3. AGRIS Application Profile

3.1 What is an application profile?

With the current trend for promoting reuse instead of reinvention, the AGRIS AP has been created taking elements and refinements that are already in existence.

The concept of the application profile is not new and therefore several definitions have been provided by different communities. An article published in the Journal of Digital Information, recounts several such definitions from communities such as Z39.50, IEEE standardization, FGDC etc. [6]

With their experience in the European DESIRE project, Heery and Patel introduce 'application profile' as a type of metadata schema.

Their definition:

An application profile is a type of metadata schema which consists of data elements drawn from one or more namespaces, combined together by implementors, and optimised for a particular local application. [7]

In the context of the AgMES initiative, an application profile has the above definition. The elements in every application profile will consist of elements, refinements and schemes drawn from the DCMES, AgMES or any other namespace from which a term might be reused to meet the needs of the FAO applications.

For example:

The AGRIS application profile does the following:

• It draws elements from existing namespaces, namely DCMES and AgMES;
• It introduces no new data elements;
• It specifies the cardinality and data-typing information;
• It specifies the application-specific schemes and controlled list values; and
• It slightly refines standards definitions of some of the elements.

3.2 Foreseen Advantages

The new AGRIS AP requirements are designed to replace the current practice with a more robust one that foresees the trend towards more and more resources being made available electronically. By adhering to the AGRIS AP requirements, it is hoped that we can see long-term benefits which will only be possible through a high level of commitment and effort.

The new requirements are expected to provide several benefits, including:

• providing the AGRIS audience with information of high quality with medium complexity;
• providing a standardized format for the exchange of bibliographic information;
• allowing AGRIS Resource Centres to provide their information in XML/RDF formats or to be easily exposed for multi-host searches.

3.3 Essential Definitions

The three most commonly used terms in this document are described below for the sake of clarification.

• Element – An element is described as a unit of data or metadata. The element allows us to give more information about the described information.
• Element Refinement – An element qualifier makes the meaning of an element either narrower or more specific. Additionally, element refinement shares the meaning of the unqualified element, but with a more restricted scope. When a client does not understand the element refinement, it can be ignored and the value is used as content of the unqualified element.
• Encoding Scheme – An encoding scheme aids in the interpretation of the value of an element. Encoding schemes may either be controlled vocabularies or formal notations. A value drawn from an encoding scheme can be taken from a controlled list of vocabulary (e.g. a term from a classification such as ASC (AGRIS Subject Categories) or a term from a thesaurus such as AGROVOC). Formal notations are used to format a value of an element (e.g., date expressed the “YYYY-MM-DD” format). When a client does not understand the encoding scheme, it can be still useful for human readers.

e.g.

More information on technical issues regarding XML encoding using the AGRIS AP are available in the AGRIS AP Technical Guidelines at http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/ae908e/ae908e00.htm.