New CAM v3.0 ships with JSON support and significant performance enhancements

Today we released the new and significantly improved CAM editor toolset along with 3 new companion 'How to' quick videos (see here to view).

The main focus is integrating JSON handling alongside the existing XML capabilities to provide developers with the ability to use either or both from the single set of infrastructure.
This provide JSON developers with the ability to quickly build visual data models, use robust XML content validation services and generate XSD schema and JAXB bindings without having to do all those tasks by hand or know the nuances of complex XSD schema or XML handling.

For XML developers it provides a rapid ability to use JSON as an option in their information exchanges and web service integration for supporting mobile and web-based application needs.
In addition to these new JSON capabilities the existing functionality has significantly improved performance and capability.  The CAMV validation engine now runs up to 20 times faster for large XML validation input and with templates containing setChoice() rules.  For comparison a 500+ rules validation template with large 15MB sample COBie CAD/CAM smart building XML export now runs in 19 seconds instead of previously taking over 9 minutes.

Then the drag and drop dictionary components handling has similarly been significantly improved.  Large sets of components now are inserted in real time with low memory overhead thus dramatically improving the user experience and ability to quickly build information exchanges from XML dictionaries of predefined domain components.  The video shows using the Education domain to rapidly build a StudentDetails report with grades, achievements and student data.

For the Open-XDX open data API toolset we have added bi-directional support.  This means using the same CAM template and the SQL drag and drop interface you can design Update/Insert SQL database web services along with the query services.  Again the focus is on providing simple and rapid application development support.  Example code and resources can be found at our GitHub site while on line demonstrations are available from the VerifyXML.org site.


Further enhancements include a new Dictionary Evaluation report.  This tool analyzes the XML components in a dictionary and highlights design issues, omissions, duplicates and more that would be extremely tedious to detect by hand.  This allows a development team to collaboratively improve the quality of their core components and their reuse across a project implementation.

Last but not least we have improved the XSD schema importing and exporting resolving a range of complexity nuances not previously handled allow improved accuracy and compatibility with XSD schema.

In summary the new release provides:
o All new JSON capabilities and template type
o Bi-directional data processing using Open-XDX for open data query and update
o Dramatically improved Dictionary components drag and drop
o New report for Dictionary evaluation and analysis
o Significant CAMV rules engine performance improvements
o Better XSD schema importing and exporting

We look forward to seeing the enhanced solutions this helps people deliver to their customers.

New NIEM Training videos resource site launched

A series of videos are now available online that provide training and illustrate various aspects of NIEM information exchange development.

Learn how to build a working XML query/response system with SQL database accessing and XML components from example NIEM schema and dictionary.

Software development practitioners, business analysts and managers will find the materials accessible and valuable in showing the decision making processes that go into constructing a working XML exchange.

Materials are focused on practical implementers, after viewing the instruction material you can use the open source tools and apply to your own SQL to XML use cases and information exchange projects.

All the SQL and XML code, editor tools, dictionary and instructions that accompany the tutorial videos are also available for download so you can try everything yourself. 

See the NIEM Training Videos site to access the NIEM training resources.

And the open source project web site (sponsored by Oracle) contains the tools, downloads and supplemental technical materials and quick guide manuals.

CAMV and TEAM Engine (Test, Evaluation, And Measurement) suite development

The CAMV engine is ideal for rapidly developing Test, Evaluation, And Measurement (TEAM) test suites for XML information exchanges.  The concise CAM rules syntax leverages XPath v2.0 capabilities. This means that rules are declarative along with acting directly on the XML structure and hence this dramatically simplifies rule assertions. 

Coupled to this is the ability of the CAM Editor visual IDE to automate much of the tasks involved in test suite and Compliance and Interoperability Testing development and implementation.  This includes automatic harvesting of rules from existing XSD schema definitions, automatic generation of XML test instances with realistic test data hints, and generation of HTML documentation of the business rules. Then rule entry wizards simplify the task of rule entry and are accessible via a "right click" popup menu tool directly from the XML instance structure viewer in the CAM Editor IDE. Compliance test rules are implemented in XPath language syntax that can be run interactively in the CAM Editor IDE against XML test instances and results visually diagnosed. 

Completed rules templates may then be deployed via ANT scripts as automated test suites for validation of arbitrary XML information exchange samples.  The ANT scripts support use of drop folders, so any test cases dropped into the designated folder will then be inspected and validated against the applicable rules templates.

For more information on utilizing these techniques and tools, along with sample Test Suites please see the Sourceforge.net resources site for the CAM tools - and the CAMV Test Suites link.

CAM XML Editor version 2.2.1 now available

CAM Editor v2.2.1 release is now available. Lots of nice enhancements, CAMV performance boost and important bug fixes for DoD, NIEM and LEXS schema.

Download is available from the CAM XML Editor Resource Site.

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The CAM editor is the leading open source XML Editor/Validation/Schema designer for rapidly building and deploying complete XML information exchanges. Provides a visual WYSIWYG structure with rule entry wizards and drag and drop dictionary components.

Will import, analyze and refactor existing XML Schema.

Oracle is a proud sponsor of the project and its use on the NIEM.gov initiative.

Creates XSD schema + JAXB bindings, Mindmap or UML models (XMI), XML test suite examples, HTML documentation + spreadsheets (NIEM IEPDs). XSD schema export in default, flatten, NIEM, and OASIS modes. Generates canonical component dictionaries from schema sets, ERwin models, or spreadsheets.

CAM v2.2 release with multi-lingual support taking NIEM international

New release now available with French, Spanish, Russian, Norwegian, Chinese and Japanese support from http://www.cameditor.org

Complete highlights include the following:
o International localization language support for menus and screens
o JAXB binding and ConTessa support for XSD schema export
o Better XSD schema importing and exporting
o Dictionary collection manager wizard
o Better dictionary namespace handling
o Better UML physical model export to XMI 2.1.2 (now works with popular UML tools)
o CAMV validation engine support for W3C DOM and extended API options

Notice the Dictionary Collection Manager tool uses enhanced namespace techniques. Please download the latest NIEM dictionary pack from Sourceforge files to take advantage of these.

CAM editor tutorial video launches

To accompany the new CAM editor v2.0 release we now have an 8 minute online video.

The video provides a quick introduction to the features and capabilities in 

the latest CAM editor release made available for community use courtesy
of Oracle's media folks.

The demonstration steps through a scenario of enhancing an existing OASIS HAVE schema to add new components and then generate the resulting updated exchange schema. The tutorial inserts new NIEM core components to the existing OASIS schema via drag and drop from the dictionary - showing you how you can tailor or build a new NIEM exchange from existing library components - and/or add your own components and rules.

To access the tutorial - see this link and just enter in an email address
to launch the video page - http://launch.oracle.com/?NIEM

Oracle also has a new NIEM focus page with more resources and information:

 http://www.oracle.com/goto/niem

The main CAM editor download page is http://www.cameditor.org

CAM, Mind maps and XML Schema

The new release of the CAM editor toolkit includes the ability to generate mind maps of XML structures.

This opens up some nice possibilities - such as documenting tool menu and functional capabilities - as this example shows. To do this you just create a simple XML hierarchy and load it into the CAM editor - then view it in the Freemind mind map viewer.

Alternatively if you have an existing XML Schema then you can import that into the CAM editor, then map that.  Again here is an example for the HAVE - Hospital Availability - schema from OASIS.

Interestingly there is also academic work on this topic and overall approach - see these couple of links:

• Using Mind Maps to Model Semistructured Documents, Springer, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010, Volume 6273/2010
• Developing a Formal Model for Mind Maps, March 2011, Corfu, Greece

Overall this provides an intuitive way of visualizing hierarchical relationships and XML information exchanges. More importantly it can improve your ability to design optimal information exchanges by making it possible to see the "big picture" from a business functional perspective.