[moby] RE: [MOBY-dev] rfcf 11. RDF Agent

[Mark Wilkinson]

I think the intent is as follows:

The agent will collect the "core" data for the registry on a regular
basis.  You can chose to explicitly call the agent to you if you like,
but it will only record the information that MOBY Central currently
records.  

During service discovery, you will receive the LSID representing a
particular service as part of the response message from MOBY Central
(this is already in the API 0.85, but has not been coded yet).  MOBY
Central will act as the Authority for that LSID, and will give you a
WSDL document that (at a minimum) directs you to GET the SignatureURL of
that service as the getMetaData resolution function - the SignatureURL
should hold an RDF document describing that service FULLY; i.e. not only
what MOBY Central needs to know, but also whatever else the service
provider wants to tell you about the service.  Some of the RDF
predicates in that document will be part of the official MOBY API, while
others may be defined specifically by that service provider.  Of course,
we will try to make as many of the useful ones part of the MOBY API :-)

Does that clarify how I am thinking about the process?  Are there better
ways to accomplish this that I haven't thought of?  This is the perfect
time to speak-up as we are in the process of re-coding the API right
now...

Cheers!

M




On Tue, 2005-07-19 at 21:28 +0100, Martin Senger wrote:
> > 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?
> >
>    Well, it depends how LSID metadata are collected and used, and where
> they are stored. The bottom line what I wish is this:
>    When a service provider updates her/his metadata about his/her
> services, I wish that this update is visible asap to the others.
>    Therefore, if it is the RDF agent you collect metadata and stores in a
> registry, then I wish to have an option to tell him "come and get it now".
> If, however, this is not the task of the RDF agent, but if there is yet
> another way how to collect data from my site (presumably done by the LSID
> resolution service) then I do not need such method in the API (because the
> LSID resolver will come to me when somebody asks for my metadata).
> 
>    Martin
> 
-- 
"Ontologists do it with the edges!"

Mark Wilkinson
Asst. Professor
Dept. of Medical Genetics
University of British Columbia
PI in Bioinformatics
iCAPTURE Centre
St. Paul's Hospital
Rm. 166, 1081 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6
tel: 604 682 2344 x62129
fax: 604 806 9274