Technical issues

Services

Citizens will be able to retrieve information from multiple websites and databases in a single search without the need to know, or enter the specific addresses for each one.

The user interface or portlet can be branded to the requirements of the host organisation and made available through an existing web site or portal, complementing other activities of the host organisation. SeamlessUK staff can offer help and advice with integrating data from web pages or databases.

The seamlessUK taxonomy is already available under licence to other authorities but future subscribers to the seamlessUK technology will receive this as part of their subscription.

Technical system

Databases

There are three methods of linking to database information:

• via Z39.50 enabled server configured to map database fields to seamlessUK profile elements. Searches run against the live database;
• Via a Z'mbol installed locally which acts as a repository for the data and interacts with the seamlessUK system. Need to reload the database periodically;
• By exporting the database and storing on central Z'mbol server at Fretwell Downing. This requires a new export to update.

Web pages

HTML web pages are tagged using metadata in accordance with the seamlessUK application profile. Metadata is harvested every night and the index used when searches are run. Collection level descriptions which conform to the RSLP are being developed.

Content Management Systems

Metadata in accordance with the seamlessUK Application Profile can be added via those Content Management Systems which support metadata.

Government Standards

SeamlessUK is compliant with the e-government metadata standard, (e-GMS) version 2.0 2003, being qualified Dublin Core with some additional elements. An interim flat html version of the seamlessUK application profile has been developed and used in the seamless.dot metadata creator.

The full XML schema has been developed. Training, and documentation are available.

SeamlessUK has developed a taxonomy for community information which aids consistent indexing, and retrieval. This has now been accepted as a Subject Keyword encoding scheme by the version 3 of the e-Government Metadata Standard.

SeamlessUK uses XML for integration technology and conforms to the e-government interoperability framework.

The seamlessUK geocoder will search a number of geographic data sources to resolve place name queries, understand what the user has entered and interpret that query for the different information sources. The system links to Multimap for travel directions.