FIX Protocol Ltd (FPL) has released the first draft of FIXML 4.4 Schema, a XML representation of version 4.4 of the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol.
The standard was developed FPL's Global Technical Committee's FIXML Schema Working Group.
FPL says the new standard takes advantage of W3C's XML Schema. Previously, the FIX protocol supported FIXML, an XML syntax which is based upon older technology called Data Type Definitions (DTDs) which classified every field as an XML element - resulting in very large messages that negatively affected throughput and bandwidth. The new FIXML 4.4 Schema utilises XML attributes as well as expands the use of abbreviations in order to reduce overall message size.
The company says the FIXML 4.4 Schema is an important next step in the adoption of FIXML and projects that will utilise the Schema representation are already in progress at The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
The second draft of FIXML 4.4 Schema will be released on November 20 2003. THe final release is scheduled for December 1 2003.
UK STP vendor SolutionForge, which is a contributing member of the FIXML Schema Working Group, has already said it will be upgrading its flaghip FIX.NET Server engine and FIX.NET Trader order management system (OMS) products to include support for the new standard.
Steve Wilkinson, CEO and founder of SolutionForge, says: "We anticipate real gains from the new standard, both in terms of performance (due to reduced message size) and consolidation across the various versions of FIX."
The vendor says FIX.NET Server's support for FIXML 4.4 Schema will be released early in the new year, once the protocol specification has been finalised.