Health & Consumers DG SANCO Unit A.4 Information systems Web Services Exchange as concerns organisations October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Contents Background Objectives Functional overview Technical overview Current status October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Background TRACES DBs contain a plethora of reference data (countries, regions, cities, businesses…) Many duplicates (e.g. Gothenburg, Göteborg, Goteborg…) Constant clean-up operations ongoing in TRACES DBs A better way is necessary October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Objective One reference database, which is shared by multiple applications’ dedicated DBs Responsibility for a certain type of data at the appropriate level For purposes of TRACES, we will provide this for cities and for business organisations October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo The Target Audience The user will be a Member State Authority (central or regional) Every MSA is responsible for managing its cities and businesses An MSA can not add reference data to an area outside its area of authority October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Functionality offered Secure connection Query, view Add Delete Download lists: City – authority – GIS coordinates businesses October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Accessing the exchange Via web UI: allows for manual access to the webservices exchange Via webservices API: allows for automated access to the webservices exchange October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Exchange Web UI Search cities Add a city Manage your requests Download list for offline processing Delete a city October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Some technical details Submissions from Member States in pre-defined XML format XSD schemas available for cities Something on the internals: Builds on DG SANCO’s “XMLGate” platform XMLGate is the single entry point for Web services between Member States and SANCO XMLGate is used by several SANCO applications (RASFF, ADNS…) October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Exchange request flow XML XML queue result result sync, update extract result update The processing is asynchronous, processing a request takes in the order of 15 minutes October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Handling business organisations This is more a complicated case: More fields Duplicates and similarities are inevitable Subject to frequent changes (start up, closure, change of activity…) The exchange will need to handle all these aspects Extensive pilot testing needed October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Handling businesses peculiarities Abundance of businesses: allow batch upload Detect duplicates: Levenshtein’s distance for similarity calculation Considering offline tool to allow MSA batch processing (e.g. of duplicates) Linked to “SancoClean” October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Initial Load – synchronising the databases MSA reference DB TRACES reference DB Merge with approval number from MSA In TRACES not in MSA: inform In MSA not in TRACES: add October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Keeping the list up-to-date Different options are possible: Periodic upload (daily, weekly…): pattern will be similar to the ‘Initial load’ (but with a delta only) Triggered upload (immediate for every added or modified business) The Exchange will be able to handle both these scenarios October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo TRACES interface Creating a business will depend on: Member State (“automated” or “non-automated”) type of activity Status “Prevalid” will no longer exist for an “automated” country Depending on type of activity A “non-automated” MSA can not create a business in an “automated” MS An “automated” MSA can create a business in a “non-automated” MS October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

TRACES Seminar Palermo Current status Exchange for cities exchange available for deployment pending infrastructural adaptations Target deployment: Q1 2010 Exchange for businesses development progressing pilot run foreseen still some unclear areas Target pilot run: Q2 2010 October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo

Questions & Discussion October 28-30, 2009 TRACES Seminar Palermo