Formex XML Two years after introduction

1
Formex XMLTwo years after introduction

• Dr. Holger Bagola
• Publications Office
• Directorate A OJ and Access to Legislation
• Methodology and development

2
History

• First 3 versions in SGML
• Last version entered into forcein April 1999
• Organization of user meeting to discuss the
  current state and the future of Formex

3
Migration to XML

• Results of meeting
• Proposal to migrate to XML
• Proposal to replace DTDs by schema
• ? Redefinition of Formex
• Schema (W3C) instead of DTDs
• Version 4 entered into force on May 1, 2004

4
Experiences

• Availability of tools offer an easier access to
  contents of Formex instances
• ? Printers are able to prepare the
  Formex instances in 19/20 languages in the same
  time they needed for 11 languages before

5
Experiences

• Higher quality of the instances since the first
  deliveries (less rejects)
• Migration to Unicode (UTF-8) less problems with
  encoding of special characters and symbols

6
Experiences

• Revision of table model
• New table model based on HTML,
• No longer problems with synchronizations of
  language dependent and language independent
  sections
• Revision of markup granularity
• Less doubts for complex objects

7
Experiences

• Consequent markup of dates, amounts and codes
• Control mechanisms for synoptism of contents
  between language versions
• Attachment of attributes for encoding some
  information in a language independent format
• Control mechanisms for synoptism of structures
  between languages

8
Improvements

• Better integration into legislative processes
• XML markup should be introduced by authors of
  legislative acts
• Better access to the validated and archived
  Formex instances

9
Access to Formex

• Documentation (Schema, physical specifications,
  examples)http//formex.publications.europa.eu
• Direct access to schema versionshttp//formex.pu
  blications.europa.eu/schema

10
Questions

• ?