Object Design launches XML server

New offering is based on Object Design's established object database.

By John Cox
Network World, 11/23/98

Burlington, Mass. - Object Design, Inc. last week introduced server software designed to make it simpler to move, share and manipulate data over the World Wide Web.

The new software, called eXcelon is essentially a database for documents formatted using the Extensible Markup Language (XML), an emerging Web standard.

XML, among other things, provides a standard way to present in document form data, such as sales figures, customer information and orders. Today for the most part, Web users can only view this data, which actually is presented to them as text in HTML documents. Users can't easily pull that data out, use it in local spreadsheets or analysis programs, and then share these results with others. Similarly, sharing data between server applications and platforms is a cumbersome, time-consuming process.

XML simplifies all this by providing a common format that users and developers can employ to store data in documents. These XML documents can then be accessed, and the data manipulated, by any tool or application that makes XML requests.

EXcelon, now in limited beta testing, is a data manager for large numbers of XML documents. In the future, users will be able to generate XML documents from spreadsheets or other programs and store these directly in eXcelon. Or, using third-party tools or OLE DB calls, administrators will be able to shift big chunks of data to eXcelon servers from relational database servers. Object Design's new software is based on the company's existing object database technology, which stores the documents, manages the data and monitors even the most complex interrelationships among the data.

According to one systems integrator, XML and eXcelon will probably have the biggest impact in business-to-business applications where companies want to share data, as in today's electronic data interchange (EDI) systems. "It's a way of sending data back and forth [easily] between companies," says Joe Hildebrand, senior architect of research and development at Interlink Group, Inc., in Denver. EXcelon should help companies do away with the need for cumbersome file transfers or parsers used to translate between different data formats, Hildebrand says.

Instead, a car manufacturer could store order or parts information in XML on eXcelon, which suppliers could then access via an extranet connection and feed the data into their own enterprise resource planning and manufacturing apps.

Object Design will begin a broad beta test of its software around year-end and plans its general release of eXcelon by April 1999. The software will run on Windows NT Server first and later on Solaris and other Unix systems. Pricing has not been decided.

ODI: (781) 674-5300