DICOM : Metadata Subset Extraction for the setProperties Method in Oracle Database 11gR2 (Doc ID 860649.1)

Last updated on APRIL 01, 2020

Applies to:

Purpose

Oracle Multimedia 11gR2 introduces a new feature that allows users to extract a subset of the DICOM attributes from DICOM content.

To better understand this new feature it is important to consider that in Oracle Database release 11gR1, the setProperties method of the ORDDicom object extracts all the DICOM attributes from a DICOM object and saves the extracted attributes into the metadata attribute of the ORDDicom object in XML format.

Now, the possibility of extracting only a user defined subset of attributes of a given DICOM object introduces two main benefits:

1. improves the performance of setProperties() method
2. reduces the storage needed to store unnecessary metadata.

This was achieved by  introducing a new DICOM repository document type, the  DEFAULT_TAG_LIST document, whose type is defined by a new XML schema: ordcmstl.xsd.

This new document allows DICOM administrators to specify the list of the DICOM attributes that are needed by the entire DICOM application. Once this document is loaded into the repository, the setProperties method will only extract the DICOM attributes defined in this document plus some Oracle defined mandatory attributes, and encode these DICOM attributes into the XML document stored in the ORDDicom metadata attribute.

If this document is not loaded, the setProperties method will behave as it did in 11gR1, that is, extracting all the DICOM attributes into the encoded XML document.

In order to keep the same behavior and results of the isConformanceValid and extractMetadata object methods as in 11gR1, it is required that the DICOM attributes defined in the new repository document should be a super-set of the attributes referred to by all the constraint and mapping documents stored in the DICOM data model repository.

The generateTagListDocument function of the ORD_DICOM_ADMIN package may be used to create a stored tag list document which is a list of all the attribute tags used in mapping and constraint documents stored in the data model repository. 

To enforce specific rules for the attributes that are to be included in the stored tag list, a preference document that defines those attribute rules can be inserted. One specific case where this is useful is for setting the MANDATE_ATTR_TAGS_IN_STL preference. If this is set to true in the preference document, and an attempt to insert any mapping or constraint documents that contain tags that are not listed in the stored tag list document is made, the new documents will not be inserted into the repository.

Scope

The audience of this new feature is DICOM administrators. To adequately use this feature it is important to:

1. Know and be able to use the following concepts:

•    DICOM object
•    DICOM metadata 
•    DICOM methods in the ORDDicom object.   
•    DICOM repository
•    The NEW admin role introduced for the Oracle Multimedia repository administration: ORDADMIN.            

 These concepts have been part of Oracle Multimedia since 11gR1 

2. Awareness and understanding of a new important concept introduced in 11gR2:

• How to create, load, and delete a stored tag list document

These concepts are covered in:

    Oracle® Multimedia DICOM Developer’s Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) E10778-01
      In particular :
      Chapter 9 Overview of DICOM Administration 
      --> paragraph 1 Assigning Administrator Roles and Privileges  pag. 9-2(3)
     
     Chapter 11 Administering the DICOM Repository 
     --> paragraph 11.4 Sample Sessions: Inserting a Stored Tag List Document  pag. 11-5

Details

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