Strategies for Virtual Enterprises using XForms

and the Semantic Web

Albert Rainer,Albert Rainer, Jürgen Dorn Jürgen Dorn & Peter Hrastnik& Peter Hrastnik

Jürgen Dorn© 2004 by EC3 2

Conferences as Virtual Enterprises

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Characteristics of Virtual Enterprises

complex services provided by different organizations

individualization of services short-term cooperation portal as single sign-on solution electronic communication and cooperation different channels (e.g. mobile

communication)

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VE Portal as unifying access

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MOVE - Management and Optimization of Business Processes in Virtual Enterprises

framework for configuration– visual editor for processes and related objects– integration of reusable components (web

services, processes, forms, ...)– validation (deadlocks, interfaces, ...)– translation into XPDL (language of WFMC)

framework for execution and supervision– execution of XPDL– integration of dynamic objects in process– transaction layer

Jürgen Dorn© 2004 by EC3 6

XForms

XForms is an XML application next generation of forms for the Web 10/2003 W3C Recommendation XForms 1.0 requirements for XForms 1.1 published in 08/2004

client software integrated in web browser server software CHIBA open source solution

– servlet in application server

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XForms Principles

model with an XML instance (empty template or prefilled structure)

user interface controlsinput, textarea, select, ... (similiar to HTML)

bindings between controls and XML elements XML elements are referenced by XPath expressions model item properties

– required– readonly– calculate– ...

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Advantages

more user-friendly controls (e.g. immediate check whether input is valid)

it is XML and it can submit XML device independence complex structure of dependent forms can

be expressed declaratively accessible technologies internationalized

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Problem in heterogeneous environments(e.g. virtual enterprises)

use of different naming(e.g. givenName - firstName, email - mail)

use of different formats(e.g. representation of dates)

restricted access to forms1. solution

all partners must use the same conventions

2. solutiontranslation into VE convention

Jürgen Dorn© 2004 by EC3 10

Our approach

each partner must supply information how to translate<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rdf:RDF xmlns:ocg="http://www.ocg.at/OCG#" xmlns:owl ="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#" xmlns:rdf ="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"> <!-- Public data for read and write access --><ocg:public rdf:about="http://www.ocg.at/OCG#public">

<ocg:member-name></ocg:member-name><ocg:mail></ocg:mail><ocg:is-member></ocg:is-member>

</ocg:public><!-- Private area --><ocg:private>

<ocg:OCG rdf:parseType="Literal"> <ocg:id></ocg:id>

</ocg:OCG></ocg:private><!-- Mapping definitions --><owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:about="http://www.ec3.at/ec3#email">

<rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="http://www.ocg.at/OCG#mail" /></owl:DatatypeProperty><owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:about="http://www.ec3.at/ec3#name">

<rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource="http://www.ocg.at/OCG#member-name" /></owl:DatatypeProperty></rdf:RDF>

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Example: Registration for Conference

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Example

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Example (cont.)

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Example (cont.)

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Example (cont.)

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Example (cont.)

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Example (cont.)

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Conclusions

solution based on open source software XForms + proposed strategies is one

component to support our framework server-based solution is preferred because

we consider portal as unifying component portal (the virtual enterprise) requires

ontology