[MOBY-l] MOBY Central database schema

[Jason E. Stewart]

"Mark Wilkinson" <mwilkinson at gene.pbi.nrc.ca> writes:

> Below I have trimmed out a piece of the GO database schema to show you what I
> mean by the term2term table.  It allows us to build the hierarchy as a DAG or
> a simple tree, whichever we prefer.  We can go either route at the beginning,
> but it is good to have the flexibility to change later on without having to
> re-write the schema.  It also allows each "edge" to have a particular
> relationship type.   I think these three tables, together with the ones we
> have already discussed, will be sufficient to keep us in business for quite
> some time!
> 
>              Table: term
>                      acc
>                      id
>                      is_obsolete
>                      is_root
>                      name
>                      term_type

Seems fine except there is no definition. Also instead of 'acc' I'd
prefer a more descriptive name.

>              Table: term2term
> 
>                         id
>                         is_inheritance
>                         is_obsolete
>                         modification_id
>                         relationship_type     # I have no idea what is stored
> in this slot...??
>                         relationship_type_id
>                         term1_id
>                         term2_id

I suppose is_inheritance just simplifies building the inheritance tree
so you don't have to do a join to the relationship_type table?

>              Table: relationship_type
>                      id
>                      type_desc
>                      type_name

Because of the API method to locate services based on service type, we
will need to have a denormalized table that quickly associates all
super-classes on any service type. Because if we ask for what services
of a certain service type exist, all parent service types are
applicable as well.

The same is true for data types as well.

jas.