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Accessing the Modern Data System: Portals, Vortals and the Data System Integrator

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Title: Accessing the Modern Data System: Portals, Vortals and the Data System Integrator


1
Accessing the Modern Data System Portals,
Vortals and the Data System Integrator Presented
at the Forum for Geosciences Information
Technology 7 October 2005 by Peter
Cornillon Graduate School of Oceanography,
University of Rhode Island, Narragansett RI,
02882
2
Objective
To address issues related to the evolution of
data systems in a highly distributed data
environment.
Specifically, to examine the role of the data
system integrator and considerations in
developing an integrator.
On the way we will investigate the portals,
vortals and stand alone integrators.
3
Outline
  • Evolution of the Data System
  • The Data System Integrator
  • Browser-based System Integrators
  • Standalone System Integrators
  • System Integrator Design Issues
  • Conclusions

4
Data systems generally involve some combination
of the following elements
Archive
Access/ Delivery
5
In the Past
These elements have been developed and managed as
monolithic systems by the groups assembling the
elements.
6
  • Is away from centrally designed, implemented and
    maintained systems
  • toward
  • The integration of independently designed,
    implemented and maintained system elements.

7
(No Transcript)
8
The Data System
  • In an environment consisting of highly
    distributed system elements, the notion of a data
    system is amorphous at best.
  • The data system integrator is a data system
    element which assembles a suite of data system
    elements that together provide seamless access to
    data from discovery to use.

9
The data system integrator brings order to a
disordered array of system elements.
10
The data system integrator defines the data
system.
11
  • The data system integrator talks to
  • Data location elements
  • Data archive elements
  • Data analysis elements
  • Metadata elements
  • Data processing elements
  • Data aggregation elements

12
Different data system integrators accessing a
similar suite of elements define different data
systems.
13
The Primary Objective of the Data System
Integrator
  • To reduce the burden on the user of those tasks
    that are peripheral to the actual analysis of
    data
  • Data discovery
  • Format conversion
  • Access

14
  • The data system integrator may be
  • A browser-based program, or
  • A standalone program.

15
Browser-Based Data System Integrators Portals,
Vortals
  • The browser-based data system integrator sounds
    like a type of portal.
  • So what is a portal? - A digression

16
So What Is a Portal?
  • Google definition portal gt 14,200,000 hits
  • Google Definition of a portal gt 688 hits.

17
One Definition of a Portal
  • A Web page that serves as a point of entry for
    surfers of the World Wide Web. Note Most of the
    popular portals are designed to optimize their
    compatibility with one or more Web search
    engines. Many portals also offer value-added
    services such as e-mail accounts, Web page
    hosting, or filtered information flow, with the
    costs of these services being underwritten by
    advertising. Loosely synonymous with Web-page
    search engine.

From the Alliance for Telecommunications
Industry Solutions ATIS (http//www.atis.org/)
18
Another Definition of a Portal
A portal provides personalized access to commonly
used data and applications via the web.
From a study group at Princeton University
(http//web.princeton.edu/sites/oitteams/itateam/p
ortal.htm)
19
Stellanother Definition
A portal is a doorway to a set of resources that
an enterprise offers to its customers. For some
consumer portals, those resources include the
entire World Wide Web. For most enterprise
portals, the resources include information and
applications that are specific to the
relationship between the enterprises and their
customers.
From Sun Computer (http//developers.sun.com/prodt
ech/portalserver/reference/techart/ps_overview.htm
l)
20
Evan Stellanother Definition
A Web site (Internet or intranet) that combines
information from multiple, disparate sources,
offering a unified interface with the goal of
improving usability and providing powerful search
capabilities.
From Townsend, Riz and Schaffer in "Building
Portals, Intranets, and Corporate Web Sites Using
Microsoft Servers." (http//www.windowsitlibrary.c
om/BookReviews/BookReview.cfm?BookReviewID84)
21

A Web site or service that offers a broad array
of resources and services, such as e-mail,
forums, search engines, and on-line shopping
malls. The first Web portals were online
services, such as AOL, that provided access to
the Web, but by now most of the traditional
search engines have transformed themselves into
Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.
Webopedia (http//www.webopedia.com)
22

A site featuring a suite of commonly used
services, serving as a starting point and
frequent gateway to the Web (Web portal) or a
niche topic (vertical portal).
From Marketing Terms.com (http//marketingterms.co
m)
23

Portals provide a single point of access to
aggregated information. The primary goal of most
portals is ease-of-use. Besides having a single
point of access -- a virtual front door --
portals generally try to provide a rich
navigation structure.
From Bradley Mitchell (http//compnetworking.about
.com/)
24
A Portal is A Web Site
A Web page that serves as a point of entry for
surfers of the World Wide Web. A Web site
(Internet or intranet) that combines information
from multiple, disparate sources, offering a
unified interface A Web site or service that
offers a broad array of resources and services,
such as e-mail, forums, search engines A site
featuring a suite of commonly used services,
serving as a starting point and frequent gateway
to the Web
25
A Portal Provides a Single Point of Entry
A Web page that serves as a point of entry for
surfers of the World Wide Web. A portal is a
doorway to a set of resources that an enterprise
offers to its customers. A Web site (Internet
or intranet) that combines information from
multiple, disparate sources, offering a unified
interface with the goal of improving
usability... A site featuring a suite of
commonly used services, serving as a starting
point and frequent gateway to the Web Portals
provide a single point of access to aggregated
information
26
A Portal Provides a Search Capability
Most of the popular portals are designed to
optimize their compatibility with one or more Web
search engines. Many portals also offer
value-added services such as e-mail accounts, Web
page hosting, or filtered information flow a
unified interface with the goal of improving
usability and providing powerful search
capabilities. a broad array of resources and
services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines,
and on-line shopping malls. -- portals generally
try to provide a rich navigation structure.
27
Portals Offers Personalized Services
Many portals also offer value-added services such
as e-mail accounts, Web page hosting, or A
portal provides personalized access to commonly
used data and applications via the web. offers
a broad array of resources and services, such as
e-mail, forums
28
Portals Provide Access to Disparate Sources
A Web site (Internet or intranet) that combines
information from multiple, disparate sources,
offering A Web site or service that offers a
broad array of resources and services, such
29
Portals Provide Access to Multiple Sources
A Web page that serves as a point of entry for
surfers of the World Wide Web. A portal is a
doorway to a set of resources that an enterprise
offers to its customers. For some consumer
portals, those resources include the entire World
Wide Web. For most enterprise portals, the
resources include information and applications
that are specific to the relationship between the
enterprises and their customers. A Web site
(Internet or intranet) that combines information
from multiple, disparate sources, offering The
first Web portals were online services, such as
AOL, that provided access to the Web A site
featuring a suite of commonly used services,
serving as a starting point and frequent gateway
to the Web
30
The Characteristics of A Portal
  • So, the characteristics of a portal are that it
  • Is a web site
  • Providing a single point of entry
  • To multiple, disparate sources
  • Offers personalized services
  • Provides a search capability

31
Vortals
  • Initially, these characteristics were associated
    with large public search engines, focusing on
    text and standard multimedia formats,
  • Then with corporate intranet sites having a
    similar focus.
  • These types of portals offered a breadth of
    functionality intended to capture as much of the
    available readership as possible.
  • Later, a different form of Web site attracted the
    attention of analysts -- a portal geared toward a
    specific niche audience with focused content.
    These sites were referred to as Vortals for
    Vertical Portals.
  • By targeting a very focused audience, vortals in
    theory can provide easier-to-understand
    navigation, deeper content, and a place for
    people with common interests to meet each other.

From Bradley Mitchell (http//compnetworking.about
.com/ )
32
Data Portals
  • More recently, sites that deliver data have been
    referred to as Data Portals.
  • However, many of these sites simply provide to
    access to local data holdings and
  • Primarily to data in the form of gifs, or other
    similar picture formats, or to data in tabular
    form - text.

33
Portals and the Data System Integrator
  • The notion that I have for the data system
    integrator is more specific than this. The portal
    version of the system integrator
  • Is a web site
  • Providing a single point of entry
  • To multiple, disparate sources including binary
    data objects
  • Offers personalized services
  • Provides a search capability
  • Provides a delivery capability to the users
    analysis package.
  • Provides a display capability.

34
The Portal as a Data System Integrator

35
The Portal as a Data System Integrator
  • Because of the


36
The Portal as a Data System Integrator

37
  • The data system integrator may be
  • A browser-based program, or
  • A standalone program.

38
The OPeNDAP Data Connector
39
The OPeNDAP Data Connector
40
Standalone vs Browser-Based Integrators
The ODC is capable of handling a much broader
range of data than the browser-based portals, but
it does so in a semantically poor environment.
41
Important Considerations in the Design of a Data
System Integrator
  • Primary considerations
  • Speed
  • Convenience
  • The user wants to get to the data of interest as
    quickly and with as little effort as possible.

42
Important Considerations
To achieve this the system integrator must
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements, search, subsetting,
    retrieval and display.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.

43
Important Considerations
Lets look at each of these considerations from
the context of a browser-based integrator (LAS)
and a standalone integrator (ODC).
44
Communication between Integrator Functional
Elements
  • The integrator must provide seamless
    communication between the various steps that it
    supports i.e.,
  • It must pass data identifiers from one step to
    the next in the discovery/subsetting/retrieval
    process or
  • It must provide a simple mechanism for the user
    to do so.

45
Communication between Integrator Functional
Elements
  • In the ODC, data identifiers are OPeNDAP URLs
  • They are passed (pushed) from one panel to the
    next.
  • When a URL is received by a new panel,
  • Operations are automatically performed on it
  • The results are used to configure the new panel.
  • ? For simple data sets one moves from discovery
    to display in a few minutes with a very small
    number of key clicks lt 10.

46
Communication between Integrator Functional
Elements
  • In LAS, semantic information is pushed from one
    level to the next.
  • Semantically poor information such as URLs are
    hidden from the user.
  • When semantic information is received by a new
    panel,
  • The semantics are used to configure the new
    panel.
  • ? For all data sets one moves from discovery to
    display in a few minutes with a very small number
    of key clicks lt 10.

47
Communication between Integrator Functional
Elements
  • An important characteristic of the ODC is the
    increased uniformity in the handling of data as
    one progresses through the process.
  • Discovery panel - two services available
  • Retrieval panel -
  • One mechanism to traverse inventories and
  • Another to define data subsets.
  • View panel - complete homogeneity in how data are
    handled.
  • ? Regardless of how the data were located they
    can be dealt with in a consistent way in the view
    panel or in the step passing them to the users
    application.

48
Important Considerations
But the system integrator must also
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.

49
Multiple Access Mechanisms
  • The distributed responsibility associated with
    data system fragments results in a near
    certainty that different protocols are going to
    be used to access different data types.
  • In the ODC, three different access mechanisms are
    used
  • Discovery
  • The GCMD
  • The NVODS location service
  • Data acquisition - OPeNDAP
  • The use of one protocol to access data greatly
    simplifies the development and use of the ODC.

50
Multiple Access Mechanisms
  • In the LAS, three access mechanisms are also
    used
  • Data acquisition - OPeNDAP
  • Data delivery
  • ftp
  • http

51
Important Considerations
But the system integrator must also
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.

52
Different Types of Data Objects
  • The integrator must be able to deal with very
    different data objects
  • Lists of data sets
  • Data set inventories
  • Data

53
Important Considerations
But the system integrator must also
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.

54
Expansion
  • Distributed responsibility in the development of
    system fragments leads to alternate services for
    various portions of the problem.
  • ? New services will be added that may be of
    interest to those using the system integrator.
  • To accommodate this the integrator must be
    designed so that new services can easily be
    added.
  • The discovery portion of the ODC was designed
    with this in mind.

55
Expansion
This is less true in LAS which depends on one
data discovery mechanism and one data access
mechanism.
56
Important Considerations
But the system integrator must also
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.

57
The Ability to Enter Information Locally
  • Distributed responsibility in the development of
    system fragments leads to the rapid addition of
    new data sites
  • In addition to the ability to find data with
    provided discovery services the system integrator
    should
  • Offer the user the ability to manually enter data
    pointers to data not listed by the available
    services.
  • The system integrator should not be limited to a
    tool that will only work with data sets defined
    in the discovery step.

58
In Conclusion
  • The data system integrator (standalone or
    browser-based)
  • Provides a single point of entry
  • To multiple, disparate sources including binary
    data objects
  • Offers personalized services
  • Provides a search capability
  • Provides a delivery capability to the users
    analysis package
  • Provides a display capability.

59
Furthermore
The system integrator must
  • Address communication between integrator
    functional elements.
  • Deal with multiple access mechanisms.
  • Handle different types of data objects.
  • Provide for expansion.
  • Provide the ability to enter information locally.
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