FMCSA use of XML and Web Services Jeff N. Hall Traffic Records Forum July 14, 2003

Quote “… XML and Web Services are becoming the language of business and that deciding not to invest and go in that direction would be similar to deciding not to invest in having a telephone number or even a web site for your business.” Neil Charney Director, Platform Strategy Group, Microsoft June, 2003

Agenda  What are XML & web services?  XML examples  Web services examples  SAFER/CVISN  Issues & lessons learned  Summary

What is XML?  W3C specification (International standard)  Tagged document (like HTML)  Uses dynamic tags (unlike HTML)  Is human readable & flexible  Is interoperable between any two systems/environments  FMCSA standard data exchange format

- SAFER REPLACE T15:05:00 ED VALID

What is a Web Service?  Self-contained business functions that operate over a network (e.g. Internet)  Emerging technology for exchanging information  Standards based and interoperable between any two systems/platforms  Enable application-to-application interaction without human intervention  Two-way communication  FMCSA standard data exchange method

Query Central (QC)  Secure information retrieval via the Internet  Single input retrieves data from multiple sources (replaces stovepipe systems)  Data from authoritative source in real time  Provides data analysis & summarization  External data retrieved in XML format  Data specific to inspections & investigations

MX LIFIS MX SCT TML Query Central Application FMCSA Internal Databases State CDLIS Query Central Data Flow Internet Security CVIEW & ITDS XML Web Service HTTP XML

This slide contained CDLIS driver text which was removed for security and privacy reasons. The point of the text was to show how cumbersome it was for enforcement personnel to read through the text to find important data.

This slide contained a screen shot from Query Central which displayed driver information. It was removed for security and privacy reasons. The point of this screenshot was to show how the use of XML allows QC to summarize the data and alert the user to possible problems, in this case a driver without a valid CDL.

Motor Carrier Profile  Originally an ASCII text report  Replaced in 2002 with two documents Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) document for reading XML document for analysis  XML document provides ability to analyze profile data (ProVu)

FMCSA Web Services  Inspection Selection System database refresh Automatically detect status & perform refresh  CAPRI review upload to MCMIS Move data up, integrate into central Oracle DB, and return confirmation or error report  FMCSA (QC) / Customs (ITDS/ACE) interface for southern border pre-clearance and clearance Driver, vehicle, & carrier data sent to QC, checked against multiple data sources, return pass/fail

SAFER/CVISN  SAFER 4.2 supports XML data format FTP data transfer method  Volpe CVIEW XML Certification available  Reference - SAFER 4.2 ICD  XML documentation

Lessons Learned  XML and web services are relatively new and require training on both sides of any transaction  Party generating XML should also use it  Coordination is key to success  We need standardized XML vocabularies  Important to include an XML schema and data dictionary  XML/web services are cheap and flexible relative to EDI

Summary  XML is a valuable data format for exchanging data between disparate systems  Web Services are the best method for automating the movement of data between applications over the Internet  FMCSA has standardized on both