# /research/projects/schematrans/seel/tutorial/glossary.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/schematrans/seel/tutorial/glossary.htm

# Glossary of Seel & Morfrom Concepts

The element names in these definitions refer to Seel elements. The only exceptions are <field> and <value>, which refer to Morfrom elements. Guide to abbreviations: n=noun; v=verb

add n, v.
  The <add> element. The process of nondestructively prefixing or suffixing character data to a value. See field and Section 4.
align v.
  The process of using <mainpath> statements in the source and target of a Seel map to specify a pair of semantically equivalent subtrees.
context n.
  The <context> element. Elements in a record other than the aligned subtrees that make a Seel map "true." In the source, the context contains elements which must be present in an input record for the map to be executed. In the target, elements named in the context are constructed when the map is executed. See Section 2.
crosswalk n.
  A set of associations between elements in two or more metadata standards that have the same or similar meanings, as determined by a metadata standards expert. A crosswalk is generally represented as a table intended for human consumption. Further work is required to make its contents machine-processable. See Sections 1 and 5.
equals n.,v.
  The <equals> element. In the source, check that a value matches a given string; in the target, assert that a field should have a particular value. See field and Section 2.
exists n.,v.
  The <exists> element. In the source, check for a field's existence; in the target, create an empty field. See field and Section 2.
field n.
  A Morfrom element whose "name" attribute identifies an element in a native format. Fields can be nested to the depth required to preserve the native hierarchical structure. Each field can have a value element--or, simply, a value--which contains unique data, such as "Franz Kafka" in this example: <field name="creator"><value>Franz Kafka</value></field>. See Section 1.
mainpath n.
  The <mainpath> element. Identifies the highest node of a Morfrom subtree that participates in a translation, either as the source or the target; the translation root node. See Section 3.
map n.
  The <map> element. A single unit of translation, which broadly corresponds to a row in a crosswalk table. Specifies a semantic equivalence between a path in a source record and a path in a target record. See Section 1.
match n., v.
  The <match> element. Check a field's value against a regular expression. See field.
micro n.
  The <micro> element. It executes a "micro-"transformation, or structural manipulation, on a value, usually the transfer value. See field and Section 4.
Morfrom n.
  Record structure required by Seel for input and created by Seel on output. See Section 1 and the Morfrom document type definition.
Morfrom reader n.
  An external program that converts records in a native format to Morfrom. See Sections 1 and 5.
Morfrom writer n.
  An external program that converts Morfrom records to a native format. See Sections 1 and 5.
path n.
  The <path> element. Contains a series of <step> elements, which together represent a "path" through a Morfrom record. A child of the <mainpath>, <exists>, <equals>, and <match> elements. See Section 3.
place n.
  An attribute on the <path> element, which indicates where fields should be found or created relative to the reference field (see below); acceptable values are before, after and under.
pid n.
  The "path id" attribute, which appears on <path>, <context>, and <micro> elements. The pid is an index value that identifes aligned paths and associates paths with <context> and <micro> elements. See Section 2.
reference field n.
  The Morfrom field that is identified by the lowest <step> in a <path> rooted in a <mainpath> element; the field at the terminus of the longest aligned subtree in a source or target of a translation. See Section 3.
remove n., v.
  The <remove> element. Remove character data from the start or end of a value. See field and Section 4.
Seel interpreter n.
  A Java program that executes a translation. Inputs are a Seel script and a Morfrom record in source semantics; output is a Morfrom record in target semantics.
source n.
  The <source> element. The part of a map that specifies the subtree to be translated.
step n.
  The <step> element. A child of <path> or <mainpath>, whose "name" attribute identifies a <field> element in a Morfrom subtree. See Section 3.
substitute v.
  Replace parts of the source record field's value matching a regular expression with another string. See sub.
sub n.
  The <sub> element; performs a regular expression based substitution on a reference field's value. See Section 4.
target n.
  The <target> element. The part of a map that specifies the subtree to be created.
transfer n.
  The <transfer> element. Refers to the <value> of a reference field. See Section 3.
translation n.
  The <translation> element. A set of one or more Seel <map> elements, enclosed by the <translation> tag, which are applied to a Morfrom record in the source format to produce a Morfrom output in the target format. A Seel translation is an executable version of a crosswalk. See Section 1.
translation root node n.
  The highest node of the source or target subtree that participates in a translation in a given map; the <mainpath> element. Nodes lower than the translation root are identified by counting successive <step> elements from the translation root node. See Section 3.
trim n., v.
  The <trim> element. Remove whitespace from the beginning and end of a value, where whitespace is the range \u0000 - \u0020. See field and Section 4.
value n.
  The Morfrom <value> element; the leaf node of of Morfrom record. An informal reference to the leaf node of a Morfrom <value> element. See field. Seel also has a <value> element, which has the same structure and is used to reference or populate a Morfrom value. See Section 4.
vmatch n.
  The <vmatch> or "value match" element. Used to perform a regular expression match on a Morfrom <value> element. See Section 4.