- Publication of an exemplary Broker self-description document,
- Registering, Unregistering and Updating a Connector at the Broker,
- Querying the content of the Broker, i.e., the registered self-description documents.
- Full-text, faceted Search on registered Broker self-descriptions (optional).
Figure 1: Interaction sequences with a Metadata Broker
The Metadata Broker, as any other IDS Connector, publishes a Self-Description that can be requested by Connectors:
Implementations:
| List of Implementations |
|---|
| IDS-REST |
| idscp2 |
| multipart |
Both IDS Connector and IDS Resource Self-Descriptions can be registered at the Metadata Broker. Note that a Metadata Broker must only accept Connector Self-Descriptions if the described Connector is identical with the sender Connector.
Implementations:
| List of Implementations |
|---|
| IDS-REST (for IDS Connectors) |
| IDS-REST (for IDS Resources) |
| idscp2 |
| multipart |
Previously registered Self-Descriptions can be updated at the Metadata Broker. Note that a PUT semantics is used as the default mechanism for updates. This means, that the old Self-Descriptions are completely overwritten by the newly received ones. Similar to registrations, usually Connectors can only update their own Self-Descriptions.
Implementations:
| List of Implementations |
|---|
| IDS-REST (for IDS Connectors) |
| IDS-REST (for IDS Resources) |
| idscp2 |
| multipart |
Previously registered Self-Descriptions can be unregistered at the Metadata Broker.
Implementations:
| List of Implementations |
|---|
| IDS-REST (for IDS Connectors) |
| IDS-REST (for IDS Resources) |
| idscp2 |
| multipart |
The Metadata Broker provides at least one query endpoint, which is able to handle complex, express queries. The query language of the IDS is SPARQL.
Implementations:
| List of Implementations | Comment |
|---|---|
| IDS-REST | The IDS REST Binding does not provide any complex query mechanisms. Instead, it expects that the Client Connector traverse through the offered Web Resources using a series of single requests. See the other Protocol Bindings for query capabilities. |
| idscp2 | |
| multipart |
A Metadata Broker allows the search through a frontend UI, providing at least full-text and facet search capabilities for human users.
Implementations:
| Comment |
|---|
| Full-text, facet, and other kinds of UI-based search is not intended via IDS protocols and therefore appears only on the frontend. The IDS does not make any specifications how such features must be implemented. |
Figure 2: Exemplary sequence of interactions with a Metadata Broker