XML-X

Welcome to the XML-X project...

Summary Status

• PHP and Java packages delivered and cross-tested,

• demo website driving a demo backend available,

• Full XML-X server that integrates with Ricardo is now available.

• koalagold.com and Pecunix.com operate servers.

• First merchant has implemented Pecunix' variation.

The name XML-X was an early code name that stuck.

Doco

• A Slide Show for presentations. Feel free to use this. It has been aired at:

  1. Sun's Java 1 conference, June 2003.

• This Busy Developer's Guide to XML-X shows the Merchant's request for a spend transaction. It is the best starting point.

• Once you've read the BDG, there are these three Introductions to the Format:

  1. Core Transfer Requests
  2. (Optional) Session Management Requests
  3. (Optional) User Management Requests

  These are examples-based documents, and do not define the requests completely.

• Managerial and executive documentation:

  1. XML-X Advantages

• Developer notes and more detailed notes on certain issues:

  1. The Time base for XML-X is not the usual.
  2. Amounts are also strongly defined.
  3. Error Codes in the <ErrorResponse> tag and other standard Tag Names as Constants in each language.
  4. A page documenting the Conformance and Testing strategies that new languages would need to consider to establish compatibility.
  5. Implementation Notes is a catchall document listing the issues and details found in porting and authoring an XML-X package.
  6. Status of implementations of various language packages.

• More formal project lifecycle docs:

  1. A start at a Requirements.
  2. The (working draft) Schema (download only???).
  3. The (working draft) Schema in Browse Form (page is 200k large).

• For a view of the Big Picture, read Iang's Rant on XML-X.

• Pecunix's implementation document, called PXI. Also see Developer Info Page which has it in PDF.

• XML-X is a protocol that implements (approximately) the Rights and Accounting layers (3, 4) of financial cryptography's 7 layer stack. For more lighter reading, check out the FC Blog.

Resources

Source

See the Languages Page.

Demos

• KoalaGold - uses the full capabilities of XML-X to interface a website to a backend.

• WebFunds source distribution includes a working XML-X server called the PumpHouse (currently in use by Koalagold).

List

In order contribute, join the xml-api implementors' mailing list. Then, emails sent to xml-api@willmer.com will reach all the interested parties.

Participants

• OPN has implemented a 'Revolution' interface to drive pumphouse through XML-X. It took about a day to get the first payments happening! They are also planning to organise modules to integrate into TikiWiki and other like PHP CMS's.
• Nesfield Capital is investigating XML-X for financial instrument trading, as well as running its customer accounts.
• Koalagold, uses the XML-X in both Java and PHP to couple its website to its backend.
• Pecunix, has implemented a version called PXI.
• Intertrader, supplier of CashBox, which drives payment systems for merchant purposes.
• Erwin van der Koogh, now with West, BV, and formerly with Sun's XML group, and author in Sun's XML digsig and crypto code..
• Systemics, supplier of the Ricardo payment system.
• WebFunds open source group, and coders for the WebFunds client and the SOX protocol, the only available "wallet" program for digital cash.
• Interesting Software games coding, special projects, investments in cool ideas.
• 1mdc operator of a layered gold-based money system.
• Neubia is Pelle Braendgaard's project on executable contracts. He is looking at carrying XML-X over SOAP.

In no particular order.

Other Related Work

• XML-X is half the answer to the automated retailer's needs - the ability to drive payment systems directly. The other half is the shopping cart. For that, look at osCommerce.
• Erwin's slides cover another XML project, the potential conversion of the Ricardian Contract to XML format.
• GoldMoney's XML payment interface was the first attempt to do payments in XML.
• The design of SOX had a large influence on XML-X. Development of an Open and Flexible Payment System.
• As did the concepts and principles of within the polymath discipline of Financial Cryptography, which is broken up as Financial Cryptography in 7 Layers.
• The Cashbox architecture is that which sparked the need for XML-X. Cashbox was a system that seamlessly integrated Mondex, e-gold and Ricardo into one API.