Subject: Re: XML-data info from Microsoft
Carl Hage (carl@chage.com)
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 16:43:52 -0800
Message-Id: <199802220107.TAA13594@rgate.ricochet.net> From: "Carl Hage" <carl@chage.com> To: gils@cni.org Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 16:43:52 -0800 Subject: Re: XML-data info from Microsoft In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19980218102855.007740c8@130.118.4.2>
On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Eliot Christian <echristi@usgs.gov> wrote:
>
> XML-DATA SUBMISSION TO THE W3C
> from http://www.microsoft.com/standards/xml/
This is not a "Microsoft" proposal-- it is from a working group some
of which are from Microsoft.
The non-framed, printable, official version is
<http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-XML-data-0105/>
> Any thoughts on how something like this might factor into GILS version 3?
This is a significant development, since it moved XML from a record
formatting standard, to a database exchange standard. In XML-data
there is a means to define the database schema (Information Model)
for XML format files.
[A record format is something like the Comma Separated Value
standard, where fields are enclosed in quotes and separated by
commas. The MARC record format says lines begin with an attribute
number followed by a value with $ markers in the text. Previously XML
was at this same level of detail-- with no definition of the
attributes themselves.]
I think the "flat" model of USMARC used by GILS should be mapped into
a more object oriented model which better fits the distributed object
oriented data models supported by XML. For example, the distributor
address and hours of operation would not be stored inside a <Book>
record, rather <distributor> in a book would reference a separate
<organization> element. The current content of the distributor
information might be stored in a physically separate database (called
foriegn in XML), referenced via URI/URN.
There is also a means to link to URI/URN-XML definitions for
controlled vocabularies or other enumerated type values. I think it
would be important to define the XML-Data schema for CVs, that
include the usual relations like BT/NT/SA/UF/etc.
Slightly reorganized, an XML-Data schema can be constructed which is
essentially equivalent (translatable) to the GILS/Z39 records. It
might be possible to use the mapsTo feature to define a mapping
between the XML model and the Z39.50/GILS attribute numbers and
names. (I'm not sure how useful this would be for automated tools,
but it would be fun to write and useful to read.)
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