IBM has released version 1.4.2 of the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) Software Development Kit (SDK). The new version is a maintenance release that primarily fixes bugs and limitations associated with UIMA’s Vinci- and SOAP-based services.

The new features in version 1.4.2 include:

• XMI support: XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) is a standard being adopted by UIMA for describing type system metadata and content. The user's guide has two new chapters describing the use of XMI.
• PEAR merge utility: This utility allows merging of multiple PEAR files in simple cases. The user's guide has a new chapter describing this utility.
• Support for UIMA annotators written in Python.

IBM's UIMA is an architectural and software framework that supports creation, discovery, composition, and deployment of a broad range of analysis capabilities and the linking of them to structured information services, such as databases or search engines. The UIMA framework provides a run-time environment in which developers can plug in and run their UIMA component implementations, along with other independently-developed components, and with which they can build and deploy UIM applications. The framework is not specific to any IDE or platform. The UIMA SDK is an all-Java implementation of the UIMA framework, and supports the implementation, description, composition, and deployment of UIMA components and applications. It also supports the developer with an Eclipse-based development environment that includes a set of tools and utilities for using UIMA. In addition, it supports the inclusion of components written in C++ through the use of an optional C++ enablement layer. UIMA components written in Python are also enabled via the C++ enablement layer.

One large application area of text analysis is improving text search. By detecting important terms and topics within documents, semantic search engines provide the capability to search for concepts and relationships instead of keywords. IBM's enterprise search solution, WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition allows UIMA annotators to be plugged into the OmniFind processing flow, enabling semantic search to be performed on the extracted concepts. Since UIMA is used and developed both by IBM research and development teams, there are two locations of the UIMA SDK:

• The UIMA SDK on alphaWorks is the ‘early adopter’ version of the SDK. It is intended for users who don't use OmniFind, or who want to use features of UIMA that may not be supported by OmniFind. The alphaWorks SDK is also a test bed to gather feedback on new features of the UIMA SDK. Its versions may evolve more rapidly, and are not tied to specific OmniFind releases. The SDK is supported on a ‘best can do’ basis, via the alphaWorks forum. The C++ enablement layer is available only in this version. The Java source code for core components of the alphaWorks SDK is available at SourceForge.
• The UIMA SDK on developerWorks is the ‘OmniFind-compatible’ version of the SDK. It is intended for users who want to develop and deploy semantic search solutions with OmniFind or solutions that take advantage of OmniFind's capabilities for enterprise-scale document crawling and extraction. The developerWorks SDK is tested for compatibility with a specific OmniFind version and will be updated to keep it in sync with new OmniFind releases. As the SDK evolves, prior versions will still be available on developerWorks, to ensure that each supported OmniFind version has a corresponding SDK. For customers who have an OmniFind license, this SDK is supported via the IBM support channels and also via the developerWorks forum.