SHIWA Desktop Cardiff University, Budapest, 3 rd July 2012

Budapest, July 2012 The Desktop solution for SHIWA Project Connects a user’s desktop workflow environment to the SHIWA Repository Provides lightweight upload and download in common format for engines Tool for serialisation and deserialisation of SHIWA Bundles What is SHIWA Desktop

Budapest, July 2012 What Are SHIWA Bundles Aggregation of data representing a workflow –Employs the OAI-ORE standard Physical aggregation as a single entity (ZIP file) Can reference anything with a URL (within bundle or elsewhere) Provides a common language/format for workflow engines –Once workflow engines can consume bundles and export them, workflow interoperability can exist within pipelines of workflows (or so- called meta workflows)

Budapest, July 2012 Workflow Implementation –Definition File Abstract Workflow –Signature Data Configuration –Variable data Environment Configuration –Constant data SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012 SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012 SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012 What is SHIWA Desktop? Provides three interfaces: –Command-line interface script-based interaction with a workflow engine –An API workflow engine can use this to interface directly with a SHIWA Bundle –A graphical front-end automatic creation of Bundles from within GUI-based workflow systems e.g. Askalon, Moteur and Triana

Budapest, July 2012 Command Line Interface Support interfacing with workflow systems (especially non-Java ones) through the command line Bundles can be unpacked to provide input and dependency files Provides a simple way to interface using scripts to wrap a workflow engine without modifying its internal behaviour

Budapest, July 2012 SHIWA Desktop Core API Three key parts with the Desktop Data API –SHIWABundle Object - reads in SHIWA bundles, converting the metadata into RDF element objects –RDF Element Objects – objects representing the elements found in the Metadata files, e.g. workflow resources, the aggregated resources and the components of a workflow signature. –WorkflowEngineHandler Interface – simplified interface for integrating a workflow engine, allowing ease of publishing and deployment of workflows.

Budapest, July 2012 Workflow Engine Handler An engine-specific component that understands the internal operations of a workflow engine and its object models WorkflowEngineHandler Interface –Simple to implement –Provides a means of pre-populating technical metadata e.g. engine name, version, the workflow language, the serialization of the workflow and the workflow signature object. –A signature includes a name a list of inputs and outputs

Budapest, July 2012 Workflow Engine Handler Workflow Engine Input + Value Output + Value Dependency+ Value Signature Definition File Dependency+ Value Handler List inputPorts List outputPorts Map dependencies Metadata

Budapest, July 2012 Workflow Engine Handler User develops workflow within local workflow system When user wishes to publish, SHIWA Desktop is invoked, with handler passed to it