. It also has an XML-based web services element, where we use SOAP and XML web service transactions to load data into the database to render information.

DCLNEWS: Can people provide material in any format?

BRIAN TRAVIS: We don't deal with paper, PDF, or MS Word files. If someone has files in those formats, we'll gladly take them as a customer, but will point out that there is an extra step to go through - data conversion. If they've only got a few files, we'll suggest they do the conversion themselves using our XML editor. But if a customer has 5,000 pages or more, we work with Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL). We work closely with the guys at DCL. They know exactly what we need.

DCLNEWS: Can you give us some examples of this partnership in action?

BRIAN TRAVIS: We're currently working on Army Work Packages, which need a lot of tweaking. But the team at DCL know what we are expecting and convert it to our particular format. In fact, the Army and Marines Work Packages are a nice way to show off the power of XML. They use a lot of database interfaces. These are not configured in the way you might configure a conventional database. If you have a 3/4 inch socket wrench, for example, you don't describe it that way. Instead you put down "Tool number 17752." That way, when it is printed out, the system will go to a database to find out what the current description and price are for the tool, along with the warehouse location, and so on. Updating is made easy and current information is rendered right on the page for the technician to use.

DCLNEWS: You're also working on the Humvee documentation?

BRIAN TRAVIS: That's right. Even though it's a simple vehicle, the basic documentation stretches to 1500 pages, the more complex to 3,500. And it has 450 different Work Packages - from degreasing the carburetor to aligning the headlights. XML (or SGML) makes all this work. You literally can't do without it if you publish documentation, parts catalogs, or other content. You can't do it with a word processor, spreadsheet, or standard database. You can't do it with anything except XML.

DCLnews editorial
February 4th, 2004