Electronic Publications with Infonyte DB

XML consists a perfect basis of the creation and deployment of electronic information goods like dictionaries, reference books, manuals, and product catalogs. For the deployment of such products powerful browsing tools with search functionality are required. Depending on the type and size of the content different solutions are in use today. These are standard HTML browsers or PDF viewers that access a collection of static files in the filesystem or, alternatively, proprietary browsing tools maintaining content in an internal format and offering predefined search functionality. Solutions based on web browsers suffer from insufficient search facilities. Proprietary solutions are service demanding in the production process, complex to maintain, and expensive.

Reading tools that fully exploit the capabilities of XML technology have failed in the past to manage large XML data volumes at a reasonable performance. The processing of an 8 MB XML document usually results in the 10-20fold consumption of main memory. To bear down this limitation, Infonyte uses a new technology for XML processing, which has been initially developed at the Fraunhofer research institute IPSI in Darmstadt, and which is further developed and deployed by the spin off Infonyte. Heart of the Infonyte XML technology is a native binary format for efficient storage of XML data. With this format it is possible to search and present large XML document collections without memory limitations.

The Infonyte Reader offers for the first time a completely XML based reading and browsing environment that simplifies the creation of electronic publications dramatically. The Infonyte Reader is a configurable, graphical user interface for searching, browsing and viewing XML data. The creation of an Infonyte Reader publication only requires a declarative description of interface elements like query forms, navigation lists, results lists as well as their linkage to the underlying XML data. The XML data can be provided in any format; it is in most cases available at some stage of the editorial process. This ensures proximity to the original data which simplifies the whole production process since it avoids error prone and complex format conversions. Due to the fact that the Infonyte Reader can directly work on the original XML data, also maintenance is simplified significantly due to the single source advantage. The application logic of an Infonyte Reader publication is exclusively specified in the Infonyte Reader XML format. Additionally, standard compliant XML transformations and XML queries feed the presentation elements which can also be used to run a parallel web site.

The Infonyte Reader does not only provide advantages in the production process but also for the deployment of electronic publications. The internal XML technology comes with a very small footprint, i.e., it consumes less than 2MB on a CD-ROM.

For content presentation a variety of formats (HTML, PDF; SVG, WML) are supported that can also be combined within an Infonyte Reader application. By using XML specific index structures very efficient retrieval (fulltext, word index, data index) can be realized. The design of the graphical user interface can be tailored to the needs of different user groups just by adapting the Infonyte Reader specification. Powerful GUI elements for query forms, result lists, tree views as well content presentation in HTML, SVG, and PDF are available. These elements can be used without external programming but just by linkage with the underlying XML-storage through XSL transformations. The seamless realization of the Infonyte Reader with platform independent Java technology allows for the deployment of Infonyte Reader products on all Java-enabled platforms.

The Infonyte Reader technology enables fast and cost-efficient development of powerful and individualized browsing systems working with arbitrary XML data. It is already in use for a variety of application scenarios:

• Technical documentation: in the area of maintenance documentation, browsing systems with powerful search capabilities need to be prepared for different user groups. With the Infonyte Reader it is possible to realize the reading environment directly on the source data. This data is transformed and presented to the user in HTML or SVG format in realtime. By exploiting the structural information of the source data very efficient search functions can be realized which exploit internal indices on part numbers or operational instructions. World leaders in aviation realize their technical documentation systems on the base of Infonyte Reader technology.
• Product catalogs: structured collections of information like product or part catalogs are usually created and distributed electronically to ensure accessibility by sales partners, and customers. The data is often maintained in relational systems. However, the distribution of a fully fledged relational database with each CD-ROM is not practicable due to the induced costs and size of the systems. If the data are available as XML, a powerful electronic catalog including keyword search, figure descriptions and category-based search hierarchies can be created with minimal effort, i.e., comfortable tree oriented navigation functions can ensure optimal orientation within the catalog. With the Infonyte Reader, the process of realizing such systems is simplified dramatically since the seamless XML architecture avoids the handling and support of proprietary formats and tools. With this, production and distribution costs of the software are reduced whereas the functionality increases at the same time.
• Linkage of information assets: in many situations data sets are subject to publishing that do not exist in an interrelated form yet. A typical example is an English thesaurus that shall be linked with a dictionary, or a city guide that shall be combined with local travel information. As soon as all sources are available as XML data, these can be combined with the Infonyte Reader technology in a dynamic way. The combination of the information happens in realtime during the query processing such that a time consuming conversion of sources in a common format is avoided.

Contact: info@infonyte.com