Cooperation
TextGrid will continously link up with other research projects and aims to build upon existing developments. Due to its employment of open standards there are many possibilities to use the research infrastructure developed by TextGrid or to participate in its further development. Possible scenarios of cooperation are outlined in the following document:
Guidelines for Cooperation Partners, Version 1.1, 25/09/2008 (PDF)
TUSTEP
TUSTEP (the TUebinger System of TExtprocessing Programs), a tool for processing textdata for academic purposes, has been available in TextGrid since April 2009. It is markable for its versatile functionalities, such as operations for comparing, sorting and indexing. The system was developed in the Center for Dataprocessing (ZDV) at the University of Tübingen and has been used for over 30 years.
As requested by Prof. Dr. Dietmar Kaletta (ZDV), the TextGrid partner DAASI International programmed a Web Service Wrapper through which certified TUSTEP macros could be accessed. This service is made available via a server of the ZVD and allows TextGrid users to integrate these macros in their workflows. Thomas Kollatz of the Steinheim Institute in Duisburg contributed the first macro, which is able to generate different kinds of indexes for a text. More macros will be included soon.
Further possibilities for cooperation were discussed at the annual conference 2009 of the International Tustep User Group (ITUG), including the integration of more TUSTEP modules into TextGrid. The ITUG members meeting and the scientific advisory council both support the liaison. Joint developer workshops are under consideration.
Workflow Engine GWES
The Workflow Engine GWES (Grid Workflow Execution Service) by Fraunhofer FIRST has been integrated in the TextGrid architecture in a test phase since the beginning of this year. Chief developer Andreas Hoheisel extended the engine in cooperation with TextGrid members in order to make it compatible to TextGrid services.
The GWES is activated via the TextGridLab: workflows can be defined, sent, monitored and evaluated in the specially designed TextGrid WorkFlow Format. The integration of GWES is in beta release at the moment; more workflows, especially for graphic input, will follow. The GWES is also used in the D-Grid community projects MediGRID, Services@MediGRID, PneumoGRID and BauVOGrid for the accelerating and simplification of distributed services.