The i-Technology Media!
Register | Log in
   
 
.NET  ·  AJAX  ·  CLOUD  ·  ECLIPSE  ·  FLEX  ·  OPEN WEB  ·  iPHONE  ·  JAVA  ·  LINUX  ·  OPEN SOURCE  ·  ORACLE  ·  PBDJ  ·  SEARCH  ·  SILVERLIGHT  ·  SOA  ·  VIRTUALIZATION  ·  WEB 2.0  ·  WIRELESS  ·  XML
Comments
Google Wave Invitation Giveaway
By Aditya Banerjee
Timo Hirvonen wrote: I would really appreciate an invitation. Been desperately trying to find one :) timo [dot] hirvonen [at] gmail [dot]com
Nov. 27, 2009 11:13 AM EST
Cloud Expo on Google News
Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?


2009 East
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
IBM
Smarter Business Solutions Through Dynamic Infrastructure
IBM
Smarter Insights: How the CIO Becomes a Hero Again
Microsoft
Windows Azure
GOLD SPONSORS:
Appsense
Why VDI?
CA
Maximizing the Business Value of Virtualization in Enterprise and Cloud Computing Environments
ExactTarget
Messaging in the Cloud - Email, SMS and Voice
Freedom OSS
Stairway to the Cloud
Sun
Sun's Incubation Platform: Helping Startups Serve the Enterprise
POWER PANELS:
Cloud Computing & Enterprise IT: Cost & Operational Benefits
How and Why is a Flexible IT Infrastructure the Key To the Future?
Click For 2008 West
Event Webcasts

2009 East
GOLD SPONSORS:
CA
Get Your Transactions Under Control: SOA Performance Management
Software AG
Performance Driven Adoption: The Secret to Advancing SOA
Intel
The Evolving SOA Appliance: 3 Game-Changing Innovations
SILVER SPONSOR:
Denodo
Data Mashups: Deliver Your Project Faster with Virtualized Data Services Across Internal & External Sources
POWER PANELS:
The Business Value of Service Orientation
Driving Profitability Through User Experience
Click For 2008 West
Event Webcasts
Live Google News by SYS-CON!
Top Three Links You Must Click On


Business Intelligence
SOA with Document-Centric XML Processing
This article introduces the concept of document-centric XML processing and a set of emerging document-centric capabilities

By: Jimmy Zhang
Sep. 14, 2008 11:00 PM
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • next ›
  • last »

This article introduces the concept of document-centric XML processing and a set of emerging document-centric capabilities such as cutting, splitting, and splicing documents at the byte level. It also explains how it solves one of the most fundamental technical issues hampering enterprise SOA and XML application development: the redundant serialization and de-serialization of object-oriented XML processing models such as DOM.

Public Enemy #1: DOM's Problem of Modifying XML
If a DOM-based application modifies a particular text node of an XML document, the following steps are needed to accomplish that:

  1. Decode characters
  2. Create string objects by taking apart the input document
  3. Allocate node objects to build the DOM tree
  4. Navigate to the text node (manually or by XPath)
  5. Attach a new text node
  6. Encode characters
  7. Byte concatenation
  8. Garbage collecting node and string objects

If you focus on the objective, I think many readers will realize that the process outlined above doesn't really make sense. It is, in fact, absurd. DOM processing incurs at least the following three round-trip overheads in those steps:

  • Every time a character is decoded, it eventually needs to be encoded again.
  • Every time a document is taken apart of any change, it needs to be put back together (by concatenation).
  • Every time an object (e.g., strings, nodes, etc.) is allocated, it will eventually go out of scope and be garbage collected.

Because those round-trips pretty much restore the document to the original state, they are nothing but a waste of CPU cycles and memory. Notice that modifying a text node can be done far more efficiently by humans using a text editor. To edit a text node, just open the document with NotePad, move the cursor to the text node, make the change in-place, and save it. This time, the update is "incremental," meaning it does not touch irrelevant parts of the document. If we, humans, can edit XML like this, why can't XML parsers?

To me, the answer to this question reveals some of the deep-rooted technical problems in software development today. Below are some of my observations on this topic:

  • It significantly impacts your application performance: When applications process XML in a read-only fashion, the base-line performance is decided by XML parsing. If applications both read and write XML data, the base-line performance is typically cut in half (as serialization and de-serialization are equal in performance).
  • It is a common, but deep, problem: Have you wondered, given that XML is ubiquitous, why nobody seems to be complaining? One way to look at this is since this is the way things have always been, everyone seems to get used to it. To make matters worse, solutions don't exist to make the problem look obvious. We end up with a ubiquitous issue that is surprisingly non-obvious and from which there is almost no escape.
  • Hidden from OO perspective: If you live in a pure OO world, the redundant de-serialization/serialization process - the textbook approach of XML processing - is very much the right thing to do. This problem is again hidden.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • next ›
  • last »
Published Sep. 14, 2008— Reads 3,466
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
About Jimmy Zhang
Jimmy Zhang is a cofounder of XimpleWare, a provider of high performance XML processing solutions. He has working experience in the fields of electronic design automation and Voice over IP for a number of Silicon Valley high-tech companies. He holds both a BS and MS from the department of EECS from U.C. Berkeley.

Add Your Feedback

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

Register | Sign-in

Reader Feedback: Page 1 of 1

Subscribe to the World's Most Powerful Newsletters
Subscribe to Our Rss Feeds & Get Your SYS-CON News Live!
Click to Add our RSS Feeds to the Service of Your Choice:
Google Reader or Homepage Add to My Yahoo! Subscribe with Bloglines Subscribe in NewsGator Online
myFeedster Add to My AOL Subscribe in Rojo Add 'Hugg' to Newsburst from CNET News.com Kinja Digest View Additional SYS-CON Feeds
Publish Your Article! Please send it to editorial(at)sys-con.com!

Advertise on this site! Contact advertising(at)sys-con.com! 201 802-3021

SYS-CON Featured Whitepapers

ADS BY GOOGLE

Breaking Java News
Killdeer Minerals Announces Financing With MineralFields Group
West Street Announces Third Quarter Results
Homeland Uranium Inc. Reprices Options
South American Silver Corp. Completes $2.78 Million Financing
Stone Resources Limited Announces Resignation of Directors
L.A.'s West 3rd Street to Launch Public Valet Service Tomorrow
Lorus Therapeutics Raises $2.46 Million in Equity Financing
Cagim Announces Increase in Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2009
Chai-Na-Ta Corp. Reports 2009 Third Quarter Results

ADVERTISE   |   MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   FREE BREAKING-NEWSLETTERS!   |   SYS-CON.TV   |   BLOG-N-PLAY!   |   WEBCAST   |   EDUCATION   |   RESEARCH

.NET Developer's Journal - .NETDJ   |   ColdFusion Developer's Journal - CFDJ   |   Eclipse Developer's Journal - EDJ   |   Enterprise Open Source Magazine - EOS
Open Web Developer's Journal - OPENWEB   |   iPhone Developer's Journal - iPHONE   |   Virtualization - Virtualization   |   Java Developer's Journal - JDJ   |   Linux.SYS-CON.com
PowerBuilder Developer's Journal - PBDJ   |   SEO / SEM Journal - SJ   |   SOAWorld Magazine - SOAWM   |   IT Solutions Guide - ITSG   |   Symbian Developer's Journal - SDJ
WebLogic Developer's Journal - WLDJ   |   WebSphere Journal - WJ   |   Wireless Business & Technology - WBT   |   XML-Journal - XMLJ   |   Internet Video - iTV
Flex Developer's Journal - Flex   |   AJAXWorld Magazine - AWM   |   Silverlight Developer's Journal - SLDJ   |   PHP.SYS-CON.com   |   Web 2.0 Journal - WEB2
Apache   |   CMS   |   CRM   |   HP   |   Oracle Journal   |   Perl   |   Python   |   Red Hat   |   Ruby on Rails   |   SAP   |   SaaS

SYS-CON MEDIA:   ABOUT US   |   CONTACT US   |   COMPANY NEWS   |   CAREERS   |   SITE MAP
SYS-CON EVENTS:   |  AJAXWorld Conference & Expo  |  iPhone Developer Summit  |  Cloud Computing Conference & Expo  |  SOA World Conference & Expo  |  Virtualization Conference & Expo
INTERNATIONAL SITES:   India  |  U.K.  |  Canada  |  Germany  |  France  |  Australia  |  Italy  |  Spain  |  Netherlands  |  Brazil  |  Belgium
 Terms of Use & Our Privacy Statement     About Newsfeeds / Video Feeds
Copyright ©1994-2008 SYS-CON Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All marks are trademarks of SYS-CON Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of SYS-CON Publications, Inc. is prohibited.
 
close this window