MANAGING

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MANAGING INFORMATIONRESOURCES USING XML AND
CONTENT WORKSPACES
A presentation to the CIOs Council XML Working
Group 14 February 2001
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THE CHALLENGE

• To put OMB A-0130 in XML, and to
• show how the XML can be used to
• improve the effectiveness of information
• resource management, as required by
• the policies set out in OMB A-130.

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STEPS TOWARDS A SOLUTION

• 1. Identify the target environment.
• 2. Develop the DTD.
• 3. Create and deploy the content.
• 4. Provide a framework for managing
• the content life cycle and re-use.

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DOCUMENT-ORIENTATED XML APPLICATIONS

• Transactional XML is more than
• HTML Forms.
• Document -orientated XML is more
• than super HTML. It could provide
• a whole new way to manage content.

Step 1. Target Environment
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A DOCUMENT IS PART OF A NETWORK OF REFERENCES
USC
OMB A-130
OMB
CFR
OMB
REFERENCE LINK
Step 1. Target Environment
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A DOCUMENT IS AN AGGREGATE OF INFORMATION
COMPONENTS
OMB A-130
Authorities
Definitions
Policy
Step 1. Target Environment
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THE COMPONENTS ARE THE DOCUMENT
1. The host document could be a shell with links
to its components.
OMB A-130
Authorities
Definitions
Policy
4. And some of these components themselves might
be shells, with links ...
CONTAINMENT LINK
Step 1. Target Environment
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A NEW VIEW OF CONTENT MANGEMENT

• The unit of information content is
• now the component.
• A component may be text, graphics,
• a spreadsheet, data from an RDBMS, or ...
• A document is just another component
• in a web of content.
• How can component creation and re-use
• be managed in this environment?

Step 1. Target Environment
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CONTENT SEMANTICS

• XML provides the means to embed
• content semantics using meaningful
• tags and attributes.
• XML can be used to wrap non-text
• information components.
• The purpose of XML is to enable
• computer programs to manipulate
• both structure and content reliably.

Step 1. Target Environment
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THE USE OF CONTENT SEMANTICS

• Dynamic, user-sensitive rendering.
• Improved indexing and searching.
• Reference links to create a
• semantic web of content.
• Containment links for component
• re-use through virtual documents.

Step 1. Target Environment
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THE ROLE OF THE DTD

• The DTD defines a grammar for
• a family of documents.
• Valid XML requires a DTD.
• Only valid XML ensures reliable machine
• processing of the structure and content.

The DTD we have created for OMB A-130 is only for
the purpose of illustrating the major principles
involved. It is not intended to be a
production-strength example.
Step 2. DTD Development
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A DTD FOR OMB A-130
lt?xml version"1.0" encoding"UTF-8"?gt lt!ELEMENT
omb (Header, Body)gt lt!ELEMENT Header
(OMBCirc.Index, OMBCirc.Title?, OMBCirc.Date?,
OMBCirc.Subject,
OMBCirc.Author?, Content.List)gt lt!ELEMENT Body
(Section1)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBCirc.Index
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBCirc.Title
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBCirc.Date
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBCirc.Subject
(para)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBCirc.Author
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT Content.List
(Content.List.Item)gt lt!ELEMENT Content.List.Item
(PCDATA)gt lt!ATTLIST Content.List.Item PointTo
CDATA IMPLIED gt lt!ELEMENT bold
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT italic (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT
underline (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT title
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT para (PCDATA bold
italic underline ExtDoc)gt
Step 2. DTD Development
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A DTD FOR OMB A-130 use of attributes
lt!ELEMENT Section1 (title, (para
Section2))gt lt!ATTLIST Section1 Type CDATA
IMPLIED xflag CDATA IMPLIED gt lt!ELEMENT
Section2 (title?, (para Section3))gt lt!ATTLIST
Section2 xflag CDATA IMPLIED gt lt!ELEMENT
Section3 (title?, (para Section4))gt lt!ATTLIST
Section3 xflag CDATA IMPLIED gt lt!ELEMENT
Section4 (title?, (para Section5))gt lt!ATTLIST
Section4 xflag CDATA IMPLIED gt lt!ELEMENT
Section5 (title?, (para))gt lt!ATTLIST
Section5 xflag CDATA IMPLIED gt
Step 2. DTD Development
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A DTD FOR OMB A-130 use of named elements
lt!ELEMENT ExtDoc (Act ExecOrder OMBMemo
OtherOMBCirc)gt lt!ELEMENT Act (PCDATA
Act.Section Act.Name Act.Alias Act.Year
USCNumber
PublicLaw)gt lt!ELEMENT ExecOrder (PCDATA
ExecOrder.Section ExecOrder.Num
ExecOrder.Date)gt lt!EL
EMENT OMBMemo (PCDATA OMBMemo.Index
OMBMemo.Description)gt lt!ELEMENT OtherOMBCirc
(PCDATA OtherOMBCirc.Index
OtherOMBCirc.Subject)gt lt!ELEMENT Act.Section
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT Act.Name (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT
Act.Alias (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT Act.Year
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT USCNumber (PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMEN
T PublicLaw (PCDATA PublicLaw.Title
PublicLaw.Range)gt lt!ELEMENT ExecOrder.Num
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT ExecOrder.Section
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT ExecOrder.Date
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBMemo.Index
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OMBMemo.Description
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OtherOMBCirc.Index
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT OtherOMBCirc.Subject
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT PublicLaw.Title
(PCDATA)gt lt!ELEMENT PublicLaw.Range (PCDATA)gt
Step 2. DTD Development
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CREATING EDITING XML

• ONE APROACH
• Train information creators in XML

• BARRIERS
• User resistance to change.
• Training costs/learning curve.

• ANOTHER APROACH
• Apply XML after content creation

• BARRIERS
• On-going correction costs.

Step 3. Content Creation
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AND ANOTHER APPROACHTAGLESS EDITING

• i4is assault on the barriers to enterprise-wide
• deployment of XML creation and editing tools...
• give the user a familiar interface
• Microsoft Word
• hide the tags
• play to the user's understanding
• of the logic of the document

FAMILIAR INTERFACE, SIMPLE PARADIGM
Step 3. Content Creation
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Step 3. Content Creation
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Step 3. Content Creation
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Step 3. Content Creation
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Step 3. Content Creation
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S4/TEXT- TAGLESS EDITOR ARCHITECTURE
Behavioral Instance
Application Layer Tagless Editor
Microsoft Word
DataPipe Layer S4/TEXT
Format Template
Collaboration Services
Data Services Layer S4 and SP
XML Instance
DTD
e-mail
Step 3. Content Creation
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MANAGING CONTENT LIFE-CYCLE AND RE-USE

• The web of content raises new problems
• How can information creators understand the
  content web and manage their work?
• How are legacy resources included?

Step 4. Managing Life Cycle Re-use
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CONTENT WORKSPACES

• A content workspace is a visual metaphor
• representing the components for a task --
• a browser is not enough.
• A content workspace is a product of the
• metadata -- the tags, attributes and other
  properties, plus links, derived from the XML.
• A content workspace is itself a virtual
• document, supported by a metadata
• server, while the actual content resides
• elsewhere.

Step 4. Managing Life Cycle Re-use
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Step 4. Managing Life Cycle Re-use
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S4/ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE
S4/ENTERPRISE CLIENT
S4/TEXT
OTHER TOOLS
P C
SOAP/HTTP/TCP/IP
S4/ENTERPRISE Server(s)
Content Mgt. Sys.
File Server
Web Server
RDBMS Server
Step 4. Managing Life Cycle Re-use
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SUMMARY

• XML can deliver a semantic web of content.
• XML can be deployed enterprise-wide
• without an army of markup technicians.
• XML can be deployed incrementally to
• protect your current investment.
• As an open standard, your investment in
• XML is protected.

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CONTACT US

• By e-mail By phone
• kthomas_at_i4i.com [phone] x202
• hjohnson_at_i4i.com [phone] x216
• jpoisson_at_i4i.com [phone] x294
• Visit our Web site
• www.i4i.com

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Tagless Editing Demousing OMB A-130