[MOBY-l] MobyDataType 'Object'

[groscurt at mpiz-koeln.mpg.de]

Hi,

In the moby world the basic datatype is an object. Any object can be
identified by its id and a namespace. Both values guarantee to describe
the object explicitly.

As an example:

00492215062447

does not tell you anything for what this number / string stands for. With
the namespace "telephone number" it becomes clearly what its for.

The same id can be used differently - e.g. with the namespace "social
number" it is a different object than the one with the namespace
"telephone number" - so with the same content (the id), they are
semantically different (because of the namespace).

If a MobyService has as input such kind of object - e.g. a database
identifier - the MobyObject has to be used. There is no more information
one needs, because its all defined with these object.

The DataType String is semantically incorrect because not all identifiers
are Strings (see telephone examples).

Therefore dont use MobyDataString if an Object is needed.


Thats my point of view - please correct me or add to that
andreas



On Friday 19 October 2007 14:41, Ola Spjuth wrote:
> Hi,
>
> How should the primitive MobyDataType 'Object' be treated? If a
> service only has a input with a primitive 'Object', what does it expect?
>
> Example (implemented in jMoby):
> The service 'getKeggPathwayAsGif' has primary input name='pathway'
> with MobyDataType 'object', hence instantiating from this
> datatypeName creates a MobyDataObject, which cannot contain a value
> (the static method createInstanceFromString(typename, value) sets the
> 'value' parameter as ID for the MobyDataObject). Is this intentional
> and in that case what is the intention?
>
> Why does not the service use the DataType 'String' if that's what it
> expects? Is the dirty workaround to always supply a MobyDataString if
> a DataType is set to Object?
>
> Cheers,
>
>     .../Ola
> _______________________________________________
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> moby-l at lists.open-bio.org
> http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/moby-l

-- 
Andreas Groscurth
Diplom Bioinformatik - PhD Student
Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research
Carl-von-Linné-Weg 10
50829 Cologne
Germany
E-mail:    groscurt at mpiz-koeln.mpg.de
Phone:    +49(0)221-5062-447