Re: Fwd: [Exist-open] existing eXist applications :-)

[Jean-Marc V. <jm...@fr...>]

Hi David, your input about the XML Schema is very fine.
Also don't you have some tiny application to tell us about ?

David Mundie wrote:

>
> Thinking about this some more, it seems to me that we should use the 
> Dublin Core nomenclature where it corresponds to Jean-Marc's proposal. 
> (The only thing worse than using the Dublin Core is re-inventing it!)
>
> Here are the correspondences I see:
>
>    name = dc:title
>    domain = dc:subject
>    description = dc:description
>    author = dc:creator
>    production-site  = dc:identifier
>    dev-site = dc:relation
>    institution = dc:publisher
>    license = dc:rights
>
> Using the DC would have some obvious advantages in terms of 
> interoperability and extensibility - if someone wanted to specify the 
> language of an eXist database, or the date, they wouldn't have to 
> fumble around.

Thanks for reminding me this, I totally aggree about interoperability. 
Provided that the intended semantic of each DC property is respected.
So I had a look at the Dublin Core standard 
(http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/).

I had doubts about :

   production-site  = dc:identifier
   dev-site = dc:relation
   institution = dc:publisher
   license = dc:rights

Let's revisit them in turn.

   production-site  = dc:identifier

The standard says:
Recommended best practice is to identify the resource by means of a 
string or number conforming to a formal identification system. Example 
formal identification systems include the Uniform Resource Identifier 
(URI) (including the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), the Digital Object 
Identifier (DOI) and the International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

My (JMV's) Comment:
First the production-site is more than a unique identifier. It is first 
and above all the URL of an active Web site.
Second it is not a unique identifier; there can be several production 
sites for the same application.
Third it is not an identifier at all. The application can be an embedded 
eXist GUI application, thus with NO SITE AT ALL.

===
   dev-site = dc:relation

The standard says:
Definition:
A reference to a related resource.
Comment:
Recommended best practice is to reference the resource by means of a 
string or number conforming to a formal identification system.

My (JMV's) Comment:
 From the point of view of the developper, the development site is not a 
related resource, it is the main thing.
However, if the application is not open source, the developpement site, 
if any, is generally hiden.

===
   institution = dc:publisher

The standard says:
Definition:
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Comment:
Examples of a Publisher include a person, an organisation, or a service. 
Typically, the name of a Publisher should be used to indicate the entity.

My (JMV's) Comment:
Also the semantic is typically for the publisher of a book, this seems 
to fit.

===
   license = dc:rights
The standard says:
Typically, a Rights element will contain a rights management statement 
for the resource, or reference a service providing such information. 
Rights information often encompasses Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), 
Copyright, and various Property Rights. If the Rights element is absent, 
no assumptions can be made about the status of these and other rights 
with respect to the resource.

My (JMV's) Comment:
Also the semantic is typically for the publisher of a book, this seems 
to fit.

===
    database/@size
    database/@documents = dc:format

Definition:
The physical or digital manifestation of the resource.
Comment:
Typically, Format may include the media-type or dimensions of the 
resource. Format may be used to determine the software, hardware or 
other equipment needed to display or operate the resource. Examples of 
dimensions include size and duration. Recommended best practice is to 
select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the list of 
Internet Media Types [MIME] defining computer media formats).

My (JMV's) Comment:
At first I was convinced. And then I realized that we are describing an 
application, not a database. So, if we were using dc:format, it would be 
the format of the application itself. Why not for this purpose. I 
suppose that the possibilities will be:
- eXist distribution add-on (e.g. Cocoon sub-sitemap)
- .jar for standalone app.
- .war for J2EE web app.

======

My (JMV's) conclusion
---------------------

I propose to use these DC tags to replace my originally proposed tags:
- dc:title
- dc:subject
- dc:description
- dc:creator
- dc:publisher
- dc:rights

I propose to keep these originally proposed tags:
- production-site - Cardinality : 0..*
- dev-site        - Cardinality : 0..1

They have a well-known semantic for an application. Generally at least 
one of them exists, but for an Intranet non open source application, 
none exists.
A dc:identifier can be deduced: if a dev-site exists, it will be the 
dc:identifier. Otherwise, the first of the production-site will be used. 
Otherwise, the dc:publisher or dc:creator will be used.

Here is the updated sample application element. I still have to search 
on http://xml.org Schema repository to see if some of the Schemas can be 
reused.

<applications
    using="http://exist-db.org/"
    xmlns="http://exist-db.org/"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
 >
 <application>
     <dc:creator> <html:a href="http://jmvanel.free.fr/">J.M. 
Vanel</html:a> </dc:creator>
     <dc:identifier>http://wwbota.free.fr/</dc:identifier>
     <dc:rights>GPL</dc:rights>
     <dc:title>Botanical Database</dc:title>
     <dc:subject>biology</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>taxonomy</dc:subject>
     <dc:subject>botany</dc:subject>
     <dc:description> Search engine for Flora of China descriptions.
          Aims at being a computer-aided identification tool for specimens.
     </dc:description>
     <dc:publisher> Worldwide Botanical Knowledge </dc:publisher>
     <dc:format>eXist distribution add-on: Cocoon sub-sitemap</dc:format>

  <dev-site>http://wwbota.free.fr/</dev-site>
  <production-site>http://jmvanel.free.fr/protea.html</production-site>
  <feature-used>XQuery</feature-used>
  <feature-used>Cocoon</feature-used>
  <database size="30Mb" documents="1" updates="rare" security='read for 
all' />
  <dev-notes> XSP pages, XSLT styles, java classes interpreting user 
input and generating XQuery </dev-notes>
  <submitter />
 </application>
</applications>