S1000D Data Interchange (DDN) Features

SiberSafe S1000D CSDB supports the Data Dispatch Note (DDN)-based interchange (import and export) mechanism, as defined in the S1000D standard. The DDN interchange functionality allows multiple organizations, each using its own CSDB system, to exchange S1000D content packages, including data modules and illustrations, in a standard-compliant way. An interchange package is a ZIP file that contains both the content (data modules and illustrations) and the metadata (also known as the Data Dispatch Note) that allows the organizations involved into the interchange to keep track of who sent what to whom and when, as well as automatically aggregate incremental update interchange that only include deltas (changes) since the previous package was exchanged.

Create, Edit and Export DDN packages

SiberSafe S1000D CSDB allows the user to define the senders and recipients of interchange packages as well as the inbound or outbout channels that connect senders to recipients and back. Once an interchange channel has been defined, any number of interchange packages can be automatically produced and trasferred by the sender to the recipient over a period of time.

The first package within any given channel will include all the content of a specific S1000D project while any subsequent packages will only include the incremental updates or in other words the changes in the S1000D project content that have taken place since last time an interchange package was produced within the same channel.

In order to produce an interchange package, a Data Dispatch Note has to be created first, which specifies the list of all the data modules and illustrations to be included into the interchange package. SiberSafe S10000D CSDB automatically generates Data Dispatch Notes through the intelligent analysis of the modifications within the project since the previous interchange package release. Once created, a Data Dispatch Note can be opened in the authoring environment and, if necessary, modified. At this stage, the list of the data modules and illustrations in the package can be reshuffled and also additional comments can be added.

As soon as the Data Dispatch Note has been finalized, an interchange package is automatically produced in compliance with the S1000D speficiation, including the standard-compliant naming of the files in the package and a valid data dispatch note (DDN) containing the package metadata.

Import DDN packages

A series of content updates can be received in the S1000D interchange format from any external organization using the SiberSafe S1000D CSDB's DDN package importation feature. SiberSafe will automatically validate that the DDN package is not out-of-sequence, extract its contents, accomodate all new data modules and illustrations in the repository and update all the data modules and illustrations that already exist in the repostory and are being updated. SiberSafe will also log the package arrival along with all the related metadata, such as who issued it, when and why. The dispatch note of the inbound package will be captured in the repository as part of the inbound interchange channel history.