LIS 600 Independent Study
Transforming XML to Microsoft XML
Terry Brooks
Winter 2006

1. Abstract/General Description:

As more organizations move to using XML to interact with their databases, an understanding of how this works is important for anyone wanting to work in data architecture. The purpose of this project is to study the re-usability of information by styling multiple Office Suite applications from a single XML document. The goal is to demonstrate that information can be single-sourced. The demonstration for this independent study will be done using the Microsoft Office Suite.

Microsoft recently announced they will be open-sourcing their now-proprietary Microsoft XML format, opening up the XML field further and possibly increasing its usage dramatically. If it is possible to create transformative style sheets to take information in the Microsoft XML format and display it in any Microsoft application, many file format issues disappear. Working with the data of others is simplified. Rather than cutting and pasting information between applications, a user can simply apply a style sheet and display the information in the preferred application. Data formatting (fonts, colors) can be standardized across organizations. Organizations working with specialized information can create custom tags to mark up and organize their information. An example of this is a corporate finance department using XML to format their quarterly earnings statement, making it substantially easier for a financial analyst to easily analyze the data.

The project will have two phases. First, I will take a plain XML document and transform it using style sheets into a Microsoft XML document. Second, I will take this resulting Microsoft XML document and use a set of style sheets to allow it to be viewed using Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. These programs become primarily presentation devices rather than document creation applications.

 

2. Learning Objectives:

Through this Independent Study, I will learn how to design and style multiple Office application documents from a single XML in order to demonstrate single-sourcing and multiple re-use of information. I will also learn how organizations use XML to interact with their data and how single-sourcing can improve knowledge management.

 

3. Textbooks and/or Resources Required
• Office 2003 XML by Evan Lenz, Mary McRae & Simon St. Laurent
• Microsoft's MSDN

 

4. Activities
• Research Microsoft XML format and transformation style sheets (XSLT)
• Research how XML is being used by organizations to interact with their databases and ways in which the single-sourcing of information can improve knowledge management.
• Build XML and necessary style sheets to create multiple Office application documents

 

5. Expected Outcomes/Project Deliverables

I will create a demonstration project web page, with documentation and working examples. This web page will contain instructions at the "new user" level for building the original XML document, building the style sheet to transform from XML to Microsoft XML and how to apply that style sheet. It will also contain instructions on how to build and apply the style sheets to transform the Microsoft XML document for viewing in Microsoft applications. The user will be able to recreate this project, from start to finish, by following the instructions on the web page.

 

6. Evaluation/Assessment Methods

Demonstration to faculty supervisor at the end of the quarter.