[tdwg-tag] LSID HTTP Proxy - design question [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Kevin Richards RichardsK at landcareresearch.co.nz
Wed Apr 22 22:58:28 CEST 2009


Yes, I suspect this should be something more like

"An LSID HTTP proxy is an HTTP endpoint that allows resolution of LSID metadata via HTTP GET"

ie, this could then be done either using 303 redirect, or just an endpoint that returns the LSID metadata directly.

sound ok?

Kevin


-----Original Message-----
From: whitbread.greg at gmail.com [mailto:whitbread.greg at gmail.com] On Behalf Of greg whitbread
Sent: Thursday, 23 April 2009 1:16 a.m.
To: Roger Hyam
Cc: Kevin Richards; tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
Subject: Re: [tdwg-tag] LSID HTTP Proxy - design question [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Yes. Some of us have believed in the simplicity of an RDF solution
since Noel Cross's presentation at TDWG 1999.

Jonathan Rees called for 303 redirection on the lsid proxy discussion in 2007.

So if we are to do this we must update our recommendations and the
lsid applicability statement accordingly.

Does anyone disagree?

The current position is "An LSID HTTP proxy is a web service that
resolves LSIDs by returning the results of the getMetadata() call via
HTTP GET."

greg

2009/4/22 Roger Hyam <rogerhyam at mac.com>:
>
> I have gone Semantic Web fundamentalist and so any proxy must pass the
> Linked Data validator that Rod so kindly pointed out.
>
> http://validator.linkeddata.org/vapour
>
> If it does this then the proxied LSIDs can be used in Jena and other
> SW frameworks seamlessly.
>
> Ideally there should be some simple content negotiation to return a
> nice web page for humans and RDF for machines.
>
> I don't think a proxy has to service any LSID anyone throws at it.
>  From my point of view the proxy is there to make LSIDs behave as if
> they were good semantic web URIs. The proxy_string + LSID is a URI to
> a resource that can be reasoned about. It is therefore best to always
> use the same proxy for any one LSID. This is what I try to do with
> BCI. The proxied LSID is effectively another identifier in another
> technology domain just joined by an owl:sameAs.
>
> It should be possible to just write an Apache rewrite rule to turn the
> LSID into a a 303 redirect to the URL used for the RDF by the LSID
> Authority. The linked data stuff is just soooo simple. I love it.
> Praise Lord TBL.
>
> All the best,
>
> Roger
>
>
> On 21 Apr 2009, at 23:01, Kevin Richards wrote:
>
>> Nicky
>> I have set up a proxy for our Landcare LSIDs and it is just a plain
>> redirect (ie treating the LSID as a string).
>> This was probably mainly because I was experimenting and not
>> implementing a "robust" system.  However I don't really see anything
>> wrong with treating the LSID as a string in this case - other parts
>> of DNS and resolution treat various "components" of the resolution
>> process as strings, without assuming any specific protocol etc.
>>
>> As Rod pointed out though, if you use full LSID resolution on the
>> proxied LSID, then you will be able to resolve any LSID that is
>> passed to the IPNI resolver.  I'm not sure this is a good thing
>> though??  ie
>>
>> should http://zoobank.org:80/?lsid=urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20012728-1:1.1
>>  return metadata or an error?  the proxied URI http://zoobank.org:80/?lsid=urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20012728-1:1.1
>>  is NOT the sameAs the LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:20012728-1:1.1,
>> so it probably should return an error??  But this sounds counter-
>> productive to me...
>>
>> I'd say go with whatever is easiest for now.
>>
>> Kevin
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-tag-bounces at lists.tdwg.org
>> ] On Behalf Of Nicola Nicolson
>> Sent: Wednesday, 22 April 2009 4:41 a.m.
>> To: tdwg-tag at lists.tdwg.org
>> Subject: [tdwg-tag] LSID HTTP Proxy - design question
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've been looking into setting up an HTTP proxy for the ipni.org
>> LSIDs. I've read the usage recommendations at http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/bin/view/GUID/LsidHttpProxyUsageRecommendation
>>  but want to ask a question re the design of the proxy itself, ie:
>> Should an HTTP proxy for LSIDs behave as:
>> (1) a webapp that acts as an LSID "client"
>> or
>> (2) a mechanism to issue redirects to the metadata address as
>> specified in the LSID authority WSDL
>> The latter is simple - I can just set up a mod_rewrite rule so that
>> http://lsid.ipni.org/[lsid] is redirected to the HTTP URL for the
>> metadata for the specified LSID. This will of course only work for
>> LSIDs for which ipni.org is the authority, but I think that is OK.
>> If the former, I'll need to encode the resolution process: ie parse
>> the LSID, extract the authority, do the DNS lookup, get the WSDL,
>> construct the address etc, BUT it will mean that the HTTP LSID proxy
>> is dependent upon correct functioning of the LSID infrastructure
>> (DNS SRV records, authority WSDL etc). I guess the TDWG LSID proxy
>> behaves this way, but that is to be expected as it can be used as an
>> HTTP proxy for *any* LSID.
>> In summary option (1) treats the proxied LSID as *an LSID*, the
>> other really just treats it as a character string.
>> Which is preferred?
>> cheers,
>> Nicky
>>
>> - Nicola Nicolson
>> - Science Applications Development,
>> - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
>> - Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK
>> - email: n.nicolson at rbgkew.org.uk
>> - phone: 020-8332-5766
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>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Roger Hyam
> Roger at BiodiversityCollectionsIndex.org
> http://www.BiodiversityCollectionsIndex.org
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
> 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, UK
> Tel: +44 131 552 7171 ext 3015
> Fax: +44 131 248 2901
> http://www.rbge.org.uk/
> -------------------------------------------------------------
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--
Greg Whitbread
Australian National Botanic Gardens
Australian National Herbarium
+61 2 62509482
ghw at anbg.gov.au

Please consider the environment before printing this email
Warning:  This electronic message together with any attachments is confidential. If you receive it in error: (i) you must not read, use, disclose, copy or retain it; (ii) please contact the sender immediately by reply email and then delete the emails.
The views expressed in this email may not be those of Landcare Research New Zealand Limited. http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz



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