Tim Richards, Tim Green, Simo Varis EFIS Information Resource Discovery - Demonstrator (a.k.a EFIS-RD/ Metadata) 28 June 2005

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

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

EFIS-RD How 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

NEFIS Keywords NEFIS Keywords are also stored in hierarchical XML documents and displayed in Java applets for selection of keywords and browsing by keyword.

EFIS-RD Metadata Entry XML Schema Rendered into HTML

EFIS-RD Metadata Search Multi-host searching

EFI-RD Metadata Retrieval XML View

EFIS-RD Metadata & 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.

EFIS-RD Distributed Data Searching Metadata Data Collation Data Visualisation/ Analysis Decision Support Find PublishBindAnalyseUtilise Information Service - a “Web Service”

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. ServersClient * 1 Standardised Data...or Standardisation Toolkit

Remote Data Searching, Collation, Visualisation

NEFIS Demonstrator Footprint

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.

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