Presents your 
XML E-NEWSLETTER for December 11, 2002

<------------------------------------------->

ORGANIZE SYNDICATED NEWS FEEDS WITH NEWSML

One of the most popular items on the Internet is news. From CNN to
Slashdot, many people depend on the Internet as one of their major news
sources. Many existing news sites use a protocol called Rich Site Summary
(RSS) to syndicate their news headlines and articles. Now, there's a new XML
protocol for syndicating news stories called NewsML.

Developers may be interested in NewsML for a couple of reasons. First,
portal developers can use NewsML to manage their syndicated news feeds.
Also, content developers can use NewsML to describe their news-oriented
multi-media content. In both cases, NewsML provides a rich XML solution 
for describing syndicated multimedia.

WHAT IS NEWSML?

NewsML is really an XML grammar for describing multimedia news content.
This includes typical "wire" stories, such as those from the Associated
Press and Reuters, as well as proprietary news videos and other
multimedia. Using NewsML, content syndicators can provide a universal 
format for their news feeds.

NewsML is maintained by the International Press and Telecommunication
Council (IPTC). Originally, NewsML was conceived by Reuters, who 
brought the idea to the IPTC.

LISTING 1 shows a sample NewsML payload from the IPTC:

Listing 1: SportResult.xml
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE NewsML PUBLIC "urn:newsml:iptc.org:20001006:NewsMLv1.0:1"
"./DTD/NewsMLv1.0.dtd">
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="./stylesheets/IPTCNewsML.xsl"?>
<NewsML>
..<Catalog Href = "./catalog/mycatalog.xml"/>
..<NewsEnvelope>
....<DateAndTime>20001006</DateAndTime>
..</NewsEnvelope>
..<NewsItem>
....<Identification>
......<NewsIdentifier>
........<ProviderId>iptc.org</ProviderId>
........<DateId>20001006</DateId>
........<NewsItemId>SportsResultSample</NewsItemId>
........<RevisionId PreviousRevision = "0" Update = "N">1</RevisionId>
........<PublicIdentifier>urn:newsml:iptc.org:20001006:SportsResultSample:1
        </PublicIdentifier>
......</NewsIdentifier>
....</Identification>
....<NewsManagement>
......<NewsItemType FormalName = "News" Scheme = "IptcNewsItemType"/>
......<FirstCreated>20001006</FirstCreated>
......<ThisRevisionCreated>20001006</ThisRevisionCreated>
......<Status FormalName = "Usable" Scheme = "IptcStatus"/>
....</NewsManagement>
....<NewsComponent>
......<ContentItem>
........<DataContent><![CDATA[<FootballResult><Hteam>Arsenal</Hteam><Hscore>1
       
</Hscore><Ateam>Chelsea</Ateam><Ascore>2</Ascore></FootballResult>]]>
        </DataContent>
......</ContentItem>
....</NewsComponent>
..</NewsItem>
</NewsML>

FEEDS AND FORMATS

NewsML provides the envelope for packaging syndicated multimedia news
stories from numerous sources. Within NewsML, there may be multiple
specific news item formats. One format, called News Industry Text Format, is
used to describe text-based news articles. Another increasingly popular
format is the Sports Markup Language, or SportsML--a protocol for 
describing sports scores and statistics.

There are many ways to actually receive the news feed. A simple mode is
to use SMTP. This technique delivers NewsML packages to your e-mail box.
Next is FTP, which delivers NewsML packages to an FTP site. A more
real-time approach uses an agent that receives NewsML payloads directly.
The agent may be a simple server that receives data via TCP sockets, or it
may be built as a Web service.

TOOLS

There are only a handful of tools available for working with NewsML
feeds and documents. You can obtain sample documents and feeds from 
various sources, including Reuters and Dow Jones. SourceForge.net hosts
the NewsML Toolkit--a Java-based set of tools.
http://newsml-toolkit.sourceforge.net/

There are also a variety of sites that have additional information about
NewsML, including specifications, DTDs, and other documentation. The
IPTC site is a good starting place for this information.
http://www.iptc.org/

Brian Schaffner is a senior consultant for Fujitsu Consulting. He
provides architecture, design, and development support for Fujitsu's 
Telcom360 group.

----------------------------------------