HCMTQ (HCM Technique) has been publishing the e-content from a relational database using a proprietary format publishing package. The database has also been used to supply third party information system vendors with data in a variety of formats, including HTML and tab-delimited database records. This presentation describes a new XML-based publishing system which supports the existing outputs, both printed and electronic, and opens up new opportunities for XML-based products. Future deliverables which will be supported by XML structured content include: » PDA version of HCMTQ » Fine-grained data to support electronic prescribing and advanced decision support Requirements The most important requirement was to deliver content as both documents and data, and XML allowed the HCMTQ to handle the content in both these modes. Adoption of XML as a standard wasn't essential to the original plans because XML allowed transformation to other electronic data formats fairly easily. However, XML has since been embraced whole-heartedly e-GIF initiative, which mandates the use of XML and web-based technologies. Production of the HCMTQ is intended to facilitate: » Re-use of content from one publication cycle to the next and between different publications » Interoperability between the HCM TEK and other electronic publications » Extension of the data scheme for use in more advanced, computer driven decision support » Development of technology-independent knowledge resources » Cultural change from a publication oriented way of working to a knowledge orientation » Promotion of standard representations of drug information   Technical Overview The existing relational database model has now been extended and modified to combine with an XML schema (DTD), so that XML can be used as the primary medium for editing the HCM TEK content and supplying data to third-party vendors. The relational model combines domain-specific elements from the XML schema, domain-specific meta data webs and editorial meta data used to control the production process. The new editorial system has been built on top of the relational database as a Java application, using JDBC for database access and an XML-enabled web browser for navigation and viewing of XML fragments. The Java application has in-built form-based editing capability and also launches an integrated XML editor for editing of larger XML fragments that are stored as 'chunks' in the relational database. The Java classes for packing and unpacking XML to/from the relational database use freely available XML parsing utilities and JDBC for reading and writing the database. For print production, the complete XML publication is extracted from the database and fed to a typesetting system. All of the components of the editorial system understand XML and most of them work on both Windows and UNIX platforms, which (on the whole) allows editorial teams to carry on using their preferred operating systems. The only Windows-dependent component is Microsoft IE5, which is used to view the contents of a publication. In theory, this could be replaced by an XML viewing component which operated across platforms, or could be migrated to a server-based transformation to HTML. High-level System Architecture Migration of the Production Process The HCMTQ is a mission critical product for the Pharmaceutical market. For this reason careful migration planning was required as the new system was developed and this heavily influenced the choice of technology used to implement the system. XML was chosen as the best format for development of the information and for easy dissemination to the downstream delivery formats (print, web and database). The XML DTD was developed to ease the migration from the existing database model to the enhanced model. The DTD was designed in consultation with the HCM TEK production team and in parallel with the new database model. An automated extraction and conversion process was then developed to extract data in the existing database to XML documents. These documents were then used to set up and test the pagination engine and to load data to the new database schema. The use of XML, existing database licenses, freely available Java class libraries for XML and in-house development resources has enabled the step-by-step migration of the existing publishing process to a new system based on open standards in a cost effective way, with low risk to the mission-critical process. Current Status The XML content management system has been rolled out to the HCM TEK team and they are now working on validating the conversion from their previous mark-up scheme. In addition to current Pharmaceutical applications - most of which are now accessible through the system, other products have been identified for addition to the database, including the WHO World Model Formulary and Drug Interactions. The XML DTD is also being extended to support forthcoming pharmaceutical products.           HCM Trail « HCM TQ (HCM Technique) «       Copyright © 2010 HCM Tek. - All rights reserved.