Metadata key to Air Force XML project

With a boost from metadata, the Air Force is Web-enabling its massive collection of technical manuals.

All told, the service is translating approximately 16 million pages from Standard Generalized Markup Language to

Extensible Markup Language. This means creating a tool capable of viewing the technical publications for any weapons system developed in compliance with Air Force standards, said Scott Crawford, senior software engineer at Veridian Corp., which is building the system as a subcontractor to TRW Inc.

By providing an index of standard data definitions, a metadata repository plays a critical role in facilitating the

flow of technical data from the Air

Force's multiple content management systems and from vendors whose

products are affected by the new Web-based system.

"There has to be some agreement as to how the information will be represented," Crawford said.

Veridian selected Outremont, Quebec-based Ixiasoft's TextML product to fulfill this function.

Using Veridian tools with TextML, users can "search both the metadata and the full text contents