[DFDL-WG] DFDL WG Call 2009-04-22: Agenda

Wed Apr 22 05:53:18 CDT 2009

I propose a change to the way things are discussed on the call. To prevent 
build-up of actions, the first thing discussed on the call are the current 
set of actions, followed by other agenda items. The mailed agenda will 
contain the current actions in pdf form.

Agenda:

1. Go through actions - see pdf

2. OGF 26 in Chapel Hill, NC

3. OMG non-XML/XML Information Transformation Standardization (RFI) - see 
below.

4.  Short and long form properties require all dfdl properties to be 
defined at least twice in the schema for DFDL

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OMG non-XML/XML Information Transformation Standardization (RFI)

The Object Management Group (OMG)[1] is pursuing the standardization of 
non-XML/XML information transformation. The Middleware and Related 
Services (MARS) Platform Task Force (PTF)[2] Information Exchange 
Framework (IEF) Working Group[3] has released an Information 
Transformation Request for Information (RFI)[4] to collect concepts, 
participation and scope for creating and publishing the respective Request 
for Proposal (RFP).

Responses to the RFI should consist of one electronic copy in 
machine-readable format (typically ASCII, MS Word, or WordPerfect format) 
sent to omg-documents at omg.org, and one paper copy sent to the OMG postal 
address below:

Object Management Group, Inc.
140 Kendrick Street
Building A Suite 300
Needham, MA 02494
USA
Attn: Information Transformation Services RFI

At the last meeting the RFI was extended to May 25th 2009, 4 weeks before 
the San Jose, Costa Rica meeting. However companies can request an 
extension to provide time to response. Progress of responses can be found 
at 
http://www.omg.org/techprocess/meetings/schedule/Information_Transformation_RFI.html
. The benefits in responding to this RFI include improving the 
systems-of-systems integration community life-cycle-costs and provide an 
opportunity to scope the standardization process around your specific 
solution such as the WebSphere ESB Mediation and Transformation 
Technologies. 

The Information Transformation RFI is attached with a summary below. Your 
input and participation is greatly appreciated to establish a standard in 
the long needed non-XML/XML information transformation methodology. There 
are many existing implementations within the industry that provide great 
potential to be standardized in whole or by parts. 

In today?s world, many information transformation solutions exist. Within 
the XML information technology domain, solutions have been standardized by 
the W3C and other standards bodies such as Organization for the 
Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). Even though XML 
is only ten years old, there has been much success in developing and 
standardizing XML information transformation technologies, but on the 
other hand, non-XML transformation methodologies for the most part have 
been ignored. This may be a side effect of an assumption that all 
information exchange instances across all vertical markets can use XML. 
Though this has proven to be wrong, application server, ESB and database 
providers have recognized the need to ease non-XML information 
transformation development by providing GUI and declarative methods. The 
problem is that these methods are proprietary, and often use closed 
architecture techniques. This presents a risk of vendor lock-in, which 
application developers and system integrators seek to avoid. This risk is 
even greater within standardized frameworks such as ESB. While ESB 
relevant wire, definition, and protocol standards include J2CA, JMS, SOAP, 
HTTP, WSDL, JDBC, XML1XSD, XSLT, XPATH, and several WS-* protocols, 
including WS-Addressing, WS-Security and WS-Reliable Messaging, vendors 
are including proprietary, non-standard extensions to handle required 
functions that are not standardized, like non-XML transformation. The 
elevated risk is the consequence of ESB developers unknowingly using 
everything within the ESB product assuming everything is standards and 
open architecture based. It is well known that ESB's can no longer 
exclusively focus on Web Services or message driven (JMS) use cases. They 
must also provide the ability to "service enable" non-XML based endpoints 
such as mainframes, flat files, Extract Transform Load (ETL) procedures 
and enterprise applications. To this end, the IEF WG is pursuing a non-XML 
transformation standardization effort that will give these middleware 
vendors an option to implement hence avoiding vendor lock-in. Even better, 
perhaps the same technology can be used across middleware capabilities 
such as application servers, ESB and databases.

The goal is also to establish a standard approach for resolving semantics 
across interfaces. While much work has been accomplished using ontologies 
and the semantic Web with respect to information discovery, how these 
technologies can be used to automate system interoperability is a new 
field. Today, it is very typical to expend a knowledge engineering effort 
to resolve mappings between two interfaces. Once resolved, an XSLT is 
generated and the knowledge that provided basis for the rule is lost. The 
question is what can be done to retain this knowledge so it can be applied 
to future integration efforts
.
The intent of this RFI is to gather information about non-XML information 
transformation methodologies and standards; how they can coexist with XML 
standards, application server, ESB and database products; and how should 
the knowledge that defined the transformations be modeled. It is expected 
to get responses from middleware vendors providing their candidate 
solutions, as well as application developers and integrators providing 
their insight to the problems with regard to what issues need to be 
addressed.

The information sought by this RFI will be used to move towards the goal 
of interoperable non-XML and XML that uses a standard data model format 
and standard service interfaces within an Information Exchange Framework. 
The approach is completely open in that the standards may simply point to 
an existing standard, or aggregation of standards; use standards by 
reference; or reuse standards, or any combination of these approaches.

Very respectfully,
Gary Sikora
Progeny Systems Corporation
gsikora at progeny.net
703-795-4684
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Regards

Steve Hanson
Programming Model Architect
WebSphere Message Brokers
Hursley, UK
Internet: smh at uk.ibm.com
Phone (+44)/(0) 1962-815848
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