SHORE Applications

The core system of SHORE is no application that can be used directly by an end user.
It is a tool that processes XML documents, extracts information (objects and their relations) from these documents, stores them in the repository and makes them accessible through a web browser interface. SHORE has its own simple XML application for the documents that it processes.

What you need to build a SHORE application that is useful for an end user is typically

• a meta model to configure the repository
• a set of preprocessors to convert the documents of your interest into XML documents that are compliant with SHORE´s XML application.

Because the repository stores data about documents which is usually called metadata we call models for this kind of data meta model. The repository of SHORE can be configured to store any kind of objects of your interest (e.g. system requirements, packages, interfaces, classes, ...) with their relations (eg. class implements interface).

The meta model also forms a basis for the PROLOG query system.

Because the documents of your interest will almost never be instances of SHORE´s XML application you need a set of preprocessors that convert the documents to XML. Typically they perform two tasks

1. conversion from the original document type (e.g. Microsoft Word) to XML (XHTML may be a good choice)
2. include additional markup for the objects and their relations that will be stored in the repository.

We often call these preprocessors SHORE parsers because the most common application of SHORE is a repository for program sources and what a preprocessor needs to do to perform task 2 (which in this case means: identify classes, interfaces, methods, ...) is to parse the source code.

Look at the screenshots section for examples how SHORE can be applied.