Re: [regrep] RIM as a Data Dictionary

[Farrukh Najmi <Farrukh.Najmi@Sun.COM>]

Chiusano Joseph wrote:

> Looking for the TC's thoughts here please:
>
>  
>
> Recently, one of my US federal contacts who has seen multiple demos of 
> ebXML Registry asked me the following question: Can RIM be used as a 
> Data Dictionary?
>
>  
>
> Here is the original inquiry:
>
>  
>
> <Inquiry>
>
> Someone suggested using the ebXML registry (meaning the RIM) as a 
> 'data dictionary'. While it does support some 11179 constructs, I 
> don't think this is a good application of the RIM (in addition to the 
> bunch of custom code that would be needed).
>
>  
>
> I would prefer that the registry provide metadata input to a 
> dictionary, each of which is a component of a federated metadata system.
>
> </Inquiry>
>
>  
>
> I then asked for a clarification of their use of the term "data 
> dictionary", since it is broad:
>
>  
>
> <Clarification>
>
> For our purpose, lets assume that our data dictionary contains 
> typical 'stuff': metadata for classes, attributes, relationships, and 
> domain codelists for the attributes -- all from our enterprise logical 
> data model. Might even contain metadata for our operational databases 
> --- tables and columns, and their mapping to the logical data model. 
> It also contains metadata for our data stewards, along with business 
> definitions and names for the classes and attributes. This is all good 
> stuff that where we can apply 11179.
>
> </Clarification>
>
>  
>
> In closing, they said:
>
>  
>
> <Closing>
>
> My own opinion is that, while the registry rim does not directly 
> support this level of data dictionary, we could use the rim, but we 
> would need to write a lot of code to provide the functionality. 
> But that's not the purpose the XML registry rim, so my response is no, 
> we don't use the XML registry for our data dictionary.
>
> </Closing> 
>
>  
>
> My thought is that since our RIM is abstract and extensible, there are 
> at least 2 possibilities:
>
>  
>
> (1) One could implement ebXML Registry per our specs and configure it 
> such that the RegistryObjects were the items listed within 
> <Clarification> above;
>
> (2) A vendor could create an application that offers such 
> functionality, with ebXML Registry as its engine - and if 
> this existed, it could be used by this person;
>
>  
>
Add:

(3) An open source project could create an application that offers such 
functionality, with ebXML Registry as its engine. See for example recent 
announcement of freebXML CC by Diego Ballve:

    http://ebxmlcc.sourceforge.net/

This project uses freebXML Registry as its platform.

Diego's company Digital Artefacts is also doing (2)

UN/CEFACT-ICG has adopted ebXML Registry for managing Controlled 
Vocabularies defined by ebXML Core Components.

I know of several orgs that are already using or planning to use ebXML 
Registry as a data dictionary. Managing Controlled Vocabularies is a key 
application of ebXML Registry.

-- 
Regards,
Farrukh