CDR Tickets

BZDATETIME::2007-10-11 14:16:25
BZCOMMENTOR::Bob Kline
BZCOMMENT::1

Lowering priority at Lakshmi's request.

BZDATETIME::2007-10-25 16:03:34
BZCOMMENTOR::Alan Meyer
BZCOMMENT::2

This issue is on hold for the moment because the CMS project, for
which it was intended, is on hold.

If we ever do re-activate this, I think we should pick one or
more specific document types as test cases for using Word to edit
them. If we have a specific schema for which we want to use
Word, we can send it to Word/XML add-in vendors and get specific
feedback from them about whether their product can edit that
document type or not. Even if the vendors won't bother to look
at our schemas, we ourselves will find it easier to evaluate
products if we have a specific target document type with which to
test.

BZDATETIME::2007-11-01 15:49:58
BZCOMMENTOR::Alan Meyer
BZCOMMENT::3

As discussed at our status meeting today, if and when this issue is re-activated, we should expand it, or fold it into a broader issue, regarding how relatively infrequent users, or users with less strict requirements than the CIAT staff, can edit documents without XMetal.

One option we discussed is the use of some sort of Wiki software, or some other HTML based editing option for XML data. These have advantages and disadvantages as compared to MS Word, but unless and until further investigation proves me wrong, I'm thinking their advantages are greater than their disadvantages.

BZDATETIME::2008-01-11 14:34:59
BZCOMMENTOR::Bob Kline
BZCOMMENT::4

Lakshmi found and forwarded this article. Don't know if this article will provide useful information for this task. The web site for the product described is at http://www.invisionresearch.com/products/xpress/

Attachment IrishXML.html has been added with description: Article on the adoption of the Irish government of XML-authoring tools

BZDATETIME::2008-02-04 14:33:57
BZCOMMENTOR::Bob Kline
BZCOMMENT::5

Reassigned to Charlie at Reza's request.

BZDATETIME::2008-02-06 10:38:30
BZCOMMENTOR::Bob Kline
BZCOMMENT::6

Kidder, Charlie (NIH/NCI) [C] wrote:
>
> How can I get a .xsd file for testing whether or not our xsd’s work in word? I guess we have one for drugs, one for diseases, etc… .

Actually, we typically have more than one XSD file for each document type, because we use the schema include mechanism so we can maintain common structure definitions in one place as much as possible. Also, some tweaking will be necessary in order to eliminate some discrepancies between the draft version of XML Schema against which we implemented our schema support and the version of XML Schema which was finally approved by W3C (after the CDR was already in production); for example, our schemas use minOccurs='0' to identify attributes which are optional, but that syntax is obsolete now for attributes. The schema files are in the CVS repository (cdr/Validation/Schemas). Make yourself a private copy of these and start modifying them until they work with Word. You'll need to change "minOccurs='0'" for attributes to "use='optional'" and add "use='required'" for the other attributes. You'll need to take out the xmlns attribute declarations (namespaces are another thing which hadn't yet been nailed down when we started this project), and such declarations are now prohibited. Instead you'll need to use the elementFormDefault and attributeFormDefault mechanism, with the cdr targetNamespace applied selectively to the qualified id, ref, and xref attributes using "form='qualified'" on those declarations. I wouldn't be surprised if you stumble across additional anomalies caused by drift of the XML Schema specification since we implemented what we have (or caused in other cases simply by blunders on my part).

I've copied Alan, since he did some preliminary work on this task, and may have useful additional advice as you go along.

Also, I've attached a schema which is more likely to conform to the current XML Schema spec. It's what we are using for retrieving new clinical trial documents from Percipenz' Oncore system. It may or may not be a useful exercise to see if Word lets us do useful editing of documents which conform to this schema before you invest any work into massaging our CDR schemas.

Attachment Trial.xsd has been added with description: Schema from Oncore project

BZDATETIME::2008-02-06 10:54:35
BZCOMMENTOR::Charlie Kidder
BZCOMMENT::7

(In reply to comment #6)
I was able to load the .xsd in word. My initial impression is that it's not intuitive how to populate the document.

BZDATETIME::2008-02-06 11:01:44
BZCOMMENTOR::Bob Kline
BZCOMMENT::8

Well, I guess research into what has to be done to get Word to present an intuitive interface for creating and editing XML documents against a given schema set is what this task is all about. You may find that there's a simple set of steps which turns on some magic and makes it "just work." Or you may find that it requires the user to install third-party software layered on top of Word. Or you may find that this really only works with Microsoft's own schemas (or structures based on their schemas) and this isn't feasible at all, in which case your thoughts about a web-based interface might be more promising.

BZDATETIME::2008-02-06 13:11:58
BZCOMMENTOR::Lakshmi Grama
BZCOMMENT::9

I envision using this for fairly simple schemas - not the kind that we have in the CDR where we have extensive links between documents. Some content examples, that currently don't have schemas may be pages in the Clinical Trials Results portal area

http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/fluorescence-guided-surgery0506

As discussed at the weekly status meeting this issue won't be addressed in the foreseeable future.