1 euroCRIS Members Meeting Tartu Eddy Grąbczewski May 2005

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 2 Eddy Grąbczewski Worked in IT development/support for 15 years EU 3D MURALE project – Brunel University CCLRC – Data Management Team CCLRC – Corporate Data Model designer EU CISTRANA project (EU nationals) EU IST World project (SME) euroCRIS CERIF Task Group Leader Technical view of the CCLRC repository

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 3 Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC) Multi-disciplinary research organisation supporting scientists and engineers worldwide Operates world-class large-scale research facilities ISIS (neutron source) Lasers (sapphire and glass lasers) Main shareholder in Diamond Light Source (X-ray, UV source) Provides strategic advice to the UK government Manages and participates in international research projects

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 4 Where is CCLRC? Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire Chilbolton Observatory, Hampshire

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 5 CCLRC CDR Project Corporate Data Repository (CDR) project: To address the poor database integration affecting CCLRC business. Create a infrastructure for future corporate systems: SSO, CRIS, Open Archive

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 6 CCLRC Database Systems

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 7 Typical questions Why can’t I use my RAL security pass at DL? (security access) Why is my Windows login not transparent across sites? (SSO) Why are room booking services so disjointed across sites? (integration) How many papers has a department produced this year? Which EU projects to a member of staff work on?

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 8 Causes Heterogeneous db’s storing similar data on different sites: CCLRC db’s are structurally different. CCLRC db’s need to share data. Heterogeneous db’s makes developing corporate applications more complex and expensive.

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 9 Possible Approaches A single corporate db for all applications? Complex, difficult to agree and hence develop. A corporate global db and local db’s for all applications? probably the best compromise. We need corporate applications that work transparently across sites as well as local applications. Web based applications using open interfaces.

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 10 Workflow = Business Processes

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 11 Corporate Data Repository (CDR) We use the term “repository” to mean a common database to complement local databases. The CDR contains the Corporate Data Model (CDM). Implemented in Oracle but can be ported to PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server or Informix.

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 12 Corporate Data Model (CDM) The CDM models: People in and outside CCLRC. Jobs, roles and permissions of People. Organisation Units in and outside CCLRC. Projects related to CCLRC. Publications in and outside CCLRC. Consolidate data from the existing site databases at RAL, DL and Chilbolton. Based on euroCRIS CERIF standard.

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 13 CDR Features Ontology based (objects, entities) ANSI/SPARC architecture CERIF view Temporal database (VT, TT) Distributed architecture Naming subschema Support for hierarchies

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 14 Ontology Object at the top level Entity is a subtype of Object All relationships are types of entity

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 15 ANSI/SPARC Architecture ANSI/X3/SPARC Architecture (1975)

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 16 CERIF (euroCRIS) Common European Research Information Format

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 17 CDM (CCLRC)

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 18 CDM Subtypes

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 19 Organization Temporal Data Most databases only store current facts. What if we want to store historical facts? For example: What was the organisation structure three years ago? What was an employee’s name before she married?

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 20 CDM Temporal Database Stores Valid Time Stores Transaction Time Stores Last Update Time

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 21 CDM Distributed Architecture

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 22 Supports Many Data Models

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 23 Naming Subschema Based on Pierce’s ontology: Sign Symbol Reference Icon Any entity may have multiple signs, symbols, references or icons.

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 24 Support for hierarchies Date (1986) proposed the EXPLODE operator for SQL to view the ‘Parts Explosion’ problem CDM implements EXPLODE to traverse hierarchies and simple graphs eg. OrgUnit_OrgUnit. CDM also implements Transitive Closure operators

Brian MatthewsNovember 30, 2001KM Workshop, SLE 25 Summary Multiple-purpose database infrastructure Ontology based (objects, entities) ANSI/SPARC architecture CERIF view Temporal database (VT, TT) Distributed architecture Multiple Names for any object or entity Support for hierarchies Architecture extended for CISTRANA and IST World (programme, language & keyword support)