Open Grid Forum: Data Format Description Language Working Group

OGF DFDL Working Group Call, 24 November 2010

Attendees
Stephanie Fetzer (IBM)
Steve Hanson (IBM)
Alan Powell (IBM)
Suman Kalia (IBM)

Apologies
Tim Kimber(IBM)
Bob McGrath (NCSA)
Joe Futrelle (NCSA)

1. Current Actions
Updated below.

2. AOB
Agreed updates to description of dfdl:lengthKind 'endOfParent'

Agreed that no change is necessary to the description of nil and default processing.

Meeting closed, 16:00

Next call Wednesday 1 December 2010 15:00 UK (10:00 ET)

Next action: 131

Actions raised at this meeting

No
Action

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.

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

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
10/11: no progress
17/11: no progress
24/11: no progress

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

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
24/11: no progress

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
24/11: no progress

130
Use of DFDL by OMG MARS IEF ITS
17/11: Gary gave us some background on how the standards process at OMG works in practice. He described the status of the IEF work group and the RFI that the DFDL WG had responded to. He suggested it would require direct support from interested parties, such as members of the OGF DFDL WG, to have DFDL adopted which would require a considerable commitment of time and resource. Steve will contact the IBM OMG representative to discuss further actions
24/11: Steve has emailed IBM OMG contacts but had no response

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

070
Write DFDL primer

071
Write test cases.

Regards

Alan Powell

Development - MQSeries, Message Broker, ESB
IBM Software Group, Application and Integration Middleware Software
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IBM
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Phone: +44-1962-815073
e-mail: alan_powell@uk.ibm.com

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Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU

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.
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
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 10/11: no progress 17/11: no progress 24/11: no progress
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
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 24/11: no progress
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 24/11: no progress
130	Use of DFDL by OMG MARS IEF ITS 17/11: Gary gave us some background on how the standards process at OMG works in practice. He described the status of the IEF work group and the RFI that the DFDL WG had responded to. He suggested it would require direct support from interested parties, such as members of the OGF DFDL WG, to have DFDL adopted which would require a considerable commitment of time and resource. Steve will contact the IBM OMG representative to discuss further actions 24/11: Steve has emailed IBM OMG contacts but had no response

No	Item	target version	status
042	Mapping of the DFDL infoset to XDM	none	not required for V1 specification
070	Write DFDL primer
071	Write test cases.