1	Generating Configuration Files: The Director’s Cut Jon Finke Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2	New (old) Way File format logic stored in DB Changes made centrally Generic file extraction program No changes after installation Platform independence Code sharing with web applications PL/SQL programs are shorter Faster to write
3	New (old) Model
4	(old) Conclusions Cuts development time Standard development environment Host interface written once Code sharing with web routines All work done centrally PL/SQL well integrated to Database Platform independence
5	(old) Futures GET from program PUT to program Boilerplate management Call file generation from Web Faster development for web pages Alternate Boilerplate testing More platforms
6	This works well, but…. Boiler plate approach too limited. Only applied to the web stuff anyway PL/SQL programmers needed presentation skills. PL/SQL programmers required for layout changes. Data extraction too closely coupled with data presentation.
7	XML to the Rescue eXtensible Markup Language Derived from SGML Resembles HTML Many Uses Document Preparation Business to Business Info Transfer Configuration Files
8	/etc/passwd data <pw_entry platform="BASE"> <username>ahoj</username> <unixuid>57458</unixuid> <gid>4000</gid> <gecos>Julie Erin Aho</gecos> <homedir>/home/58/ahoj</homedir> <shell>usr/bin/session</shell> <person_id>91319238</person_id> <user_type>Student</user_type> </pw_entry>
9	Along with XSL Transforms Selects and Transforms XML data into other formats. Many Options Built into Oracle Development Kits JAVA, Pearl, Python, C++ GUI Development Environments Web Server/Browser Support
10	XSL Transform <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:for-each select="/etc_passwd/pw_entry“[platform=“BASE” or platform=“AIX”]> <xsl:sort select="unixuid" order="ascending" /> <xsl:value-of select="username"/>:*: <xsl:value-of select="unixuid"/>: <xsl:value-of select="gid"/>: <xsl:value-of select="gecos"/>: <xsl:value-of select="homedir"/>: <xsl:value-of select="shell"/> </xsl:for-each> </xsl:template>
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12	Search for Validation <!DOCTYPE etc_passwd [ <!ELEMENT etc_passwd (pw_entry)*> <!ELEMENT pw_entry (username, unixuid, gid, gecos?, homedir?, shell?, person_id?, user_type)> <!ATTLIST pw_entry platform CDATA #REQUIRED> <!ELEMENT username (#PCDATA) > <!ELEMENT unixuid (#PCDATA) > <!ELEMENT gid (#PCDATA) > <!ELEMENT gecos (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT homedir (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT shell (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT person_id (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT user_type (#PCDATA) >
13	XML is Not Oracle Specific Vender Independent Data Format Transformable to desired formats via XSL Being used for configuration information JBoss Data Center Markup Language (DCML) Common Interface Model (CIM) IETF Network Configuration (netconf) Past LISA Papers
14	Futures Dynamic Web Page Generation Generate File Model Too Slow JBoss (Development Environment) Static Web Page Generation Online Documentation (PDF) Configuration Files DHCP Monitoring (Big Brother, etc)
15	Other Resources World Wide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org/ W3 Schools http://www.w3schools.com/ Oracle Technology Network http://otn.oracle.com/tech/xml/ Data Center Markup Language http://www.dcml.org
16	Conclusions Original approach works well XML enhancement makes it even better XML is worth learning If you have Oracle, use the XML support! I need to learn a lot more XML…
17	Generating Configuration Files: The Director’s Cut Jon Finke Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute finkej@rpi.edu http://www.rpi.edu/~finkej