Application-independent document storage using a generic markup language

Documents are generally stored in a proprietary software format on a specific computer platform. Users who have computer hardware and software different than those that developed the documents must use manual processes such as rekeying the document to access the information. The objective of this research project was to store documents in a format that allows any computer hardware or software to use the information in Florida Cooperative Extension Service (FCES) documents. Fifty documents were randomly selected from FAIRS' DISC8 (a CD-ROM produced by the Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval System (FAIRS) at the University of Florida (UF)) for model development. A document analysis on the FCES publications produced a tree structure that identified document elements and their hierarchical relationships. An International Standard (ISO 8879-1986) known as Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) was used to represent FCES publication structure as a model. The model (Document Type Definition (DTD)) was developed based on the tree structure and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) Article model. The FCES model consisted of elements in the AAP model having the same definition as those in the tree structure and unique elements required by UF. A commercial parser verified that the model conformed to SGML rules and syntax. Each FCES publication was tagged with Florida's Authoring System Tools for WordPerfect (FAST-WP), whose styles were developed from the structural properties in the model. The tagged FCES publications were then converted to SGML instances (tagged text files) based on the structure and content of the model. Each instance was parsed with a commercial parser to verify that the model was an adequate representation of the structure of FCES publications. The FCES model was then found to be application-independent after converting the instances into FAIRS DISC8 and DISC9, Multimedia Viewer, and Guide retrieval system format for on-screen display. The FCES model developed in this research has been incorporated into a vertically integrated electronic information system used by FAIRS to deliver FCES information by CD-ROM and World Wide Web.