XML Web Services: Data Standards Branch Training

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XML Web ServicesData Standards Branch Training

• Brand Niemann
• XML Web Services Solutions Architect
• Office of Environmental Information
• US EPA
• August 1, 2002

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Overview

• 1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards
• 1.1 Standards (Documents and Pilot
  Implementations)
• 1.2 Library (Old and New)
• 1.3 Registries and Repositories (EDR, etc.)
• 2. Bringing XML to EPA Networks
• 2.1 Nodes (XML and Content)
• 2.2 Networks (NEIEN and Others)
• 2.3 Registries and Repositories (Nodes and
  Networks)
• 3. Contact Information

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Standards loosely applied to any agreed-upon
  way of doing things, however, there is a big
  difference in the way the standard has been
  developed and will be maintained, and often a big
  difference in who has agreed upon the contents of
  the standard.
• Accredited standards developed and adopted as
  standards through an open consensus process,
  under the guidelines of national or international
  standards bodies (ISO, IEC, ANSI, etc.).
• Industry specifications formalized industry
  practices generally developed by a group within
  the industry (Web Offset Publications, etc.).
• De facto standards usually developed or owned
  by a single group or company and gain credibility
  as the result of the use of a critical mass of
  people (PostScript, Windows, etc.).

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Business Case for XML (GML)
• Mark Forman (E-Gov 2002)
• Mark was asked about the reported redundancy in
  state-federal geospatial data activities and he
  responded that the states especially have
  complained about the costs involved, namely 10B
  total (6 Federal and 4 State) and that about
  half of that (5B) is wasted due to duplication
  of effort!
• Kim Nelson (GIS Day, November 8, 2001, and ORD
  Science Meeting, May 1-2, 2002
• Everyone needs to think about how to
  geographically reference all of the data that we
  use and collect, so that we can share each
  others' resources. We have 100's of geo-spatial
  data products and resources. We need to develop
  data collection standards which will enable us to
  link and cross-reference these and other newly
  acquired resources.
• http//www.envindicators.org/indicators/faq.htm
• Solution organize by geography and add GML tags
  (see Section 1.3.5).

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• Definitions
• American Heritage Dictionary
• Noun-Something such as a practice or a product,
  that is widely recognized or employed, especially
  because of its excellence.
• Adjective-Widely recognized or employed as a
  model of authority or excellence a standard
  reference work.
• Etymology (origin and development of a word)
• Middle English, from the old French estandard,
  rallying place, probably from Frankish
  standhard standan, to stand.
• Some issues
• Mashmallow-soft, inaccurate term really mean
  initiative, application, or recommendation.
• Basically about one thing getting agreement.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• Vocabularies
• A set of agreed-upon language constructs that
  mean the same things to all parties using them.
• In many ways, vocabularies that are defined
  within user communities and have a well-defined
  mechanism for their maintenance are called
  standards!
• Somewhat controversial Many consider a standard
  to be one that has been in use by a large
  population for a given number of years, whereas
  others consider a standard to be well-defined
  specification that addresses the needs of a wide
  user base.
• The net result of the widespread use of XML has
  resulted in hundreds of industry vocabularies,
  specifications, and standards.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• The standard stack
• A common metaphor (more visual rather than
  logical) used to identify the wide set of
  specifications and standards that impact that
  particular technology segment and show how they
  interrelate (diagrams later).
• Standards are judged by the process and
  organization that created them.
• Governments will always be the best place to
  establish a standard that can be enforced by law,
  regulation, and established guidelines of conduct.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• Open Standards
• Opposite to the word proprietary (closed to
  outside development and viewing, closed minded,
  not customer centric, and slow to change), which
  many consider to be pejorative.
• Better out in the open, open process,
  softwares that can be replaced, and softwares
  that play well with each other.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Preeminent standards-setting body in the XML
  world, 35 specifications in just 5 years, and to
  say its word is the gold currency of the industry
  is an understatement.
• Recommendation is the W3C non-politically
  charged word for standard.
• Three central principles interoperability,
  evolution, and decentralization.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• Others
• The Organization for the Advancement of
  Structured Information Standards (OASIS) more
  like a community than an official standards body
  such as W3C at least three implementations of
  the specification must be created for approval of
  the OASIS membership.
• International Organization for Standardization
  (ISO) very formal process and over 12,000
  standards with 300,000 pages of documentation
  has begun to specify XML-based standards that
  will surely be used for many years to come.
• Industry Consortia Health Level 7 (HL7), Open
  GIS Consortium, etc.
• Birds of a Feather Vendor Groupings Universal
  Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) (a
  practical and quickly implemented central
  repository for Web Services components and
  descriptions).
• Individuals and Organizations Microsoft, Sun
  Microsystems, etc.

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• Understanding XML Standards, Chapter 19 in XML
  and Web Services Unleashed, Sams, February 2002,
  814-845
• The Standards Stack (like a stack of pancakes)
• The higher in the stack one goes, the more
  technology and specifications each layer is
  dependent on or references.
• Some aspects of XML specifications that exhibit
  layering behavior, whereas others can be applied
  to multiple layers in the stack.
• The uses for XML fall into two different camps
  message-oriented protocols (right side-span all)
  and document-oriented specifications (left side).

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data StandardsThe XML
Standards Stack
Community Specifications
Business Process Layer
Services Layer
Security Aspect
Query Aspect
Presentation Aspect
Semantics Aspect
Messaging Layer
Transport Layer
XML Base Architecture
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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• The XML Standards Stack Layers
• XML Base Architecture all specifications use
  XML (e.g. XML Schema).
• XML Transport Layer Uses HTTP, SMTP, and FTP
  for transport from place to place, but also BEEP
  (Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol), etc.
• XML Messaging Mayer packaging XML documents for
  transmission (analogy to a postal envelope)
  (SOAP-Simple Object Access Protocol to become the
  W3Cs XML Protocol).
• Services Layer functionalities that can be
  accessed by machines in a distributed manner
  (WSDL-Web Services Description Language)
• Process Layer turning functionality into
  coordinated action and individual components into
  larger applications (various workflow
  specifications that even allow human interaction
  to occur at various points in the
  machine-to-machine dialogue).

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• The XML Standards Stack Aspects
• Presentation Aspect how XML should be presented
  or modified in presentation for usability (XHTML,
  XForms, and SVG-Scalable Vector Graphics).
• Security Aspect provided a level of protection
  of XML information (encryption, authentication,
  authorization and permission, and privacy).
• Query Aspect assist in locating XML resources
  (tagging with metadata and retrieving).
• Semantic Aspect help apply meaning and context
  to XML documents (synchronizing XML vocabularies
  with other incompatible representations).

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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data StandardsXML
Standards Stack Pyramid
Community Vocabularies
Community Vocabularies
Message-Oriented Protocols
Document-Oriented Specifications
XML Base Architecture
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1. Bringing XML to EPA Data Standards

• XML Standards Stack Pyramid
• Community Vocabularies Layer
• All the industry specific implementations and
  problem-oriented specifications (where the
  rubber meets the road).
• How a specific user community plans to make use
  of XML, the specific of data exchange, and often
  some of the first specifications to be developed.
• The number of community vocabularies is
  proliferating.
• Upside-down pyramid (relative numbers in each
  layer)
• From few (XML Base Architecture) to many
  (Community Vocabularies) specifications.

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1.1 Standards

• 1.1.1 Documents (e.g. Contact Standard)
• Repurpose - unstructured to structured.
• XML file for machine processing (Stylesheets CSS
  and XSLT Schema XSD, Transformations XSLT and
  XSL-FO) and storage in a registry and repository.
• 1.1.2 Pilot Implementations (e.g. W3C and OASIS
  process)
• EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee Database.
• EPA Facility Database.
• EPA Employee Directory.
• US Government Blue Pages.
• Commercial Qsent Comprehensive Directory.
• Other FGDC Address Content Standard and OASIS
  DSML (Directory Services Markup Language), etc.

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1.1.1 Documents

• Structure
• Point of Contact
• Individual (7 data elements)
• Organization (1 data element)
• Affiliation Type (1 data element)
• Address
• Mailing Address (6 data elements)
• Geographic Address (6 data elements)
• Communication
• Telephonic (3 data elements)
• Electronic (2 data elements)

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1.1.1 Documents (PDF)
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1.1.1 Documents (Excel)
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1.1.1 Documents (XML Spy-Text View)
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1.1.1 Documents(XML Spy-Enhanced Grid View)
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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee Database
  Data Elements
• XML and VoiceXML Web Services
• EPA Facility Database Data Elements
• XML Web Service (Locational Data Improvement
  Project)
• EPA Employee Directory Data Elements
• In process
• US Government Blue Pages Data Elements
• XML and VoiceXML Pilot Web Services
• Commercial Qsent Comprehensive Directory
  DTD/XSD
• XML Web Service

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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee Database
  Data Elements
• LEPC Name
• Street
• Address2 (e.g. P.O. Box)
• City
• State
• Postal Code
• First Name
• Last Name
• Phone
• Email
• LEPC ID
• Edit Date
• Idmarplot (geo-reference from the LandView
  MarPlot Mapping System)

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EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee Database
http//www.epa.gov/ceppo/lepclist.htm
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EPA Local Emergency Planning Committee Database
http//130.11.53.73/lepc/FMPro?-dbLEPC.FP5-forma
t-fmp_xmlzip_lepczip_code22181-find
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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• EPA Facility Database Data Elements
• EPA ID
• Name
• Street
• City
• State
• ZIP Code
• SIC Code
• State Code
• County Code
• Latitude
• Longitude
• Etc.

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EPA Facility Databasehttp//130.11.44.140591/fmp
ro?-dbepasites.fp5-format-dso_xml-find
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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• EPA Employee Directory Data Elements
• Name (First, Middle Initial, and Last)
• Mail Code
• Building Site
• Street Address
• City, State, and ZIP Code
• Telephone Number
• Email Address

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EPA Employee Directoryhttp//www.epa.gov/epahome/
locator.htm
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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• US Government Blue Pages Data Elements
• Functional Listing
• Organization
• Listing
• Area Code
• Phone Number
• Other

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Blue Pages Pilot Project
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Blue Pages Pilot Project
Search Form
XML Output
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Blue Pages Pilot Project
Search Form
Web Output
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1.1.2 Pilot Implementations

• Commercial Qsent Comprehensive Directory
  Features
• Over 145 million residential, business and
  government listings (99). (Every record
  verified through phone installation and account
  activation with credit history.)
• 250,000 to 500,000 updates daily.
• Four types of searches
• U.S. Residential search for an individual.
• U.S. Business and Government search for
  business and government agency.
• Reverse Lookup - search by telephone number.
• U.S. All search all directories at once.
• Geographic searches
• City Surround expand search incrementally from
  city center (lowest ZIP)
• Neighborhood Search search by neighborhoods
  using ZIP4

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Qsents iQ411 Services Interactive (Web)
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Qsents iQ411 Services Integrated (XML)
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Qsents iQ411 Services Integrated (XML)
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Qsents iQ411 Services Integrated (XML)
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1.2 Library

• Old
• Tia Greens Notes Database
• I have the key documents in XML publishing system
  (see next slides).
• New
• Carmen Farrows Notes Database-more than Tias
  (had only 25), but mostly SAIC.
• Convert more to XML for XML publishing system
  (Metadata Networks in section 2).

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1.2 Library

• Tools from NextPage http//www.nextpage.com
• Folio Views SGML-like markup (pre-XML) in a
  GUI.
• CD-ROM distribution.
• Web Server (Markup-to-HTML on the fly).
• LivePublish Basic XML support (uses DTD see
  next slide).
• Site Administrator.
• Personal Edition (Desktop and CD-ROM).
• Web Server (Markup-to-HTML on the fly).
• NXT 3 Advanced support for XML (LivePublish
  plus XSL, SOAP, etc. see later slide).
• Content Network Manager.
• Content Network Server.

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1.2 Library

• LivePublish Uses of XML
• Serve up native XML.
• Convert XML to HTML using a CSS or XSL at run
  time using the Display Filter API.
• Convert XML to HTML at build time.
• Uses an XML-based file to define site look and
  feel.
• The build Makefiles are XML files that define the
  structure and contents of the information
  collections.
• XML-based legacy conversion tools simplify the
  conversion of existing content into HTML.
• Indexsheets (XIL) define and control the indexing
  of content like stylesheets (XSL) define and
  control the formatting.

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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.2 Library
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1.3 Registries and Repositories

• 1.3.1 Environmental Data Registry
• 1.3.2 Chemicals (List of Lists)
• 1.3.3 Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• 1.3.4 GEneral Multilingual Environmental
  Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002
• 1.3.5 State of the Environment Report and
  Environmental Indicators Initiative
• 1.3.6 Re-purpose every EPA Information System
  into an XML Document and Web Service

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1.3.1 Environmental Data RegistryDocument-oriente
d
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1.3.1 Environmental Data RegistryDocument-oriente
d
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1.3.1 Environmental Data RegistryData-oriented
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1.3.1 Environmental Data RegistryData-oriented
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1.3.2 Chemicals (List of Lists)http//130.11.53.7
3/lol/
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1.3.2 Chemicals (List of Lists)http//www.filemak
er.com/xml/index.html
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1.3.3 Integrated Taxonomic Information
Systemhttp//sis.agr.gc.ca/pls/itisca/taxaget?p_i
fx
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1.3.3 Integrated Taxonomic Information
SystemSelect XML and Query for flowers
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1.3.4 Generalized Multi-lingual Environmental
Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002http//www.mu.niedersachsen
.de/cds/etc-cds_neu/library/select.html
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1.3.4 Generalized Multi-lingual Environmental
Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002
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1.3.4 Generalized Multi-lingual Environmental
Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002

• The GEMET DTD allows one to see the Thesaurus in
  XML with a Web Browser that supports XML Version
  1.0.
• The Thesaurus may be viewed in different ways
  with different XSL Stylesheets.
• See cds-thes-xml.dtd in XML Spy in the next
  slide.
• This DTD can be converted to an XML Schema in XML
  Spy 4.4 in second next slide.

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1.3.4 Generalized Multi-lingual Environmental
Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002DTD in XML Spy
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1.3.4 Generalized Multi-lingual Environmental
Thesaurus (GEMET) 2002
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1.3.5 State of the Environment Report and
Environmental Indicators InitiativeGeography
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1.3.5 State of the Environment Report and
Environmental Indicators InitiativeThemes
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1.3.5 State of the Environment Report and
Environmental Indicators InitiativeRegions and
States
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1.3.6 Re-purpose Every EPA Information System
into an XML Document and Web ServiceIntegrate,
Link, and Chain All Together (Section 2)
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3. Contact Information

• Brand Niemann, Ph.D.
• USEPA Headquarters, EPA West, Room 6143D
• Office of Environmental Information, MC 2822T
• 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
  20460
• 202-566-1657
• niemann.brand_at_epa.gov
• EPA http//161.80.70.167
• Outside EPA http//130.11.44.140