Tool Interoperability and Data Translation Mechanisms using XML/XSL

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Tool Interoperability and Data Translation
Mechanisms using XML/XSL

• Tom Sabanosh
• 4-23-01

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The Problem

• There are many successful software tools for risk
  management with uniquely valuable functions
• Difficult to make such tools work together as
  they each use their own representation for the
  same sorts of models.

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The Solution!

• Improve the interoperability of software tools by
  developing a standardized model interchange
  language!

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The Specific Problem

• Galileo, a tool for fault tree analysis, is
  essentially a stand-alone application.
• There is no standardized model interchange
  language for representing dynamic fault trees.

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The Specific Solution!

• We developed a novel XML-based encoding for a
  dynamic fault tree language based on precise
  mathematical semantics
• We demonstrate how with the assistance of XSL,
  the XML can be translated to the data
  representation of a select number of tools for
  viewing fault trees.

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On Fault Tree Analysis

• Fault Trees consists of the following
• Basic Events, which model the probability of
  certain failures occurring in a system
• Gates, either Boolean or dynamic, which combine
  the events in some logical manner
• If a subset of events fail, this could lead to
  system failure.
• For Galileo, a back-end solver calculates this
  probability.

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Galileo
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On XML (why XML)

• XML is ideal as a model interchange language
• XML is simplistic
• Consists of a sequence of user-defined tags
• Element tags must match and nest properly
• XML/XSL parsers exist
• Valid XML can be defined by a DTD

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Developing a document type definition (DTD)for
Galileo XML
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XML to Match
 
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On XSL

• XSL documents are style sheets that can be used
  to modify an existing XML document
• Can be used to generate other XML, HTML, or any
  .txt file
• Primarily used for style, we use it for
  translation.

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The Three Transformations
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Transformation 1 XML -gt Galileo

• Reverse translation is a good thing
• Galileo can generate the XML representation, and
  we can go from our intermediate representation
  back to our original fault tree representation.
• The idea here is, if we can do it, other tools
  can do it. We will see

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Transformation 2 XML -gt HTML

• XML can be transformed into a pretty tabular
  web-format for reading and printing if necessary.

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Transformation 3 XML -gt Graph Layout Tool
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What to walk away with

• Tool interoperability is a good thing
• XML is an ideal model interchange langauge
• XSL is sufficient for the translation purposes,
  but XML-QL could probably do more