DAP4: Capabilities and Versioning: Difference between revisions

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Ethan Davis
--[[User:EthanDavis|EthanDavis]] 13:32, 16 April 2012 (PDT)


== Background ==
== Background ==


Multiple versions of the DAP protocol (DAP2 and DAP4) mean that DAP clients and servers may not understand the same version of the protocol. Negotiating versions by HTTP headers or URL keywords is described in DAP 4.0 Design doc. Advertising DAP protocol services is described in the DAP Service Terminus document.
Providing OPeNDAP clients with information on the particular capabilities of a given server and given dataset has been discussed many times. Types of capabilities include supported DAP versions, supported server-side functions. Another possible capability would be support for multiple encodings of the various OPeNDAP response types.
 
Providing capabilities documents can also make it easier to plan for extensibility and the future evolution of OPeNDAP.
 
Negotiating versions by HTTP headers or URL keywords is described in DAP 4.0 Design doc. Advertising DAP protocol services is described in the DAP Service Terminus document.
 
 


Providing a dataset capabilities document with links to both DAP2 and DAP4 resources allows for DAP2 backward compatibility and will support protocol extensibility and future evolution of the protocol.
Providing a dataset capabilities document with links to both DAP2 and DAP4 resources allows for DAP2 backward compatibility and will support protocol extensibility and future evolution of the protocol.
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* Support for extensibility and evolution of protocol
* Support for extensibility and evolution of protocol
* Support for multiple encoding formats (media types) for each resource type
* Support for multiple encoding formats (media types) for each resource type
* Support description of server and dataset capabilities (e.g., core protocol, processing capabilities)
* Support description of server and dataset capabilities (e.g., server-side processing capabilities)


== Proposed solution ==
== Proposed solution ==

Revision as of 20:32, 16 April 2012

<-- back to OPULS Development

--EthanDavis 13:32, 16 April 2012 (PDT)

Background

Providing OPeNDAP clients with information on the particular capabilities of a given server and given dataset has been discussed many times. Types of capabilities include supported DAP versions, supported server-side functions. Another possible capability would be support for multiple encodings of the various OPeNDAP response types.

Providing capabilities documents can also make it easier to plan for extensibility and the future evolution of OPeNDAP.

Negotiating versions by HTTP headers or URL keywords is described in DAP 4.0 Design doc. Advertising DAP protocol services is described in the DAP Service Terminus document.


Providing a dataset capabilities document with links to both DAP2 and DAP4 resources allows for DAP2 backward compatibility and will support protocol extensibility and future evolution of the protocol.

Dataset capabilities documents could also be used to support multiple encoding formats for the various DAP resources (das, dds, data).

Problem addressed

The proposal attempts to address the following requirements:

  • Support for multiple versions of DAP protocol in a backwards compatible way
  • Support for extensibility and evolution of protocol
  • Support for multiple encoding formats (media types) for each resource type
  • Support description of server and dataset capabilities (e.g., server-side processing capabilities)

Proposed solution

Raw DAP Dataset URLs Return Capabilities Documents

http://server.org/some/path/data.nc

A GET request on a DAP dataset URL returns the capabilities document for the dataset. To take advantage of web caching, capabilities Document should try to be light weight (i.e., quick creation) and as stable as possible.

Supported media types could include:

  • application/vnd.opendap.org.capabilities+xml
  • application/vnd.opendap.org.capabilities+json
  • application/vnd.opendap.org.capabilities+pbuf

A capabilities resource must contain a server section and a dataset section.

The server section should include

  • a link to the full server capabilities document (if applicable)
  • a list of the DAP versions the server supports
  • the implementation version (e.g., "TDS 4.3.57" or "Hyrax 1.7.45")
  • a list of extensions the server supports

The dataset section should include

  • a link to the full dataset capabilities document (this document)
  • links for all service endpoints for each supported version
  • a list of extensions the dataset supports
  • a list of the types of constraint expressions supported for this dataset
  • a list of the types of processing instructions supported for this dataset

NOTE: Should there be a separate server capabilities document?

Other Resource Types

Examples

See below.

Rationale for the solution

Discussion

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Other Resource Types

Example Capabilities Document