BACEngine
Encyclopedia
In 2005 the Department of Justice
, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense
, and the General Services Administration
strongly requested a full-text indexing and search of content through XML
standards conforming to the Global JXDM and the National Information Exchange Model
, (NIEM). The evolution of search technologies
, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as an open standard, and the world wide web
have created a combination of standards that enables a dynamic construction of web content through light-weight queries and results.
The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, requested a search tool by Bohica Associates Corporation (BAC) that leverages these standards and exposes a simple interface to support the index and search of a variety of content through industry standard tools.
, this XML stream can be bound to a dataset and then exposed in a control in the web page. A web service
interface is available for SOAP
protocols if desired and is commonly used in Apache web servers.
A Boolean thesaurus is available to expand or limit query terms. For example, a thesaurus entry of: agriculture=farming or crop, will expand the term agriculture to be the Boolean union of agriculture, farming, and crop. This allows the search engine to tune the vocabulary of each search index to the application it supports.
Indexing is performed through utilities that can provide incremental or full indexing of the underlying application data while the system is live. Often, the reindex is performed on a schedule and is automated through the windows at command or the UNIX cron command. BAC has timed the indexing of 200,000 SQL Server records on a Windows machine to be completed in a few seconds.
BAC has also used this approach to drive voice interface solutions and services. Any data application that currently has a web interface may be exposed through a speech recognition engine and a toll-free telephone number
to allow for transaction processing through a telephone interface. In this instance, the XML is translated to VoiceXML so that is commercial text-to-speech engines may perform speech synthesizing. These engines are capable of producing web GET and POST commands and allow the BAC engine to be the gateway from a speech engine to a data repository with a small amount of custom web page development to format the XML queries. Online catalogue and credit card processing modules have been developed and are available to be delivered as a quick start service package.
The BACEngine has been deployed on CDROM and DVD mediums to enable the indexing, compression, and distribution of content in a stand-alone web application, which is customizable using the open source .NET framework from www.go-mono.com.
BAC tests and distributes a version of mono on the required platforms with a platform specific launcher application for each platform requested by the client. This solution is tested for security and vulnerability using Nessus and other leading hacker tool suites.
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, and the General Services Administration
General Services Administration
The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S...
strongly requested a full-text indexing and search of content through XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
standards conforming to the Global JXDM and the National Information Exchange Model
National Information Exchange Model
The National Information Exchange Model is an XML-based information exchange framework from the United States. NIEM represents a collaborative partnership of agencies and organizations across all levels of government and with private industry...
, (NIEM). The evolution of search technologies
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as an open standard, and the world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
have created a combination of standards that enables a dynamic construction of web content through light-weight queries and results.
The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, requested a search tool by Bohica Associates Corporation (BAC) that leverages these standards and exposes a simple interface to support the index and search of a variety of content through industry standard tools.
Description of BACEngine
By utilizing a calling application the BACEngine constructs an XML string to encapsulate the query. The calling application will then either use a socket connection or web service to initiate a search session and pass a query to the engine. The BACEngine is a multi-threaded application that will support multiple simultaneous queries and will return the result in an XML stream that contains the indexed fields for the hits plus the normalized score associated with each hit. In the .NET framework.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
, this XML stream can be bound to a dataset and then exposed in a control in the web page. A web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
interface is available for SOAP
SOAP
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
protocols if desired and is commonly used in Apache web servers.
A Boolean thesaurus is available to expand or limit query terms. For example, a thesaurus entry of: agriculture=farming or crop, will expand the term agriculture to be the Boolean union of agriculture, farming, and crop. This allows the search engine to tune the vocabulary of each search index to the application it supports.
Indexing is performed through utilities that can provide incremental or full indexing of the underlying application data while the system is live. Often, the reindex is performed on a schedule and is automated through the windows at command or the UNIX cron command. BAC has timed the indexing of 200,000 SQL Server records on a Windows machine to be completed in a few seconds.
BAC has also used this approach to drive voice interface solutions and services. Any data application that currently has a web interface may be exposed through a speech recognition engine and a toll-free telephone number
Toll-free telephone number
A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call...
to allow for transaction processing through a telephone interface. In this instance, the XML is translated to VoiceXML so that is commercial text-to-speech engines may perform speech synthesizing. These engines are capable of producing web GET and POST commands and allow the BAC engine to be the gateway from a speech engine to a data repository with a small amount of custom web page development to format the XML queries. Online catalogue and credit card processing modules have been developed and are available to be delivered as a quick start service package.
The BACEngine has been deployed on CDROM and DVD mediums to enable the indexing, compression, and distribution of content in a stand-alone web application, which is customizable using the open source .NET framework from www.go-mono.com.
BAC tests and distributes a version of mono on the required platforms with a platform specific launcher application for each platform requested by the client. This solution is tested for security and vulnerability using Nessus and other leading hacker tool suites.
See also
- Bohica Associates Corporation
- Global JXDMGJXDMThe Global Justice XML Data Model is a data reference model for the exchange of information within the justice and public safety communities...
- Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) InstituteIJIS InstituteThe IJIS Institute is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to joining forces with its Member companies to unite the private and public sectors for improving mission-critical information sharing in justice, public safety, and homeland security.IJIS Institute Members are information...
- ISO/IEC 11179ISO/IEC 11179ISO/IEC 11179 is an international standard for representing metadata for an organization in a metadata registry.- Intended purpose :...
- Master data managementMaster Data ManagementIn computing, master data management comprises a set of processes and tools that consistently defines and manages the non-transactional data entities of an organization...
- Metadata registryMetadata registryA metadata registry is a central location in an organization where metadata definitions are stored and maintained in a controlled method.-Use of Metadata Registries:...
- National Information Exchange ModelNational Information Exchange ModelThe National Information Exchange Model is an XML-based information exchange framework from the United States. NIEM represents a collaborative partnership of agencies and organizations across all levels of government and with private industry...