RE: Proposed new specification for THREDDSS Catalogs

John,

Some nice new features in this spec, especially in the services area.  A couple 
of observations based on our use.

(1) There is still not a "swath" dataType - as opposed to "grid" or "image".  
Maybe we're the only ones using swath so its not a community issue, but thought 
I would mention it.

(2) Obviously we are always looking at ways to facilitate the use of ESML 
definitions.  I looked through the spec trying to figure out where it might fit 
best.  I guess one place might be as a serviceType for the service element if 
there could then be an associated URL for the description file.  Another 
thought was in the metadata element, or maybe a combination of the two - in 
other words a serviceType of ESML which could then trigger an application to 
look at an associated metadata element for the necessary links.  It might be 
appropriate as a type in dataFormat where there is a list of known formats and 
the use of ESML there could essentially make that list extensible to less known 
formats that could be defined by an ESML description.

Those are suggestions, but I'm sure you guys can better see where it would fit 
best based on your conceptual view of the catalog if there is any interest.

thanks,

Ken Keiser
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-----Original Message-----
From: John Caron [mailto:address@hidden]
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:25 PM
To: address@hidden; address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden; Don Murray; Jeff McWhirter
Subject: Proposed new specification for THREDDSS Catalogs


A proposed new version of the THREDDS Dataset Inventory Catalog is ready 
for your comments. Please send them to address@hidden, or to me.

The new spec was created in collaboration with NCAR's Community Data 
Portal group. It adds new types of information for "enhanced catalogs" 
to facilitate interaction with search services and digital libraries.

Annotated specification is at:

  
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/techNew/catalog/InvCatalogSpec.html

Tutorial (not complete) is at:

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/techNew/catalog/Primer.html

The new spec is based on XML Schema. The schema is at

  http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/schemas/thredds/InvCatalog.1.0.xsd

Changes from version 0.6:

  
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/techNew/catalog/Changes1.0.txt


Thanks for any comments on this spec.