The US National Institute of Standards and Technology chose Eurostep to build a new XML repository to support the development of STEP Application Modules. STEP (ISO10303) is used by major industrial enterprises across the globe to exchange and integrate CADCAM and PDM data. ISO TC184/SC4 is responsible for the development of STEP and other International Standards for data representation and exchange (see www.tc184-sc4.org). 

Results and Benefits
The STEP Module Repository has accelerated the development of these critical industrial standards by providing:

A web-based environment for use by multiple, international project teams who can now share results, experience and resources on a daily basis;
Automation of the activities required to apply, and check compliance with, strict ISO requirements on document content, layout and style.
Auto-generation of contents list and indexes and extensive on-line help
Improved presentation options for the resultant ISO standards, including the extensive use of "hotlinks" for improved navigation (see below).
Improved control of changes, using free, open-source software
An environment that promotes harmonisation and re-use of modules by different standardisation projects.

Technical Approach
The STEP Module Repository was implemented quickly and cheaply by exploiting the XML/XSLT languages and several open-source software tools that are now freely available to support web technology. The STEP Modules contain information in many different formats, including a graphical form of the data model (EXPRESS-G) to aid comprehension by business users. XSLT is used to format the XML from the repository with the additional text and graphics to present to the user. Multiple XSLT files have been created to present the information to different users for different purposes as is illustrated below:

The XML document repository contains the single, authoritative source files for all types of information content, including the XSLT style sheets use to present information to users.

The Outcome
Screen shots from the repository, illustrating the result of applying XSLT to the XML in the repository and the additional graphics and descriptive text is shown below. All this allows for advanced navigation through the models and their associated documentation.

Keys to Success
The keys to success in this project were:
• Repeated re-use of single source data,
• Encoding of layout and presentation rules in XSLT style-sheets
• Support for auto-generation of XML inputs from the EXPRESS development tools
• Additional tool support to capture all text inputs as XML source files
• Auto-generation of the HTML output format, including all "hot-links"
• Use of free, open-source software for change control, both within the repository, and on developers desktop machines;
For more information on this and other successful web technology projects implemented by Eurostep visit www.eurostep.com.

Contact
For more information please contact info.uk@eurostep.com or Rob Howard.