Lessons in scientific data interoperability: XML and the eMinerals project

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences Vol. 367; no. 1890; pp. 1041 - 1046
• Main Authors: White, T.O.H, Bruin, R.P, Chiang, G.-T, Dove, M.T, Tyer, R.P, Walker, A.M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London The Royal Society 13-03-2009
• Subjects: Chemical Markup Language; Cognitive space; Computer Simulation; Coordinate systems; Database Management Systems - trends; Databases, Factual - trends; Ecology - methods; Ecology - trends; eMinerals; Environmental sciences; Escience; Extensible Markup Language; Fortran; Information Dissemination - methods; Information Storage and Retrieval - trends; Internet; Interoperability; Keyhole Markup Language; Libraries; Markup languages; Minerals; Minerals - chemistry; Models, Chemical; Search engines; Software; User-Computer Interface; XML
• ISSN: 1364-503X; 1471-2962
• DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2008.0175

A collaborative environmental eScience project produces a broad range of data, notable as much for its diversity, in source and format, as its quantity. We find that extensible markup language (XML) and associated technologies are invaluable in managing this deluge of data. We describe FoX, a toolkit for allowing Fortran codes to read and write XML, thus allowing existing scientific tools to be easily re-used in an XML-centric workflow.