Formex XMLTwo years after introduction

Dr. Holger BagolaPublications Office

Directorate A ‘OJ and Access to Legislation’‘Methodology and development’

History

• First 3 versions in SGML• Last version entered into force

in April 1999• Organization of user meeting to

discuss the current state and the future of Formex

Migration to XML

• Results of meeting– Proposal to migrate to XML– Proposal to replace DTDs by

schema►Redefinition of Formex

Schema (W3C) instead of DTDsVersion 4 entered into force onMay 1, 2004

Experiences

• Availability of tools offer an easier access to contents of Formex instances

► Printers are able to prepare the Formex

instances in 19/20 languages in thesame time they needed for 11languages before

Experiences

• Higher quality of the instances since the first deliveries (less rejects)

• Migration to Unicode (UTF-8): less problems with encoding of special characters and symbols

Experiences

• Revision of table model:– New table model based on HTML,– No longer problems with synchronizations of

language dependent and language independent sections

• Revision of markup granularity– Less doubts for complex objects

Experiences

• Consequent markup of dates, amounts and codes:– Control mechanisms for synoptism of contents

between language versions

• Attachment of attributes for encoding some information in a language independent format:– Control mechanisms for synoptism of

structures between languages

Improvements

• Better integration into legislative processes

• XML markup should be introduced by authors of legislative acts

• Better access to the validated and archived Formex instances

Access to Formex

• Documentation (Schema, physical specifications, examples):http://formex.publications.europa.eu

• Direct access to schema versions:http://formex.publications.europa.eu/schema

Questions

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