RE: New Catalog XML Draft

This looks like a good attempt to handling the issue of multiple access 
interfaces for the same dataset and it seems fairly straightforward to me.  One 
comment, I don't think OpenGIS is a service type.  Rather specific OpenGIS 
services would be individual service  types - such as WMS, WCS, WFS, etc.  The 
service type specification implies the resulting output of the service and how 
to communicate with it.  In the same sense that specifying type=DODS lets a 
DODS client know that it can then get data from the described server, then 
type=WCS would let a WCS client know that the server is compatible.

-----Original Message-----
From: John Caron [mailto:address@hidden]
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 1:28 PM
To: address@hidden
Subject: New Catalog XML Draft


Proposed changes to the THREDDS catalog format are at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/tech/InvCatalog6.html

The current format is documented at:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/tech/InvCatalog5.html


Summary of changes:
  a.. add <attribute> elements to collection, dataset, service
  b.. rename "server" element to "service".
  c.. add new service types: (DODS | ADDE | NetCDF | Catalog | FTP | OpenGIS
|  WSDL | Other) .
  d.. allow multiple services per dataset: add <access> child element of
dataset, where you list any number of services for that dataset, and add
<serviceList> element so you can define a list of services. "serviceId" now
refers to either a service or a serviceList. Use a serviceList when the same
dataset urlPath can be appended onto all service bases.
  e.. generalize <datasetDescRef> element to <metadataRef>, where
"DatasetDesc" is one of several metadata types. proposed types: (DatasetDesc
| DublinCore | DIF | ADN | FGDC | LAS | Other)
  f.. add "ID" and "alias" attributes to dataset, so that a dataset can be
an alias to another dataset.
Please send comments to me or to this list.