NIH | National Cancer Institute | NCI Wiki  

  • Created by Unknown User (reillysm), last modified by Unknown User (wileyal) on Jan 09, 2012
Contents of this Page

You can migrate directly from LexEVS 4.x to any 5.x version. This guide will be updated as needed for each release, and release-specific information will be noted.

Document Sections

LexEVS Release Highlights

LexEVS 5.x represents the next generation of NCI Enterprise Vocabulary Services. In the 5.x releases, the LexBIG Java API and LexGrid model serve as the strategic EVS interfaces, replacing the legacy EVS API and the EVS 3.2 model.

This section provides a cumulative list of release highlights beginning with LexEVS v5.0.

LexEVS v5.0 Highlights

  • Release date May 2009
  • First release to completely shift from the EVS Model and EVS API to LexBIG API (LexEVS)
  • Consistent naming and release numbers for API and services
  • Introduction of LexGrid-based QBE services
  • Unified OWL loader
  • The 2008/01 model is updated to the 2009/01 LexGrid Model

LexEVS v5.1 Highlights

  • Release date December 2009
  • Custom data support - ability to load custom data; provide custom loading feasibility/recommendation report
  • Enhanced query performance and behavior
    • Lucene 2.4 fast search engine with lazy document loading
    • Plug-in search framework that allows a text query string input and generates a Lucene query output; introducing the org.LexGrid.LexBIG.Extensions.Query.Search interface
    • Plug-in sort framework that allows rapid creation of new sort algorithms and techniques
    • SQL query optimizations that increase database performance
  • Value domain and pick list services added - this addresses an important part of the semantic infrastructure that is needed in caBIG
  • Loader framework enhancements - improved loading capability; allows loaders to be modular
  • RRF loader enhancements - ability to fully load RRF data; support the NCI Metathesaurus Browser
  • API enhancements - efficiently support expanded search options and large concept relationships sets
  • BDA (Build and Deployment Automation) support - deployment of LexEVS project artifacts to remote servers

Unified Design

The unified design of LexEVS 5.x no longer supports the EVS Model and EVS API. Both have been completely replaced with these LexEVS components: LexEVS caCORE SDK, LexEVS caGRID, LexEVS Distributed Java, LexGrid Model/Database as represented in the following diagram.

diagram of the Release 5.x LexEVS Components as listed in the preceding sentence

New Naming of Components

The convergence of LexEVS 5.x components has introduced new naming of components:

Design Components

Release 4.2

Release 5.x

EVS Model Version

3.2

No Longer Available

EVS API Version

3.2

No Longer Available

LexGrid Model Version

2008/01

2009/01

LexBIG API Version

2.3.0

LexEVS 5.x

Supported Programming Interfaces

The supported programming interfaces are now all provided by LexEVS:

Supported Programming Interfaces

Release 4.2

Release 5.x

Direct Java

LexBIG

LexEVS

Distributed Java (RMI)

LexBIG

LexEVS

caCORE SDK Services

EVS

LexEVS

caGRID Service

EVS, LexEVS

LexEVS

As a result, definitions have been unified to represent LexEVS. The following definitions are provided for reference.

Term

Definition

LexGrid

  • LexGridVocabulary model underlying the LexBIG API.
  • Sometimes used as a generic reference to work based off this model.

LexBIG

  • A new API with rich functionality developed for NCI caBIG to access LexGrid-based vocabularies.
  • Serves as the internal 'engine' for traditional EVS APIs.

EVS

  • NCI Enterprise Vocabulary Services model, API, and content.
  • For model and API, references legacy components being replaced by LexGrid (model) and LexBIG (API).

LexEVS

Adopted as project name to describe merging of LexGrid model and LexBIG API as the mainstream EVS interfaces.