Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop AHDIT: Ad Hoc Data Interoperability Tool Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau Dept. of Computing Science University of Aberdeen

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Outline The Problem Potential Solution XML, XML Schema & RDF AHDIT Development Future Development Conclusion

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop The Problem UK NYPD Washington DC Philippines France 50 Other States Sept Exchange data on: Suspects Victims Potential Victims How can so many different organisations exchange information?

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Current Practice Word Doc Word Doc Exchange MS Word documents: 1. Enter data into own system 2. Export report to other party 3. Recipient then enters data into own system Potential for error as data re-entered Requires more clerical staff Creates a bottleneck at the start of investigations. The problem occurs when common data procedures and agreements are not already present between the parties involved.

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Current State of Affairs Organisations have problems communicating internally as evidenced by knowledge management applications –problems finding experts in organisations –problems sharing information in organisations Organisations communicate externally even less well Governments implementing interoperability progammes Some governments setting standards for XML use with XML Schema. –UK & US working towards standard XML policies

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Potential Solution Semantic Web offers solution Give meaning to and extending the WWW Machine processable, not human readable Built upon structured collections of data and inference rules Use of XML and related languages AHDIT builds upon the Semantic Web: –use structured data of the XML and XML Schema to create RDF models that can be compared –work with standard practices of organisations

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Semantic Web Layers AHDIT works with XML, XML Schema and RDF, RDF Schema layers XML & XMLS are being deployed by governments today AHDIT lifts this to next level of RDF & RDFS Source: Tim Berners Lee

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop XML- Extensible Markup Language W3C Standard of human readable text Provides structured content - still need to know what citizen means Mr Jonathan Doe Jon

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop XML Schema The XML Schema file (xsd) defines whether an XML document is valid or not. The XML file could also be labelled as an instance of an XSD file. <xsd:element name="CitizenNameTitle" type="egif:CitizenNameTitleType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/> <xsd:element name="CitizenNameForename" type="egif:CitizenNameForenameType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/> <xsd:element name="CitizenNameSurname" type="egif:CitizenNameSurnameType"/>...

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop RDF- Resource Definition Framework Aimed at providing information about meta-data for WWW resources. AHDIT builds this up from the XML Schema using Jena … … <rdf:Description rdf:about=' :CitizenNameSurnameType … CitizenNameSurname … …

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop AHDIT Development State A State B Application The Goal: Direct application to application communication Export report Import or type report or post report We want to move from the route to the direct route

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Phase 1 Solution App 1 App 2 Export report Import report DB 1 DB 2 State AState B Mixed Method : export report send to second party convert to XML run through AHDIT import modified report

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop AHDIT Phase 1 Solution Application takes in two XSD files, and the new XML file to be integrated User determines what is changed in RDF not B to create Modified State A XML file. State B XSD State A XSD AHDIT State A XML State B RDF State A RDF RDF not B Modified State A XML State A data ready For import into State B data

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Future Development Phase 1 - parse and compare the documents Phase 2 - establish community methods –local server with knowledge of partner organisations –maps to convert to their data structures stored Phase 3 - develop agent facilities to automate methods 1.Aim towards less human intervention 2.Security needs to be incorporated 3.Ontology tools to manage knowledge and the data 4.Language tools to manage diverse users and contente 1.German vs, French, vs English issues, etc 5.Communication method between parties 1.Possibly RPC or SOAP for the first two phases 2.Probably need agent communication languages for phase 3

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Possible Phase 3 Solution App 1 App 2 DB 1 DB 2 State AState B XML AHDIT DB 3 App 3 A 1 A 2 Negotiate - create app to integrate data into current systems - would need search, find and bind procedures

Dr. Bruce A. Scharlau, AHDIT, ES2002 E-Business Workshop Summary Organisations need to exchange information Current methods are laborious, repetitious, and error prone Movement towards XML & XML Schema Today methods and concepts are available to allow for ad hoc interoperability between applications and organisations