W3C

The XSL Working Group has published a Working Draft of Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0. This document describes initial design notes for version 2.0 of the Formatting Object (FO) part of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Learn more about the XML Activity.

The XML Security Working Group published two Last Call Working Drafts:

• XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1, which specifies XML syntax and processing rules for creating and representing digital signatures. XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content, including XML.
• XML Signature Properties, which outlines proposed standard XML Signature Properties syntax and processing rules and an associated namespace for these properties. The intent is these can be composed with any version of XML Signature using the XML SignatureProperties element.

The group welcomes Last Call comments through 18 March. The group also published several other drafts today: XML Security 1.1 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Security RELAX NG Schemas, XML Security 2.0 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Signature Transform Simplification: Requirements and Design, and XML Signature Best Practices. Learn more about XML Technology.

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The System Information API. This specification defines an API to provide Web applications with access to various properties of the system which they are running on. Specifically, properties pertaining to the device hardware are addressed. Examples include battery status, current network bandwidth. Additionally, some of those properties offer access to the environment around the device, such as ambient brightness or atmospheric pressure. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have jointly published an update to the Candidate Recommendation of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0, and to the companion Use Cases. The former defines the syntax and formal semantics of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 which is a language that extends XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 with full-text search capabilities. Learn more about the XML Activity.

The Mobile Web Initiative Test Suites Working Group has published the First Public Working Group Note of A Method for Writing Testable Conformance Requirements. This document presents a method for writing, marking-up, and analyzing conformance requirements in technical specifications that can help other Working Groups develop better specifications more quickly. Learn more about testing-related work in W3C.

W3C has published a report and full minutes of the Workshop on Access Control Application Scenarios, held in Luxembourg in November 2009. Participants from 17 organizations examined the current limitations of access control, privacy enhancement, distributed handling of access control, and other challenging use cases. eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) was a focus of the Workshop, though not the exclusive topic of conversation. The report summarizes the major "takeaways" from the Workshop, related to XACML semantics, "sticky" policies, and credentials-based access control. The OASIS XACML Technical Committee is expected to take up these topics. W3C's Policy Languages Interest Group (PLING) is expected to discuss data handling policies and the matching and triggering of events in the privacy context.