[MOBY-dev] request for community feedback on certain issues

[Edward Kawas]

Hi 'BioMoby'ers,

Below I am placing some questions, comments, etc that we
would like your feedback on. 

Hopefully some time soon it will be placed on a twiki! I
also attached the file in html format in case this email is
too hard to read.

Eddie

---Start---
Request for Feedback from the BioMoby Community!

Before I begin, I would just like to say that the BioMoby
Project is a open source, community driven project. As such,
it is key that if the community doesn't like how something
is done, then the community should fix it. If something is
broken, doesn't work as intended or is vague, speak up and
make your voice heard! 

BioMoby is not a one man project, but a community driven
one. Things will only get better if we know what is wrong
and if people take initiative.
 
So I (Eddie) just got back from the INBs Technical Meeting
in beautiful Malaga, Spain and I have some items that the
community needs to talk about below. 

Also, be sure to keep an eye out for proposals about
handling asynchronous services as well as error handling in
Moby. When they come, please speak up with your likes,
dislikes and ways to make things better.

1. API addition of a method called getResourcesURL:
Returns an xml document that describes the location of
RESOURCES script that we hear so much about. It is the
resources script that contains the ontologies expressed in
RDF/XML 
example:
<someRoot>
  <resources>
    <name>Services</name>
 
<url>http://mobycentral.icapture.ubc.ca:8090/RESOURCES/MOBY-
S/Services</url>
  </resources>
  <resources>
    <name>Objects</name>
 
<url>http://mobycentral.icapture.ubc.ca:8090/RESOURCES/MOBY-
S/Objects</url>
  </resources> 
    ... 
 </someRoot>  	
2. How do I know what predicates are available in the RDF
documents that describe the Moby ontologies?

a. should we provide a list of predicates and their intended
meanings (on a wiki, etc)? 

b. should we provide an RDF schema defining the predicates
(* probably the way to go)

c. Should we allow the registration of new predicates, if
so, should we make this an api call, etc.

3. LSID resolution services

a. is the LSID attribute available and documented?

b. when will this occur, i have heard so much about this,
yet i have seen nothing.

4. LSIDs versus simple names

a. why is the name of an object, service, or service type is
sometimes a simple name and sometimes an LSID?

b. how can i even retrieve the LSID of an object, service,
or service type?

c. should api calls be added to getName and getLSID for
objects, services and service types?

5. LSIDs and Service Instances 

a. If a service instance is registered by 2 different
authorities, should they have the same LSID?

b. if the service instance is registered in 2 registries,
should the LSIDs be the same? 

c. will modified service instances have versioning
information?

6. LSID resolution for objects in the BioMoby ontologies

a. what should getData return for
 i.namespaces (the name of the namespace?)
 ii. service types (the name of the service type?)
 iii. objects (xml schema? - note that schemas for datatypes
should be ready and available very soon :-) 
 iv. service instances (the name of the instance?)

b. should we allow the namespace part of an LSID to be
configurable?

c. should we allow the authority part of an LSID to be
configurable? 

7. Would you like to have 3rd party annotation of metadata?

a. use case: adds mirroring

b. use case: allows people to provide additional metadata
i. if you want only one source for metadata, then ignore
this question. 

9. Predicates

a. should we add the following predicates to the metadata of
service instances?
  i.   sampleInputData - specifies valid input for the
service instance
  ii.  sampleOutputData - specifies the output for the
service instance based on the test input.
  iii. approvedBy - specifies whether this service has been
approved. Currently, this would only be useful for the INB,
but many more may find it useful.
    
b. how should the sample input/output be formatted? 

c. should we allow the annotation of datatypes?

10. API and Code versioning
a. why are the api and code versions different?

11. Datatype naming

a. do you think that the names of datatypes should be
regulated?
i. what would be the right way to specify a datatypes name?
ii. what should we do with text_plain and text-plain?

12. RDF Agent

a. do you think that there should be an api call, getUpdate
that tells the agent to check for modifications to the
service instance described by the metadata in the RDF
document at the signatureURL?

b. what is the time line to get the agent running?

c. besides curation, how is the agent useful to me? 

13. Service

a. should article names for service instance input and
output datatypes be mandatory?

b. why does a service that advertise an output datatype
called 'foo' return 'bar' instead? 


---END---
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: request_for_feedback.html
URL: <http://lists.open-bio.org/pipermail/moby-dev/attachments/20050718/27d352a6/attachment.ksh>