XSDGuide - Automated Generation of Web Interfaces from XML Schemas: A Case Study for Suspicious Activity Reporting

TitleXSDGuide - Automated Generation of Web Interfaces from XML Schemas: A Case Study for Suspicious Activity Reporting
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsGotti, F., K. Heffner, and G. Lapalme
Conference NameBalisage 2015
Date Published08/2015
Keywordssar, schema, user interface, xml, xsd
AbstractThis article presents XSDGuide, a software prototype aimed at facilitating the creation of user interfaces consistent with a data model expressed as a set of XML schemas. XSDGuide was developed while researching intelligent user interfaces for data entry associated with the production of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) conforming to NIEM-SAR, an XML-based information-dissemination framework. These SARs communicate potentially suspicious or unlawful incidents to the appropriate authorities. The XSD schemas defining a specific SAR are fed to XSDGuide, which then automatically creates user interface guides, rendered on a web page. The user can interact with this application to populate the report’s fields, validate the SAR being created and save the report as a valid XML instance. Validation is a two-step process, where a JavaScript ruleset created from the schema pre-validates the document in the browser before it is sent for full validation to the back end, which relies on a traditional full-fledged validator. Despite the prototype’s limitations, the HTML interfaces that are generated allow users to inspect and become familiar with complex schemas and also to produce validated XML instance documents for the purposes of experimentation and testing.
URLhttp://www.balisage.net/Proceedings/vol15/html/Gotti01/BalisageVol15-Gotti01.html
DOI10.4242/BalisageVol15.Gotti01
Refereed DesignationRefereed