Tim Richards, Tim Green, Simo Varis

EFIS Information Resource Discovery - Demonstrator

(a.k.a EFIS-RD/ Metadata)28 June 2005

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EFIS – Information Resource Discovery

RD what it the EFIS-RD?

What does it do?

How does it do it?

How is it different from the NEFIS – KB?

Some examples

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EFIS-RD What is it?

The EFIS Resource Discovery system is: A metadata system for the entry, storage and retrieval of

metadata on forest information resources Based on the Dublin Core metadata element set As such it is a catalogue of pointers to forest information

resources / services Initially developed as a metadata demonstrator in the EFIS

project in 2001

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EFIS-RDHow does it work?

Descriptions of the NEFIS metadata elements are contained

in a metadata schema in an XML document – metadata

about metadata. The metadata schema is used to dynamically generate HTML

forms. If the schema changes then the forms change. Metadata records stored in XML are also rendered into HTML The system is implemented using open systems – Apache

Tomcat, Apache Xerces XML parser, mySQL, Java Server

Pages, Java Applets, ZaVal light weight visual components

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NEFIS Keywords

NEFIS Keywords are also stored in hierarchical XML

documents and displayed in Java applets

• for selection of keywords and

• browsing by keyword.

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EFIS-RD Metadata Entry

XML SchemaRendered into HTML

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EFIS-RDMetadata Search

Multi-host searching

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EFI-RDMetadata Retrieval

XML View

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EFIS-RDMetadata & Data

Metadata is a “means to an end” not just “an end in itself” – we

don’t just want a description and a reference to an information

resource we also want the data / information, for example for

analysis and visualisation.

The metadata should be the “glue” that fixes the relationship

between the user and relevant information.

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EFIS-RD Distributed Data Searching

Metadata

Data

Data

Data

DataCollation

DataVisualisation/

Analysis

DecisionSupport

FindPublish

Bind Analyse Utilise

Information Service - a “Web Service”

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EFIS-RD Data Collection / Collation Demo – sub-national forest area statistics

Java XML-RPC servers provide national information services, data is packaged into XML for transport over HTTP, a multi-threaded XML-RPC client in the EFIS-RD system receives data from each server, collates it, presents it in a table and lastly prepares it for use in the VTK.

Servers Client* 1

Standardised Data ...or Standardisation Toolkit

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Remote DataSearching,Collation,Visualisation

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NEFIS Demonstrator Footprint

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Conclusion

The EFIS-RD system was developed as a demonstrator in

2001 Since it was originally developed the “service oriented

architecture” and Web Services and related tools have

emerged into the mainstream of distributed computing. A new generation of “Forest Web Services”, including

resource discovery (UDDI), service description (WSDL) and

metadata / data packaging (SOAP) can now but constructed

using open standards and tools, rather than relying entirely

on bespoke applications.

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FML

What could FML do for the forest community?• FML could provide:

• an explicit and extensible definition of forest metadata – a

standard• a platform independent medium for the transfer of forest

metadata - interoperability• an explicit and extensible meta description for forest data –

a standard• A platform independent medium for the transfer of forest

data - interoperability