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MetaAPI

Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD work session on statistical metadata (METIS) Geneva, 9-11 February 2004, Topic (ii): Metadata interchange / WP.6. MetaAPI – improving the usability of existing metadata systems by application programming interface. Statistics Finland’s metadata systems.

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MetaAPI

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  1. Joint UNECE/Eurostat/OECD work session on statistical metadata (METIS) Geneva, 9-11 February 2004, Topic (ii): Metadata interchange / WP.6 MetaAPI – improving the usability of existing metadata systems by application programming interface Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  2. Statistics Finland’s metadata systems Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  3. Classification database (main menu screen) Classifications Correspondence tables Definitions Key words Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  4. Classification screen Metadata window Code Label Metadata Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  5. Classification versions in the database Classification version Text version Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  6. Problems with the present metadata systems • User interfaces are somewhat outdated • Technical and statistical metadata are intermingled • There is no direct data connection to several file formats • Text descriptions are not sufficiently structured and the description power of plain text is not adequate for mathematical formulas, figures, highlighting, etc. • Training in application development does not yet have any practical connection to metadata systems Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  7. TUOTANTOMALLIPROJEKTI TILASTOKESKUS Production model project • Improves the production processes in our office • Covers collecting, storing, processing and disseminating of data • Utilises modern technologies, tools and IT methods • Data warehousing, software architectures, XML, web services, application development tools etc. • Different kinds of metadata is needed in all phases of production • We had no time (or knowledge) to find the perfect and final metadata solutions • We had no time to rewrite everything we already had • A flexible, software independent solution with added change tolerance was needed to start with Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  8. MetaAPI structure MetaAPI = Metadata Application Programming Interface Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  9. MetaAPI services • At the moment we have some basic classification services • For getting codes, labels, definitions, key words • Read only, internal only • Basic services to produce large result sets concerning a single metadata object (e.g. one classification, statistical concept or survey data with all metadata concerning it) • Schemas for the structure of objects are needed • With these few services we can access all stored metadata • Special services for more specialised common tasks (e.g. getting a label for a single code) • Using “sub schemas” of the above Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  10. MetaAPI services in the future • All classification services (including correspondence tables, etc.) • Concept services • Services for the metadata of data files • Services to create and maintain metadata • Services for mixed tasks (e.g. producing metadata rich publication tables) • External services? Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  11. How does it work, what the user sees • Example from our testing site: Getting classification codes and labels some server activity Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  12. How does it work, what really happens EasyMeta SOAP request MetaServices • Getting classification codes and labels TKMeta Classification API ConceptAPI UFileAPI SOAP response etc. Data Access ... Class. db Conc. db UFD db etc. Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  13. MetaAPI implementation • Server side • .NET web service components (public interface) • .NET binary components (internal interfaces) • Sybase and MS SQL Server databases to store metadata • Client side • .NET, PowerBuilder, SAS applications • XML based systems in dissemination • Browsers • Anything (with support of using web services) Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  14. Change management • We want to • … have the possibility to adopt new standards and common tools in the future without changing everything • … isolate the effects of system changes to a known area • That is why • … we should not allow direct connections to metadata systems and databases • … all metadata business should take place through MetaAPI • However, the uncertainty of the remaining lifetime of the present systems has slightly slowed down the speed of creating new services into MetaAPI Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  15. Change management • Example: all background systems are replaced Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  16. Experiences so far • MetaAPI has now been used in one real production system and in some test cases • Experiences have been positive • Web services are easy to use with modern application development tools • XML skills are needed after receiving the result sets • Selected techniques seems to be efficient (but no benchmarking has been done) • Some client side optimisation may be necessary because XML documents can be large and parsing them can be time-consuming Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

  17. What’s next? • More services • Using MetaAPI in new projects • Guidance of users, client side tools, formatting layers, etc. • Building connections to commercial software packages • Data management decisions • Adoption of common standards • New user interfaces on top of MetaAPI, Metadata Portal • External services Mikko Mäkinen & Saija Ylönen

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