From Database to On-line Questionnaires With XML

Thomas B. Passin (coauthor Ingrid Guch)
NESDIS OSD and OSDPD (presenter works for Mitretek Systems)

The NESDIS Product Assessment effort involves a series of online questionnaires, each representing a different subset of NESDIS satellite data products. Data on the various products is available in the SATPROD database. However, it would be arduous and time-consuming to extract the data for each questionnaire by hand, and wrap it in HTML tags for the on-line form, and keeping all the data synchronized with updates would be extremely difficult.

This paper presents a system for creating the questionnaires that automates and synchronizes most of the process. Starting with a template for the questionnaire in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format and data from the database extracted into xml format, a series of eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSLT) stylesheets merges the data into the questionnaire, numbers each input item correctly, and creates the HTML on-line form.

Other stylesheets create the SQL table definitions for tables to hold the returned data and perform various utility functions. The returned data is inserted into the database by a Python script.

This system has drastically reduced the time and effort needed to produce the questionnaires and has improved their accuracy.

BIO - Thomas B. Passin Thomas Passin is a Principal Systems Engineer with Mitretek Systems. He has worked on a range of NESDIS and NWS programs including NEXRAD, AWIPS, POES antenna characterization and performance, and GOES-R sensor data downlink requirements. He developed the SATPROD system for OSD and is currently extending its capabilities. Mr. Passin also works on a range of XML-related tasks, including standards and and demonstrators for advanced traveler information systems. Mr. Passin is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and studied graduate-level physics at the University of Chicago.

Auditorium - Paper Wednesday - 9:40 - 10:00 A.M.