Content Management using the
Through
experiences
• Translation
of GI Data
ISO/TC 211 standards
ESDI Workshop on CSL and Tools
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
nicolas.lesage@ign.fr
(on behalf of IGN France, DGIWG
and Eurogeographics)
Oct 05
1/19
Modèle TN-02.019 –1.0
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
Context
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• French NMA (IGN), early to mid 90’s
– The base principles are still applicable!!!
• Member of the IGN exchange format team
– Specification of (generic) translator between:
• GIS (Arc Info, Tigris, Geoconcept…) or external exchange
format (EDIGéO, DXF, …)
• the IGN internal exchange format for vector data
– Configuration of the translators for different
data product
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
2/19
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
Generic translators
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Translation rules based at a high
conceptual level
– General Feature Model for the semantic
aspects
– Metadata/Quality schema
– Geometry/Topology schema
• Use of configuration files for a given data
product
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
3/19
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
Need for transformation tools
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Generic transformation tools to manage
the major conceptual mismatches
– « application schema » transformation
– Geometry/Topology transformation
– CRS transformation
• Sometimes, need for pre/post processing
using the GIS abilities
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
4/19
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
“exchange convention”
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• An agreement between a data provider and a
data customer on a full interchange process
–
–
–
–
–
pre processing
translator configuration
transformation tools and their configuration
controls
post processing
• A principle to keep in mind for any kind of
interchange
– What about a “delivery specification” standard?
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
5/19
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
The technological gaps - GFM
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• No more geometry-oriented
feature types
– multiple geometry
– separation of geometry and
topology
– different management of
topology
•
no or less layering constraints
• Object-oriented approach
– Inheritance/abstraction
– Operation!?
• Formalisation of constraints
Theme/Layer
0..1
Contains
1..*
Feature Attribute Type
0..*
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
6/19
+attributeType
Point Feature Type
Line Feature Type
<<Abstract>>
Feature Type
+component
is Composed Of
1..*
Area Feature Type
Complex Feature Type +composite
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
Technological opportunities
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Well formalised and standardised GI concepts
– modular abstract schemas (ISO 19115, ISO 19107, ISO
19108, …)
• Should ease the establishment of transformation rules
(Divide to conquer)
– a standardised GFM
• a reference for establishing transformation rules
– disconnection of the concepts and their encoding
• Distributed environment
– Emergence of Web Services
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
7/19
• CRS transformation, data access and transformation
• A Web service is a standard interface for transformation
tools
Experience in translation and
interchange of GI data
Some technological opportunities, but …
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• Technological gaps to be managed
– the GI system / software are not yet fully ready to support the
ISO/TC 211 standards (GFM and abstract schemas)
– Need to move forward in a controlled manner
• simple features, enhanced simple features, …
• implies a high level (OGC, ISO/TC 211, …) scheduling
• No miracle
• MGCP
– The processing requirements are still the same
• Web Services will not necessarily met all those processing requirements
• but, we can take advantage of our experience
– “High level transformation rules” still needed (at least as long
as systems/softwares don’t handle the GFM)
– Dangerous to rely the GI Technology on the XML Technique
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
8/19
• Need for formalising some of the OGC Specification in a CSL (UML?)
• e.g., FE, WFS-X
• A consistent use of the ISO standards is a challenge
ISO 19139 Experience
About defining encoding rules
• It’s a hard task because
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
– it involves mapping at a high conceptual level
• and so, a good understanding of CSL and XML concepts
– it requires to consider the actual or short/mid term usage
of the encoding (and CSL)
• It’s consequently an area for standardisation
– with possible difficulties to come up to an agreement
– with a need for clear requirements
• It’s possible
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
9/19
– but, it requires the involvement of relevant experts
– the higher is the representation of the domain actors, the
better is the result
ISO 19139 Experience
Encoding rules and transformation tools
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Transformation tools are needed, but are accessory
– Two pieces of software have been developed by ISO 19139 PT
members and have produces compatible result
• A clear understanding of the encoding rules is the challenge
• The issue is a general standardisation issue
– Generation of XML Schemas is not achieved so often
• Encoding rules make the transformation tool easier to
develop
• The encoding rules and transformation tools are not
dependant on the CSL Tool
– the effective transformation can be processed outside of CSL
Tool, using or not a “standard CSL exchange format”
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
10/19
• Standardisation of XMI is a challenge in term of CSL Tool use, but is not a
specific issue for transformation tools
The MGCP Experience
Context
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• A Military Co-production initiative for 1:50K
equivalent scale vector database
• Product content varies depending on the sources
available
– will to keep track of the content variation
– General and common content requirements,
– but, the content reqs may be specialised
• Use of the DFDD data dictionary (FACC) as the
reference for GI concept definitions
• Data interchange by transfer:
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
11/19
– ESRI SHAPE format used for the data, but GML may be
used later
The MGCP Experience
Application schema vs Feature catalogue (1/2)
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
What are the respective
roles of application schema
and feature catalogue?
• MGCP
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
12/19
The MGCP Experience
Application schema vs Feature catalogue (2/2)
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
–
–
–
–
Expressed using a CSL
Managed using a CSL Tool => Can’t be easily queried
Provide a useful visual understanding of a product content
Depending on CSL, allow for user community extensions
(tagged information)
• Feature Catalogue
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
• Application schema
13/19
– Abstract specification which can be implemented as a
database or register and as an interchange format (e.g. XML)
– Can be more easily queried, but is is not designed for display
– Is considered limited to the semantic aspect of a product
content (no geometry/topology, no metadata/quality, …)
– Provide a mean to rely the Feature types, Attributes Types,
Association types and roles to external concepts
• e.g. a normal dictionary, a 19126 data dictionary or a more “abstract” FC
The MGCP Experience
MGCP assumption
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Limiting the use of ISO 19110 (FC) to the semantic aspects
is like using UML for abstract classes!?
– ISO 19110 abstract schemas can support any types of
attributes, including metadata, geometry, topology, …
– It is possible to establish abstract FC dealing only with the
semantic aspect of data products
– But, it is also possible to establish concrete FC handling the full
data product content and referencing an abstract FC
• FC can be used for managing product contents
– An application schema can be derived from a concrete FC
– the product content can be accessed, queried, modified and
interchanged more conveniently
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
14/19
The MGCP Experience
Implementation of ISO 19110
ISO
19110
19110
MGCP
Profile
19110
Amndt
Content
Management
19139 Encoding rules
• Translation
of GI Data
19110
XSD
19139
XSD
MGCP
XSD
DFDD
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
Is compliant with
General FC
Raw
XML
Export
Excel
Macro
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Specialised FC
Oct 05
15/19
FC
MGCP
XML
XSL
Transf.
Raw
XML
Export
References
References
Profiled
FC
MGCP
XML
XSL
view
The MGCP Experience
From the MGCP FC to an AS
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• Generation of a UML AS from the XML FC
– 1 hour to have an XSL generating a cat file
– A very poor AS generated as expected
• no Association, no inheritance, …
• the initial FC was non as poor
• Ad hoc meeting for establishing rules for
enhancing the application schema
– use of DFDD codes as stereotypes
– rules for classification (inheritance)
– rules for expressing topological constraints
• Optimisation of the AS
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
16/19
– FC can be viewed as expressing a profile of the new AS
– An abstract FC could be generated from the new AS
The MGCP Experience
Issues
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
17/19
• Generation of control tools from CSL constraints
– Dream or reality?
– Literal conformance requirements to be documented
• Compatibility of AS related to a single abstract FC
The MGCP Experience
The GI standardisation paradox
When?
Content
Management
-19126 NWIP
Data Dictionary
Later
- ISO/DIS 19131
Data product specification
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
Tomorrow
Feature Catalogue
Today
- ISO 19110
- but, experimental use
- This workshop
Application Schema
Yesterday
GML Schema
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
18/19
- ISO/DIS 19136
- GML 3.0
- GML 2.x
Standardisation
Time axis
Conclusion
Content
Management
• Translation
of GI Data
• 19139 PT
• MGCP
• No need for Geo-specific UML softwares
– but, use/enhance ISO/TC 211 profile of UML
• Let’s use the available standard to manage the
data product content independently of any CSL
– ISO 19110, ISO 19131
– Contribute to ISO 19126
• Need for new standards
Standardization unit
DT.TN/05.097
Oct 05
19/19
– delivery specification
– AS/FC transformation