WITSML Feedback

Here are the feedback and comments received about the WITSML project. To add your own comments or opinions use the feedback form. These comments will be reviewed by the WITSML team and added to the archive below.

Feedback

Date 27 September 2004
Name Xi Chen
Company csiro petroleum
E-mail xi.chen@yahoo.com      (Ed. Note: not valid)
Phone 61-8-6436 8766

Comments

I need a manual or document which give definition of each entity and attribute showed in XSL files. Is the document existing and where I can find it?

Your attention and help would be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely
Xi Chen

Response

The XSD files contain the documentation about individual elements and attributes. On the WITSML web site (http://www.witsml.org/), click "Documents" on the left hand side. If you then click on "v1.2 Schema Documentation" you can view individual XSD files by clicking on "XSD" in the tables. Alternatively, if you click on "v1.2 Schema Download", you can download a zip file that contains all XSD files.
Date 22 August 2003
Name Melissa
Company Schlumberger
E-mail msymmonds@slb.com
Phone

Comments

There is an error in the Target example. The type should be \"Irregular\" instead of \"Rectanglular\". This target is made up of 3 sections, which in no way fits the definition of a Rectangular target.

Response

These comments will be relayed to the WITSML Technical Team for review.
Date 7 July 2003
Name Jim Theriot
Company POSC
E-mail jim.theriot@posc.org
Phone 713 267 5109

Comments

There is an error in the stylesheet for log data
 [ http://www.witsml.org/schemas/120/stylesheets/log.xsl ],
which causes the channel values to display incorrectly (the values of the first record are displayed for all records). 

In the last template, the element
  [ <xsl:value-of select=\"../data\"/> ]
should read
  [ <xsl:value-of select=\".\"/> ]

Response

These comments will be relayed to the WITSML Technical Team for review.
Date 17 June 2003
Name Wang Haifeng
Company Schlumberger
E-mail hwang9@slb.com
Phone

Comments

Below are some problems when I use WITSML120_2003-01-30.zip.

1.
    <xsd:complexType name="shearStress">
              <xsd:simpleContent>
                       <xsd:extension base="xsd:integer">
                              <xsd:attribute name="uom" type="xsd:string" use="optional"/>
                      </xsd:extension>
              </xsd:simpleContent>
       </xsd:complexType>

why integer? should be double.

2.
in trajectory.xml

line 49:
           <magTotalUncert uom="nT"/>
should be:
                       <magTotalUncert uom="nT">0</magTotalUncert>

line 71:
                              <sagAziCor uom="dega"/>
should be:
                              <sagAziCor uom="dega">0</sagAziCor>

3.
in tubular.xml
                       <stressFatig uom="in">30</stressFatig>
           
Obviously, the unit is wrong. The measurement for stressFatig is "Strength" and the unit in English unit system is "Mpsi". should be:
                       <stressFatig uom="Mpsi">30</stressFatig>

4.
In trajectory.xml, magTotalUncert has the unit "nT".
                       <magTotalUncert uom="nT">0</magTotalUncert>

And in obj_trajectoryStation.xsd, it says that magTotalUncert  is of type "magneticFieldStrength".

                       <xsd:element name="magTotalUncert" type="witsml:magneticFieldStrength" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
                             <xsd:annotation>
                              <xsd:documentation>survey tool magnetic uncertainty. </xsd:documentation>
                             </xsd:annotation>
                       </xsd:element>

However, when I look up in the English unit system, I cannot find the unit "nT" under the measurement "magneticFieldStrength". Instead, in English unit system, "nT" is the unit of "NanoTesla":

   <Unit_Systems>
     <XUnit_Systems:Measurement>NanoTesla</XUnit_Systems:Measurement>
     <XUnit_Systems:Unit>nT</XUnit_Systems:Unit>
   </Unit_Systems>

while the measurement NanoTesla is associated with dimension MagneticFluxDensity.

- <Unit_Quantity_CatData xmlns="">
 <Dimension>MagneticFluxDensity</Dimension>
 <Measurement>NanoTesla</Measurement>
 </Unit_Quantity_CatData>


So I think something must be wrong here. Either the unit in the sameple file trajectory.xml shouldn't be "nT", or the type of "magTotalUncert" should be "magneticFluxDensity" instead of "magneticFieldStrength".


Have a nice day

Response

These comments will be relayed to the WITSML Technical Team for review.
Date 30 October 2002
Name Edward Clements
Company SDC Software Ltd.
E-mail klikli@compuserve.com
Phone +31 - 6 53 645 169

Comments

a) attribute uidPump appears in three structures: pumps (cs_pumps.xsd, type=str32), pumpOp (cs_pumpOp.xsd, type=str32) and scr (cs_scr.xsd,type=str64) -- do all of them refer to the same entity (in pumps)? should scr.uidPump be of type str32?

b) attribute uidShaker appears in three structures: shakers, shakerOp and shakerScreen; but, shakerOp also contains the shakerScreen structure and thus, one could have the situation where shakerOp.uidShaker and shakerOp.shakerScreen.uidShaker contain different values! is this situation permissible? possible? or should attribute uidShaker be deleted from shakerScreen?

c) attribute uidBopComponent (in structure bopComponent) is of type integer whereas all other "uid" attributes are of type <string>! should this be changed to string?

d) attribute uidReport appears in two structures: mudLog and opsReport; but (I
think) they refer to two totally different reports -- should the names be changed to uidMudReport and uidOpsReport to avoid confusion?

Response

These comments will be relayed to the WITSML Technical Team for review.
Date 4 January 2002
Name John Sams
Company Halliburton
E-mail john.sams@halliburton.com
Phone (281) 871-5695

Comments

In CS_datatype.xsd, what is the difference between distance, geographical distance, and graphical distance?
In cs_catalog.xsd, what is the relationship between the ActivityCode and ACtivitySubCode? Are there any illegal combinations?


ActivitySubCode has the values "well control", "Kill well", and "wellkill". What is the difference between these?
What is the difference between 'resistivity from phase shift" and "resistivity phase shift"?

In PermanentDatum, what is the difference between "mean lower low water" and "mean lower water"?


On PitType, I suggest adding "SandTrap"

Is there any place where the meaning of the various enumeration values is defined? Nomenclature varies between companies and areas. ex: TrajStationStatus has 5 possible values - "Locked", "Open", "Rejected", "Valid", and "Position". I can guess at what rejected and valid mean, but I have no idea about locked, open, and position.

Response

These issues have been addressed in the v1.2 specification.
Date 3 January 2002
Name Sam Abifaker
Company ASEG
E-mail abifaker@aseg.com
Phone 858-550-0500

Comments

I'm examining the WITSML API for a possible application for a customer, and am having some trouble with the executables and the project files provided in the "witsml_v110_prototype.zip" download. The executables (setup.exe) all halt abruptly with the following message box: "Initialization of the dynamic link library c:\winnt\system32\msxml3.dll failed. The process is terminating abnormally." The file msxml3.dll does exist in my system32 folder, so I'm not sure why it has a problem initializing it.

Also, the VB projects provided don't compile. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Response

The msxml3.dll that's failing is Microsoft's implementation of DOM, version 3. The problem is that Microsoft requires that DOM be separately installed, using its own setup program.

We'll be correcting the problem in a "refresh" (version 1.1.0a) we'll upload in early January. In 1.1.0a, we'll remove msxml3.dll from the API setups, update the documentation to state that you must separately install DOM version 3, and include a copy of the DOM setup.

In the meanwhile, the workaround is to just install DOM version 3 separately (downloadable from Microsoft), and just ignore the error message you get when running the API setups.

As for the compile problem, we'll need more detail to help with that one. But most compile problems are due to not installing the VB projects in the exact directory structure we used, and so the inter-directory file references (such as to the modGlobal file) aren't correct.

David Thom, NPSi
Date 27 September 2001
Name Steve Koch
Company Schlumberger
E-mail Stevekoch@slb.com
Phone 281-285-8264

Comments

Extending WitsML to support simple interface WitsML is a web service which means that SOAP is used to invoke WitsML services. This means that you have to have a web server (eg: IIS or Apache) if you're going to do WitsML. For simple applications (such as data concentrators communicating on the same local area network), it would be best not to require that a web server be added to the data concentrator (note Gartner report on IIS reliability). For simple applications, there could be a simpler version of WitsML that does not require SOAP (and therefore no web server). This version of WitsML would still use the same WitsML schemas and still use XML (and XML utilities) to encode/parse data but would not use SOAP to request the service. The sender and receiver would simply agree on the specific TCP address and port and would send Witsml messages (which are formatted as XML documents) over that connection.

Response

 
  

Date 21 September 2001
Name Steve Koch
Company Schlumberger
E-mail Stevekoch@slb.com
Phone 281-285-8264

Comments

It seems to me there is a potential security problem with using Witsml on a rig using ethernet with multiple vendors hooked to that ethernet. Witsml, which is based on soap and xml, sends information as xml documents in clear text which is easy to parse (these xml documents are designed to be self descriptive). Because ethernet is a shared medium and packets on a local area network are visible to everyone on the network, it will be easy for anybody on the lan to capture and parse the witsml packets. Maybe the Witsml group should make a recommendation (as part of the standard) about how to secure Witsml (eg: using https rather than http) transmissions and to make sure everyone using WitsML is aware of the potential problem. If there is a plan for dealing with Witsml security issues, would you mind describing that plan in your response?

Part 2: I sent a previous email re: security. After reading the WMLP documentation more thoroughly, I see that there is a prevision for encryption. You might want to emphasize why it is important to encrypt WITSML communications.

Response

 

 
  
Date 16 September 2001
Name Edward Clements
Company SDC Software Ltd
E-mail klikli@compuserve.com
Phone  

Comments

Is there a way to download all the schemas and/or examples at once? Otherwise, one would need to go to each item (in http://194.128.29.83/WITSML/schemas/10/WITSML_Schema_docu.htm) and download each one individually...

Response

Good idea. Version 1.01 of the schema is due out soon, so we'll make up a consolidated, single file download when it becomes available.
 
Date 10 September 2001
Name Kevin Lisowski
Company Peloton
E-mail kevinl@peloton.com
Phone 403.263.2915 ext 28

Comments

While reviewing the information you have on your website in preparation for writing an import to our WellView product, I noticed that the XML links for the following Witsml objects actually contain links to the XML/XSL (XML via Style Sheet) rather than the xml links they should contain.

Cement Job Data Object

Conventional Core Data Object

Sidewall Core Information

Could you please notfy me when this has been changed?

Response

Corrected
 
Date 4 September 2001
Name Steve Koch
Company Schlumberger
E-mail Stevekoch@slb.com
Phone 281-285-8264

Comments

Will there be a utility provided that takes wits and retransmits wits xml? Something that could read wits record definition files and wits realtime ascii records and format it into the corresponding wits xml definitions and realtime data streams? This useful utility would speed up the introduction of wits xml.

Response

Neat idea. But, it's not part of the remit of the WITSML project team. Now, if somebody out there has the time and inclination to do this, we'd be happy to add a link from this site.

 
 

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