Standard Change Tracking for XML
XML is generally accepted as the default markup language for structured document and data management systems worldwide. But, in spite of the fact that XML document standards have matured over the past decade and despite its widespread use, XML still has a significant shortcoming that limits its usefulness in this role. It has no native ability to track changes. There is rudimentary support for change tracking in some document formats, but a full solution is not available. The consensus emerging is that this is an XML problem rather than a DITA, DocBook or XHTML problem. A generic change-tracking standard would transform the utility of XML. It would allow documents to be moved from one XML editor to another, complete with change history and the ability to roll back to previous versions; it would allow editing applications to track changes in any XML document type; and software designed to handle change in XML could be applied to many different XML document types. The W3C now has a Community Group (W3C Change Community Group http://www.w3.org/community/change/) looking into developing a standard solution. This paper outlines one proposed solution to this important problem. The purpose of the proposed change tracking format is to represent successive changes or edits to an XML document, typically in one or more editing sessions. This paper describes how such changes may be represented in XML markup or in Processing Instructions. The tracked changes are designed to be used either as an independent addition to a file or integrated into the applicable schema.