Articles and Papers
DeltaXML researchers and developers provide technical leadership for the XML community on change control by presenting and publishing their work at conferences.
The following articles and papers have been made available by their respective publishers:
Underpinning Efficiency and Compliance in Capital Markets with Scribestar
DeltaXML Case Study - July 2019
By using DeltaXML's DITA Compare solution, Scribestar were able to create an intensive platform that helps those in the legal profession process and review large and complex documents.
Helping Wrycan reduce NFPA’s publishing costs and create new digital products
DeltaXML Case Study – June 2018
With the help from DeltaXML’s XML Compare toolkit, Wrycan delivered a solution which integrated XML Compare with their Content Base product. This allows NFPA to manage all their content in a single repository, adding automated comparisons in a product-agnostic form.
Flawless XML Change Management
Industry paper - November 2017
A new best practice within the top business markets. This paper illustrates why in today’s economy you must oversee your document and data file management and change systems to continue the success of your company.
Semcon saves up to 50% of the time required to validate revised documents with DeltaXML
DeltaXML Case Study – March 2017
The ability to consistently identify updates and mirror changes in existing information carries added significance when working with Semcon where new product introductions are accompanied with tight deadlines. DeltaXML’s unique ability to compare structured documents with accuracy becomes a necessity in the workplace.
Representing Overlapping Hierarchy as Change in XML
Balisage Conference - August 2016
This paper describes a new representation for overlapping hierarchy in XML. In addition to handling variants of the structure of an XML document, this representation handles changes to text and attributes.
Branch and Merge: A content manager's dream, or a tech writer's nightmare?
tcworld Conference - November 2015
Branch and merge may be a software developer’s dream, but using this technique with structured documents can turn into a nightmare. The merge process is so often a manual one: cut and paste and get frustrated. Can structured XML merge turn the nightmare back into a dream?
Divide and Conquer: Can we handle complex markup simply?
Balisage Conference - August 2015
This paper describes how a divide-and-conquer approach might be used to handle the complex markup structure that results from recording multiple variants of an historical document in a single XML document.
Intelligent Diff for XML
DeltaXML Whitepaper - November 2014
DeltaXML offers the only truly comprehensive solution for managing change in XML environments, empowering businesses and organisations not just to record change but to use change as a powerful and valuable asset.
XML for Publishers
DeltaXML Whitepaper - November 2014
This white paper has shows how change, when harnessed and managed, can add real value to a publishing business. The widespread use of XML structured documentation systems, and the deployment of XML-aware change management tools like DeltaXML, has made it possible to bring all of the advantages of structured information to the publishing of change in that same information.
Standard Change Tracking for XML
Balisage Conference - August 2014
This paper explores the advantages of using a generic approach to representing tracked changes in XML and the benefits to having a standard XML solution. Refers to work done for OpenDocument (ODF) standards and W3C ‘Change’ Community Group.
Mapping out a DITA Map Comparator
CIDM Best Practices Newsletter - June 2014
This paper discusses different approaches to consider when comparing DITA Maps for publication. It was published in Best Practices June 2014, Volume 16, Issue 3, a publication of The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
Optimizing XML for Comparison and Change
XML London - June 2013
This paper discusses different aspects of XML grammar design that should be considered when document comparison is a requirement. Presented at XML London 2013, June 15-16th, 2013.
Representing Change Tracking in XML Markup
XML Prague - February 2013
This paper introduces a proposal of a standard mechanism for representing tracked changes in XML. It was presented at XML Prague 2013, Feb 9-10 2013.
XML Change Tracking
DeltaXML Technical Paper - August 2012
This technical paper was written in response to the wider interest in the proposal for OpenDocument change tracking. It focuses on the use for general XML change tracking.
Representing Changes in Open Document Format
Submission to OASIS ODF Technical Committee - July 2010
This paper describes a change tracking format developed for OpenDocument. The work for this was sponsored by NLnet. Paper (fourth draft): Associated documentation, code and test data is also available: DeltaXML-TC4.tar.gz (5.1MB).
Approaches to Change tracking in XML
XML Prague - March 2010
This paper is an introduction to tracking change in XML documents and data. Presented at XML Prague 2010, held March 13th and 14th, 2010, Prague, Czech Republic.
XML Pipeline Performance
XML Prague - March 2010
This paper describes advanced methods for optimizing XML pipeline performance. Presented at XML Prague 2010, held March 13th and 14th, 2010, Prague, Czech Republic
(Please note that the performance figures presented predate the Saxon 9.3 release which addresses some of the issues discussed).
Document Management: Why the format of office documents matters to your business
Intellect (now techUK) Document Management Group - February 2009
The importance of ‘standard’ document formats is growing. This paper seeks to raise awareness of the development and increased use of new open document formats, and the implications these can have for businesses.
A Generalized Grammar for Three-way XML Synchronization
XML 2005 - November 2005
This paper proposes a general synchronization grammar which can describe synchronization rule sets. Presented at XML 2005, held November 14-18, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Powering Pipelines with JAXP
XML 2004 - November 2004
This paper presents classification schemes, diagrams and tables which try to explain the pipeline construction process. Presented at XML 2004, held November 15-19, 2004, Washington, D.C., USA.
Conflict Resolution in XML - Forms For All
XML 2004 - November 2004
This paper looks at the use of XML forms of various types to reduce the drudgery involved and to take advantage some of the greatest strengths of XML, using pipelining and easily-understood representations to allow a decision-maker to work with minimal drag. Presented at XML 2004, held November 15-19, 2004, Washington, D.C., USA.
This paper is no longer available.
Beyond Babel - Simplifying Translation with XML
XML Europe - April 2004
Russian Dolls and XML: Handling Multiple Versions of XML in XML
XML 2003 - December 2003
This paper looks at the requirements and proposes a format for storing multiple XML documents within a single XML archive document, XML 2003, Dec, 2003, USA.
Change Control for XML: Do It Right
XML Europe - September 2003
This paper provides a general introduction to change management in XML. Presented at XML Europe 2003 in the vendor stream.
Merging XML files: a new approach providing intelligent merge of XML data sets
XML Europe - May 2002
This paper describes both 2-way merging of XML files and 3-way merging when two files that are variations of a single base file need to be merged, Presented at XML Europe 2002, Barcelona, May 2002.
A Delta Format for XML: Identifying Changes in XML Files and Representing the Changes in XML
XML Europe - May 2001
This paper goes into some of the background to DeltaXML and the general requirements that it addresses Presented at XML Europe 2001, Berlin, May 2001. Please note: DeltaXML has moved forward since this paper so it should be read as background material only.
Other Material
The following papers and book chapters also contain information relevant to DeltaXML technology:
The XML Handbook
Charles F. Goldfarb, Paul Prescod, Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN: 0130497657. Chapter 33
A Comparative Study for XML Change Detection
Verso report number 221, INRIA, 2002 (updated 2004), Grégory Cobéna, Talel Abdessalem and Yassine Hinnach
A comparative study of the performance (speed and result quality) of DeltaXML, XYDiff and a number of other competing tools.