Paper title: |
A construction product browser |
Authors: |
Raimondi A, Salvioni G |
Summary: |
The World Wide Web contains a wealth of information from manufacturers of buildingproducts which needs to be gathered and reorganized in order to be used by designers.Currently there is a tendency to develop systems based on database architecture thatrequire large amounts of structured data newly compiled from the sources, and it takesgreat effort to update the data in the database that changes with time. This process can besupported only by large and expensive organizations.In this paper we discuss the requirements and conceptualize an information system thatknows where certain pertinent information is and helps the users to find it by means of aretrieval system based on natural and controlled querying language. Our system also helpsthe user decide between alternatives and lets him select only some information out of allthe data that usually comes in a product’s data sheet. The program further allows the userto download the data and use it in his project.In order to allow the producers of building products to give information according to theirown layouts without being forced into a rigid standardized layout, we propose an indexingsystem based on the application of blind labels (tags) to the existing source code (html)which describes the information about a product that is already on the Internet. The tagsare based on the Master Lists and EPIC’s construction-product grouping. Each piece ofinformation indexed by its own tag will be handled by a specialized software that will putit in the right place in our newly developed product data sheet. This mechanism avoids theconstruction of a centralized database, and replaces the need for it by accessing a series ofindexed documents containing indexed information already on the Internet. |
Type: |
|
Year of publication: |
1998 |
Series: |
w78:1998 |
ISSN: |
2706-6568 |
Download paper: |
/pdfs/w78-1998-35.content.pdf |
Citation: |
Raimondi A, Salvioni G (1998).
A construction product browser. Bjork B C, Jagbecj A (ed.); The life-cycle of construction IT innovations. - Technology transfer from research to practice. [ Conference Proceedings / ISBN 91-7171-281-4] Stockholm (Sweden) 3-5 June 1998 (ISSN: 2706-6568),
http://itc.scix.net/paper/w78-1998-35
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