[DFDL-WG] Minutes for OGF DFDL Working Group Call, 23 February 2011
Alan Powell
alan_powell at uk.ibm.com
Wed Feb 23 11:42:08 CST 2011
Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group
OGF DFDL Working Group Call, 23 February 2011
Attendees
Alan Powell (IBM)
Steve Hanson (IBM)
Bob McGrath (NCSA)
Apologies
Suman Kalia (IBM)
Joe Futrelle (NCSA)
Stephanie Fetzer (IBM)
1. Current Actions
Updated below
2. AOB
Alan Sill has contacted Steve to understand the relationship between DFDL
and other cloud standards. Steve responded that DFDL was complimentary and
should, in most cases, be referenced where XML is referenced.
Meeting closed, 15:30
Next call Wednesday 2 March 2011 15:00 UK (10:00 ET)
Next action: 138
Actions raised at this meeting
No
Action
137
Map DFDL infoset to XDM
This is an old workitem
Current Actions:
No
Action
066
Investigate format for defining test cases
25/11:IBM to see if it is possible to publish its test case format.
04/12: no update
...
17/02: IBM is willing in principle to publish the test case format and
some of the test cases. May need some time to build a 'compliance suite'
24/03: No progress
03/03: Discussions have been taking place on the subset of tests that will
be provided.
10/03: work is progressing
17/03: work is progressing
31/03: work is progressing
14/04: And XML test case format has been defined and is being tested.
21/04. Schema for TDML defined. Need to define how this and the test cases
will be made public
05/05: Work still progressing
12/05: Work still progressing
02/06: Work still progressing on technical and legal considerations
...
25/08: Will chase to allow Daffodil access to test cases. The WG should
define how implementation confirm that they 'conform to DFDL v1'
01/09: IBM still progressing the legal aspect. Intends to publish 100 or
so tests as soon as it can, ahead of a full compliance suite.
08/09: IBM still progressing
15/09: IBM still progressing, expect tests to be available within a few
weeks
22/09: IBM still progressing, expect tests to be available within a few
weeks
29/09:Test cases are being prepared.
06/10: Some test cases should be available next week. Steve would like to
be able to show the test case information at OGF 30.
13/10: Still progressing
10/11: Legal issues cleared, IBM in process of collecting 100 example test
cases, ideally ones that fit the 'extended conformance' of NCSA Daffodil
17/11: Work is progressing on verifying the test cases. It should be
possible to distribute to the WG in 2 weeks.
24/11: About half the test cases have been completed and are being
reviewed internally.
01/12: Test cases should be available shortly
08/12: The test cases are in internal IBM review. Probably need a bit of
reorganising before publication
Stephanie gave a brief overview of the format of the test cases.
15/12: Ruth joined the call to provide the latest status. The test cases
have been updated and a draft read.me produced. Although not ready for
public distribution Ruth will send them to Joe for feedback.
22/12: Test cases were sent to Joe for initial testing which found some
problems in the Daffodil parser
12/01: All current tests use a default format whih Daffodil doesn't
currently support. Joe suggested that there should be test that defined
the same function using different definition forms. Also suggested that
default formats should be provided by the WG. This had always been the
intention. Action 133 raised to track.
19/01: There is currently no resource available in IBM to make more tests
available. IBM to discuss how/if it can make a 'minimal compliance test
suite' available.
26/01: Action kicked off within IBM. There was a brief discussion abot
naming and organisation of test cases but no preferences were expressed
02/02: IBM will not have the resources to develop a full test suite in the
near future. Steve suggested that we produce a list of required test cases
so that anyone could supply them.
09/02: Steve had previously sent a list of areas to be tested. Please
review.
23/02: Please review Steve's list of areas to be tested
111
Daffodil DFDL parser
11/08: Bob and Alejandro described the new implementation that they have
developed. It is a new code base and is not based on the Deffudle
prototype. It is written in scala and implements approximately 80% of the
features in the public comments draft of DFDL V1. Alejandro will send a
list of the features not implemented.
We discussed the scenarios that motivated the development which was to
extract data from various sources and transform into canonical formats.
Bob offered to make Daffodil available for the WG to assess the
functionality. IBM WG members will get approval the company to allow them
to receive Daffodil.
Bob raised the question that if Daffodil becomes the public implementation
of DFDL then we will need to work out how that would be funded and
managed.
It would be helpful if IBM test cases were available to Daffodil. IBM will
investigate
25/08: Alejandro had sent a list of the functions that he has implemented
and Steve ahd responding indicating the extra functions he thought were
essential.
Since then Alejandro has implemented some of the missing functions, such
as escape schemes, pre-defined variables, binary decimal numbers, etc, and
will update his list.
Bob is planning to make the parser available on the internet to allow
testing.
His organisation is being reorganised and he doesn't know what the
priority of Daffodill will be so it is essential that we move quickly. It
would help if IBM could indicate its support for Daffodil in some
semi-formal way.
01/09: Alejandro updating Daffodil to include escape schemes, unordered
sequences and ignoreCase.
Daffodil being placed under formal source control in anticipation of
external release.
Bob has a start October deadline to create a report on what has been done
for his sponsors.
It would be great if we could get Daffodil on the web and have run some
IBM tests so it could be highlighted at OGF 30 at end October.
08/09: Alejandro is marking up Spec draft 42 to indicate which features
Daffodil implement. Bob expects Daffodil to be available on the web soon.
15/09: Alejandro had indicated in the specification which functions were
implemented in Daffodill. Steve had reviewed and identified which function
need to be implemented and which could be considered optional (see action
099). Alejandro is implementing the missing core functions. There was some
discussion about the limitations on unordered groups. (stop value and
expression not supported). It was agreed that it should be a schema
definition error if dfdl:occursCountKind is 'stopValue' on any element
within an unordered sequence and a floating element.
22/09: not discussed
29/09: not discussed
06/10: Alejandro has left NCSA. Bob is making the case for continuing and
having a replacement. Bob to agree with Steve what can be said at OGF30.
13/10: Bob still progressing project funding and making Daffodil
publically available.
10/11: NCSA internal & sponsor (US National Archive in Washington DC -
Electronic Records Administration) reviews passed. NCSA have new resource
allocated - Joe Futrelle. Bob has started open source paperwork. ETA end
December.
17/11: Joe has started coming up to speed with Daffodil. Bob is waiting
for signoff from the university to open source the code.
24/11: not discussed
01/12: Joe is becoming familiar with the code. Waiting for university to
give permission to make available.
08/12: Disclosure process in progressing. Bob has permission to make the
web page available so hopefully that will be soon.
The US National Archive have an article on their website about DFDL.
Unfortunately it is a little out of date.
15/12: Hope to get permission to make the source code available within
days. Web demo page will be available when resources have been identified.
22/12: An internal demonstration web page has been made available. Initial
testing highlight some problems. Joe investigating.
12/01: Web site has been move to a public URL
http://daffodil.ncsa.uiuc.edu/. Joe thinks there are multiple problems
that will show up when he can run the test cases.
19/01: Joe has had little time to work on Daffodil. Without significant
research into the code it is difficult to know how compliant daffodil is.
Discussed if there are ways the WG could help. Suggestions
- Help review the code
- Review the Daffodil test cases for correctness
- Simplify the IBM test cases to be 'unit tests'
Alan to ask for permission to review test cases and possibly simplifying
the IBM test cases
26/01: Joe has ot had any time to work on Daffodil. We briefly discuessed
if it was possible to use XSLT to transform test cases so they didn't use
defaulting but it didn't seem possible and effort would be better
targetted at the Daffodil code.
Alan had asked for permission to view test cases and subsequently heard
that it has been given.
02/02: Joe will send the Daffodil test cases for Alan to review.
09/02: Alan has received the test cases and will feed back comments. Joe
is looking at support for the default format
16/02: Alan has corrected some of the daffodil test cases and identified
common problems
23/02: No update
112
DFDL certification process
25/08: Discussed how to certify DFDL implementations. Alan to investigate
if OGF have a defined process.
01/09: In progress, spec needs to state what conformance means, as part of
this work
08/09: Discussed what needs to be said in the spec and agreed that details
of a conformance test suite should be in another document.
Alan to draft conformance section.
15/09: Alan had look at the conformance sections in XML and Schema
specifications both of which indicate sections which must be implemented.
None just say 'execute the test suite'. They talk in terms of conformance
of document, schema and processors..
22/09: no progress
22/09: Alan has added short Conformance and Optional Features sections to
spec which was briefly discussed. Discussed naming for processors that
don't implement optional features and those that implement all features.
06/10: Need to decide what/how test cases and certification process should
occur
13/10: no progress
...
08/12: no progress
15/12: no progress
22/12: no progress
12/01: no progress
19/01: Agreed that a minimum compliance test suite needs to be provided.
This could be a test suite and/or a web service that tested DFDL
implementations
26/01: Waiting for test suite.
02/02: We need to document the intention of providing a test suite as the
compliance process.
09/02: Alan will create a 'DFDL conformance' document that will state that
a test suite will be is being developed.
23/02: no update
123
DFDL tutorial
13/10: Draft of first 3 chapters has been written and will be distributed
to WG
10/11: Posted to grid forge here (
http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16106?nav=1), work continuing at IBM
to define a standard example-based chapter framework and to author
additional chapters. Contributors welcome!
17/11: Steve, Stephanie and Alan had a meeting to discuss the best
structure for the tutorial and decide which examples to use throughout.
The meeting raised more questions. Further discussions will be held.
24:11: The list of topics to be covered in the remaining lessons has been
produced and a lesson template. Alan will write lesson 4
01/12: Alan has started lesson 4 which covers fixed and variable fields
and arrays.
08/12: Alan has almost completed lesson 4. Will send out for review.
15/12: First draft of lesson 4 is available for review. Alan to send to
Bob and Joe.
22/12: Alan has distributed drafts for tutorials on Basic Structure and
Optional/Repeating elements. Please review
12/01: Alan distributed a tutorial for choices and updated the others.
Alan and Steve reviewed them and updated versions will be sent soon.
Should start on the 'representation' tutorials soon.
19/01: The tutorials for basic structure, optional/arrays and choices have
be updated. Please review. The tutorial for text elements should be
available soon.
26/01: No comments received about 3 tuorials distributed last week. Alan
is still working on Text representation.
02/02: Steve has sent comments on three tutorials. Alan to send updated
versions by the end of the week. Alan has also distributed the first part
of the tutorial on text representation and would like feedback.
09/02: Steve had reviewed tutorials 3,4,5 and updated versions have been
distributed. Joe reviewed lesson on text elements.
Main points. Using 'represented as text' is confusing. Examples are too
cluttered. Suggest simple targeted examples but still build up to final
complete schema
23/02: New versions distributed and Steve has commented.
124
DFDL web content on OGF standards pages
13/10: no progress
10/11: no progress
17/11: Alan has looked at the OGF web pages and there aren't many
standards listed. Some of the links point to very short primers rather
than the specification
08/12: Alan to produce some information to be ready for when spec is
approved. Still no word about is it was discussed/approved at OGF meeting
15/12: no progress
22/12: Steve has developed a summary web page for DFDL which will be sent
to OGF when spec is approved.
12/01: Not heard from Joel about updated OGF pages Alan to chase.
Will also track other site updates: Wikipedia, IBM developerworks etc.
19/01: Still no response from Joel.
Other web site that need updating
- IBM virtual XML
- Defuddle
- Wikipedia
- Need google trawl for others
Also need to make spec and tutorials more accessible on the web, eg in pdf
and/or html format.
26/01: Still not heard from Joel about OGF web pages.
PDF versions of the Specification and tutorials have been uploaded to
gridforge.
02/02: A DFDL web page is available at www.ogf.org/dfdl. We need to
update the IBM virtual XML and MCSA Defuddle pages. Will ask Mike Beckerle
to update his DFDL page.
09/02: Wikipedia DFDL page is available.
23/02: All sites except Defuddle have been updated.
129
Press release to publicise DFDL
Steve is pulling together a press release at IBM. Want to include as many
contributors and interested parties as possible.NCSA are keen to be
included. Also likely that US National Archive will want to be included.
Mike has indicated OCO are too.
17/11: no progress
08/12: Still no response from IBM press office
15/12: no progress
22/12: no progress
12/01: no progress
19/01: no progress
26/01: no progress
09/02: no progress
23/02: no progress
131
Transformation of dfdl properties to a canonical form
08/12: Joe has produced a XSLT to transform a DFDL schema to a canonical
element form. When tested it should be made available on the WG gidforge
site.
15/12: Alan tested against test dfdl schema which worked correctly (after
fixing some errors in the schema)
22/12: no update
12/01: Joe has some defects to fix before making available on gridforge.
19/01: There is a difficult problem to solve before Joe make the style
sheet public
26/01: Working on problems
02/02: no progress
09/02: As it wasn't a simple as exoected this will be treated as a low
priority action
23/02: low prioity
132
Publishing DFDL xsd
08/12: Agreed that it should be made available. Suman has started the
approval process in IBM
15/12: no progress
22/12: no update
12/01: Suman is getting approval from IBM to publish.
19/01: Waiting to get IBM approval to publish
26/01: no update
02/02: No update
09/02: no update
23/02: no update
133
Make a set of default formats available (SKK)
19/01: Suman expects some default formats to be ready by Feb 9th. Will
need approval to publish
26/01: Stephanie sent the defaults used by test cases to Suman
02/02: no update
09/02: no update
23/02: no update
136
Arrays with missing elements
There is a problem when there are empty/missing array elements with an
index greater than minOccurs. For example:
xs:element name"array" minOccurs=0, maxOccurs=10 lengthKind='delimited'
Datastream: ,,,value3,value4
Infoset will contain:
array[1] = value3
array[2] = value4
This is because elements with an index greater than minOccurs are optional
and so do not get defaulted.
Unparsing this infoset will produce:
Datastream: value3,value4
You could make the empty space (%ES;) the nil value which will work for
simple elements but not for complex.
Infoset will contain:
array[1] = nil
array[2] = nil
array[3] = value3
array[4] = value4
23/02: Discussed options
1. Changed definition of required for arrays to be 'required up to the
last instance in the data stream of the array'
2. add index to the element info item
Steve to investigate if XDM uses an index.
137
Map DFDL infoset to XDM
This is an old workitem
Closed actions
No
Action
Work items:
No
Item
target version
status
042
Mapping of the DFDL infoset to XDM
none
not required for V1 specification
Regards
Alan Powell
Development - MQSeries, Message Broker, ESB
IBM Software Group, Application and Integration Middleware Software
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