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Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:37:52 -0500
From: Marshall Schor <msa@schor.com>
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To: uima-user@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: Question on Capabilities of AE descriptor
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Bart Mellebeek wrote:

> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a question on the exact role of the output types in the
> > Capabilities of an AE descriptor that I couldn't find in the
> > documentation.
> > A strange thing happens when I try to manipulate the descriptors of
> > ex4/ of the tutorial in uimaj-examples. I am running
> > ex4/MeetingDetectorTAE.xml with UIMA Document Analyzer. When I delete
> > the output type RoomNumber in the Capabilities of
> > ex2/RoomNumberAnnotator.xml and I run ex4/MeetingDetectorTAE.xml, the
> > RoomNumber type is still visible in the analysis results.
>   

I think this is because ex4/MeetingDetectorTAE.xml itself declares it
outputs the RoomNumber type.  The DocumentAnalyzer is just a sample application
that shows *selected* feature structure types - selected by looking at the
output capabilities of the top-most analysis engine (in the case of an aggregate
having "nested" components - such as you have in your example).  This means that
the DocumentAnalyzer may not be showing all the feature structures in the CAS,
but that doesn't mean that those feature structures are not there.

See the code in uimaj-tools project: in src/main/org/apache/uima/tools/docanalyzer/DocumentAnalyzer.java, lines 1185 - 1207.

> > Likewise, when I delete the output types TimeAnnot and DateAnnot in
> > the capabilities of ex3/TutorialDateTime.xml, these types are still
> > visible in the analysis results. 
>   

I think for the same reason - the ex4/MeetingDetectorTAE.xml itself
declares it outputs the the DateAnnot and TimeAnnot feature structures.


> > Only deleting the output type DateTimeAnnot in the capabilities of
> > ex3/TutorialDateTime.xml seems to have an impact on the analysis results.
>   
I ran the DocAnalyzer without modifying the examples, and the DateTimeAnnot does *not* appear - this is the expected behavior because it is not listed in the DocumentAnalyzer's output capabilities.  I think it will not appear, even if you don't delete the output type DateTimeAnnot in the capabilities of ex3/TutorialDateTime.xml.  

> >
> > Why is it that deleting some output types have no impact on analysis
> > results, while deleting other output types do have an impact? Aren't
> > all output types supposed to have this impact?
>   
The UIMA framework makes the UIMA Metadata available to applications, but doesn't specify what those application do with that data.  The DocumentAnalyzer is just a sample application - built to show many of the capabilities of UIMA.  It took a particular design choice - to show annotations in the CAS that were specified as output capabilities of the top-most component (in the case of aggregates).  

Hope that helps.

-Marshall

>
> Any help appreciated.
> Thanks,
>
> Bart
>

>