XML Group Resources Page

We provide here a summary of XML resources and tools that are were under development or in use by the XML Group at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 630.1 when it closed down in 2003.

XML is the eXtensible Markup Language. It is an emerging standard for digital information markup. It allows information (data, metadata, documentation, resources of any kind) to be expressed in a structured, flexible, and easily parsible manner. XML allows for contents-based tagging of any information resource, and consequently it allows for powerful, focused, and efficient contents-based search and retrieval of information. For more information and an excellent starting point for learning about XML, refer to the on-line articles: "A Technical Introduction to XML", and "The Evolution of Web Documents: The Ascent of XML".

Our XML Activities, Tools, and Resources:

• Documentation for Published Data: ADC's DatasetML
• The flow chart for data at the XML repository.
• The DTD (Document Type Definition).
• A tree diagram of the ADC dataset DTD.
• The Schema of dataset.
• An example of a dataset: Catalog of 5,268 Standard Stars Based on the Normal System N30 (Morgan, 1952) .
• The repository of XML documents describing the data at the Astronomical Data Center (ADC) (DTD 0.53; metadata and data).
• A paper on XML at Astronomical Data Center (ADC) presented at the American Astronomical Society Meeting #194,A Next Generation Data Repository
• Slides from a talk given 11/9/00 at the NASA Science Data Processing Workshop 2000, Metadata Expression using XML
• XML for general scientific data: The eXtensible Data Format Home Page (XDF) .
• XML for Astronomical Images and Spectra: An upgrade of FITS to an XML markup language (FITSML). .
• XML for Scientific Manuscripts and Articles: A Science Journal Article Markup Language (SJAML).
  An experimental mark up language for scientists to use when authoring manuscripts to be sent to journal or book publishing houses or for preprints. It incorporates MathML and XDF. A rudimentary converter to LaTeX is provided for backwards compatibility.