Content Structure

Broadening the power of XML: a business opportunity

Until recently XML content management solutions have been applied to complex, highly-structured, standards-based documents demanding constant updating and republication. Because XML editing tools require training and an understanding of document structures and mark-up, XML deployments have been limited to those environments where the workflow changes and learning curve were offset by large production benefits.

Now XML capabilities are increasingly found in word processing programs such as Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition, as well as in open-source offerings. In addition, there has been increasing interest in a forms-based approach for capturing content in XML mark-up, using the form to mask mark-up details from the end user (Microsoft InfoPath, Adobe Forms Designer 6.0). SDL Structured Content Technologies provides packaged solutions for word processing suites and forms interfaces, which can reduce the visibility of XML on the content creators and authors, while leveraging XML “under the hood” in support of content reuse, sharing and dynamic assembly. This approach brings the power and ROI of XML to users whose documents are fairly simple or only moderately structured, and who have resisted XML-based approaches in the past. This “covert” approach to structuring content allows the user to continue to work with familiar applications, while providing IT with the structure and consistency required for automation across the enterprise.

A significant amount of content still falls within the unstructured domain: e-mails, presentations, and letters, for example. For the most part, there is not sufficient justification to impose the use of XML for this unstructured content as it is unlikely to benefit from reuse and repurpose. Nevertheless, SDL Structured Content Technologies CCM Solutions can store unstructured documentation in its native format, making it easier to locate and retrieve the information through the same interface used for structured content.

Between highly structured content and totally unstructured content there is a huge amount of moderately structured content that has been largely neglected from an XML or automation perspective. In the pyramid above illustrating the structure of enterprise content, XML and XML specialized tools have had the most success at the tip where content and publication complexity is the highest. Moving down the pyramid, complexity decreases as content becomes less structured. As complexity decreases, the audience significantly increases, so there is a real business opportunity to broaden the benefits of XML provided that you can leverage tools and interfaces that content creators will embrace.