Disclaimer: This access tool was developed for internal use at the National Center for State Courts. It was created by reverse engineering the data model from a number of linear reports. The National Center for State Courts does not claim that this tool provides an accurate representation of the GJXDM. For official and authoritative representations of the GJXDM, please visit the Office of Justice Programs GJXDM website.
Wayfarer is an exploration and discovery tool for the Global Justice XML Data Model. It provides a hierarchical overview of the model relationships. It also provides detailed information about individual elements and types and the relationships between them. Names and descriptions are fully searchable.
Wayfarer is a tool designed for internal use at the National Center for State Courts. We make it available to the general justice community at no cost and with no guarantee or warrantee as to its correctness.
When the National Center began working with the GJXDM in mid-2004, it became quickly apparent that we needed an internal tool to help us navigate the often intimidating size of the GJXDM. To meet this need, we created a database representation of the GJXDM relationships and a few web-based tools to display those relationships.
Dubbed "Wayfarer," we demonstrated the system at a number of different GJXDM-related working groups and received positive feedback. This prompted us to make Wayfarer available to the greater justice community. Wayfarer is available at: www.ncsconline.org/d_tech/gjxdm/
Throughout the course of the year, we have steadily added features to Wayfarer and fixed any errors or misrepresentations found.
Wayfarer consists of two panes. The left pane shows a dynamic tree that attempts to capture the overall structure of the data model. The right pane shows details about various elements and types.
The left pane tree shows the container relationships upon which the whole data model is based. Clicking on any of the little plus signs will expand branches of the tree, showing which elements are contained within other elements and which types are derived from other types. Clicking on an element or type name will bring up details on that element or type in the right pane.
The purpose behind this page is just to give a general overview. It's not meant as the primary means of finding elements. Also, it does not give the whole picture as to which elements have which properties. The whole picture is much more complex due to inheritance of properties. Giving insight into that whole picture is the job of the right pane.
The right pane gives details on elements and types. It also provides access to the search facilities. It serves as the main display window for most of Wayfarer’s information. While clicking on something in the left pane often causes things to change in the right pane, the reverse is not true. The left pane does not expend or contract to reflect the elements shown in the right pane. Such a feature is not technologically feasible at this time.
Name: This is the name of the element.
Type: Right next to the element's name is its type. Click on the type to go to get the details for that type.
Description: This is the description from the GJXDM for the element in question.
The property information section gives the container relationship for the element. Note that this section does not detail every possible property of an element. That information is in the next section. The information in this section is the same information as presented in the dynamic tree on the left.
Element is a sub-property of: This section lists which elements are above the element in question in the container tree. These are elements in which the element in question is contained. For example, PersonName is contained inside of Person.
Properties which are sub-properties of Element: This section lists elements which are contained within the element in question. For example, PersonName contains a number of elements, including PersonGivenName and PersonSurName.
Element's Place In The World: This section repeats the container relationships shown above, but reformatted into an indented list. It's a view of just a portion of the tree to the left, centered on the element in question.
This section provides more detailed property information. Elements inherit properties based on what type they are. They also inherit properties from parent types from which their types are derived. It's very complex. The real value of Wayfarer is that it figures out these relationships for you.
All Available Sub-properties: An element gets a number of properties from its type. But it also inherits additional properties from other parent types from which its type is derived. This section lists all properties available to the element in questions, including all inherited properties. The sub-properties are grouped by the type from which they are inherited.
All Available Parent Properties: This section is a reverse version of the list. The element in question has an element above it that contains it as a property. Any other element of the same type as that parent element can also contain the element in question. Additionally, any element of a type derived from that parent element's type can also contain the element in question. This section provides a list of all those elements that can contain the element in question as a sub-property.
Name: This is the name of the type.
Description: This is the description from the GJXDM for the type in question.
Type is derived from: This section lists which types are above the type in question in the derivation tree. These are types from which the type in question inherits properties. For example, PersonType inherits properties from SuperType.
Types which are derived from Type: This section lists types which are derived from the type in question. For example, a number of types are derived from PersonType, including JurorType and WitnessType.
Type's Place In The World: This section repeats the derivation relationships shown above, but reformatted into an indented list. It's a view of just a portion of the tree to the left, centered on the type in question.
Elements of Type: This section lists the elements that are of the type in question. For example, elements of type PersonType include Person, PersonAlias, and many others.
Elements of any type derived from Type: This section lists elements that are of the type in question or of any type derived from the type in question. Basically, everything in this list has the properties of the type in question. In the PersonType example, every element listed is a PersonType-ish sort of element. Each element listed inherits a number of properties directly from PersonType. Some elements will inherit additional properties by being of a type derived from PersonType. But it will still have the PersonType properties.
Wayfarer also lets you search through names and descriptions. Simply type in any number of terms and Wayfarer will return a lists of elements and types matching all those terms. You can search both names and descriptions, or limit your search to either one.
Wayfarer can also search for an exact name. This is useful for jumping directly to common elements. For example, searching both names and descriptions for "person" returns 680 elements plus another 60 types. Searching on name alone still returns 317 elements and 18 types. Searching for an exact name match returns only the Person element and only the PersonType type. If all you're trying to do is get details on the Person element, then the exact name match is much faster than doing a more general search and then scrolling though hundreds of matching names. (Note that the online version of Wayfarer automatically adds the word Type.)
All versions of Wayfarer require a JavaScript-enabled browser. The main browsers used for development are FireFox and Internet Explorer. Opera and Netscape also work.
The recommended way to access Wayfarer is to go to the online version. This is always the most up-to-date version. The URL for all things Wayfarer-related is currently: www.ncsconline.org/d_tech/gjxdm/
The localized version allows you to use Wayfarer without having access to the Internet. It's based on transforming the database information into a series of static web pages. The end result is nearly 3000 separate pages, one for each element and type. As with the online version, the localized version requires a JavaScript-enabled browser.
Previous localized versions required additional software to support searching the model. The latest localized version no longer requires additional software beyond a browser. The localized version is available at: www.ncsconline.org/d_tech/gjxdm/localized.asp.