Statistics, telematic networks and EDI bulletin.
Date: 2003-11-27
Institutions: Eurostat
Subjects: serial publication, statistics, telematics

ISSN 1725-3349

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Statistics,
telematic networks
and EDI bulletin 

9

THEME 9
Researc  
and
development

E U R O P E A N
C O M M I S S I O N

 
A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int).

Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication.

Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2003

ISBN xx-xxx-xxxx-x

© European Communities, 2003

Printed in xxxxx

PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER

STNE  Bulletin - 2002

Editorial

The present edition of the STNE Bulletin presents the
progress that has been made with various projects of
Eurostat since the first issue of 2001.

The first article presents STATELight. This is a set of
servlets that allows a user upload or download files to
a server using a simple browser while benefiting from
most  of  STATEL’s  unique  functionality  (controlled
and reliable transmission of files of any size, door-to-
door  encryption).  STATELlight  can  be  used  by
organisations that send only a few data to Eurostat. It
will be soon put in operation.

Next article presents a table with TESTA connectivity
status  with  National  Networks  in  member  states  as
well as known usage by National Statistical Institutes.
TESTA  is  the  telecommunications  network  used  by
European  public  administrations  to  connect  to  the
European Commission.

Next  comes  the  activity  report  of  Eurostat’s  help
desk,  ECAS-HD.  This  has  already  reached  18
months of successful operation, as indicated by user
Intervention  statistics  are
satisfaction 
presented in this article.

reports. 

Furthermore  a  new  application  has  been  developed
that  allows  to  access  the  contents  of  the  EDIFLOW
database. EDIFLOW is the official inventory of all the
dataflows  exchanged  between  Eurostat  and  its  data
respondents.  The  application  is  hosted  by  the  Data
Centre  of  the  European  Commission  and  Local  Co-
ordinators will be allowed to  update national data via
a web interface.

Next  article  presents  GENEDI,  a  generic  tool  for
files  and
preparing  GESMES  or  GESMES/CB 
sending them to Eurostat. GENEDI is provided free to
member  states  and  is  recently  being  supported  by
ECAS/HD.

CIRCA  Version  3.1  is  quite  some  time  in  operation
and performs well. The article on CIRCA provides an
outlook of improvements in version 3.2, which will be
launched in Q1 of year 2003.

The  next  two  articles  provide  an  overview  of    two
TES seminar programmes.  The first was presenting
our  data  transmission  tools  and  services  and  took
place  in  November  2002.  The  second  one  was
presenting  “New  Advanced  Technologies  for  Data
Collection”  and  took  place  in  October  2002.    Both
seminar will be repeated in 2003.

Finally, the last article presents a table with the new
Local  Co-ordinators  from  candidate  countries  that
have joined the group at the end of 2002. The group
has now 13 new members.

This  Bulletin  was  completed  with  the  active  and
continuous  support,  and 
the
responsible  project  officers  and  contractors  of
EUROSTAT.  We  would  like  to  thank  them  for  their
active interest and help.

final  approval  of 

We  hope  you  enjoy  this  issue.  Your  comments  and
suggestions are always welcome.

Wolfgang Knüppel

Contents of this Issue

STATELIGHT – AN ALTERNATIVE TO STATEL
FOR FILE TRANSFER ............................................... 2

TESTA CONNECTIVITY STATUS ............................ 7

HELP DESK (ECAS-HD) ACTIVITY REPORT........11

THE NEW EDIFLOW APPLICATION.......................14

GENEDI: A TOOL FOR EFFICIENT DATA
VALIDATION, GESMES CONVERSION AND DATA
TRANSMISSION ........................................................17

CIRCA STATUS REPORT ........................................22

TES AUTUMN COURSES.........................................25

NEW LOCAL CO-ORDINATORS .............................27

1

STATELight – an alternative to STATEL for file transfer

STATEL  is  traditionally  used  for  a  secure  and  reliable  transfer  of  files  of  an  arbitrary  size  in  connection  with
STADIUM,  the  service  put  in  place  by  Eurostat  for  the  transmission  of  statistical  data.  This  article  presents
STATELight,  which  is  a  set  of  servlets  that  provide  equivalent  functionality  to  STATEL  as  regards  file  transfer.
STATELight is useful for organisations that do not transmit regularly statistical data to Eurostat and do not have a
STADIUM Web Client installation.

The STATELight Receive servlet was designed to allow Java applets to upload files of arbitrary size to the server
without  user  intervention,  using  an  API.  It  ensures  that  files  that  have  been  partially  transferred  are  not
accidentally  used  by  the  receiving  process.  The  STATELight  Transmit  servlet  enables  the  application  to
download a file from the server using an API instead of a browser built-in.

Both  servlets  offer  full  control  of  the  destination  file  name,  a  directory  service  and  simple  user  identification,
making them useful for the development of browser-based applications that exchange files with a server.

Basic functionality

The servlets are written in Java and have been tested on Jakarta-Tomcat. They should however be usable with
all standards compliant servlet engines.

The  files  to  be  uploaded  or  downloaded  are  split  in  a  number  of  packets  that  are  protected  by  a  checksum.
Packets  are  transmitted  in  sequence  using  a  strict  data/acknowledgement  approach,  meaning  that  a  packet
needs  to  be  acknowledged  by  the  receiving  party  before  the  next  packet  is  transmitted.  This  approach  favours
simplicity over performance.

In  order  to  avoid  the  use  of  hand-coded  conversion  routines  adapted  to  HTTP,  and  to  allow  the  use  of  other
protocols  as  and  when  they  become  available,  STATELight  uses  serialisation  to  convert  the  packet  object  to  a
format that can be transmitted or stored on disk. The STATELight packet object is defined in Figure 1.

public class StatelPacket implements java.io.Serializable
{

    // data members
    private int type; // The type of packet (data,ack, etc.)
    private byte[] data;
    private int size; // The size of the data data
    private int number;
    private long cksum;

// The packet number
// The checksum

// The data itself

    // constants
    public interface TYPE
    {

int
DATA = 0,
BEGIN = 1,
END = 2,
DIR = 3,
USER = 7,
ACK = 9,
NACK = 11,
ERR = 13;

   }                         Figure 1: Basic STATELlight packet layout
2

The java.io.Serializable API used in is a framework for encoding objects as byte streams and reconstructing them
from  this  byte  stream  encoding.  Once  an  object  has  been  serialized  (encoded),  it  can  be  transmitted  from  one
virtual machine to another, in our case to support the exchange of packets between the servlet and the applet.
The  STATELight  modules  have  been  designed  to  enable  a  reliable  file  transfer  between  the  browser  and  the
server.  The  transfer  is  based  on  a  simple  protocol,  allowing  packets  to  be  retransmitted  in  case  they  were
damaged or lost in transit.

The transfer is performed through an API, which allows the applet to control the process. The browser's built-in
data  upload  or  download  facilities  do  not  provide  any  control  and  do  not  provide  information  about  success  or
failure of the transfer.

The files are received in a transit area before being moved to their final location. This simplifies the task of the
application or facility on the server or client that process the received file. This ensures that files appearing in the
destination directories are complete.

Built-in test applets

STATELight servlets support a sample applet that can be used to demonstrate the functionality. The servlet itself
will load the applet to the browser if accessed without parameters.

Figure 2: STATELight sample home page

Figure  2  shows  a  simple  Web  page  used  to  demonstrate  the  STATELight  Upload  servlet.  In  addition  to
supporting the uploading of files to the server, the servlet also provides a function to produce a HTML page listing
of the files that have been transferred (see Figure 3) and a HTML page with the version number of the applet.

3

Figure 3: HTML listing of STATELight uploaded files

4

The source code for the above page is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Source code for STATELight Web page

The  sample  applet  carries  out  the  functions  of  the  servlet.  It  has  been  signed  with  the  STADIUM  development
key. To enable the applet to access local files (see Figure 5) the STADIUM Development Root Certificate should
be downloaded and installed in the browser.

Figure 5: STADIUM Root Certificate

5

This  is  a  minimal  implementation,  offering  functions  that  are  also  available  with  the  normal  browser-supported
upload. Genuine applications will use the servlet and the Java API in a more sophisticated fashion. For example,
the file selection process will probably be a part of the user interface, or the file might be generated specifically
for the purpose and not selected by the user (Figure 6).

Figure 6: STATELight Servlet Exerciser screen

Source: STATEL team.

References: http://www.statel.net or http://www.statel.com

Helpdesk e-mail: estat-support-statel@cec.eu.int

6

TESTA Connectivity status

The table that follows provides the TESTA connectivity status of Member states.  It has been extracted from the
TESTA web site (testa.eu-admin.net) available from the TESTA Network.

Country

Austria

Belgium

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Ireland

Italy

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Portugal

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom

Connection to
Testa II

Name of the National
Network

Remarks

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

CNA Network

The  CNA  is  a  federal  institution  which
provides full network services for public
institutions

FEDENET Network

Danish Administrative
Network

Finish Administrative
Network

AdER France

Ader : Administration En Réseau

Connection in preparation

TESTA Deutschland

2 nodes

And

TESTA Deutschland
Schwerin

SYZEFXIS Network

Irish Network

RUPA Network

CIE Network

CIE : Centre Informatique de l’Etat

RINIS Network

Portuguese Administrative
Network

Intranet Administrativa

UK’s GSI

There is no administrative network yet

7

The  following  table  is  a  compilation  of  contact  names  for  national  networking  issues  available  from  the  TESTA
Web site :

Country

Co-ordinator

Technical contact

Austria

Leopold Koppensteiner

M.ichael Wickenhauser

Leopold.Koppensteiner@bmf.gv.at

Michael.Wickenhauser@brz.gv.at

+43-1-71123-2525

Belgium

Plasschaert Roland

Plasschaert Roland

roland.plasschaert@premier.fed.be

roland.plasschaert@premier.fed.be

+32 2 501.04.38

Denmark

Poul Bernt Jensen

pbj@fsk.dk

+45 3392 9886

Finland

S. Riihimaki

+32 2 501.04.38

Henrik Lynnerup

hlynncru@csc.dk

+45 3614 6574

V. Hagelberg

Seppo.riihimaki@vnk.vn.fi

Ville.Hagelberg@vnk.vn.fi

+358 9 1602139

+358 9 1602137

France

ader@atica.pm.gouv.fr

+33 1 42755200

Germany

S. Wilke

Andreas Munde

SWilke@TIM.thueringen.de

Amunde@tlrz.thueringen.de

+49 361 379 3313

Second Node :

Peppo Zahn

+49 361 379 3313

Oliver Hensel

peppo.zahn@im.mv-regierung.de

o.hensel@dvz-mv.de

+49 385 5882 162

Greece

Christos Moschonas

c.mos@syzefxis.gov.gr

+30 10 9286007

Ireland

Tim Duggan

+49 385 4800 679

Christos Moschonas

c.mos@syzefxis.gov.gr

+30 10 9286007

Eddie McGinn

Tim_Duggan@cmod.finance.irlgov.ie

eddie_mcginn@cmod.finance.gov.ie

Italy

+353 1 6045056

Marino Di Nillo

+353 1 6045138

Marino Di Nillo

mdinillo@centrotecnico.g-net.it

mdinillo@centrotecnico.g-net.it

+39 0685264453

+39 0685264453

8

Country

Co-ordinator

Technical contact

Luxembourg

D. Nickels

Serge SPANIER

Daniel.Nickels@cie.etat.lu

serge.spanier@cie.etat.lu

+352 499 25608

Netherlands

Henk-Jan Oostenbrink

hjoostenbrink@rinis.nl

+31 20 5451432

Portugal

Fernanda Costa

+352 49925 753

Annet Sikkel

asikkel@rinis.nl

+31 20 5451436

Fernanda Costa

fernanda.costa@inst-informatica.pt

fernanda.costa@inst-informatica.pt

+351+21 4723189

Spain

Luis de Eusebio Ramos

luis.deeusebio@map.es

+34 91 586 18 99

Sweden

Irene Andersson

+351+21 4723189

Miguel A. Amutio Gsmez

miguel.amutio@map.es

+ 34 91 5862990

Irene Andersson

irene.andersson@statskontoret.se

irene.andersson@statskontoret.se

+46 8 454 4600

United Kingdom Moira Atkinson

+46 8 454 4600

Alan Collier

Moira.Atkinson@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

Ian.Ascough@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

+44 (0) 20 7276 3207

+44 (0)20 7276 3210

9

Following  list  contains  National  Statistical  Institutes  which  are  known  to  be  connected  to  TESTA  through  a
national network. It is possible that other ones are also connected. Usage of TESTA is also indicated in the same
table.

Institution

Connection through

Use

STAT (Austria)

INS (Belgium)

DS (Denmark)

National Network

Comext/STADIUM

STFI (Finland)

National Network

Comext

INSEE (France)

STATBUND (Germany)

National Network

Comext

NSSG (Greece)

National Network

Test

CSO (Ireland)

ISTAT (Italy)

National Network

Test

STATEC (Luxembourg)

National Network

Comext/STADIUM

CBS (Netherlands)

INE (Portugual)

INE (Spain)

National Network

Comext

SCB (Sweden)

CSO (United Kingdom)

10

Help Desk (ECAS-HD) Activity Report

This article provides an overview of ECAS HD activities until June 2002. A description of ECAS-HD services and
support levels are provided in the previous edition of this Bulletin.

The list of systems supported as well as the level of support is shown below.

System

STATEL
STADIUM II
STADIUM Web Client
TESTA
TESTA II and migration

COMEXT connection
COMEXT application
GENEDI (New)

Level
1 plus, 2
1 plus
1 plus
0
0

0
0
1

Comments

Due to the architecture of TESTA II, the
support is virtually level 1

Newly supported

STADIUM Web Client (SWC) deployment status

The SWC is operational in Belgium, France, Sweden, Portugal and Slovenia. It is installed but not yet operational
(or used) in Italy and Greece. Installations are planned in Ireland and Luxembourg.

Most of the installation problems are resolved in the latest version (1.1.003) and most production sites are now
upgraded successfully. A new version (1.2.001) is available and will be used in all the new installations.

A new system supported by the ECAS HD: GENEDI

GENEDI  is  a  tool  to  prepare  GESMES  files.  It  will  be  interfaced  with  STATEL  soon  to  provide  an  automatic,
transparent and secure way to send the GESMES file created.

The  ECAS  team  will  be  happy  to  provide  a  level  1  support.  A  specific  Section  on  the  support  web  site  will  be
created to provide information related to GENEDI.

11

Statistics of ECAS activities

In the tables that follow statistics on actions started by the ECAS team are presented according to various sorting
criteria.

Per system

System

STADIUM
STATEL
New Installations
Genedi
TESTA
GESMES
Other
Total

Per country

Countries

Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
Other (candidate, MedStat countries)

Per medium

Medium

Phone
Fax
Post
e-mail
Pro-active
Eurostat
Total

12

Year 2001
140
137
103

12

51
443

Up to 08/02
150
83
65
0
3
0
28
329

Year 2001
24
27
10
14
28
15
30
8
29
20
8
51
13
17
21
128

Up to 08/02
3
11
12
7
15
12
14
6
22
16
11
16
9
10
18
120

Year 2001
48
0
0
291
62
42
443

Up to 08/02
23
0
0
200
42
64
329

Per category

Category

Pro-active
Installation
Connectivity
Other

Percentage
15%
30%
30%
25%

Proactive: support action started by the ECAS team. In some cases, the monitoring of the systems allow to discover possible problem. In
such a case, the ECAS team contact the LC.

Installation: support at installation (providing information and software, problem resolution) as well as  the support to setup a new data-
flow request.

 ECAS-HD uses an Incident Report Management System (IRMS), which is based on Request Tracker, an Open
Source software. The system is in operation during the last 18 months. More than 400 incident reports have been
recorded  in  the  database.  The  same  system  is  used  by  Eurostat’s  STADIUM  team  since  a  few  months  to  take
advantages of a common platform.

Feedback received to a recently published questionnaire on ECAS-HD services showed a complete satisfaction
of users. No additional services were requested.

13

The new EDIFLOW application

EDIFLOW has been initiated by Eurostat, Unit A2 in 1998 with the collaboration and the help of some member
states.  EDIFLOW  is  the  inventory  of  all  dataflows  transmitted  to  Eurostat  by  various  respondents  in  member
states, candidate and partner countries.

The first version of the application provided query possibilities for the basic entities involved (requests, dataflows,
organisations, people involved in data transmission). The disadvantage of this first version was that access was
restricted to Eurostat people only. A separate data extraction routine was available for the production of a MS-
Access version of the database, which has been distributed on a CD-ROM.

Development  of  the  new  application  started  in  2002.  A  Task  Force  had  been  created,  in  which  Local  Co-
ordinators from France, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal participated. The Task Force has reviewed  parts
of the application during several stages of the development and provided valuable advice and feedback.

Main characteristics

The  new  application  has  a  completely  re-designed  database  structure  and  user  interface.  Main  entities  are
requests, each request comprising several dataflows. Further entities are organisations and persons involved in
data  transmission.  To  each  dataflow  there  are  associated  one  or  more  persons  belonging  to  the  same
organisation,  each  one  having  a  specific  role  with  respect  to  the  dataflow.  The  roles  have  distinct  values,
approved by the Local Co-ordinators.

The new application will be able to report on the dataflow traffic in STADIUM

Figure 1: The new EDIFLOW Web Application Home page

The new EDIFLOW application will allow querying and updating of the data via a web interface. The application is
hosted  in  the  Data  Centre  of  the  European  Commission.  Access  to  Local  Co-ordinators  over  the  Internet  is
provided through a userid-password combination.

14

Features of the new application

Interface

The new interface has an improved functionality over the previous one. Extensive use has been made of floating
vertical menus that stay in position whenever the user scrolls down the results page.

Multilingualism

The new application will provide a mechanism to support multilingualism.

User profiles

The  new  application  supports  different  user  profiles.  A  user  profile  defines  the  access  rights  for  the  userid  to
which  the  user  profile  is  attached.  Depending  on  the  attached  user  profile  menu options  and  functions  will  be
activated  or  desactived.  Currently  available  profiles  are  Guest,  Local  Coordinator,  Central  Coordinator  and
Database Administrator.

Reports

Several  reports  can  be  generated  by  the  application.  Reports  for  “Organisations  and  addresses  by  country”,
“Dataflow information by country”, “Dataflows by  requests”  and  others  can  be  produced  with  a  few  keystrokes.
Furthermore, certain reports can be downloaded in comma seperated value (CSV) formatted files for local use.

Maintenance

Figure 2: Sample report

This function,  which  is  currently  not  yet  available,  allows  to update   data  for  organisations,  requests,  dataflows
and  persons.  Furthermore  the  association  of  persons  to  organisations  and  persons  to  dataflows  can  be
maintained.

A Local Co-ordinator will be allowed to update only data related to his own country.

15

Bulk Procedures

The  application  enables  to  perform  massive (=bulk)   downloads  and  uploads  of  data  in  order  to  facilitate  the
updating of the data in the database.

The bulk extract procedures allow extraction  of data in CSV formatted files for the major entities in the database
such as requests, dataflows, persons and organisations. The user can filter the data to be extracted (Figure 3).

The bulk upload procedures support a massive upload of data, stored in CSV fomatted files, in the database. The
bulk upload procedures allow the user to update, delete or insert new entries in the database.

Figure 3: Bulk extract of organisations and addresses screen

The bulk upload procedures support a massive upload of data, stored in CSV fomatted files, in the database. The
bulk upload procedures allow the user to update, delete or insert new entries in the database.

Distributable version of EDIFLOW

The  EDIFLOW  application  allows  to  extract  the  entire  contents  of  the  database.  This  extraction  can  then  be
imported  into  a  distributable  Ediflow  application.  This  application  can  be  distributed  on  a  CD-ROM.  The
application  can  be  started  from  a  CD-ROM  without  the  need  of  local  installations  and  thus  supports  the
distribution of EDIFLOW data through an organisation.

16

GENEDI: A tool for efficient data validation, GESMES conversion
and data transmission

Why a generic EDI toolbox ?

The GENEDI toolbox has been developed by Eurostat in order to simplify the generation of GESMES messages
and  validate  data  (format  and  codes),  thus  enabling  a  shorter  data  correction  cycle  between  Eurostat  and  the
data providers. Moreover, such a tool promotes usage of EDI. The main objective is to supply Eurostat with good
quality data in a standard format and in short time.

Key features

GENEDI is easy to install

GENEDI  offers  a  user-friendly  set-up  that  requires  no  specific  computer  skill.  The  installation  is  automatic,
needing  the  supply  of  general  parameters  only,  like  the  destination  path  and  the  institution  code.  Besides,
GENEDI  does  not  require  any  administrator  rights,  so  it  can  be  installed  on  any  PC  connected  to  a  network.
Finally, de-installation is automatic and with no left-overs.

GENEDI is easy to configure

Configuration files are included for some standard statistical domains. Customised configuration files can be sent
by  Eurostat.  A  user-friendly  graphical  interface  allows  a  transparent  modification  of  configuration  files.
Nevertheless,  GENEDI  offers  a  contextual  Help  (in  HTML  format)  available  from  each  menu  option.  For  one
statistical domain, configuration is set only once and saved.

GENEDI makes process analysis easy

GENEDI  provides  monitoring  and  archiving  facilities  during  each  processing  step.  In  particular,  structured  error
reporting files allow an easy analysis and correction of corrupted dataset files.

GENEDI is a Flexible EDI toolbox offering the following set of functionalities

Data structure reorganisation

GENEDI  accepts  different  input  formats  (CSV,  FLR,  GESMES)  and  is  able  to  pre-process  input  files.  It  can
reorganise  file  structures  (Mapping  module)  and  can  change  automatically  user  codes  to  GESMES  required
codes (Transcoding tool).

Data Validation

Starting  from  a  compliant  CSV  file,  which  can  be  the  result  of  the  mapping  module,  GENEDI  can  optionally
validate data. Validation rules can be basic (format, value and code checking) or advanced. Validation rules are
pre-configured for included domains.

17

Conversion to GESMES/CB format

When  CSV  files  have  passed  validation,  meaning  that  no  error  with  the  "reject"  level  occurred,  they  are
automatically converted to GESMES/CB format. The time range technique may be used optionally to downsize
output data files.

Transmission to Eurostat

Finally,  the  toolbox  includes  an  optional  sending  module  that  can  be  installed  during  the  set-up.  GENEDI  uses
STATEL as an underlying file transmission method. Although STATEL is the preferred method, plain e-mail can
be used for sending statistical data.

Transcoding
module

Validation
module

Module to
convert
GESMES/CB
file to CSV

GENEDI

Mapping
module

Hide codes
module

Sending
module

Module to convert CSV file
to GESMES/CB format

Figure 1: Global overview of the GENEDI modules

GENEDI is a Generic Tool

The main feature of GENEDI is that source code and parameters are separate. So, it is able to process most of
current  and  future  data  set  structures  from  different  statistical  domains.  Besides,  configuration  files  are  flat
structured files, which are editable and easy to update through flexible graphical interfaces.

GENEDI advantages

GENEDI is simple to integrate in an information system

You can define your own working folders to store input and output files. GENEDI will take out the input file in the
user-defined  folder,  process  it  and  copy  the  GESMES  file  produced  in  the  user-defined  output  folder.  GENEDI
makes  use  of  tools  available  on  most  platforms  like  file  manager,  Internet  e-mail,  and  the  "zip"  format  for
compression before sending. The tool can be launched from a command line authorising batch processing and

18

scheduled processing. Lastly, it is portable as it works on a wide range of platforms (Windows 9x, NT, XP, Unix,
Mac) and is independent from any other software.

CNA

GENEDI toolbox

Mapping

Validation

Conversion to
GESMES format

Input data
file

Transcoding
Module

GESMES Output data file

Send

Export

1
Â

Eurostat

Figure 2: Global overview of the GENEDI processes

GENEDI is free software

The tool has been developed in Perl, making GENEDI independent of any private platform or format (e.g. Excel).
It is provided free to member states, and the source code is available.

The GENEDI Package is available on CIRCA (EDI & Statistics group).

GENEDI may automate data transmission

The  underlying  concept  of  EDI  communication  is  that  a  tool  can  be  used  without  any  human  intervention  from
data  extraction  to  reception.  This  is  possible  by  using  the  command  line  option  and  by  setting  all  GENEDI
processes to automatic mode.

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Select the input file

Select the
the type of
the input file

Select the
Statistical domain
corresponding to
the input file

Option to use Time Range
Technique when creating
GESMES files

Option to validate the dataset

Select the

data set
contained in the
input file

Launch the
configuration
screen

Open
Window for
hiding
codes

Display
HTML short
help

Send output to a
chosen recipient

Create GESMES file

Figure 3: GENEDI main Menu Windows

GENEDI is simple, well documented and supported

For any question relevant to the tool, contact the GENEDI Support refer to

ESTAT-SUPPORT-GENEDI@cec.eu.int

Support for GENEDI is given by ARIANE II (Fabien Jacquet and Sylvain Kurek)

For question relevant to GESMES (syntax, documentation...), contact the GESMES Support

ESTAT-SUPPORT-GESMES@cec.eu.int

Depending of the complexity of the query and/or problem, support will take the form of

·   A direct answer by E-mail

·   An E-mail exchange

·   A phone support

·   On site assistance (when justified)

Training  sessions  can  be  organised  to  meet  the  needs  of  working  groups,  member  states  and  candidate
countries through Eurostat Unit A2.

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User-defined Input Folder

1

STATEL

GENEDI

CNA

EMAIL

STADIUM

Figure 4: Sending GESMES files to Eurostat with GENEDI

New developments

The  GENEDI  toolbox  is  constantly  enhanced  to  suit  member  states'  needs.  Her  are  some  planned  future
developments:

·   Coupling with STADIUM Web Client

The coupling should allow GENEDI to use the SWC API to send automatically data to Eurostat using the SWC.

·   Performance improvement

·  

Inclusion of Attribute segments

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CIRCA status report

CIRCA  has  gained  considerable  momentum  and  experienced  dramatic  increase,  within  2002,  in  terms  of  its
usage  and  popularity  amongst  the  European  Commission  as  well  as  the  various  other  CIRCA  installations  in
European or Member States organizations.

It  should  be  mentioned,  that  according  to  the  latest  indications  from  IDA  (as  published  in  the  relevant  IDA
brochure, 18/09/2002,  http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/), the CIRCA server of the Commission has now more than
22,000 active users, organized in more than 600 interest groups. The number of access requests to the service
(“hits”) has been increasing continuously over the past five years, and the total data transferred in 2001, alone,
amounted to more than 230 Gigabytes.

Operational Status

CIRCA version 3.1 has successfully been put into production on 24 August 2002. The new version has been very
well  received  by  the  CIRCA  user  community,  since  the  migration  to  the  Apache  underlying  Web  server  has
drastically improved its stability and performance. Numerous enhancements in the functionality of all the services
have also been implemented.

Development Status

CIRCA version 3.2 is currently in the final stages of development. It is anticipated that it will go into production in
early  2003.  The  features  that  have  been  added  in  this  version  span  all  the  CIRCA  services  as  well  as  various
back-office operations. The main new features in CIRCA 3.2 are:

·   Enhancement to the user definable metadata

·   Mapping of library metadata to Dublin Core

·   Full-text search capability

·   Save/Restore of an Information Directory

·   Save/Restore of an Interest Group

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·   New graphical user interface and full-template support for customization of all services

·   Context menus, easing usage within the library service

·   Self-registration and login improvements

·   Automatic https classification in newsgroups and external services

·  

“Remove me” capability for users

·   Configurable email message templates

The  ‘Full  text  search’  and  ‘Dublin  Core-compliant  metadata’  are  first  steps  in  tailoring  CIRCA  towards  a  more
efficient  knowledge  management  within  the  Commission.  Furthermore,  version  3.2  will  change  its  look-and-feel
(see  figure  below),  allowing  at  the  same  time  much  more  flexibility  in  customizing  it  and  thus  harmonizing  its
interface with other IT systems that CIRCA might be inter-operating with.

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Way forward

CIRCA is continuously progressing both in terms of architectural upgrades, user-friendliness and functionality as
well as in terms of security and performance.

Major  enhancements  in  the  upcoming  version  3.3  are  expected  to  be  the  full  data-tier  support  for  all  CIRCA
services (as is currently the case with the Library service) as well as the support of Workflow features, allowing
the  organization  of  activities  and  follow-up  of  procedures  within  Interest  Groups  to  be  done  in  much  more
structured manner.

24

TES autumn courses

New Tools and Methods of Data Transmission for Statisticians

Last  November,  the  first  course  on  “New  Tools  and  Methods  of  Data  Transmission  for  Statisticians"  was
organised  in  Luxembourg  in  the  context  of  the  “European  Statistical  Training  Program”.  There  were  17
participants  from  different  member  states  and  candidate  countries.  Two  of  them  were  newly  nominated  Local
Coordinator from acceding countries (Slovakia and Latvia).

The duration of the course was 4 days. The agenda was as follows:

First day

Second day

Third day

Fourth day

Data transmission networks and tools: an overview
STATEL: a middleware
STATEL applications and tools
Simulation of a data collection network (installation and usage)
Data transmissionn applications environment: an overview
STADIUM: server, clients and protocol
Other data collection methods: STATEL over http
A practical example: the STADIUM Web Client: installation and usage
EDIFACT and GESMES
CLASET
EDIFACT vs. XML
RDRMES and XML4DR
Security

The first day was dedicated to networks and transmission of data. An overview of Eurostat tools was first given to
the  participants.  STATEL,  the  tool  used  by  Eurostat  for  data  transmission,  was  described  in  depth;  the  most
interesting technical aspects VFS, the PDU among them, were reviewed. Following this technical presentation, a
tour  of  the  STATEL  family  of  products  was  given.    The  last  part  of  the  first  day  was  a  workshop  allowing
participants to install and use STATEL for file transfer between their PCs and that of the teacher.

The second day was devoted to data collection applications. After a brief description of the characteristics of data
collection  problems  the  EDIFLOW  and  STADIUM  projects  were  presented.  The  presentation  of  STADIUM
covered  mainly  the  message  and  the  client  parts  focussing  on  the  point  of  view  of  the  data  sender.    After  this
presentation, the installation of the STADIUM Web Client was demonstrated. Finally, a workshop allowing every
participant  to  use  the  SWC  from  the  student  PC  was  foreseen  but  this  was  not  successful  due  to  the  low
performance of the PCs.

The third day was divided into two parts.  The first part covered an introduction to the EDIFACT syntax and the
description  of  GESMES/CB  messages.    This  first  part  ended  with  the  presentation  of  the  Excel  add-in  and  the
GENEDI tool.  The second part was dedicated to the description of CLASET and a presentation of the CLASET
toolbox.

Three  different  subjects  were  covered  during  the  fourth  day.  The  first  was  an  introduction  in  XML  and  a
comparison  between  XML  and  EDIFACT  with  their  corresponding  advantages.  The  second  presentation
described XML4DR – the XML representation of RDRMES. The third subject introduced security issues in data
transmission and covered mainly the problems of encryption, digital signature and public key infrastructure.

The  analysis  of  the  evaluation  of  the  course  by  participants  is  currently  being  performed.  The  same  course  is
planned in 2003 around the same period.

25

TES autumn courses

New Advanced Technologies for Data Collection

In  October  2002,  at  the  TES  Institute  in  Luxembourg,  a  three  day  course  took  place  on  "New  Advanced
Technologies for Data Collection". There were 18 participants from member states and candidate countries.
The purpose of the course is to familiarise participants with the latest technologies, tools and standards in use for
primary data collection.

Following  some  background  information  on  the  European  Statistical  System  (ESS),  the  Internet  &  World  Wide
Web and Electronic Business the following items were specifically covered:

Electronic Data Reporting  (EDR)

This  area  covered  the  use  of  electronic  questionnaires  for  primary  data  collection,  including  both  stand  alone
software and internet Web forms.

Also  covered  was  file  import,  data  extraction,  nomenclature  support,  auto  validation,  data  transmission,  multi-
linguism and the possibility of multi-questionnaire systems.

Metadata and Standards

The use of metadata in electronic questionnaire design and presentation, and in respondent support  (e.g. code
lists, validation, help texts, autofill) was explained.

Standards  covered 
(GESMES,  CLASET,  RDRMES,
CUSDEC/INSTAT and CUSDEC/EXTAT) and also the probable use of XML as the next generation of message
standards. A number of existing XML-based technologies were described.

the  area  of  EDIFACT  and 

its  current  usage 

Security and Confidentiality

This area covered the problems (and some existing solutions) in secure and confidential transmission of data.

Research and Development

Statistical  research  projects  (TELLER  and  IQML)  were  described,  including  a  brief  outline  of    each  of  the
elements within those projects.

Also  covered  was  SERT  (an  IDA  project),  IDEP/CN8  (an  EDICOM  project  for  the  collection  of  intra-EU  trade
statistics)  and  a  number  of  national  developments  (e.g.  e-Quest  at  Statistics  Austria  and  EDReporter  at  CBS
Netherlands).

Three case studies, were presented by guest speakers; IDEP/CN8, e-Quest and an IQML web-form project.

A similar couse is planned for 8-10 September 2003.

26

New Local Co-ordinators

Thirteen new Local Co-ordinators have joined the group. Here is the list:

Name

Mr. Plamen Minkov
Mr. Costas Diamantides
Mr. Pavel Kubin
Mr. Vadim Buttel
Mr. Robert Debreceni
Ms. Nadezda Zotolonoza
Ms. Birute Liberiene
Mr. Jeffrey Bezzina
Mr. Slawomir Kowalczyk
Ms. Mioara Radoi
Mr. Ivan Kirst
Ms. Ida Repovz Grabnar
Ms. Nazan Teksoy

Organization

NSI Bulgaria
SSC Cyprus
SO Czech Republic
STAT Estonia
KSH Hungary
CSB Latvia
STD Lithuania
COS Malta
Statistics Poland
INSSE Romania
Statistics Slovakia
Statistics Slovenia
SIS Turkey

E-mail address

PMinkov@nsi.bg
cydsr@cytanet.com.cy
kubin@gw.czso.cz
vadim.buttel@stat.ee
robert.debreceni@office.ksh.hu
azigure@csb.lv
Birute.Liberiene@std.lt
Jeffrey.J.Bezzina@gov.mt
s.kowalczyk@stat.gov.pl
mioara@insse.ro
Ivan.Kirst@statistics.sk
ida.repovz-grabnar@gov.si
nazan.teksoy@die.gov.tr

The new group meeting is on 4-5th February 2002. An introductory seminar addressed mainly to new Local Co-
ordinators will take place on 3rd February 2002.

27