News and Events

This page lists current news and details of forthcoming events. For old news and past events, visit the News and Events Archive. Also, please check out our blog that may contain additional information.

OGSA-DAI 3.1 SQL views extension pack 1.0 released

The OGSA-DAI project, a partner in OMII-UK, in collaboration with BEinGRID (http://www.beingrid.eu), have released the OGSA-DAI 3.1 SQL views extension pack 1.0. This is a proof-of-concept of an implementation of SQL views in OGSA-DAI 3.1 which allows SQL views to be defined over read-only relational databases. It also provides a layer in which the users Grid credentials can be used to determine the information presented in the view. This is part of OGSA-DAI's ongoing work to support more powerful data access, control and management scenarios.

The extension pack is free, open source, 100% Java and is licenced under the Apache 2.0 licence. It is compatible with OGSA-DAI 3.1,

The OGSA-DAI SQL views extension pack can be downloaded here.

The user doc is here.

OGSA-DAI 3.1 released

The OGSA-DAI project, a partner in OMII-UK, have released version 3.1 of their database access and integration software.

OGSA-DAI is an extensible framework for the access and management of distributed heterogeneous data resources - whether these be databases, files or other types of data - via web services. OGSA-DAI provides a workflow engine for the execution of workflows implementing data access, update, transformation, federation and delivery scenarios.

The main features of OGSA-DAI 3.1 include:

• A number of new OGSA-DAI activities for:
  • Advanced SQL joins and and merging of relational data.
  • Dynamic OGSA-DAI data resource creation.
  • Running queries on remote OGSA-DAI servers.
  • Interacting with XML databases, including adding, listing, removing and getting XML documents, creating, listing and removing collections and running XPath, XQuery and XUpdate statements.
  • Splitting and combining lists (contributed by the ADMIRE project).
  • Retrieving physical schema for relational databases (contributed by the NextGrid project).
• A document-based workflow client.
• A data source servlet and data source client.
• Prototype support for pluggable workflow transformation components.
• Prototype support for configurable inter-activity pipes.
• Resources can now be marked as "private" meaning they are hidden from clients and can only be used within sub-workflows.
• An example workflow monitoring plug-in which records events which can be browsed via a JSP page.
• Support for MDS registration in Globus-compliant versions.
• A number of bugs have been fixed, components made more efficient, usable or robust.
• The user doc has been extensively refactored and extended.

OGSA-DAI 3.1 is designed to be backwards compatible with OGSA-DAI 3.0 without the need for recompilation - data resource, activity and presentation layer APIs and service WSDLs remain the same.

OGSA-DAI is a free, open source, 100% Java product and is now released under the Apache 2.0 licence. Downloads compatible with Apache Axis 1.2.1, Apache Axis 1.4, Globus 4.0.5, Globus 4.0.8, OMII 3.4.2 and, now, Globus 4.2, are available

To download OGSA-DAI 3.1 visit downloads.

OGSA-DAI 3.1's user doc is here.

OGSA-DAI demo tool

A GUI-based client that allows interaction with OGSA-DAI 3.0 servers is now available on-line in both OGSA-DAI 3.0 Axis and OGSA-DAI 3.0 GT compliant versions. This client can be run via:

The tool downloads and runs itself without the need for any installation. Comments and suggestions are welcome but please note that this is a work-in-progress.

OGSA-DAI 3.1 release date now December

It was originally intended to release OGSA-DAI 3.1 in October. However, we regret that the release date has now been shifted to early December. Staffing demands from other OGSA-DAI-related projects here at EPCC have unfortunately incurred a reduction in available effort for core OGSA-DAI development over the winter period.

OGSA-DAI 3.1 will contain all the OGSA-DAI 3.0 extension packs released to date, refactored user doc, bug fixes and new activities, including those for XMLDB and contributions from the ADMIRE project. OGSA-DAI 3.1 GT will include support for MDS registration of services with the Globus Toolkit. OGSA-DAI 3.1 will have no changes to service WSDL or XML Schema or to activity and data resource APIs meaning that 3.0 components will continue to compile and run with it.

We apologise for any inconvenience this delay causes. If you have any queries then please e-mail us at info@ogsadai.org.uk.

Systems at Risk

Due to network maintenance taking place the OGSA-DAI web server and OGSA-DAI blog will be running at risk on the week end of the 13th and 14th of September. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
9th September 2008

OGSA-DAI tutorial at OGF24

An OGSA-DAI tutorial is scheduled to take place at OGF24, Singapore, on Wednesday, September 17. The tutorial will be split into two session: the first, from 13:30-15:00, will give an Overview and Introduction to OGSA-DAI while the second, from 15:15-16:45, will provide a hands on practical demonstrating how to download, install and use OGSA-DAI. If you are going to be attending OGF24 and don't know about OGSA-DAI come along to find out more.
4th September 2008

OGSA-DAI CVS Commit Messages Mailing Lists

You can now subscribe to a mailing list that gives you all OGSA-DAI CVS Commit messages - more details on how to do this can be found here.
20th August 2008

OGSA-DQP 3.2.1 Released

We discovered that our initial release of the OGSA-DQP 3.2 for OGSA-DAI 3.0 has problems processing data with NULL valued columns (columns that actually contain NULL values). Table scan operator used by evaluators to fetch data from federated databases will fail with a nasty NullPointerException when it encounters a NULL valued column.

OGSA-DQP 3.2.1 fixes this problem by adding support for NULL valued columns.

This change also prompted a small update in the GUI client code so it can now display NULL valued columns properly.

You can download the new release from the usual download site:

• http://www.ogsadai.org.uk/downloads/#dqp

You will need to register to download the distribution if you have not done so already. The release notes describe how to upgrade to 3.2.1 if you have already deployed DQP 3.2.
8th August 2008

Service at Risk on the 2nd and 3rd of August

Due to system maintenance taking place at our home institution on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of August this web server and other associated OGSA-DAI services will be operating at risk over this period. We apologies for any inconvenience that this might cause.
29th July 2008

OGSA-DQP 3.2 for OGSA-DAI 3.0 Released

OGSA-DQP is a middleware prototype which supports Distributed Query Processing over OGSA-DAI data resources.

This 3.2 release of OGSA-DQP is implemented on top of OGSA-DAI 3.0 and consists of the following components:

• The OGSA-DQP Coordinator - a set of OGSA-DAI resources and activities that take the user query and compile, optimise, partition and schedule distributed query execution plans.
• The Query Evaluation Service - a web service used by a coordinator to execute query plans.
• A command line client.
• A Graphical (GUI) client that is able to visualise query plans.
• Client Toolkit classes for developing applications that use OGSA-DQP.

For more information see the what is OGSA-DQP? page or read the user documentation. You can download DQP but you need to register to get a username and password to download this.

This OGSA-DQP release has been prepared as part of the Task 4.4 of the High Level Methods for Data Integration: Data Integration Components of the NextGRID project.
24th July 2008

OGSA-DAI 3.0 Axis ByteIO proof-of-concept released

The OGSA-DAI project team have released a proof-of-concept implementation of the RandomByteIO specification recommendation of the Open Grid Forum. This proof-of-concept was written by Odysseas Bournas and was supported through the University of Edinburgh MSc in HPC programme in 2006-2007.

The release can be downloaded here (will require registration).

Odysseas's dissertation - "Implementation of the Random ByteIO Interface for OGSA-DAI - Odysseas Bournas" - is available at:

RandomByteIO specification, recommendation document GFD.87 of the Open Grid Forum is available at:

7th July 2008

OGSA-DAI WS-DAIX 1.0 released

The OGSA-DAI project team have released OGSA-DAI WS-DAIX 1.0. OGSA-DAI WS-DAIX provides an implementation of the OGF DAIS Working Group WS-DAIX specifications. It was built using OGSA-DAI 3.0 but is a stand-alone product and requires only Apache Tomcat and the Exist XML database to be used.

For further information please see the downloads page or the documentation.

A test server with OGSA-DAI WS-DAIX services has also been deployed. Please see the downloads page for details.

Service at Risk

Due to systems maintenance this web site may be unavailable for part or all of Saturday 10th May 2008. We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused by this.
9th May 2008

OGSA-DAI for Unicore and gLite

The OMII-Europe project have released versions of OGSA-DAI for Unicore and gLite. These are available from their repository at http://repository.omii-europe.org. Note, in order to be able to access this repository you must first register to obtain a login. Once you are logged in select "All Public Releases" from the left hand panel. OGSA-DAI GL and OGSA-DAI UN are near the top of the list that appears. The software and documentation are itemised separately.
5th May 2008

Remote Resource Extension Pack Released

A new OGSA-DAI extension pack has been released: the Remote Resource extension pack. The resources provided in this extension pack will allow the use of resources on remote deployments of OGSA-DAI.

The OGSA-DAI Remote Resource extension pack is compatible with all versions of OGSA-DAI 3.0 for Axis and GT. For further information please see the downloads page or the Remote Resource extension pack documentation.
10th April 2008

Anonymous CVS Access to OGSA-DAI

Anonymous access is now being provided to the OGSA-DAI CVS repository. This is being done with the following conditons:

• The OGSA-DAI project will not support any OGSA-DAI distributions that are unsanctioned, that is have not been released by the OGSA-DAI project (either on the OGSA-DAI project WWW site, on approved mirrors or as part of the Globus or OMII-UK software distributions).
• You may take the code and modify it (subject to the terms of the OGSA-DAI licence).
• We strongly urge you to contribute changes back to the OGSA-DAI project. See http://www.ogsadai.org.uk/contribs.
• "OGSA-DAI" is a trade mark and so software built upon or derived from OGSA-DAI code cannot be called "OGSA-DAI" without the express permission of the OGSA-DAI project. For example, this means you cannot release a component called "Super OGSA-DAI 3.1".

More details on how to access the OGSA-DAI repository (including web access is available) from:

• http://cvs.ogsadai.org.uk.

When downloading distributions from the main web site we would still urge you to register as this is one of the ways that we can justify our existance to our funders.
26th March 2008

Call for Papers for the UK AHM 2008

The overall theme for this year's UK e-Science AHM is Crossing Boundaries. The appointment of Professor Peter Coveney as Programme Chair heralds a new approach and, t his year, key papers from the meeting will be published in two back to back editions of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A in the early part of 2009, with the title "Crossing Boundaries: Computational Science, E-Science and Global E-Infrastructures". There will also be opportunities to present your work and ideas in a 20-minute presentation. Proposers are therefore being asked to submit abstracts rather than full papers.

More details from: http://www.allhands.org.uk/2008/programme/call.cfm.
Submission deadline: 1st May 2008.
25th March 2008

OGSA-DAI 3.0 Dynamic Resource Creation Extension Pack released

The OGSA-DAI project have released the Dynamic Resource Creation Extension Pack for OGSA-DAI 3.0. This contains tutorials and sample activities and clients showing how to develop activities that dynamically create and deploy new OGSA-DAI data resources.

OGSA-DAI 3.0 Dynamic Resource Creation Extension Pack is compatible with all versions of OGSADAI 3.0 for Axis and GT. For further information please see the downloads page or dynamic resource creation extension pack documentation.
24th March 2008

Google Summer of Code

OGSA-DAI is participating, through OMII-UK, in the Google Summer of Code 2008. If you are a talented student programmer and want to get involved in the open source community whilst getting paid (US$4500) then this is your opportunity. Take a look at our list of projects ideas (which includes projects based from other parts of OMII-UK) and get in touch. If you have your own great OGSA-DAI idea, then get in touch with us (info@ogsadai.org.uk) to discuss it.

Google will accept student applications from 24-31 March. Full details on requirements for participating, including how to apply and more on the all-important t-shirt at: http://code.google.com/soc.
20th March 2008

OGSA-DAI Blog

We have created an OGSA-DAI Blog where we will be able to discuss OGSA-DAI news, provide tips, give updates, etc. in a more informal manner. If you would like to contribute articles/tips or comment on existing articles then please get in touch via info@ogsadai.org.uk.
18th March 2008

ENGAGE - improving the uptake of e-Research

The widespread adoption of e-Research technologies will revolutionise the way that research is conducted. The ENGAGE project plans to accelerate this revolution by meeting with researchers and developing software to fulfil their needs. If you would like to benefit from the project, please contact ENGAGE ( info@omii.ac.uk) or visit the website (www.engage.ac.uk).

ENGAGE combines the expertise of OMII-UK and the NGS - the UK's foremost providers of e-Research software and e-Infrastructure. The project will interview researchers to identify the 'big issues' that are hindering e-Research adoption and the 'big wins' that could help it. Solutions to some of the big issues will be developed and made freely available to benefit the entire research community.
10th March 2008

International Summer School on Grid Computing 2008

The sixth in the highly successful series of International Summer Schools on Grid Computing will be held at the Hotel Füred Conference and Congress Centre of Balatonfüred, Hungary, from 6th to 18th July 2008.

The School will include lectures, discussions, laboratory sessions, tutorials and group work delivered by leading authorities in the fields of advanced grid technology, applications of e-Science and distributed systems research. Reports from world leaders in deploying and exploiting Grids will complement lectures from research leaders shaping future e-Infrastructure.

Hands-on laboratory exercises will give students experience with widely used Grid middleware. The school will conclude with an integrating practical that will enable students, working in teams, to bring together all they have learnt on an extended exercise that simulates collaborative research using e-Infrastructures. Indeed during the school, participants will meet like-minded students from many parts of the world, working in many disciplines, and form valuable long-term working relationships.

We invite applications from enthusiastic and ambitious researchers who have recently started or are about to start working on Grid projects. Students may come from any country. We expect participants from computer science, computational science and any application discipline. The School will assume that students have diverse backgrounds and build on that diversity. However, in order to fully participate in the practical exercises you should be a confident programmer who will have fulfilled certain prerequisites.

To find further details visit the web site at: http://www.issgc.org.
6th March 2008

OGSA-DAI: Grid-enabling data for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

OGSA-DAI is an extensible toolkit middleware to expose data resources to grids. These resources may be relational databases, XML-databases, or files - and extensions can be developed to permit OGSA-DAI to support additional resources (such as the Open Geospatial Consortium web services used by the geographical communities). OGSA-DAI executes workflows that access, transform and deliver data and these can minimise the need for the transfer of large amounts of data around a Grid.

Three related events are provided under the JISC project "Enabling Uptake of e-Infrastructure Services" in collaboration with the National Grid Service and OMII-Europe training teams, Training Outreach and Education at the National e-Science Centre, and the OGSA-DAI team of the OMII-UK project:

Part 1:

A training course on Tuesday 18 March- Thursday 20 March, Edinburgh. http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/871/.

Part 2:

A web-based extension of part 1. Some participants will have attended part 1, and be seeking further consolidation of their learning; some participants will be using this event as a first introduction to OGSA-DAI or as a refresher course. Participants will need to register and will have access to hands-on tutorials with remote support from the TOE team. Tuesday 25 March to Tuesday 22 April 2008 http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/873/.

Part 3:

A workshop in which participants seeking to adopt OGSA-DAI will explore their requirements in depth with the OMII-UK OGSA-DAI team. In advance of this event participants will be asked to describe their specific intentions for using OGSA-DAI, to allow appropriate preparation to be made. Participants will have attended part 1 or 2. 12:00 Wed., April 23 to 15:00 Friday April 25 http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/874/.

22nd February 2008

New Issue of the OMII-UK Newsletter Now Out

This month's newsletter celebrates the fifth birthday of Taverna. It's no surprise then, that the newsletter contains a number of articles describing how Taverna was developed and its many successes.

Apart from the birthday news, we lead with a fascinating article on the use of e-Research in astronomy ('Grid, the Universe and Everything'). We cover the latest programmes from JISC and AHeSSC and we take a look at how OGSA-DAI has been used to understand census data.

Find the newsletter here.
22nd February 2008

OGSA-DAI 3.0 Servlet Extension Pack released

The OGSA-DAI project have released the Servlet Extension Pack for OGSA-DAI 3.0. This contains a servlet that allows data exposed via an OGSA-DAI data source resource to be accessed via an HTTP URL.

OGSA-DAI 3.0 Servlet Extension Pack is compatible with all versions of OGSADAI 3.0 for Axis and GT. For further information please see the downloads page or servlet extension pack documentation and a motivational scenario.
24th January 2008