Look Before You UKLeaPAn Overview of BS8788

Carl Ebrey

Disclaimer

Whilst the information contained within this presentation should be correct, no guarantees are made to this effect. Any errors/omissions should be reported to Carl Ebrey (please).

Disclaimer Part 2

UKLeaP was like that when I got here. It’s not my fault.

Background Info

• Currently no defined way to transfer PDP• Schools don’t talk to colleges• Schwartz and Tomlinson reports in 2004• A standard is required

Coming on in UKLeaPs and Bounds

• Began life as IMS LIP• Was adopted and became UK LIP• Through development became UKLeaP• UKLeaP is now BS8788

Transferring Data – The Different Approaches

• Whole record transfer• Reference transfer• Centralised system

Taming the Beast – UKLeaP in More Detail

Schemas and Vocabularies

• XML standard is defined by schemas• Values representing types are held in vocabularies• Vocabularies are currently held as Excel files; plans are to change to VDEX files

Application Profiles

• BS8788 is big!• Nobody should (realistically) need to use all of it• Application profiles define which parts of the standard are relevant to a particular application

Looking at a UKLeaP Document

What’s in a Name?

<formname> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Preferred</tyvalue> </typename> <text>Bob Carolgees</text></formname>

What’s in a Name?

<name> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Full</tyvalue> </typename> <partname> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Given</tyvalue> </typename> <text>Bob Dave</text> </partname> <partname> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Surname</tyvalue> </typename> <text>Carolgees</text> </partname></name>

Addressing the Issue

<address> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Private</tyvalue> </typename> <street> <streetnumber>50</streetnumber> <streetname>Somewhere St</streetname> </street> <city>Somewhere</city> <region>Somewhereshire</region> <postcode>SO12 3ME</postcode></address>

• This is an ideal example!

Telephone Numbers

<contactinfo> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Private</tyvalue> </typename> <telephone> <areacode>01234</areacode> <indnumber>567890</indnumber> </telephone></contactinfo>

Email Addresses

<contactinfo> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Private</tyvalue> </typename> <email>test@test.com</email></contactinfo>

Date of Birth

<demographics> <date> <typename> <tysource sourcetype="standard">UKLeaP</tysource> <tyvalue>Birth</tyvalue> </typename> <datetime>1977-10-03T00:00:00</datetime> </date></demographics>

Relational XML

• No surprises so far…• UKLeaP uses relationships to provide a logical structure to its elements• These relationships, and their types, are key to making UKLeaP work

Relationships

• A graduate of Nottingham University:-• A QCL node representing her degree• An affiliation node, representing her affiliation with the university• An activity node, representing the activity of doing the degree itself

• A relationship node of type “Supplements” connecting the activity with the QCL

Exporting and Importing Data from UKLeaP

Developing Application Profiles

• Look at the data you hold to see what you’re interested in• Map the data against the UKLeaP schemas

• The result is your “version” of UKLeaP: your application profile

• When importing and exporting data, you’ll be working with your application profile

Exporting Data

• Probably the easier part of UKLeaP• Using a skeleton UKLeaP document, populate the fields with data from your DB

Mapping Between Profiles

• Before transferring data, a mapping needs to be done

• Both parties need to agree on what fields represent what data

• An accurate mapping makes importing the data easier

Mapping Between Profiles

Microsoft Excel Worksheet

Importing Data

• A bit trickier than exporting…

• Transform input UKLeaP into a UKLeaP document matching your application profile

• Parse resulting document and insert data into your DB

Importing Data at UoN

• Input data is transformed into UoN UKLeaP

• UoN UKLeaP is transformed into “DBXML”

• “DBXML” is parsed and the data inserted into the DB

Importing Data at UoN

Example “DBXML” document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><dbdata> <table name="std_PGCE_CEP_details"> <line> <item field="forename">Banana</item> <item field="surname">Man</item> <item field="birth_date">1977-03-30T00:00:00</item> </line> </table></dbdata>

References

•http://www.imsglobal.org/profiles/index.html

• http://www.imsglobal.org/vdex/

• http://www.cetis.ac.uk/profiles/uklip/