TAPIR networks in Australia’s Virtual Herbarium and the Atlas of Living Australia
Greg Whitbread, Shunde Zhang, Paul Coddington
Abstract
The first, and currently the major, iteration of Australia's Virtual Herbarium (AVH) uses a very simple protocol designed for a single task, to assemble partial HISPID documents from a number of providers and display species occurrence on a map. It is web-based, easy to implement, fully distributed, and praised and lamented by the community it serves.
AVH2.0 will accommodate full data interchange between Australian Herbaria and enable development of products to meet increased local expectations and support provider participation in global markets for biodiversity information. The story is: a network based on TDWG standards.
Development of the AVH2.0 portal has been completed, using Java. The full AVH1.0 functionality has been enhanced to interrogate and deliver HISPID, ABCD and Darwin Core, and to offer full indexing of distributed BioCASE and AVH1.0 providers, interfaces supporting pluggable services, and instance replication. However, schema support for AVH functionality and full provider compliance is yet to be achieved. In practice, deployment has proven difficult with technical, financial and social issues all presenting barriers to successful implementation. TAPIR integration using TAPIRUS and PyWrapper may be a solution to these problems.
TAPIRUS, the TAPIR Unit Seeker, is a Java library providing a programming interface to the underlying XML protocols for entering queries and for parsing, aggregating and post-processing result sets. TAPIRUS replaces the BioCASE UnitLoader. It supports both the BioCASE and TAPIR protocols, simplifies indexing, supports protocol extension, provides better performance and improved memory management.
The AVH is also a component of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). The ALA is a significant new initiative modelled on the AVH and related biodiversity informatics projects. It is designed to provide a national information infrastructure supporting biodiversity science and to establish a sustainable architecture for biodiversity informatics in Australia. Without the foundation of the pioneering work and standards of TDWG, the ALA would not be possible. The first breaths of the ALA will undoubtedly arise from a network of TAPIR providers and an open evolution will contribute to the future for TDWG process, protocols and standards.
AVH2.0 will accommodate full data interchange between Australian Herbaria and enable development of products to meet increased local expectations and support provider participation in global markets for biodiversity information. The story is: a network based on TDWG standards.
Development of the AVH2.0 portal has been completed, using Java. The full AVH1.0 functionality has been enhanced to interrogate and deliver HISPID, ABCD and Darwin Core, and to offer full indexing of distributed BioCASE and AVH1.0 providers, interfaces supporting pluggable services, and instance replication. However, schema support for AVH functionality and full provider compliance is yet to be achieved. In practice, deployment has proven difficult with technical, financial and social issues all presenting barriers to successful implementation. TAPIR integration using TAPIRUS and PyWrapper may be a solution to these problems.
TAPIRUS, the TAPIR Unit Seeker, is a Java library providing a programming interface to the underlying XML protocols for entering queries and for parsing, aggregating and post-processing result sets. TAPIRUS replaces the BioCASE UnitLoader. It supports both the BioCASE and TAPIR protocols, simplifies indexing, supports protocol extension, provides better performance and improved memory management.
The AVH is also a component of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). The ALA is a significant new initiative modelled on the AVH and related biodiversity informatics projects. It is designed to provide a national information infrastructure supporting biodiversity science and to establish a sustainable architecture for biodiversity informatics in Australia. Without the foundation of the pioneering work and standards of TDWG, the ALA would not be possible. The first breaths of the ALA will undoubtedly arise from a network of TAPIR providers and an open evolution will contribute to the future for TDWG process, protocols and standards.