Talk:OpenMarineXML Release1
From Wiki.openmarine.org
I am not sure if I have read the XML document correctly, but it appears the XML file cannot handle a company with multiple offices.
I assume the <broker> tag should be reserved for information on the parent company, not to identify individual offices.
If this is the case, then can I propose the following :
<open_marine version="1.0" language="english">
<broker code="">
<broker_details>
--
<offices>
<office id="1">
<email />
<name />
<address />
<town />
<county />
<country />
<postcode />
<daytime_phone />
<evening_phone />
<fax />
<mobile />
<website />
</office>
</offices>
</broker_details>
<adverts>
<advert officeid="1" ref="" status="Sold/Available/UnderOffer">
--
</advert>
</adverts>
</broker>
</open_marine>
This would permit multiple dealers; to have multiple offices; to have multiple adverts.
Matt - Rightboat.com
Hi Matt,
Good suggestion about the offices section. I have made the amendments to the schema in the main thread; let me know what you think.
Ben Abbott – Boatshop24
Hello
I'm the boatsandoutboards developer.
Has anyone created any xsd style schema's to validate the xml against. If not I have started on creation of one based on the current XML on the website... Afterall there is no point in transmitting an xml file thats not valid or missing data etc
I will post this to the wiki once my account has been created.
Also why are the following elements (located in <boat_features /> ) not proper elements?
<item name="boat_name" /> <item name="owners_comment" /> <item name="reg_details" /> <item name="known_defects" /> <item name="range" /> <item name="last_serviced" />
Should it not be
<boat_name>blar</boat_name> <owners_comment>some comment<owners_comment> etc...
as per the rest of the xml?
look forward to hearing back from you
Stuart Nixon
Hi Stuart,
An XSD Schema would be really good to have! I have made a adjustment to the XML schema as per Matt's suggestions if you could include this that would be great.
Regarding the comments about proper elements. We created item tags such as..
<item name="beam" unit="metres/feet" />
to signify that the element is not mandatory. This will allow for websites which do not support such fields in their adverts to omit tags and decrease file size allowing for faster transfer across the network.
Elements such as...
<new_or_used />
Have been formatted as such to signify that they are mandatory, although values of certain tags will be optional
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
why do i have "deacons" in the vessel_location field (apart from its the deacons feed)?
can we not have some attribute to indicate that vessel_location = brokers_address or include the location details in the vessel_location field?
stuart
Hi Stuart,
The XML data feed I provided you with for Deacons Yacht Sales was in our Marine Trader format not Open Marine Format. As soon as the Open Marine Schema has been agreed and finalised we will switch and offer our data feeds in Open Marine format.
I am proposing that we set a date of the 7th of December for a final release of the XML schema.
With regards to the vessel lying field, the current Open Marine Schema uses the following:
<vessel_lying country="" />
To be used in the following way:
<vessel_lying country="gbr">southampton</vessel_lying>
Maybe we could use a special value or attribute within the tag to signify that the vessel is lying with the broker. Alternatively we could extend the vessel_lying tag attributes to include more detailed address details.
Let me know what you think.
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
How do you propose to implement "private seller" ads in the open marine feed format?
i am currently having to create a "private seller" broker / broker_details block for each private advert.
it would be good to add a "private_seller" boolean flag to the broker_details block
Julie - CSL
General questions
Hi Guys, I'm quite new to all this. Over the last week or so, I've been trying to understand the system and I'm finally getting the idea, I think!
- Anyway, my main question is regarding the master copy of data. So, say, a broker advertises on site A and also requests to advertise on site B. Site B then requests data from site A. Then the boat is sold on site B, so the most up to date data will be on site B. Therefore it's not just site B requesting data from site A on daily basis, but site A also has to keep checking site B's updates. How can we tell which data is the most up to date? Do we need to have some sort of a timestamp for when the record has been last updated?
- Another question is about the media tag. I take it it's the url of image or video, is that right? Can more than one be passed?
- And last one is regarding the boat_type tag. We have 2 levels of boat classification, e.g. top level Power and sub levels RIBs, Fishing Boats, etc. Would it be OK for me to pass the data as <boat_type>Power/Fishing Boats</boat_type> or could we add an extra optional tag?
Julie - CSL
Hi Julie,
The current schema has been designed to describe broker data only. Private adverts are not included in the specification for the first version.
Open marine is designed for a single data hub and a set of display nodes. Data on the hub is transmitted to nodes for display only. Data management happens only on the hub. If a boat is sold it is up to the broker to de-list the boat on the hub, thereby updating all of the display nodes. Feeds would need to happen frequently to ensure that data is valid. It would be up to individual sites to manage the display of boat stock however they see fit.
The media tag should hold the publicly accessible URL to the image/video so as other sites can access them to display on their site. The media tag can also occur multiple times within the advert_media element.
With regards to the sub categories of boat types I propose we create a new tag to contain free text displaying the sub category of boat type. The boat_type node could then be given strict values from a list.
Example:
Power, Sail, Rib, Dinghy, Jet Ski, Narrow, Barge
Please let me know what you think and also let me know if there are any other boat types that should be included in the list above.
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Hi Ben,
thanks for your answers to my questions. I still have some questions and suggestions, hopefully you might be able to help. Here it comes:
1. Would it be possible to have an extra field for each advert's headline? At the moment I can see just description.
2. Regarding the categories (boat_type) and subcategories - I guess if we have a comprehensive list of boat types, we might not need the subcategory (as a free text field), as I should be able to match the boat types to our subcategories. Are we still going to be deciding on the full list of boat_types?
3. Are we going to have a standardized list of all OM members (to be used in the origin value of the open_marine tag?
4. I guess that requesting data from other OM members hubs will require password protection, is this going to be done using htaccess?
Thanks for your help Regards,
Julie
Hi Julie,
Could you elaborate on the Heading tag idea further? I'm not sure I understand. Generally adverts use the make and model as the heading for an advert.
I have been discussing the Idea of boat categories and it has been suggested that we have three different main Boat categories; 'Sail Boats', 'Motor Boats', and 'Other'. These seem to be generic boat categories which most portals use. The sub category field can then be used to describe the boat type further.
A standard list of Open Marine Members is a good idea! When the standard has been agreed (Deadline: 7th Dec) we will publish a list on the website.
Password protection will be left up to the individual hub to implement, but it is recommended.
Please let me know what you think of this?
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Dear Ben,
thanks for your answers. Could we add couple of more boat_types to the list? Our categories are: power, sail, watersports, engines and other. It would be helpful for us, if you could include the watersports and engines to the list.
Regards
Julie Elsden
Hi Julie,
The three main boat categories ('Sail Boats', 'Motor Boats', and 'Other') are generic enough that all types of boats can fall under them. The sub category field can then be used to describe the boat type further, for example.
<boat_type>Motor Boats</boat_type> <boat_category>Jet Ski<boat_category>
<boat_type>Sail Boats</boat_type> <boat_category>Dinghy<boat_category>
<boat_type>Motor Boats</boat_type> <boat_category>Fishing Boat<boat_category>
We feel that adding a ‘watersports’ category is not descriptive enough because this can include boats which are either sail or motor.
With regards to the engines section, the first release of the XML schema is only designed to transmit boat data. A further revision would need to be made to incorporate boat equipment.
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
I would like to suggest the following changes to the Open Marine Schema:
1. To remove all but the company_name element from the broker details section. Adding the offices section has made having address details in the broker details section redundant. Address details should always be listed under the offices node.
2. It has been suggested by Per Krabbe at Scanboat.com that we should allow for free text marketing description fields in multiple languages. I therefore propose that we should move marketing_desc, owners_comment and known_defects into there own sections and allow multiple instances of these elements in different languages.
Example:
<marketing_descs>
<marketing_desc language="fr">some text in french<marketing_desc>
<marketing_desc language="de">some text in german<marketing_desc>
</marketing_descs>
I have also made a correction to the schema by removing the duplicated berths and cabins elements from the build section.
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Hi,
Our system requires for every boat to have a boat_type and boat_category, which are both strictly pre-defined. The boat_type is fine, but as for the category I can map whatever boat_category to our categories, but I would need to have a list (no matter how long) of all the possible values, otherwise if an un-recognised category is passed, then the boat will not be categorised, which would cause our system problems. Could we not have an agreed list of boat_categories? (They system you suggested would work for us but only if the boat_category was a recognised value from the list, rather than a free text)
Thanks
Julie - CSL
Hi Julie,
Each portal will have many different boat categories and also different variations of these. If we could get each member of Open Marine to publish a list of there Boat Categories we could then attempt to create a master list which would suit everyone’s needs.
The following is a list of all our categories:
Aluminium Boats Barges & Houseboats Boat Charters & Hire Boat Share Bowrider Canoes & Kayaks Classic or Vintage Boats Classic or Vintage Boats Commercial (Fishing Boats) Commercial (Work Boats) Commercial (Work Boats) Cruiser or Motor Boat Cuddy Cabins Day Boats Dinghy Dinghy (Rowing) Dinghy (Sailing) Dory Jet Boats Jet Skis & Personal Watercraft Motor Sailers Multihull (Power) Multihull (Sail) Other Boat Types Rib & Inflatables River, Canal & Narrow Boats Sail Boats & Yachts Speed or Sports Boat Sports Fisher Stolen Boats Trailer Sailers Wanted Windsurfers & Sailboards
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Boat types/categories
Hi all,
TheYachtMarket.com has a boat type and boat category field. Our lists are as follows:
Categories:
Sail
Power
Commercial
Other
Boat types:
Air Boat
Aluminium
Antique / Classic / Replica
Apartments / Waterside Homes
Barge
Bass Boat
Bay Boat
Beam Trawler
Boom/Lifting ship
Bow Rider
Brigantine Sailing Ship
Bulk
Canoe / Kayak
Car / Pax Ferry
Cargo Ship
Catamaran
Centre Console
Charter Vessel
Commercial
Container Ship
Cornish Crabber
Crabber
Cruise / Passenger Ship
Cruiser
Cruiser/Racer
Cuddy
Cutter
Deck Boat
Deep Ocean Survey
Demolition Ship
Dinghy
Dive/Passenger
Downeast
Dredger
Dry Dock
Electric
Expedition Catamaran
Exploration
Express Boat
Ferry
Fish & Ski Boat
Fisher
Fishing Boat
Flats Fisher
Floating Dock
Floating Hotel
Flybridge Motor Cruiser
Flying Boat
Gaff Cutter
General Cargo
Glass Bottom Boat
High Performance Boat
Homes / Waterside Homes
House Boat
Hovercraft
Hunting/Duck Boat
Inflatable
Jet Boat
Jet Ski/Water Bike
Jon Boat
Ketch
Lake Boat
Landing Craft
Lifeboat/Ex-Lifeboat
LPG Gas Carrier
Mega Yacht
MFV
Military/Ex-Military
Mini Sports
Miscellaneous
Model
Mooring
Motor Sailer
Motor Yacht
Multihull
Multipurpose
Narrowboat
Non Powered
Offshore Fisher
Oil Tanker
Open Fisherman
OTHER
Passenger
Patrol
Performance Boat
Personal Water Craft/ PWC
Pilot Boat
Pilothouse
Pontoon
Power Catamaran
Racing Boat
Reefer
Research/Survey
Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB)
River/Canal
Ro-Ro
Runabout
RV
Sail Catamaran
Sail Training Ship
Sailboat
Sailing Dinghy
Sailing Racer
Sailing Ship
Salvage Ship
Scalloper
Schooner
Sedan/Convertible
Ship
Shrimper
Ski Boat
Sloop
Special-Ship
Speed Boat
Spits
Sports Boat
Sports Fisher
Submarine
Submersible
Super Yacht
Supply Ship
Tall Ship
Tanker
Tender
Tjalk
Trailers / Braked & Unbraked
Tramper
Trawler
Trawler Conversion
Trawler Yacht
Trimaran
Tug
Tuna Purse Seiner / Freezer
Turkish Gulet
Wakeboarding Boat
Waterside Properties
Workboat
Yawl
For the boat types, our system allows multiple selections as a particular boat may fall into more than one group.
Simon White
www.TheYachtMarket.com
Our category list
Hi
This is the category list for BoatsandOutboards.co.uk
Classic Sailing Boats,
Motor Sailers,
Multihull Sailboats,
Sailing Dinghies,
Trailer Sailers,
Yachts,
Boat Engines:
Engine Spares,
Inboard Engines,
Outboard Engines,
Motor boats for sale:
Aluminium Boats,
Classic Motor Boats,
Commercial Boats,
Fishing Boats,
Inland Cruisers,
Offshore Cruisers,
Powered Cats & Tris,
Speed Boats,
RIBs for Sale:
Cabin Ribs,
Commercial Ribs,
Rib Tenders,
Ribs - Other,
Sports/Dive Ribs,
PWC for sale:
Canoes,
Dinghies,
Inflatables,
Jet Skis,
Other:
Boat Charter / Hire,
Boat Moorings,
Boat Share,
Boat Spares,
Boat Trailers,
Boating Holidays,
Canal/Narrow Boats,
Generators,
House Boats,
Marine Books / Manuals,
Marine Chandlery,
Marine Clothing,
Marine Electronics,
Marine Equipment,
Marine Events,
Marine Jobs,
Marine Projects,
RYA Training,
Sails and Spars,
Stolen Boats, etc,
Waterside Property,
Watersports Equipment,
Windsurfing Equipment,
Broker contact name
Sorry to be adding more to this at this late stage!
For the broker contact name, would it not be better to have the name split into Title, Firstname and Lastname? E.g...
<broker code="">
<broker_details>
<company_name />
</broker_details>
<offices>
<office id="">
<office_name />
<email />
<title />
<first_name />
<last_name />
rather than than...
<broker code="">
<broker_details>
<company_name />
</broker_details>
<offices>
<office id="">
<office_name />
<email />
<name />
Simon White - YachtMarket.com
Additional fields
passenger_capacity would be useful - probably under accommodation. This is useful for commercial vessels e.g. cruise ships and ferries and differs to berths.
Simon White - YachtMarket.com
Hi Simon,
The reason we amalgamated title, last name and surname into a single name field was to reduce document bulk. With regards to the extra passenger_capacity field I will add this to the schema.
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Time Stamp
Dear All, We would like a ISO 8601 time stamp included within the XML stating when the document was generated. This will allow for trouble shooting as the file date modified attribute is not reliable.
Matt
rightboat.com
Media type attribute
Currently this is set as either image or video. Can this be changed to mime type e.g image/jpeg, video/x-msvideo as will allow for future expansion in to any other media type. This will also allow a company to see what files are available before being downloaded saving bandwidth if they are not supported.
best regards
Matt rightboat.com
Additions
Hi Matt,
These are both very good suggestions. If no one has any objections in the next couple of days I will add them to the schema!
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Office Contact Name
After further discussion it has been suggested that the extended broker’s name elements should be included in the schema, as per Simon White’s comments here on the discussion board.
I have added this to the schema which puts us up to version 1.5
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Boat Category
As per the suggestions made by Julie at CSL, I have added the 'boat_category' element to the schema.
This puts us up to version 1.6
Please remember the deadline is this Friday (7th Dec), so if you would like to propose any more revisions to the schema then you need to be fast!
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
The big day has arrived!
Big thanks to all developers who've been adding comments to the Wiki - there has been some very valuable input.
Special thanks to Ben Abbott for keeping the schema up to date on the site.
Ben, is the 1.6 version currently on the site the version we are to release/start using? Or are there any last minute revisions?
Simon White - TheYachtMarket
And now, the end is near
Hi Simon,
Version 1.6 on the site is the most up to date version and no further updates to it are required.
The next thing to be done is to create an XSD document to validate against. I believe that Stuart Nixon volunteered for that job, if he is still up for it, that would be great.
Thanks to everyone who has given input into the creation of the schema along the way, this could not have been possible without you.
Ben Abbott – Boatshop24
Cabins and berths
I know it's past the date - but on starting to implement the code, I've spotted and error:
'cabins' and 'berths' are in both build and accommodation nodes. I suggest we remove them from the build node and keep them in the accommodation node.
Simon White - TheYachtMarket
rig_sails
It would be useful for completeness to include a mailsail node within rig_sails. Similar to the genoa node showing material and furling as attributes.
We can either make a change now (if no-one's implemented this xml version 1.6 yet) or make a note of any changes like this and save them for version 2.
Simon - TheYachtMarket
tankage
The tankage item does not indicate a unit either in the xml or in the field description. Probably best to just change the field description at this stage to indicate the unit to avoid changing the XML.
What would be best - gallons or litres? I'd suggest litres because I'm a metric-system-lover - any objections?
Simon White - TheYachtMarket.com
Open Marine Release 1 (Version 1.7)
Hi Simon,
Good spot with Berths and Cabins! I have removed these duplicate nodes and added the extra fields you suggested.
This has put the schema to version 1.7 which is now release 1.
This discussion thread has now been locked, please now use 'OpenMarineXML_Current' to discuss the next release (version 2) of the schema
Ben Abbott - Boatshop24
Release 1 Document
A downloadable PDF of the Open Marine XML schema can be obtained from the following URL: Open Marine Schema - Release 1
