Microsoft's XML motives questioned

REDMOND, WASH. - Microsoft's decision to develop prestandard XML products could result in the company's customers and software partners having to rewrite applications once a key XML standard firms up.

At issue is Microsoft's release of an XML tool kit and an alpha version of BizTalk Server, a repository for storing XML documents meant to be exchanged among trading partners. The software is getting into customers' hands before the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) settles on a key draft standard for exchanging XML documents.

Supporters say these early products further the cause of XML, a data formatting technology expected to play a critical role in electronic commerce. XML proponents say it's far easier for computer applications to capture, process or accomplish data conversions of business data based on the format-neutral XML than it is with HTML or electronic data interchange.

But trading partners have to agree on details about how XML documents are designed and written in order for the technology to be really useful in online commerce. Critics claim Microsoft is pre-empting W3C standards work on what's called XML Schema, which is still a work in progress.

Microsoft's BizTalk Jumpstart Kit for creating XML business documents uses what Microsoft calls the XML Data-Reduced (XDR) Schema as the underlying construct for designing purchase orders, shipping notices and the like. Critics charge Microsoft has jumped the standards gun in order to direct XML along a Microsoft-specific path.

"Microsoft is out of compliance with the W3C," claims Scott Hebner, an IBM program director. "This defeats the purpose of having a business-to-business server [such as BizTalk]."

"Microsoft's problem is its traditional problem - its proprietary approach to everything," says John Magee, an Oracle marketing executive. "BizTalk is based on Microsoft [Common Object Model] components - it's very platform-specific."

Even Microsoft partners say the company's strategy could cause customers some grief.

Bowstreet last week shipped an XML server called Web Automation Factory that is based on XDR Schema. Bowstreet program manager Todd Hay acknowledges that if a developer writes an XML application based on BizTalk, he's going to have to rewrite the application, or at least part of it, to conform to the W3C standard.

Anticipating the need to adapt to changes in XML, Bowstreet's server makes use of what Hay calls a template, which can convert data from one vendor's version of XML Schema to another, if needed. "You can't force all your channel partners to switch over to the vendor of your choice," Hay says.

Some software developers say Microsoft is putting pressure on them to do XML the Microsoft way. "Microsoft is saying you must use the BizTalk product environment, so this is our direction," says Kian Saneii, a marketing executive at IPNet Solutions, which makes software for converting Web data into EDI.

Microsoft acknowledges its XML approach has pre-empted some W3C standards work. But Chris Olsen, group product manager for BizTalk, says Microsoft will provide a migration path for XDR Schema to the W3C's XML Schema in the future.