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The module your CMS vendor left out …

XMLProbe Content Control Server (CCS) is an excellent way to spread rigorous XML validation to your enterprise, making validation available as a service that may be used by any networked systems, inside or beyond your own organisation.

Sample applications include:

• As a validation service for integration into editorial environments, so content experts can get feedback on their content
• As part of a “gatekeeper server” system whereby incoming data is screened for correctness before being accepted into your systems (or being sent to customers)
• As an integrated component for a CMS which may use XMLProbe for QA of XML content as a check for content at each stage of a workflow

Neutral Technology

XMLProbe Content Control Server works as a standalone web application (typically installed on its own – real or virtual – server) that may be readily accessed by other applications within your enterprise. Because it is built around robust standards of HTTP (for network communication) and XML (for messaging), it is a completely platform neutral, and highly adaptable to many different kinds of software and hardware environments. All that is required of the server is that it can run a Java Servlet container, such as the popular Tomcat (free and open source) server, available for use on Windows, Solaris, Linux, OS/X and other operating systems.

Key Features

XMLProbe Content Control Server brings all the proven validation functionality of XMLProbe, but exposes it as a network service (sometimes called a "web service", "software as a service (SAAS)", or even a "cloud") and adds a package of useful supporting functionality to enable it to encompass most validation scenarios “out of the box” – just add rules! Key features include:

• The proven core of XMLProbe’s rule-based validation engine
• The ability to handle single XML documents or packages (ZIPs) of content
• Support for multiple rule sets to operate on multiple different types of content
• Support for queueing and balancing validation loads
• A switchboard mechanism to choose the correct validation rules according to what is submitted, and by whom
• Flexible entity resolution
• An at-a-glance dashboard view of server activity
• Support for ftp, direct HTTP (REST) network exchanges, and watched folders
• Total platform agnosticism through being based entirely on J2EE technology
• Liberal, publisher-friendly, licensing to allow exposure of your validation services to third parties

In Depth

Rules-based validation — using its core XMLProbe functionality, XMLProbe content control server brings the full power and flexibility of declarative XML-based rule sets to your enterprise computing environment. At its core it is still a validator that accepts content and returns validation reports, but this functionality is now taking place over a network rather than locally on a single machine.

ZIP handling — increasingly XML content is packaged and transacted in ZIP packages, and ZIP archives are used as the basic unit of business content. XMLProbe Content Control Server fully understands ZIP packages (in all their varieties) and can validate the XML content within, even returning zipped validation reports if required.

Multiple rule sets — as XML continues to spread throughout the enterprise it is likely that different schemas and rule sets are needed for different types of XML content. XMLProbe Content Control Server can expand to support the validation of many different content types from a single installation.

Load Management — as XML usage increases, the server load needs to be managed as XML validation is a CPU- and memory-intensive activity. XMLProbe Content Control Server supports both managed and unmanaged validation, with support for queued validation jobs using an asynchronus HTTP-based mechanism.

Switchboarding — when content arrives at a server, it needs to have the right rules applied. XMLProbe Content Control Server uses an rule-based XML file to match documents to rule sets based on XPath queries on their content.

Entity Resolution — XML content prepared in one environment may not survive translation to other environments (for example, it is common practice to develop content against a local copy of a DTD which is not "there" when the document is sent to a recipient). XMLProbe Content Control Server allows entity resolution to be declared using simple XML documents, to ensure your content is validated exactly to your requirements.

Dashboard — want to see what's happening. XMLProbe Content Control Server can be monitored with its at-a-glance web based dashboard.

Watched folders — XMLProbe Content Control Server has robust support for watched folders (even ones into which files are being ftp'd) for integration into environments where this is a preferred mechanism for moving content around.