Metaphor: ISO 15926 is Like HTML

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If everyone involved in Plant Design and Operations were to use ISO 15926 to exchange information about plant objects, it would be similar to the way everyone uses HTML to code their web pages.

For instance, if you want to look at the web page of a pump manufacturer, you don't need to know anything beyond the web site address of the company. When your browser connects to the web site it assumes that what it finds will be encoded in HyperText Markup Language, or HTML. Of course, it will be, if the manufacturer wants to get any business through the web page, because HTML is the standard format of the World Wide Web.

And it doesn't matter which browser you use. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Netscape are all written to understand HTML.

Imagine the hassle if you first had to contact a pump manufacturer and ask for the encoding format, then instruct your IT folks to write a translator program before you could access the web site? Of course, you wouldn't do it. And of course the company would not make a web page like this in the first place because no one would else would use it either.

Similarities and Differences Between the Metaphor and ISO 15926

Many web sites today are actually written in HTML so this metaphor implies that a large proportion of plant information will actually be stored in an ISO 15926-compliant data structure. Although this is certainly possible, it will probably not be the case. Most companies will maintain their plant information in the proprietary format they currently use. Instead, they will write an interpreter, known as a façade, to render the information in ISO 15926 format when a web browser asks for it.

In this regard, ISO 15926 is more like the case today where a database is exposed to the World Wide Web. When a user queries the database (via her web browser), a program dynamically searches the database and renders the results in HTML "on the fly".

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