Design & Development of

GNM GNM –– DMS DMS XtendedXtendedGNM GNM –– DMS DMS XtendedXtended

Giannis Alexakis

Contents

• Introduction – System Purpose

• GNM-DMS Basic

• GNM-DMS Xtended

– Specifications

– Technology

– Integration

– Improvements

Introduction - System purpose• GNM-DMS

– Document Management System

– A partnership between • ICS-FORTH

(Institute of Computer Science-Foundation for Research and Technology)

• Germanic National Museum

– Developed and Integrated (aprx 2000-2005)

– Available to be customized for other museums (ΣΥΝΘΕΣΙΣ system)

• System parts– GNM-DMS Basic

– GNM-DMS Xtended

• My role– Part of a team (4 developers – 2 supervisors)

– Implementation of the Xtended system prototype (2003-2004)

– Technical papers, user manuals writing

– Installation, maintenance, user support

– Basic and Xtended system integration (analysis)

DMS Basic

DMS Basic• Assists the documentation

of the museum objects

• Based on the CIDOC (ISO 21127) standard

• Users– Registration office: initiate the inventory documents– Registration office: initiate the inventory documents

– Curator: scientific documentation, scholarly information

• Documents in XML format– information using custom tags that describe the structure

and meaning of the content

– designers control how each document is formatted for different delivery channels

– content creators concentrate on collecting, writing and approving content

DMS Basic• Important features

– categorization and search within tags

– documentation monitoring

– privileges

• efficient distribution of the documents

among the responsible officers

– versioning

• which information was added

• by whom • by whom

• when

• Historical information evolves constantly

– “History always needs to be rewritten” George Santayana

• Simplified example<object><responsible curator> G. A. Shonbucher </responsible curator><type> painting </type><creator> El Greco </creator><created on> 1645 </created on><shows> self portrait of the painter</shows>

<\object>

DMS Basic

•Web UI for document

navigation and access

•Customized Xmetal editor

for easy document editing

•Oracle iFS•Oracle iFS

(now Content Management System)

•XML document repository

in an Oracle 9i database

DMS Xtended

Specifications• Apart from the basic DMS

• A system used in the administration of the

objects was needed - DMS Xtended -

• Documentation of the main Museum events• Documentation of the main Museum events

– Exhibitions outside the Museum

– Temporary Loan-Outs to other Organizations

– Object Moves (inside or outside the museum)

– Contractual agreements (Insurance, Transport

Agencies, Borrowers etc)

– Condition Checks

– Photo Orders

Specifications• Entities involved in the administration process

– Objects

• documented through DMS Basic (Museum

objects)

• or not (belong to other Museums)

– Locations.

• storage places

• in house spaces

• external addresses.

– Persons

• museum Staff

• other individuals

• organizations

Specifications• Procedures are co-related

• ‘Parent – Child‘ relationships

– An Exhibition may include a number of Loan-Outs and Contracts

• ‘Next – Previous’ sequences

– An object group is involved in a series of exhibitions in different places

• Object group hierarchies

– of unrestricted depth

– defined using scientific or other criteria

– objects containing parts

• Locations’ hierarchies

• Organization related locations (addresses)

Specifications

• Other system features

– easy to use web interface

– detailed search mechanism for all entities

– undo mechanism during single session

– ‘Cart’ support for objects working groups– ‘Cart’ support for objects working groups

– support for procedure status (past procedures

cannot be altered)

– detailed print-outs accompany object moves

– administration mechanism

– compatible with the SPECTRUM standard

Technology

•Web UI

(UIX framework)

•Oracle AS 9i •Oracle AS 9i

( Business Components

BC4J framework)

Oracle 9i database

(relational infrastructure)

Technology

Integration• Most difficult task: integration of the two systems

Information

documented by

DMS Xtended

Information

documented by

DMS Basic

common

data

• Example

– an object accidentally brakes during a move

– procedure becomes part of its history

• Example

– objects first documented in DMS Basic

– should be available in DMS Xtended

– without more data entry

Integration

• Detailed analysis of if-then-else rules

– if … & if …. etc in relational database then update XML repository

– if … & if …. etc in XML repository then update relational database

• Custom J2EE code integrated in the two systems

relational

databaseXML repository

Update mechanism

using J2EE

DMS Basic DMS Xtended

Improvements proposed• Detailed documentation

– of already developed features

– specifications for future developments

• Later developed features• Later developed features

– Update mechanism

– Common users

– Links between the two systems

– Object’s photo support

– Scanned contracts support

Thank You

Thinking of Questions?