XML Tool from Stylus Supports System i

Published: January 29, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Stylus Studio recently announced a new release of its suite of tools for working with XML, XQuery, Web services, and XML technologies. The latest release, Stylus Studio 2008 XML Enterprise Suite, features improved support for heterogeneous environments. And one System i shop as already found the tools worthwhile.

Stylus Studio 2008 is a suite of software that provides developers with a plethora of tools for doing all kinds of stuff with XML. Did we say plethora? How about an embarrassing overabundance, per this list of more than 400 XML capabilities on the vendor's Web site. If it can be done in XML, it's likely supported by Stylus Studio 2008 Enterprise Edition.

The New England software company introduced its 2008 suite in mid-December. This release brought better interoperability for dissimilar systems (which, after all, is what XML is all about). Support for calling data as XML via XQuery from MySQL, PosgreSQL, and Informix databases joined support for the Big Three--Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2. Support or HL7 EDI joined the existing capabilities to convert data to and from EDIFACT, X12, IATA, and EANCOM.

A new HTML to XML document wizard was introduced that makes it easier to move existing Web content to the Web's burgeoning lingua franca (that's XML), while a new C# code generator made a happy little treat for .NET shops.

But it's not just the cutting edge Java and .NET developers that can benefit from the Stylus Studio. BP Lubricants USA, a division of the petroleum giant BP based in New Jersey and an i5/OS shop, found Stylus Studio 2008 very effective at supporting its new XML and EDI projects.

According to Michael Ala, e-commerce service line leader at BP Lubricants USA, Stylus Studio has proved worthwhile at creating XSL stylesheets and XML schemas for the display and mapping of our EDI transactions. "Our computing environment includes an IBM iSeries, and JDE OneWorld with an Oracle database," Ala says. "Now, we're using Stylus Studio to develop a system for inter-company transactions."

In a heterogeneous environment like BP's, Stylus pays dividends, Ala says. "Stylus Studio 2008 is ideal for these heterogeneous computing environments, enabling connectivity to our various data sources while simplifying data mapping from one file format to another through an intuitive, graphical user interface," he says.

Stylus Studio 2008 XML Enterprise Suite is available now. Pricing ranges from $99 for a single user license for the home edition to $595 for the enterprise suite. For more information, visit www.stylusstudio.com.

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