Betty Harvey Electronic Commerce Connection, Inc. harvey@eccnet.com Many of the slides used in this presentation were developed jointly by K. C. Morris (NIST), Josh Lubell (NIST) and myself. This presentation will provide the following information: What is an NDR Why we need NDR's The importance of validating NDR's NDRProfile schema Demonstration of validating NDR's using the National Institute of Technology and Standards (NIST) Quality of Design (QOD) tool.

XML schemaNaming and Design Rules (NDRs) are intended to help organizations enforce best practices, a particular modeling methodology, or conformance to common nomenclature policies. Many optional features Poorly understood features Too many choices in schema design lowercase, lowerCamelCase, UpperCamelCase, or UPPERCASE URL or URN for namespaces declare local or global scope for elements versioning, modularity, and extensions etc... Standard set of rules for describing NDR rules Use of open standards when developing NDRs Standard structured vocabulary for describing NDR rules

A 'paper' NDR does not provide a complete picture for interoperability A process to ensure interoperability of data models We need a building process Design the bridge Test the design Build the foundation Assemble the structure Test the bridge Many components are standardized Many standards are used

Enables exchange of NDR profiles between parties. Facilitates import/export of NDR rules with QOD. Can be developed using standard-based tools Is machine (computer) readable Multiple presentation methods for human visualization of rules HTML/PDF/Excel, etc. Most organizations that are developing enterprise-wide XML develop an NDR. A few of the organizations that have created NDR's. Universal Business Language UN/CEFACT National Information Exchange Model (NEIM) US Department of Navy Saudi Arabia Government

In this section we will briefly provide information about methodologies for validaint NDR's. The following methods can be used for validation of NDR. Human Analysis Schematron Assertion Language NIST Quality of Design (QOD) Tool ISO/IEC 19757-3 XML schema language Rule based, not grammar based Unlike DTD and XSD, Schematron supports natural language assertions and invokes a query language Default query language is extended version of XPath 1.0 specified in XSLT 1.0 Can be used with XPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0 Schematron can be used for business rules-based assertions for any XML construct, not just XSD.

Advantages

XML-native (based on XPath) Rule-based Can test for co-occurrence constraints User-configurable diagnostic messages ISO standard Easy to combine with XSD or RELAX NG

Disadvantages

Less convenient than grammar-based schema languages for checking document structure XPath expertise required to write rules NIST created the Quality of Design (QOD) web application (http://www.nist.gov/qod) to address these barriers. QOD provides a mechanism for checking XML schema design quality against NDRs in a collaborative environment. Plans for the next version include better support for sharing and publication of rules with the intention of maintaining an extensive set of reusable test cases. NIST has developed a web-based application for validating NDR Rules. Import and export of rule collections into and from the QOD. The ability to publish NDR documentation from XML. The ability to exchange NDR rule collections, including tests for the rules. The ability reo reuse rules that have test cases included. A repository for managing collections of NDR rules. URL for QOD: http://www.nist.gov/qod. Web-based hosted by NIST [Strawberry] In-house web-based [Chocolate] Standalone (single machine - not web interface) [Vanilla] QOD supports test cases encoded in either Schematron or JESS. SchematronAn ISO ISO/IEC International Standard for Schematron . Schematron 1.5 ISO Schematron JESSJava Expert System Shell -http://www.jessrules.com/ QOD has two methods for adding test cases into QOD. Creating test cases directly using QOD user interface Importing profiles into QOD from an XML schema conforming to the NDR Profile Schema.

QOD Test Case Interface

QOD currently at Version 1 Version 2 will be available soon. Many enhancements. More intuitive user interface Enhanced inheritance of components in the NDR Profile Schema. QOD use is open to the public at: http://www.nist.gov/qod QOD can be downloaded for internal use on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qod/ Standalone version of QOD http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/QOD_Standalone.html Version 2.0 expected to be available in late summer or early fall, 2009 Enhanced functionality Enhanced user interface Support NDRProfile 2.0 Schema

This section will provide information and structures of the NDRProfile Exchange Schema. Ability to import NDR rules into QOD Ability to export NDR rules from QOD Edit NDR Rules with standard XML authoring tools Create new NDR Profiles from existing rules in QOD.

NDRProfile Data Model

Walk through the Schema Every rule in an NDR that can be tested is required to have a separate <guidance> element.

Guidance Data Model

<Guidance guidanceID="ELD2" documentationID="rule-ELD2" prefixNumber="2" prefixToken="ELD"> <OrganizationInformation> <OrganizationName>Universal Business Language</OrganizationName> <OrganizationPrefix>UBL</OrganizationPrefix> </OrganizationInformation> <SourceNDR> <SourceName>Local</SourceName> <SourceVersion>2.0</SourceVersion> </SourceNDR> <DerivedFrom> <SourceName>UBL</SourceName> <SourceVersion>1.0.1</SourceVersion> <SourceDate>2004-11-05</SourceDate> </DerivedFrom> <Testability>Fully-Testable</Testability><GuidanceText> [ELD2] All element declarations MUST be global. </GuidanceText> <TestCases> <TestCase ruleType="Schematron1.5" testCaseID="ELD2-1"> <TestName>ELD2</TestName> <Script><![CDATA[ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <sch:schema xmlns:sch="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"> <sch:ns uri="http://www.w3.org/3301/XMLSchema" prefix="xsd"/> <sch:pattern id="UBL-2.0-ELD-2"> <sch:rule context="*[(local-name(.) = 'sequence') and (namespace-uri(.) = 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema')]"> <sch:report diagnostics="UBL-2.0-ELD-2d" test="not(element[@name])"> [ELD2] All element declarations MUST be global.</sch:report> </sch:rule> <sch:rule context="*[(local-name(.) = 'choice') and (namespace-uri(.) = 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema')]"> <sch:report diagnostics="UBL-2.0-ELD-2d" test="not(element[@name])"> [ELD2] All element declarations MUST be global.</sch:report> </sch:rule> </sch:pattern> <sch:diagnostics> <sch:diagnostic id="UBL-2.0-ELD-2d"> . Mixed content is not allowed in UBL schemas.</sch:diagnostic> </sch:diagnostics> </sch:schema> ]]></Script> </TestCase> </TestCases> </Guidance>

This section will provide information about how to develop NDR Profile documents (instances). The NDR Profile and can be developed using any native XML validating editors. XMetal, Arbortext Editor XML Spy Oxygen Syntext (now Open Source) etc. CSS and XSLT stylesheets have been developed that can be used by many XML Editor to provide Word-like interface in many tools. These are available on Source Forge. NIST has provided methods for developing/creating NDR Profile XML Exchange Documents conforming to the NDR Profile Schema Export from QOD XForms creation Client Side Available on SourceForge Server Side – Orbeon XForms Server (prototype) http://www.eccnet.com:8080/XForms/ndr/ Excel Spreadsheet Template XSLT transform from Excel to NDR Profile XSLT Available on SourceForce The Manufacturing Interoperability Program (MIP) XML Testbed has been developed by NIST's Manufacturing Systems Integration Division in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. They have developed a number of tools to support system integration. Information about the tools can be found at: http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/tools.html Content Checker and QOD http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/ NDRProfile http://qod.sourceforge.net/ndrprofile/ Constraint Generator and QOD Standalone http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/QOD_Standalone.html Demo of QOD http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/XML_testbed/QOD.html