Current release
The current release of the IDM Tools comprises 3 tools, as shown by the figure below:
Notice that for using the IDM Tools it is not necessary to install Enterprise Architect – these tools provide therefore free access to the Inspire Data Model.
Motivations
The architecture of the IDM Tools is characterized by 2 main aspects:
This architecture is motivated by considerations regarding the performance of the services and the stability of the data models. We believe that a WFS service must be supported by a full-fledged spatial DBMS in order to obtain acceptable performance, especially in presence of one or more of the following requirements:
Regarding the stability of the Data Models, we believe that the UML model will be more stable than the XSDs which have been derived from it, since
A major investment which the INSPIRE Data producers will have to face in the next years will be the definition of the (semantic) transformation from their Production Data Models to the INSPIRE Data Model. Since the structure of the INSPIRE Database is derived from the UML model, using the UML Model and the INSPIRE database as the target of these transformations will safeguard these investments from changes in the encodings. In fact, in this architecture different encodings can be produced without affecting the (semantic) transformations.
Preloaded Data Model
The IDM Tools are distributed with a preloaded INSPIRE UML Data Model; in the current release this preloaded Data Model has been derived from the official Inspire 2010-04-26_r937.eap distribution. The derived model in .eap format can be downloaded from this site. The few transformations which have been applied to the INSPIRE Themes are due to the correction of some errors or to some requirements for GML encoding. The ISO package has been simplified and renamed as “selected ISO TC211”. A detailed description of these modifications is presented in the Preloaded Data Model panel of the tool.
Future Developments
If the approach adopted by the IDM Tools will encounter the interest of stakeholders, we plan to develop it further in several directions: