Electronically Querying for the Provenance of Entities Simon Miles ([email protected])[email protected] Provenance-Aware Service-Oriented Architectures

Electronically Querying for the Provenance of EntitiesSimon Miles ([email protected])

Provenance-Aware Service-Oriented Architectures (PASOA) project

University of Southampton, UK

Structure

• Terminology

• Purpose of provenance queries

• Example scenario

• Content of provenance queries

• Example queries

Documentation and Provenance

• We distinguish– process documentation (the documentation recorded into a

provenance store about processes)– provenance (the process that led to/derivation of an application

entity)• Process documentation is recorded as processes are executed• The entities that a process will ultimately produce may not be known at

that time• Provenance of an entity is obtained as the result of a query over

process documentation

Stores

Process documentation Provenance

Provenance Scope

• An entity is caused to be as it is by previous events, which were themselves caused by other events

• This can be seen as a directed acyclic graph leading back to the beginning of time

• If all this information was provided as a result of a query, it would be unmanageable and mostly irrelevant to the querier

• Therefore, the querier needs to scope the query to that which is relevant

scope

Provenance Queries

• A provenance query is a query for the provenance of an entity

• We define how to specify a provenance query, so that it can be executed by a provenance query engine

Organ Transplant ScenarioHospital

Electronic HealthcareManagement Service

Testing Lab

Hospital Actors

User Interface

Donor DataCollector

Brain DeathManager

Provenance of Donor Diagnosis

DonationDecision Donor Data

CollectorUser Interface




DecisionRequest

User InterfaceDonor Data

Collector

Patient(in Brain DeathNotification) Brain Death

ManagerUser Interface

Is Response To

Is Decision On

JustificationReport Donor Data


Is Justified By




DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector

Testing LabEHCR Donor Data

CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results

Is Decision On



Is Justified By

Electronic Data




DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results

EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Testing LabDonor Data

Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Is Decision On



Is Justified By

Electronic Data




DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results

Data CollectionRequest Donor Data


EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Was Caused By


Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Was Caused By

Is Decision On



Is Justified By

Request BloodTests Donor Data


Electronic Data

Provenance Queries

• A provenance query is made up of two parts:– Query Data Handle

• Identifies the entity of which you want to find the provenance, e.g. the donor organ decision

– Relationship Target Filter• Scopes the query results, so that only a

manageable amount of relevant information is returned

Query Data Handle

• Identifies a particular entity at the time of a particular event

• For example, a patient at the end of a transplant operation

• The provenance of an entity is the process by which it came to be in the state it is in at that event

Query Data Handle

• Documentation of an entity is different from the entity itself

• A query data handle is a search within process documentation for a given documented entity

• In the example, the entity, the donation decision, is documented at the event of the decision being recorded via the UIDonation

Decision Donor DataCollector

User Interface

Relationship Target

• On what basis do you stop trawling the graph, and so scope the provenance?

• The full set of information about each object of each relationship is called a relationship target and includes:– Relationship type– Data item content– Role of data in relationship– Actors involved in event– Their roles in the event– Asserter identity– Documentation location

• A relationship target filter uses the above data to scope the results of a provenance query

Donor DataCollector

Testing Lab

TestResults

DecisionRequest


Collector

Test ResultsIs Based On

Exclude“Is JustifiedBy”Relation



DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results



EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Was Caused By


Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Was Caused By

Is Decision On



Is Justified By



Electronic Data

Exclude“Electronic Data”Role



DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results



EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Was Caused By


Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Was Caused By

Is Decision On



Is Justified By



Electronic Data



DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test ResultsElectronic Data



EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Was Caused By


Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Was Caused By

Is Decision On



Is Justified By



Was Caused By

Abstraction of

Abstraction of

Exclude Internal Process of DDC

Summary

• Provenance queries allow the provenance of application entities to be found

• Querying for provenance involves following relationships back from the documentation of the entity, to find its causes

• Results are scoped to that relevant to the querier

Questions?

Simon Miles

[email protected]




DecisionRequest


Collector

Donor DataCollector


CollectorEHCRS



Is Response To

Is Based On

Patient

TestResults

Test Results



EHCRRequest

EHCRSDonor Data

Collector

Is Response To

Was Caused By


Collector

Request BloodTests

Is Response To

Was Caused By

Is Decision On



Is Justified By



Was Caused By

Abstraction of

Abstraction of

Electronic Data

Documents

Electronically Querying for the Provenance of Entities Simon Miles ([email protected])[email protected] Provenance-Aware Service-Oriented Architectures