Re: [uddi-spec] Taxonomy Browsing/Navigation Requirements

[Paul Denning <pauld@mitre.org>]

At 08:06 AM 2004-05-04, John Colgrave wrote:
>1) Representation of taxonomies
>
>How should taxonomies be presented to clients when returned from the new
>browse/query API?
>
>I would imagine that client/tool vendors would want to be able to load the
>same taxonomy file that a registry loads (that is the approach that the IBM
>tooling adopts) so I imagine that clients/tools will be written to support
>OWL in RDF/XML, which means that returning RDF/XML from the UDDI API would
>be a good thing as a client would only have to support one format.  The
>RDF/XML would probably have to be generated from the current state of the
>taxonomy in the UDDI registry, so this is effectively the export function
>that I mentioned in the FTF.
>
>Alternatively, we could define a schema very like Tony's proposal and use
>that as the UDDI-specific exchange syntax between a UDDI registry and a UDDI
>client.

As I said before [1],

I think the overviewURL of a taxonomy tModel should point to a RDDL 
document, which then points to downloadable representations of the taxonomy.

The rddl:nature would tell you whether its OWL, XTM, or some other form.

The rddl:purpose would tell you the primary usage for that representation 
(e.g., client side GUI, simple keyValue validation, etc.)

A client-side tool can search UDDI for taxonomy tModels, follow the 
overviewURL to the RDDL,  look for rddl:nature attributes that they can 
grok, and download the XML file pointed to by the RDDL.  The tool can then 
render the taxonomy in the tool GUI and provide better response time to the 
user than drilling down with a browser through the limited set of checked 
(internal or external) taxonomies supported by a UDDI registry and its web GUI.

As an example, see tModel [2].  Follow its overviewURL in a browser (works 
in IE, but Firefox renders per MIME text/plain).  View source to see 
rddl:nature and rddl:purpose.  Links to taxonomy files that can be uploaded 
to MS and Systinet UDDI servers.

[1] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/uddi-spec/200403/msg00088.html
[2] 
http://uddi.ibm.com/ubr/uddiget?tModelKey=UUID%3A49BE0F40-E9F9-11D7-B602-000629DC0A53

Paul