The TransXML project promotes the development and adoption of public domain XML schemas for the exchange of transportation data. TransXML has adopted the NHTSA FARS XML Schema for storing crash record information, and developed the HISA (Highway Inventory Safety Analysis) schema to store safety-related highway inventory items that relate to a specific incident location.

The sample applications described on this page are intended to demonstrate the benefits of XML schema as a standard for data interchange, and to provide a basis for developers who want to design and develop their own TransXML-compliant applications. None of the data in these applications are real – Sample crash record data provided by NHTSA and state officials, and sample highway safety information data provided by FHWA SafetyAnalyst staff, have been modified to ensure anonymity.

Sample Application #1 (Click here)

This application allows users to search through crash records stored using the NHTSA FARS Safety XML schema, and to link these crash records to related highway safety information stored using the HISA schema. Users can search based on four sample data fields, and a small set of data fields are presented for each crash record.The program can easily be extended to search on or display additional data fields.

Any XML file that conforms to the NHTSA FARS XML schema can be filtered and viewed by this application. Crash records stored using a different XML schema can be converted to the NHTSA schema using XSLT. XSLT also allows data from multiple XML data files to be combined. In this sample application, Highway Safety Information associated with each crash (stored in a separate XML file under the HISA safety schema) is presented alongside each crash record. While the linkage between these two sample data sets is arbitrary, the application shows how these the two schemas can be used together to create a complete view of a crash.

An XSLT file is used to customize the formatting of each crash record. Any data item in the NHTSA FARS schema that can be expressed with XPath can be removed or added as a category in the search filter. Cascading style sheets are used to customize the colors and styles used on the web page.

Sample Application #2 (Click here)

This application demonstrates how multiple sources of crash data using different XML schemas can be combined in a single crash report. This application merges two XML data files - one using the NHTSA FARS XML schema, and the other using a different schema such as those that might be used by a state or municipality. XSLT allows the application to link together any crash records schemas. The columns shown in the report can be changed by modifiying the XSLT files.

Source Code

Both applications are web applications written in C#, ASP.NET (version 1.1) of the .NET Framework and use XSLT, XSD, and XML extensively.

Click here to download complete source code and sample data for both applications.