[Tdwg-tag] Definition of terms: Resolving, Searching Querying
Roger Hyam
roger at tdwg.org
Sun Feb 12 20:06:50 CET 2006
Hi All,
I'd like to start nailing things down a little by getting some terms
defined. Recent side discussions at the GUID-1 meeting were around the
differences between resolving, searching and querying. These terms are
confused so I would like to propose some definitions that we could use
going forward. The intent here is to make up something useful rather
than work out what people have meant in the past by these terms.
1. *Resolving.* This means to convert a pointer into a data object.
Examples would be to resolve an LSID and get back either data or
metadata or resolve a url and get back a web page in html.
2. *Searching.* This means to select a set of objects (or their
proxies) on the basis of the values of their properties. The
objects are predefined (implicitly part of the call) and we are
simply looking for them. An example would be finding pages on Google.
3. *Querying.* This means to ask a question of a data source that
returns objects that are defined as part of the call. An example
would be an SQL query where the response object (tuples) are
defined in the query.
Using only 'resolving' it would be possible for an agent to crawl around
and data harvest (i.e. a web crawler). Using resolving and searching
would make the crawler more efficient at gathering data for specific
tasks. Querying allows arbitrary data retrieval.
At a single data source resolving should be easy to implement
technically, searching slightly harder and querying 'non-trivial'.
Resolving is 'easy' to do in a distributed environment (e.g. just use
DNS like LSID) and searching is harder but can be federated (many
examples including Rod's work) or cached (GBIF, Google). Distributed
querying is 'non-trivial' in the extreme though some GRID guys will
probably solve it for us in the future.
Is everyone OK with these definitions? If no one objects then I'll add
them to the Wiki and we can work with them.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Roger
--
-------------------------------------
Roger Hyam
Technical Architect
Taxonomic Databases Working Group
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http://www.tdwg.org
roger at tdwg.org
+44 1578 722782
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