The Global Justice XML Data Model

THE PROBLEM

The Global Justice XML Data Model - (GJXDM - Wikipedia Entry) is an XML interchange format used by law enforcement and other justice agencies in the United States.

It's a replete standard - it contains over 400 complex types and around 150 simple types with a total of around 2,000 associations (properties). Almost half of these focus on the Activity area (such as an Arrest) and on Personal Details.

Actual adoption of the model will vary depending on the context. This is due to expected variances in implementation, but also to the context of the application. GJXDM is implemented across a diverse range of institutions at different levels of government, each with different concerns and underlying objectives. The GJXDM has also been adopted in geographies outside the United States. Naturally these implementations have requirements that go beyond the available concepts, but also find large sections of the model inapplicable for their region.

The challenge is how to adhere to the entrenched standard whilst also accommodating the necessary variations on specific implementations, and keeping in sync with any updates to the standard over time.


HOW GRAFT HELPS

We believe Graft offers a lot to users of GJXDM. The first benefit is that it allows users to visually navigate GJDM as a domain model.

A key feature of Graft is the ability to extend other data models - we allow this extension in two modes: Active or Passive.

All of the elements of a passively extended model appear "greyed out" or "ghosted" in the modeling tool. You can then opt to selectively bring each of these elements into your model, even potentially over multiple releases of your implementation. To get an idea, you can extend the GJXDM Model yourself and experiment with drawing forward the parts of the model that are of relevance to you. Your modifications remain private until you explicitly choose to make your extended model public.

This allows you to cherry-pick the elements you need as they are implemented. Instead of handing out a schema with thousands of elements, you can produce a schema (by visiting the export tab of your model) that shows the elements and relationships actually being used, whilst still remaining consistent with the source schema.

An ancillary side-effect on this is performance. Large schemas can introduce a parsing bottleneck; reducing schemas to only include elements actually in use can make a big difference.


GRAFT KEEPS CUSTOMIZATIONS IN SYNC

Another key benefit of Graft is the control over extensions and modifications to the model. If you actively extend the source of GJXDM or passively extend the source of GJXDM, you are not left stranded on a standalone branch of the model. Your model is actually kept as a delta from the source model, allowing you to easily upgrade to future standard changes.

As an example of extensions and modifications being kept in sync with changes to the source GJXDM model, you might rename an element like LocationPostalCodeID - particularly if you're implementing the model in a very specific geography. This name change is stored as a delta, you can then update the underlying source GJXDM model and this change would still apply whilst still enabling you to get all of the updates to the underlying model.

Changes that consumers of GJXDM make can even be re-incorporated to the original model by the original model's administrators. A future update may transparently include the updates from derived models.

This is a very powerful outcome. In many modeling exercises tools encourage you to take a model, customize it, and effectively create an island. Graft encourages a different approach - Instead of grabbing a model and morphing it - Take an existing model, only use the pieces you need, focus on the changes you need for this release alone, and then keep taking the advantage over time.



YOU CAN LEVERAGE FROM MULTIPLE MODELS

Graft doesn't limit you to extending just one model. You can extend and integrate any number of models. It's unlikely that GJXDM is the only model you need to use. There may be other local and international standards, as well as in-house and bespoke representations for areas that are perhaps not covered or not covered appropriately for your needs in GJXDM. Graft lets you bring all of these models together, integrating and leveraging elements wherever required.

The Specify Tool in Graft lets you specify any number of Active and Passive Extensions, you can even modify these "on-the-fly" - for example, by replacing an existing Active Extension with a later release, or even with a different implementation.

We'll be working a lot more in and around Industry Standards such as the Global Justice XML Data Model. If you're working in this space, we'd love to hear your thoughts, comments and feedback.

Thanks,
jon@jodoro.com