extending the registry

[Tony Linde]

Hi Roy,

Sounds good. But, in fact, the OAI metadata formats don't need to map to a
record or schema but to parts of the schema.

I've been thinking that Resource element should be implemented in the schema
as *abstract* so that you never actually have a resource element (it'd not
be much use since it would not be possible to tell what it is).

So, the education people would inherit EduAstro from Resource. The harvest
method would check the MF requested; if oai_dc then it passes back all the
DC namespaced elements; if vo_res then it passes back every element
namespaced by VOResource; if edu_astro then it passes back the EduAstro
namespaced elements.

(Or vo_res includes DC, and edu_astro includes DC and vo_res??)

> Thus we have a flexible and extensible registry system 
> through the magic of OAI.

I'm not sure OAI *gives* us anything. If most of our registries are
implemented as web services, OAI harvesting method (I believe it is cgi
based, no?) is more of a burden. I would have thought that for the Jan demo
it might be easier to mandate a simple web service method along the lines I
suggested in http://ivoa.net/forum/registry/0600.htm . Those who can also
implement an OAI interface can do so and report back on its efficacy.

Cheers,
Tony. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-registry at eso.org [mailto:owner-registry at eso.org] 
> On Behalf Of Roy Williams
> Sent: 05 October 2003 19:26
> To: registry at ivoa.net
> Subject: extending the registry
> 
> 
> I am thinking that people will use the VOResource as a 
> springboard to their own specialized registry. For example, a 
> collection of educational resources, with crosslinks to 
> schools and people where they have been used. It would be 
> harvested and shared within that community. They make a 
> schema and agree it with their community, called perhaps 
> EduAstro.xsd. This schema would probably include 
> VOResource.xsd, so they would not need to rebuild all that.
> 
> Then their OAI servers will offer all three metadata formats for each
> record:
> 
>     -- Dublin Core
>     -- VOResource
>     -- EduAstro
> 
> The widest understanding is DC, next is VOResource, and only 
> the small group understands EduAstro.
> 
> A DC harvester (eg University Library) would just harvest DC. 
> A VO registry would harvest the more specific VOResource. 
> Only the small community would have registries that 
> understand EduAstro.
> 
> Thus we have a flexible and extensible registry system 
> through the magic of OAI.
> 
> Roy
> 
> --------
> Caltech Center for Advanced Computing Research 
> roy at cacr.caltech.edu 626 395 3670
>