Data Models and Standards

The first sentence is little hard to comprehend…right.

This attributes to the fact, that it doesn’t follow the STANDARD grammar rules that we know. But it would be an entirely valid sentence, had all of us learned the grammar that it uses…GIBRISH.

What if half the population followed the GIBRISH grammar 🙂

For half the world, the first sentence will GIVE THE NEEDED INFORMATION and for rest half, the second sentence will.

Add some more new grammar, to the extent that each one of us has a grammar of our own. What a confusing world it would be…phew :`]

Software world faces similar kind of problem…the problem of standardization.

Lets assume that we need to implement a IoT solution that lets me know the status of my front door.

Ok, lets design a smart latch. Now I need a software interface to be exposed by this latch, which I can query to get the current state of the latch. Lets call this GetLatchState().

When I call GetLatchState() I can choose to send the current state of the lock encoded in a message.

The message definition can be any one of the following:

Format 1: {  state: <open/close> // current state of the latch }

Format 2: {  state: <true/false> // boolean for open state }

Format 3: {  state: <true/flase> // boolean for close state }

We can use any of the above message formats; all three of them provide the same information, though the rules to interpret them change.

Now picture this…my friend implemented a similar solution and he used message format 2, whereas I used message format 1.

Will my software work with my friends` solution and vice-versa?

NO…we use different semantics. We need to follow the same rules to be compliant with each other.

All latch vendors should support 'Format 1' for returning the state of the latch.
                                                                  - Standards Body
                             

The message format got standardized. What happens now?

Magic…I can query any latch and interpret its state, provided it complies with the standards.

The format of the message is the DATA MODEL and standardization is done by the “Standards Body”.

Fun Fact: Interoperability among different standards can pose challenges which are not standard 🙂