[MOBY-dev] RFC - Synchronization of Biomoby secondary repositories

[Heiko Schoof]

On 30. Nov 2006, at 17:40 Uhr, Mark Wilkinson wrote:

> and then the RSS functionality and features would need to become a  
> formal part of the MOBY API (I can just hear Dr. Senger yelling at  
> us right now that we're considering building core functionality on  
> parts of MOBY that are entirely undocumented ;-)  ;-) ).  I guess  
> that's why I am so hesitant to use RSS.
>
> However, I guess so long as this is not a "recommended" practice,  
> only a short-cut; and as long as it is *always* possible to use a  
> true API call to mirror the registry, and we formally say what the  
> recommended best-practice is, then it's reasonable to have a non- 
> guaranteed alternative that is more lightweight.
>
What we are proposing is to make new RSS functionality that will be  
part of the core API. It just so happens that RSS and the surrounding  
toolkit is well suited to the purpose, and more fitting to Moby than  
other solutions we've looked at. Why should we make a new API call  
that spews out some custom XML if we can perfectly use RSS within its  
specs and get a core RSS feed for "human"/aggregator consumption at  
the same time for free? We stated that we will need to modify the  
RSS, though not breaking anything as far as we can see.

We were not proposing to use RSS just because there's existing  
functionality ;-) we're not quite THAT lazy...though almost. And...  
isn't it *cool* to use RSS for some real work?

What is a true API call? Why is a call to the RSS feed not a true API  
call, if we make it part of the API? RSS is a tested, scaleable  
technology, which is why we propose to use it, as we envision  
hundreds of Moby clients maintaining their local cache (like  
Dashboard) through that functionality. Which is one thing we haven't  
mentioned yet, caching of Moby central for clients could easily build  
on the Moby secondary functionality, we think. But maybe Martin or  
others with experience on Moby central caching should comment on that.

Heiko