This is is list of the key changes made for the February 2008 major release of the ome-xml data model.

The new major release of the schema has a new namespace and all version numbers are reset to 1. As a major release, any file that validated correctly using the last major release will probably not validate correctly using this new release. Some files that failed to validate before will now be valid. It is important to update any file readers and writers to understand the changes.

Version

  • The version number of all schema files is now 1

Namespace

This schema uses the new namespace 

http://www.openmicroscopy.org/Schemas/[NameSpaceTitle]/2008-02/

For the OME schema 

http://www.openmicroscopy.org/Schemas/OME/2008-02/

and that the schema file will be located at 

http://www.openmicroscopy.org/Schemas/OME/2008-02/ome.xsd

Description (ome.xsd)

The Description element it has become a string type. Description is not the correct place for an XML sub-document. It has also had an optional reference to XML:lang that allows the language the Description is written in to be recorded.

Description (AnalysisModule.xsd)

Description had been removed for AnalysisModule. It is now using the version defined in ome.xsd

UniversallyUniqueIdentifier for files (ome.xsd)

To add support for spliting data across multiple OME-TIFF files in a way that will survive file renaming each file now has a unique identifier. This is as a UUID attribute on the OME node. It is normally optional but required if you wish to use multi-part files.

Multi-part OME-TIFF file support (ome.xsd)

A TiffData block can now contain a UUID element that specifies the file to look in for the tiff image data. The UUID element also has an optional attribute FileName to point to the name for the file containing the correct data. The UUID is required and the FileName is strongly recommended. A reader should first open the file pointed to by FileName. If it does not contain the correct UUID then the reader can either fail or search the current folder for a file that does contain the correct UUID. This allows multi-part files to survive renaming.

Removal of Power attributes from Arc and Filament (ome.xsd)

After the moving of Power into LightSource in the 2007-06 V1 release the attribute Power was no longer needed in element Arc and Filament. These Power attributes should have been removed at the time. Any data can be moved to the Power in LightSource.

Simplifications to the schema (ome.xsd)

The types Correction and Immersion have been bundled into elements of the same name. They were only used once in the schema. This should not affect instance documents, only any schemas derived from ome.xsd.

Clarification of PixelTypes (ome.xsd)

The type PixelTypes has been split into two. It now has PixelTypes and ExtendedPixelTypes. It was being used in two different ways in previous schemas, once in Pixels and once in OTF. Now Pixels uses PixelTypes and OTF uses ExtendedPixelTypes.

Element AcquiredPixelsRef has become attribute AcquiredPixels (ome.xsd)

This has been changed to make AcquiredPixels consistant with the DefaultPixels attribute in the Image element. Now both are a PixelsID.

Hash of Plane data (ome.xsd)

There is now the option to store a SHA1 hash of a plane's image data. This can be used to detect modification. It is stored as a HashSHA1 element inside each Plane. At present this is the only support hashing method. Others may be added in future releases.

No significant changes

The following files have no significant changes from the last version released:

  • AnalysisChain.xsd
  • BinaryFile.xsd
  • CA.xsd
  • CLI.xsd
  • DataHistory.xsd
  • MLI.xsd
  • SPW.xsd
  • STD.xsd

Note: the file SPW.xsd has had an import of AnalysisModule.xsd removed. This import was spurious as it was not used in this file.