Developing an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Application for DFO Marine Data Exchange via the Web

Abstract

Generic data objects, or bricks, have been developed to describe the grouping characteristics of ocean data and metadata. Full definitions for the bricks were developed and the bricks where then implemented in an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) environment. The XML allows added format and content restrictions on XML elements. A full XML schema was developed for the structure representing ocean profile data. A data exchange application was then developed by the Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS), Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) (in cooperation with Defence R&D Canada) to convert profile data from the three ocean labs to the defined XML structure. Applications were developed in Java, Fortran and extensible stylesheet language transformations (XSLT) to port the XML structure to the local formats. Results show that the use of XML has merit in the ocean data community. However, considerable intellectual effort is required in defining the bricks, structure and definitions. Coding requirements are minimal in comparison and should not be considered an impediment to the development of an XML-based exchange language.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA608041

Entities

People

  • Anthony W. Isenor
  • J. R. Keeley
  • Joe Linguanti

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Basic Programming Language
  • Birds
  • Classification
  • Coding
  • Computer Programming
  • Data Centers
  • Data Sets
  • Data Transmission
  • Environment
  • Markup Languages
  • Measurement
  • Oceanography
  • Oceans
  • Operating Systems
  • Reliability
  • Xml

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Oceanography.