FastInfoset.NET enables you to reduce XML document size and increase XML processing performance by using Fast Infoset encoding. Fast Infoset is a standard that specifies a binary encoding for the W3C XML Infoset, designed to provide better compactness and speed than the text encoding. FastInfoset.NET is an implementation of Fast Infoset for the .NET Framework. It runs on .NET, .NET CF and Silverlight, it integrates into the XML API of .NET, it is royalty-free, it is written in 100% managed C# code and its full source code is available.
Features
FastInfoset.NET enables you to reduce XML document size and increase XML processing performance by using Fast Infoset encoding. Fast Infoset is a standards-based binary encoding for the XML Infoset that is widely available on Java and far more efficient than the text, .NET Binary and MTOM encodings. FastInfoset.NET offers a Fast Infoset encoder that integrates fully into the XML API of .NET through its XmlFastInfosetReader and XmlFastInfosetWriter classes that implement the abstract XmlReader and XmlWriter of .NET. FastInfoset.NET is cross-platform interoperable with other .NET, Java and C/C++ implementations, it runs on both .NET and .NET CF, it is written in 100% managed C# code, its assemblies can be distributed royalty-free, its full source code is available, and you get a free subscription with every purchase.
Smaller XML document size
To show how much smaller Fast Infoset documents can be, Noemax retrieved from the Web twenty-five disparate sets of publicly available XML documents and compared their sizes using the text, Fast Infoset and .NET Binary encodings. Documents encoded using Fast Infoset were significantly more compact than when using any of the other encodings, even down to a 10th of the size of the text encoding. Nomax also compared the sizes of SOAP messages containing binary data using the text, Fast Infoset and MTOM encodings. Again, Fast Infoset was the most compact.
Faster XML processing speed
Fast Infoset was benchmarked by running the same tests that Sun and Microsoft used to compare the processing performance of text XML in Java and .NET. Noemax measured the performance of the text reader/writer, the text dictionary reader/writer, the Fast Infoset reader/writer, the Fast Infoset dictionary reader/writer, and the .NET Binary dictionary reader/writer. In all tests Fast Infoset ranked first, demonstrating that it is not only the most compact but also the fastest XML encoding when compared to the XML encodings provided by .NET.
The Fast Infoset standard
Fast Infoset is an open standard that has been published as an ITU-T Recommendation and ISO/IEC International Standard (ITU-T Recommendation X.891 (2005) | ISO/IEC 24824-1:2007). This standard specifies a binary encoding for the W3C XML Information Set that is designed to improve the efficiency of the text XML encoding by producing a more compact representation at a higher transaction rate.
More efficient with binary data than MTOM
Fast Infoset can also efficiently encode binary data like images, videos and other opaque items. Both Fast Infoset and MTOM read and write binary data as it is, avoiding the costly base64 or hexadecimal transformations of the text encoding that increase size and reduce performance. But while MTOM is quite inefficient with small amounts of binary data as it actually increases message size when it contains less than 2,350 bytes of binary data, Fast Infoset is efficient with any amount of binary data in the message payload. Plus, Fast Infoset can reduce the size of the whole message irrespective of whether it contains binary data, contrary to MTOM which can only reduce the size of the binary data that might be contained in the message.
Runs on both .NET and .NET CF
In low-bandwidth or resource-constrained environments the efficiency benefits that Fast Infoset can offer are particularly important as:
- Lower bandwidth usage reduces communication costs
- Faster processing performance reduces power consumption
- Exchanging shorter messages reduces the risk of interruption
- Smaller document size reduces storage requirements
Integrates into the XML API of .NET
Using the Fast Infoset encoding is as easy as using the text encoding. The reader and writer classes of FastInfoset.NET implement the abstract XmlReader and XmlWriter classes of .NET, so you get all the benefits of using them as an integral part of the XML API of .NET. If you are familiar with the XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter of .NET, you will immediately feel comfortable with the XmlFastInfosetReader and XmlFastInfosetWriter classes. FastInfoset.NET includes an MSDN-style class reference that integrates into the Visual Studio Combined Help Collection and offers IntelliSense context sensitive help within your project.
About Noemax
Noemax is a component vendor that provides a broad set of communication, binary XML and compression technologies for increasing the efficiency of transporting, processing and storing data. Developers use Noemax products to transparently enhance the performance and expand the capabilities of their .NET, Compact Framework, Silverlight, Azure, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360 software and to widen interoperability with Java and other platforms. From desktops to mobile devices to cloud services, Noemax helps organizations realize a competitive advantage with minimal effort.
