Using an Application Profile Based Service Registry
Ann AppsMimas,
The University of Manchester, UK
2007-08-29 DC2007 2
Outline
• Purpose and use of JISC Information Environment Service Registry (IESR)
• IESR domain model• IESR Application Profile• Benefits of Application Profile in practice• IESR future
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What is IESR?
• Aim: assist other applications to discover and use appropriate materials
• JISC Information Environment– Collections of resources for researchers,
learners, teachers in UK
• Middleware Registry of:– Collections of resources – Services that provide access
• Funded by JISC: Mimas, UKOLN
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Service Registry Use
Registry
Client / PortalCollection / Service
Register / ContributeDiscover
Invoke
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IESR Use Cases
• Ideas about possible uses• Dynamic• Harvest into local registry
– Effectively dynamic
• Static by portal application builder• By a person• By a service application• Contribute by Editor or Harvest
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Metasearch Portal Scenario
• Physicist, Mary: literature survey about Higgs-Boson particle
• Portal discovers bibliographic collections about particle physics with Z39.50– Vocabulary service needed
• Portal provides to Mary result of Z39.50 cross-search using ‘Higgs-Boson’ in ‘title’
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Benefits of Dynamic Use
• Portal– Amalgamated set of resources
• IESR provides:– Discover: resource collections– Locate: access details– Invoke: interface connection details
• Portal builder doesn’t need to know about all resources
• Users discover collections unaware of
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IESR Use by a Person
• Application developer looking for suitable Web Services to plug in
• Materials science lecturer: resources to recommend to students
• Aeronautical engineer: find RSS feeds for personal portal
• Funding Body: collection management tool
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IESR Domain Model
Collection
Service Agentadministrator
ownerhasService
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IESR Entities
• Collection: – Aggregation of resources
• Service: – System that provides one or more functions
• Informational service: – Provides access to a collection
• Transactional service: Other functionality
• Agent:– Collection owner / Service administrator
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IESR Application Profile
• Documents IESR Metadata– Set of properties for each entity
• Based on CEN Guidelines– Semantics– Occurrence
• Additional Attributes– Searchable– General / Specific Attributes– Extended to capture a description set
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IESR Metadata Properties
• Collection Metadata based on DCCAP(based on RSLP Collection Description)
– Plus some specific IESR properties
• Service Metadata bespoke– DC properties where possible– Connection details – interface property –
uses appropriate standard
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Example Imported Property
Name: titleTerm URI: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/titleLabel: TitleDefined By: http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#title
Source Def: A name given to the resourceIESR Def: The name of the collectionCondition: This is the single main title of the
collection and must be presentDataType: <string>Occurrence: Min: 1; Max: 1Searchable: 4, 1097; title
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Another Imported Property
Name: typeTerm URI: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/typeLabel: Access MethodDefined By: http://www.dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#type
Source Def: The nature or genre of the resourceIESR Def: Technical type of interface to serviceEnc Scheme: http://iesr.ac.uk/terms/#AccMthdListDataType: <string>Occurrence: Min: 1; Max: 1Searchable: 1148; accessmthd
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Example IESR Property
Name: usesControlledListTerm URI:
http://iesr.ac.uk/terms/#usesControlledListLabel: Uses Controlled ListDefined By:
http://iesr.ac.uk/terms/#usesControlledListSource Def: A classification scheme used by collectionEnc Scheme: http://iesr.ac.uk/terms/#CtrldVocabsListDataType: <string>Occurrence: Min: 0; Max: unboundedSearchable: 20, 1040, 1112; classn
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IESR XML Schema
• Data supplied in XML (old DC-in-XML)• Serialisation of Application Profile
– Properties -> XML elements – Vocab Encoding Schemes -> XML Attributes
• Not possible to impose Occurrence– Need extra validation checks
• DC element refinements as comments• Not possible to constrain enc schemes• Reluctant to change to new DC-in-XML
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Application Profile Issues
• Multiple entities: description set• IESR specific terms now have `standard’
URIs, eg itemType– Reluctant to change now schema in use– Document mapping in AP comment
• Balance of correctness and completeness against practical usability– Onerous data contribution
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Application Profile Benefits
• Inform Use Cases– All properties should have a use– Find gaps in properties / vocab terms
• Inform data input– Web form editor– Mappings for harvested data
• Human readable documentation of data specification is significant benefit
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Metadata Schema Use
• OCKHAM Registry (US NSDL)– Outcomes of NSF projects
• CETIS / DEST: eLearning/Admin in Australia
• aDORe Digital Object Repository (LANL)• Australian Partnership for Sustainable
Repositories: collection description service
• Standards development:– DC Collections AP: now conformant– NISO Metasearch Initiative CD Spec
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IESR Future
• Funded until July 2009• More content
– E.g. JISC Collections; England NHS
• Persistence and quality of content• Further application development• Further service registry research and
international collaboration • Demonstrate and encourage viable use
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An Application Profile in Practice
• Central data specification to inform– Development of IESR– Application developers– Promotion of IESR Metadata Schema
• Realise domain model into concrete application
• Formal, but human readable, specification
• Invaluable for communication
