Saturday, March 29, 2014

W3 CSV on the Web Working Group publishes working drafts



The W3c Data Activity's CSV on the Web Working Group published two first public working drafts. One provides a basic data model for tabular data and metadata and the other describes use cases and requirements derived from them.

Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web

Tabular data is routinely transferred on the web as "CSV", but the definition of "CSV" in practice is very loose. This document outlines a basic data model or infoset for tabular data and metadata about that tabular data. It also contains some non-normative information about a best practice syntax for tabular data, for mapping into that data model, to contribute to the standardisation of CSV syntax by IETF. Various methods of locating metadata are also provided.

CSV on the Web: Use Cases and Requirements

A large percentage of the data published on the Web is tabular data, commonly published as comma separated values (CSV) files. The CSV on the Web Working Group aim to specify technologies that provide greater interoperability for data dependent applications on the Web when working with tabular datasets comprising single or multiple files using CSV, or similar, format. This document lists the use cases compiled by the Working Group that are considered representative of how tabular data is commonly used within data dependent applications. The use cases observe existing common practice undertaken when working with tabular data, often illustrating shortcomings or limitations of existing formats or technologies. This document also provides a set of requirements derived from these use cases that have been used to guide the specification design.