RE: XProc and SMIL, Orchestrating Pipeline Steps

> As a result of the recent discussion around parallel step execution,
> workflow orchestration and the like I had an idea about how you could
> implement pipeline step timing and synchronization (orchestration)
> without adding complexity to the existing XProc Recommendation. How
> about using SMIL Timesheets <http://www.w3.org/TR/timesheets/>.

Very interesting. Just to check I understood it completely: in order to
get the behavior you are proposing, you need a SMIL-enabled XProc
processor, right?

I can imagine that adding SMIL support to an XProc processor should be
doable (but I don't really know much about SMIL...)

There is one potential problem with your pipeline: the smil:timecatch
element. You would need to put in p:pipeinfo so it is not interpreted as
an XProc step:

<p:pipeinfo>
  <smil:timesheet>
    <smil:par>
      <smil:item select="#service1" begin="aggregate-terms.begin"
dur="11s"/>
      <smil:item select="#service2" begin="aggregate-terms.begin"
dur="11s"/>
      <smil:item select="#service3" begin="aggregate-terms.begin"
dur="11s"/>
    </smil:par>
  </smil:timesheet>
</p:pipeinfo>

Using p:pipeinfo gives you the additional benefit that the pipeline will
run also with processors that do not understand SMIL (they will simply
ignore the p:pipe-info).

Regards,
Vojtech

Received on Friday, 24 April 2009 14:21:37 UTC