format=metadata in SSAP

[Igor Chilingarian]

Hello all,

I've found a little problem playing with ESA VOSpec, and it raised a
question about format=metadata response in SSAP v0.9.

In the ssa-v090.pdf on the page 27 it is said: "All input parameters meant
to be available to clients of the service MUST be listed as PARAM elements,
including REQUIRED parameters (POS, SIZE, and FORMAT), optional parameters
(defined in section 3.2.2), and non-standard parameters specific to the
service (section 3.2.4)."

When I tried to put "POS" and "SIZE" into format=metadata response for
PEGASE.HR. And of course it appeared in the "parameters window" built on the
fly by VOSpec, that is reasonable.

1) question to Pedro: since the size/pos parameters have been already entered
in the main window, isn't it reasonable to fill the values in the form that is
being built automatically corresponding to format=metadata response? Or maybe
even to filter the <PARAM> entries corresponding to the mandatory parameters?

2) question to DAL WG: is there a way to distinguish between mandatory,
optional, and service-specific parameters on the level of format=metadata
response? If there is no, do you think it will be useful to have one? How to
implement it? The easiest and straightforward solution I see is to use
different <GROUP>s for them. But in case VOResource XML answer will be used
instead of VOTable, there might be other ways.

With best regards,
						Igor