SHIWA Desktop

Cardiff University, Budapest, 3rd July 2012

Budapest, July 2012

• The Desktop solution for SHIWA Project

• Connects a user’s desktop workflow environment to the SHIWA Repository

• Provides lightweight upload and download in common format for engines

• Tool for serialisation and deserialisation of SHIWA Bundles

What is SHIWA Desktop

Budapest, July 2012

What Are SHIWA Bundles• Aggregation of data representing a

workflow– Employs the OAI-ORE standard

• Physical aggregation as a single entity (ZIP file)

• Can reference anything with a URL (within bundle or elsewhere)

• Provides a common language/format for workflow engines– Once workflow engines can consume bundles

and export them, workflow interoperability can exist within pipelines of workflows (or so-called meta workflows)

Budapest, July 2012

• Workflow Implementation– Definition File

• Abstract Workflow– Signature

• Data Configuration– Variable data

• Environment Configuration– Constant data

SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012

SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012

SHIWA Bundle Components

Budapest, July 2012

What is SHIWA Desktop?

• Provides three interfaces:

– Command-line interface • script-based interaction with a workflow engine

– An API• workflow engine can use this to interface directly with a SHIWA Bundle

– A graphical front-end• automatic creation of Bundles from within GUI-based workflow systems e.g.

Askalon, Moteur and Triana

Budapest, July 2012

Command Line Interface

• Support interfacing with workflow systems (especially non-Java ones) through the command line

• Bundles can be unpacked to provide input and dependency files

• Provides a simple way to interface using scripts to wrap a workflow engine without modifying its internal behaviour

Budapest, July 2012

SHIWA Desktop Core API

• Three key parts with the Desktop Data API

– SHIWABundle Object - reads in SHIWA bundles, converting the metadata into RDF element objects

– RDF Element Objects – objects representing the elements found in the Metadata files, e.g. workflow resources, the aggregated resources and the components of a workflow signature.

– WorkflowEngineHandler Interface – simplified interface for integrating a workflow engine, allowing ease of publishing and deployment of workflows.

Budapest, July 2012

Workflow Engine Handler• An engine-specific component that understands the

internal operations of a workflow engine and its object models

• WorkflowEngineHandler Interface – Simple to implement

– Provides a means of pre-populating technical metadata• e.g. engine name, version, the workflow language, the serialization of the workflow and

the workflow signature object.

– A signature includes• a name• a list of inputs and outputs

Budapest, July 2012

Workflow Engine Handler

Workflow Engine

Input + Value

Input + Value

Output + Value

Dependency+ Value

Signature

Definition File

Dependency+ Value

Handler

List<Port> inputPorts

List<Port> outputPorts

Map<String, Dependency> dependencies

Metadata

Budapest, July 2012

Workflow Engine Handler

• User develops workflow within local workflow system• When user wishes to publish, SHIWA Desktop is invoked, with

handler passed to it