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FUNCTIONALITY ALLOWS USERS TO TACKLE ALL PHASES OF THE IEPD LIFE CYCLE BY EDITING XML SCHEMAS IN XMLSPY, MAPPING AND TRANSFORMING DATA WITH MAPFORCE, DEVELOPING UML MODELS WITH UMODEL, AND MORE

BEVERLY, Mass., May 19, 2010 – Altova® ( http://www.altova.com ) creator of XMLSpy®, the industry leading XML editor today announced it has extended its support for working with the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), a XML-based framework for implementing information sharing exchanges. Support for NIEM in the recently announced XMLSpy 2010 Release 3 adds to the existing NIEM-ready functionality for XML Schema development, data integration, UML modeling, and managing XML Schemas provided in the MissionKit®, Altova’s integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools to give developers a powerful suite of tools for the creation of robust information sharing architectures.

“Because of its inherent flexibility, the NIEM framework touches on a wide variety of standards including XML, XML Schema, XSLT, Web services, even UML and RDF. The Altova MissionKit is the only software package on the market that addresses all of these technologies and more, providing tools that support the end-to-end conception, modeling, IEPD development, management, and execution of NIEM messages,” said Alexander Falk, President and CEO for Altova. “With the release of v2010r3 we’ve added NIEM functionality to XMLSpy with new support for extended XML schema validation to implement naming and design rules (NDR) and added functionality for user-defined example values in generated XML instances. This is all in addition to our existing NIEM support in the Altova MissionKit, making our XMLSpy, MapForce, UModel, and SchemaAgent tools invaluable resources for NIEM development.”

“As implementations of NIEM explode into new areas we are taking a hard look at reducing the barriers associated with its implementation,” said Donna Roy, NIEM Executive Director. “It is our job to make the process of using NIEM easier, while encouraging and promoting reusability. In addition to maintaining balance, this means tightening up the specification of the IEPD, and allowing vendors to create better tools to smooth out the process.”

Support for NIEM is available in the following tools, all of which are available in the Altova MissionKit:

• XMLSpy 2010 – The XMLSpy graphical XML Schema editor now includes an extended schema validation function that allows developers to validate a schema against naming and coding conventions outside the scope of the XML Schema standard, such as those in the NIEM NDR. The NDR (Naming and Design Rules) specifies how XML Schemas for a NIEM-conformant information exchange have to be constructed, and XMLSpy even ships with a set of extended validation rules that allow validation against it. In addition, XMLSpy 2010r3 enables developers to specify user-defined examples values for each element, attribute, or type in an XML Schema. XMLSpy will then use these user-defined example values to produce meaningful sample XML instance files for documentation and testing purposes. This is important during the development of an IEPD (Information Exchange Package Documentation) for a NIEM-conformant information exchange.
• MapForce® 2010 – Altova’s any-to-any data mapping and integration tool provides support for mapping and exchanging data, a crucial step at several levels in the NIEM development process. Mapping helps NIEM users generate a subset schema to determine the elements that can be used from the core and domain models. Additionally, MapForce can be used to perform a transform from one NIEM vocabulary to another. Some NIEM implementations also employ Web services to provide a mechanism for the exchange. MapForce supports all data formats used in the NIEM lifecycle including XML, databases, flat files, and Excel 2007+.
• UModel® 2010 – The UModel UML tool provides support for two different phases of NIEM development – scenario-based planning, and mapping and modeling. Scenario-based planning enables NIEM developers to model and document the IEPD development process utilizing use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, and business process modeling formats. For mapping and modeling, UModel supports the development of class diagrams for creating the exchange content model. UModel works seamlessly with XML technologies like XMI, allowing users to easily import and export XMI based on their UML diagrams. NIEM also provides a free tool for mapping data requirements based on an uploaded XMI representation of a UML model.
• SchemaAgent® 2010 – SchemaAgent, Altova’s unique XML-based file management tool provides support for visually managing XML Schema, XML, XSLT, and WSDL assets in a project-based environment. Because there are the many different schemas associated with each IEPD, it is important for NIEM developers to simplify the schema management process so that changes can be easily recognized, and SchemaAgent makes this easier.

More information about Altova’s solutions for working with the NIEM standard is available at: http://www.altova.com/solutions/niem-tools.html

To download a 30-day free trial of the Altova MissionKit, the software suite that includes all of the tools for working with NIEM described above, visit: http://www.altova.com/download.html

Availability and Pricing

Version 2010 Release 3 of the Altova product line is available for purchase in the Altova Online Shop: https://shop.altova.com with prices starting at $59 (USD) per product. For optimum savings, customers can choose the Altova MissionKit®, an integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools, which includes up to eight Altova products for less than the price of two*. Altova recommends the purchase of its Support and Maintenance Package (SMP) with all software purchases. Learn more at: http://www.altova.com/support_package.html

About Altova

Altova® is the creator of XMLSpy® and other leading XML, database, and UML tools. A key player in the software tools industry and the leader in XML development tools, Altova is the choice of over 3 million clients worldwide, including 91 percent of the Fortune 500. An innovative, customer-focused company, Altova offers a product line that fulfills a broad spectrum of business needs for development teams in the world’s largest organizations to growing one-person shops. An active member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Object Management Group (OMG), Altova is committed to delivering standards-based, platform-independent solutions that are powerful, affordable, and easy–to-use. Founded in 1992, Altova is headquartered in Beverly, Massachusetts and Vienna, Austria. Visit Altova on the Web at: http://www.altova.com

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Note to Editors:

*Pricing comparison is edition-specific and based on Altova MissionKit vs. two individual licenses of XMLSpy and MapForce.

Altova, MissionKit, XMLSpy, MapForce, StyleVision, UModel, DatabaseSpy, DiffDog, SchemaAgent, SemanticWorks, Authentic, and AltovaXML are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Altova GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. The names of and reference to other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.