AN XML-BASED APPROACH FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT

IN VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS

Marius Ioan Podean and Lucia Rusu

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Babes Bolyai University, Teodor Mihali, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Keywords: Content management, e-Workspace, Virtual and distributed organisations, XML, Workflow, Access control.

Abstract: An important factor in the efficiency of distributed and virtual organisations is the ability to manage the

content involved in every day activities, content that most often resides in documents. A collaborative

document editing system that can automate and coordinate content production processes and provide

flexible content manipulation, like combining data from multiple sources, can increase team efficiency and

allow users to concentrate their efforts on content development. This paper presents a model implementing

this approach in order to provide an efficient e-workspace that can be customized for wide variety of virtual

organisations. The use of XML proves to be an efficient solution to provide a single source and multi

publishing channels approach.

1 INTRODUCTION

Among distributed organisations and teams the

ability to work together from different locations

(Marca, 2008) and using different devices is an

important aspect. As a great amount of information

present in distributed groups is stored in documents,

a key factor in their efficiency is the ability to

manage the content of these documents. The

development of web capabilities is significantly

changing the way that people work, facilitating

content creation and providing easy means for

distribution. Taking in consideration the great

interest that structured documents gained in the

recent period, the aforementioned requirements are

rarely placed in this context and at this moment

technology offers just partially solutions for these

necessities.

As shown by Salminen (2005), structured

documents have a range of benefits, well-known

even before XML existed, that can significantly

reduce the work involved by document creation and

publishing and ensure long-term information

accessibility. Recently, the use of XML as a basis

for document production has been largely adopted in

a wide range of organisations and working teams

(e.g. research (Yongguo, 2008), legislative system

(Heero, 2002)) thanks to its ability to be both a

document and a metadata format.

Discussing about e-business innovation, Marca

(2008) defines a model based on a highly flexible

front-end and a highly standardized back-end

(enabling thus cost-effective operations). XML is

identified as the required technology in order to

implement the concept of flexibility with

standardization. In their attempt to provide a greater

support for collaboration and content management,

new software architectures (e.g. cloud computing,

software as a service) take advantage of just a small

range of benefits provided by XML technologies. In

order to be able to provide a coherent e-workspace

that integrates heterogeneous systems and

organisations, orchestrate web services and provide

rich user interface capabilities, a flexible data

interchange format is required.

A system that aims to improve collaboration in

distributed organisations should provide efficient

and flexible means for content management in order

to allow user to spend more time creating valuable

content rather than handling technology.

Such a system should try to remove space and

time limitations and provide intuitive user interfaces

capable of making content creation and management

as easy as possible requiring no or minimal

knowledge about the technology involved. In the

following we will present a framework that tries to

handle the aforementioned requirements using XML

documents as a basis for content management,

independent from the field of application of a

252

Ioan Podean M. and Rusu L. (2009).

AN XML-BASED APPROACH FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS.

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 252-257

DOI: 10.5220/0002234802520257

 SciTePress

particular type of organisation (e.g. business,

legislative, research etc.). The main characteristics

of the framework are based on the principle of single

source and multiple distribution channels and

formats. Documents are regarded as both a data

source and a presentation format, enabling thus the

use of links between documents and document

elements. Combining data from multiple sources is

another key concern and our framework tries to

impose minimal restrictions regarding the structure

of the documents being used.

This work is structured as follows: we start by

presenting theoretical aspects concerning document

and content management in Section 2. We continue

in Section 3 with the design of the Faust framework,

the model proposed, and present some technical and

implementation related aspects in Section 4.

Concluding remarks and future work will be

presented in Section 5.

2 RATIONALE AND RELATED

WORK

In the following we will present some of the

theoretical aspects that influenced the design of our

framework and briefly highlighting main

characteristics of the current technologies

approaching this field.

Document management systems (DMS) focus on

tracking and storing documents created and

exchanged by their authors (Aversano et al. 2001).

They provide components for defining metadata for

the documents (i.e. date of creation, authors, version

etc.), indexing (usually based on metadata), storage

and retrieval (based on the unique document

identifier). On the other hand, content management

systems (CMS) focus on creating, editing and

publishing managed content which is most often

stored in relational databases. Workflow

management systems (WMS) allow the automation

of processes within an organization, enabling greater

coordination and control among geographically

distributed teams (Nallaparaju et al. 2005). Using

WMS, the organization can integrate different

software technologies, leading to the improvement

of the collaborative activities (Aversano et al. 2001).

Structured documents have evolved from

basically one simple need: to provide the reader the

means to interpret documents in the way that the

writer intended. This approach provides a series of

important benefits (Salminen, 2005) like consistency

and correctness support, rich information retrieval

capabilities, information reuse and multichannel

publishing, software independence and long-term

accessibility of information. The Extensible Markup

Language (XML) is a highly flexible tool that

supports de definition of custom markup languages

and it's possibility to be used as both a document and

metadata format has driven researchers to develop

advanced management models (Mahboubi, 2009).

Models concerning XML data warehousing and

XML OLAP have proven XML flexibility and

efficiency and taking in consideration that in

organisations metadata has sometimes same

importance as the data itself has lead to the

development of advanced searching techniques like

XML data mining (Ding, 2009 and Nayak, 2009).

The Faust framework combines key features

from the aforementioned technologies (DMS, CMS

and WMS) and uses XML documents as a storage

support for the managed content. The framework

provides DMS functionality in order to handle

document creation and retrieval and WMS

functionality by automating and coordinating all

processes involved in data manipulation. Content

management is based on XML technologies and thus

implementing a very flexible system for content

handling and publishing. This approach enables the

definition of documents as sets of layers on top of

which application layers can be applied in order to

provide intuitive interfaces that allow content

interaction. XML technologies can facilitate the

single source approach by providing the means to

define links between elements residing in different

documents, enabling thus the combination of data

from multiple sources.

Several solutions concerning some of the

aforementioned aspects have already been developed

dealing more or less with content management in a

collaborative context. Docbook (Walsh, 2005) is a

XML vocabulary that allows users to create

documents in a presentation neutral form. Using

several transformation schemas the content can be

published in different formats, dealing especially

with technical documentation. The OpenDocument

Format is a XML based file format for office

productivity applications that defines documents as

resource collections based on the separation of

content and presentation. It is a complex

specification that doesn't place content management

in a collaborative context and offers limited support

for user defined document definitions. On the other

hand, XMetal, a XML based solution, offers support

for personalized content using a single source and

multiple publishing channels approach, providing

though limited workflow capabilities.

AN XML-BASED APPROACH FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS

253

3 DESIGN ASPECTS

The Faust framework is a web based system

designed with the software as a service architecture

in mind, although not fully complying with it. It is

build around the concept of louse coupling, the main

components working as independent units that

provide functionality through web services. The

main components of the framework handle the

management of access, workflow and documents,

defining a core functionality that enables the system

to be built incrementally.

Figure 1: Main architecture.

The Document Manager component handles the

interaction with the documents, manages metadata

attached to them and provides the means to define

new document types. The access to this component

is controlled by a local policy enforcement point

(PEP) and the functionality is provided as web

services.

The Document Designer component allows users

to define new types of documents or extend existing

ones. In order to create a new type of document an

XML Schema must firstly be defined or imported,

and based on this definition the additional layers will

tailor the required functionality and presentation. In

order to implement this functionality, the framework

defines several vocabularies, the most important

being represented by the document editing and

rendering rules. The document editing rules define

the means to create editing stages for a document

type, and for each stage, permissions and restrictions

regarding viewing and editing are set according to

the roles involved in the process. By this mean

document level workflow can be defined, enabling

thus more flexible project level behaviour to be

specified.

The document rendering rules represent a very

flexible vocabulary that allows the definition of a set

of display rules, independent from the export format,

that ensures an uniform representation of the

document. These rendering rules allow users to

define elements like page set-up and styling in terms

close to an usual word editor, and also to associate

document structures or elements with certain

dynamic editing or data representation elements. The

dynamic editing elements represent a binding

between the structured documents and rich user

interface capabilities that allow users to easily

modify the documents inside a web browser

concealing the structured nature of the document

they are working on (e.g. creating a new paragraph,

editing data inside tables or lists is done similar to

usual word editors). Data can also have graphical

representations (e.g. charts) or represent captions of

elements defined in other documents (e.g. link:

dynamic caption enabling auto-update when original

source is modified; view: static caption, representing

the value at a particular moment of time). Based on

the property of being independent of export format,

elements defined by the document rendering rules

are enabled, disabled or enhanced according to user

options (e.g. XForms, PDF).

Figure 2: Document layering.

The interaction with documents refers to the

actions to be performed on the main documents that

act as content containers and, in user interaction

terms, it is done through an export document. An

export document is regarded as being a collection of

layers, the choice of whom depending on the

required functionality. The basis layer is represented

by an XML document acting as content container

that instantiates a particular document definition.

The second layer is represented by the associated

editing rules, by the means of which (1) the

document level workflow is defined and (2) editing

permissions and restrictions are applied. According

to editing stage, document elements may be disabled

ICE-B 2009 - International Conference on E-business

254

for editing or viewing for certain roles and based on

the next layer, represented by the rendering rules, an

export format can be generated. From a technical

point of view, an export format can be an XForms

application, a PDF or a HTML document.

An additional optional layer is implemented in

order to provide document level utilities (e.g. notes,

comments) that can support creativity and improve

collaboration. When using XForms as export format

the presence of these utility elements is marked with

an appropriate symbol, the content being loaded on

request.

The Document Interaction component represents

the access point to all this functionality, providing

the required interface in order to allow the users and

the system to interact with the documents. Access is

provided in respect to user's role, the component

working closely with the local policy enforcement

point (PEP). The local PEP manages access based on

project policies, being able to grant or deny access to

functionality and resources (the local PEP can be

regarded as an Access Manager delegate that

guaranties that the policies defined at project and

system level are applied).

In order to be able to manage all layers required

to generate an export document, the roles involved

in the document level workflow and document type

definitions, the Metadata Manager component

defines a vocabulary that organises all this

information concerning a document. In this respect,

a document consists mainly in data that describes it's

nature and links to files that hold the content of each

of it's layers. This component handles the definition

of metadata associated with a document and works

in close relation with the Document Interaction pipe

based system. It thus provides all required

information in order to process the document layers

and apply them the proper transformation,

representing at document level an integration

component.

The Workflow Manager component handles de

definition and execution of sequences of operations

required by a particular functionality at system or

project level. The system and project workflow

execution implies orchestrating the functionality

provided by the other components, representing the

level where the integration of the system as a whole

is acquired.

The sequences of operations that aggregate

functionality in order to create a process can be

defined by the appropriate roles using the Workflow

Designer component. This component provides the

proper means to combine resources, roles and

actions (functionality provided by the rest of the

system) in a coherent symphony that defines a

process either at system or project level. Processes

like creating a new account, consulting the list of

active projects (system level) or editing and

exporting a document (project level) can be defined

using a graphical user interface. In order to facilitate

the understanding of a process that is executed at a

particular moment of time, this component can

provide also a visual representation of the workflow

involved.

The orchestration of a process represents the

automatic coordination and execution of a set of

services required in order to obtain a certain output.

Each process the system is required to execute

(either at system or project level) must have a

workflow definition schema in order to be

implementable. Taking in consideration that all main

components provide a interface in order to

communicate one with another, this approach

sustains a loose coupled integration of the system.

Similar to the Document Manager, the access to the

functionality provided by these components is

controlled by a local PEP.

The framework manages access through the

Access Manager component which represents the

level where decisions regarding the set of permitted

operations that can be executed by a particular user

during a certain work session are taken. This

component implements a role based access control

(RBAC) model (Ferraiolo, 2001), relying thus on

concepts like users, roles, permissions, objects and

sessions. Users are assigned to a particular role and

roles are associated with a set of permissions, users

being able to execute operations in virtue to the

assigned role. Roles represent m-n relationships

between users and permissions (taking in

consideration the fact that a user can have one or

more roles, but just one of them can be activated

during a certain work session) and permissions

represent the authorization to execute a set of actions

upon protected object. A great advantage of this

model is that it allows the definition of hierarchic

levels inside the system, being able to emphasize the

authority and responsibility layers. In order to

eliminate issues like interest conflicts deriving from

multiple inheritances, the RBAC model introduces

the concepts of static and dynamic separation of

duty (a user being able to activate just one role

during a particular work session, or multiple roles

and define conflictual situations).

Using both static and dynamic separation of duty

the system gains a great degree of flexibility when

applying access policies, being able thus to simulate

more realistically real life organizational model.

AN XML-BASED APPROACH FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS

255

Together with the local PEP's the Authorization

component manages access to system resources.

The Repository stores all documents required by

the aforementioned components and can be accessed

exclusively by these. Access policies, workflow

schemas, document definitions, user interface

elements, project documents etc. are all stored in this

repository, being available only to the components

delegated to process them (based on system level

roles). User created documents are organized in

libraries (a library containing all documents defined

on a server, site) and projects (a project containing

all documents created by users during the execution

of a workflow) and components can access them

using temporary links provided by path projection.

Figure 3: Repository structure.

The two main functions provided by the Session

Manager refer to authentication and session

handling, providing thus the means to identify users

and manage the connection that has been established

with them. After a user successfully authenticates,

the session handler triggers the execution of the

authorisation workflow. After the user has been

granted with a role at system level, the means to

access the functionality associated with that

particular role are provided (e.g. create new projects

or edit existing ones, define new access policies

etc.). The UI Support component provides additional

graphical elements that enhance usability and user

experience, representing extra layers added on top of

a normal web page that simulate the looks of a

desktop that provides functionality using different

applications (e.g. a Start button that provides access

to main applications like the document editor,

workflow manager etc.). The main purpose of this

component is to simplify and enhance the interaction

with the system and conceal the structured nature of

the documents by emphasizing the flexibility

provided by this approach.

The Faust framework integrates structured

documents with concepts like role based access

control and workflow management in order to obtain

an efficient user and document centric collaborative

system concerned with the management of content.

The framework philosophy is build around the

concepts of distributed organisations, data

integration and interoperability. The following

section will present certain technical aspects meant

to provide a greater understanding of the model,

concentrating only on those elements required by

this purpose.

4 TECHNOLOGICAL

OVERVIEW

In the following we will present certain

implementation related aspects in order to provide a

clearer view of the system, confining only to those

elements that support this goal.

As mentioned earlier, the Faust framework

provides functionality using web services following

the Representational state transfer (REST) model in

defining how resources are addressed and

manipulated. This model abstracts application state

and functionality into resources that provide a

uniform interface to support a stateless client-server

interaction. In this respect, the session handler does

not rely on sessions and cookies to manage the

interaction with the user, instead random ids and

time stamps are associated to authenticated users

after each transaction (making thus session hijacking

more difficult). This approach is possible because

the system design allows components to leave data

in a consistent state after each process execution.

The REST model provides also the means to

implement a loose coupled mechanism in order to

integrate system components.

Using XML pipelines allows the framework to

provide very flexible and powerful capability to

process documents. Starting from the metadata that

defines a document, the Document Interaction

component applies several transformations based on

the layers required by the export format in order to

provide a complete document. For example, when

exporting into a XForms application, the pipeline

first loads the document's definition in XML Schema

format and (1) based on the document metadata and

associated document editing rules the editing stage is

determined and according to this stage the elements

available for viewing/editing are extracted and

passed as instance data for the XForms application,

(2) based on XML Schema and instance model

binding elements are generated in order to associate

elements with data types, (3) following the instance

model and associated document rendering rules the

user interface components are generated. When

ICE-B 2009 - International Conference on E-business

256

deploying the final XForms application the UI

Support component is consulted and based on the

process that is being executed an editor is provided

that wraps the XForms application in order to

improve usability.

Processes are orchestrated using Yet Another

Workflow Language (YAWL) because of the good

support for coordinating both human and computer

tasks. YAWL is based on workflow patterns and

because of its formal semantics foundation static

analysis is available. Another important feature

provided by this language is the support to integrate

other technologies like XML Schema, XPath and

XQuery in the execution of workflows.

Access management is backed by the model of

the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language

(XACML). Based on this declarative access control

policy language the RBAC model can be

implemented providing thus the means to simulate

more realistically organisation models even in

distributed contexts.

5 CONCLUDING REMARKS

The work presented in this paper addressed the

problem of integrating document and content

management functionality and workflow capabilities

into a single system in order to achieve a very

efficient solution for collaborative content

management. Allowing users to edit collaboratively

documents and supporting their needs for time and

location independence can result in increased

efficiency at organisation level. Users have to be

able to concentrate their efforts on content and

reduce as much as possible the time used to handle

and integrate technologies.

As shown in this paper, using XML technologies

as building blocks enables the system to provide

great flexibility and cover a wide range of aspects

concerning content at organisational level. The

proposed framework tackles issues concerning the

improvement of efficiency at organisation level

using flexible content management solutions and

represents a work in progress. As further work, we

intend to develop our framework in a stable system

in order to support with use-cases aspects presented

through this paper.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by Romanian National

Authority for Scientific Research under the grant no.

92-100/2008 (PN2).

REFERENCES

Aversano, L., Canfora, G., Lucia, A. & Gallucci, P.

(2001). “Integrating Document and Workflow

Management Systems”, Proceedings of the IEEE

Symposia on Human-Centric Computing Languages

and Environments

Ayed, S., Cuppens-Boulahia, N., Cuppens, F. (2008).

“Deploying Access Control in Distributed Workflow.

Thirty-One Australasian Computer Science

Conference” (ACSC2008)

Ding, Q. (2009). “Data Mining on XML Data”. In J. Wang

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of data warehousing and mining -

2nd ed. (pp. 506-510). London: Information Science

Reference

Ferraiolo, D., F., Sandhu, R., Gavrila, S. (2001).

“Proposed NIST Standard for Role-Based Access

Control,” ACM Transactions on Information and

System Security 4(3)

Heero, K., Puus, U., Willemson, J. (2002). “XML based

document management in Estonian legislative

system,” Proceedings of the Baltic Conference,

BalticDB&IS 2002 (Vol. 1), Institute of Cybernetics at

Tallin Technical University

Mahboubi, H., Hachicha, M., Darmont, J. (2009). “XML

Warehousing and OLAP”. In J. Wang (Ed.),

Encyclopedia of data warehousing and mining - 2nd

ed. (pp. 2109-2116). London: Information Science

Reference

Marca, D.A. (2008). “E-business innovation. Surviving

the coming decades,” in proc. ICE-B'08

Nallaparaju, V., et. al. (2005). “An Experimental Study of

Workflow and Collaborative Document Authoring in

Medical Research”, Proceedings of Tenth Australasian

Document Computing Symposium

Nayak, R. (2009). “Discovering Knowledge from XML

Documents”. In J. Wang (Ed.), Encyclopedia of data

warehousing and mining - 2nd ed. (pp. 663-668).

London: Information Science Reference

Salminen, A. (2005). “Building digital government by

XML,” in proc. 38th Annual Hawaii International

Conference on System Sciences

Walsh, N., Muellner, L. (2005). DocBook 5.0: The

Definitive Guide, O'Reilly & Associates

Yongguo, J. (2008). “Implementing Marine XML for

Observed CTD Data in a Marine Data Exchange

Platform,” Journal of Ocean University of China, 7(4)

AN XML-BASED APPROACH FOR CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS

257