CAM editor tutorial video launches

To accompany the new CAM editor v2.0 release we now have an 8 minute online video.

The video provides a quick introduction to the features and capabilities in 

the latest CAM editor release made available for community use courtesy
of Oracle's media folks.

The demonstration steps through a scenario of enhancing an existing OASIS HAVE schema to add new components and then generate the resulting updated exchange schema. The tutorial inserts new NIEM core components to the existing OASIS schema via drag and drop from the dictionary - showing you how you can tailor or build a new NIEM exchange from existing library components - and/or add your own components and rules.

To access the tutorial - see this link and just enter in an email address
to launch the video page - http://launch.oracle.com/?NIEM

Oracle also has a new NIEM focus page with more resources and information:

 http://www.oracle.com/goto/niem

The main CAM editor download page is http://www.cameditor.org

CAM, Mind maps and XML Schema

The new release of the CAM editor toolkit includes the ability to generate mind maps of XML structures.

This opens up some nice possibilities - such as documenting tool menu and functional capabilities - as this example shows. To do this you just create a simple XML hierarchy and load it into the CAM editor - then view it in the Freemind mind map viewer.

Alternatively if you have an existing XML Schema then you can import that into the CAM editor, then map that.  Again here is an example for the HAVE - Hospital Availability - schema from OASIS.

Interestingly there is also academic work on this topic and overall approach - see these couple of links:

• Using Mind Maps to Model Semistructured Documents, Springer, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010, Volume 6273/2010
• Developing a Formal Model for Mind Maps, March 2011, Corfu, Greece

Overall this provides an intuitive way of visualizing hierarchical relationships and XML information exchanges. More importantly it can improve your ability to design optimal information exchanges by making it possible to see the "big picture" from a business functional perspective.