25.10.2013 VME-DB

Meeting 25 October 2013, 12:00-18:00 pm

Location: FAO, Rome.

Present: M. Assante - CNR A. Gentile - FAO E. Van Ingen - FAO A. Ellenbroek - FAO

Notes

• iMarine VME-DB Application will be divided into 3 tiers:

[1] VME-DB: The Database containing the VME Reports as Graph Structure [2] iMarineReports: The WebApplication delegated to the creation and editing of VME Reports [3] Report Storage Gateway (RSG): The (mediator) Webservice that will make [1] and [2]interoperable.

• The communication between [3] and [2]. will be based on a ReportModel that [2] is able to read and write.
  • CNR to provide FAO an API to easily create and read ReportModel instances.

• A VME Report (even its Fact Sheet Representation) originates from a Query (join) executed against the VME-DB.

As a result a VME Report contains unique and referenced (shared among other VME Reports) information.

Proposed solution: the main idea is to separate the editing of unique and referenced information.

• From an end-user point of view:

• • When an end-user opens a VME Report in [2] (Report Instance in the following) he can edit only the Unique parts of the report, specifically,

the ones belonging to the VME-DB relations named: VME, SpecificMeasure, Profile.

• • The opened Report Instance contains also the references without giving the possibility of editing them (in this stage).

The identified references are the VME-DB relations named: GeneralMeasure, InformationSource, History_1, History_2.

• • It is possible for an end-user to associate and remove References from a Report Instance, e.g. remove or associate more than an InformationSource.

The References list (where users can choose from) is populated in "real-time" by [2] trough a specific call to [3].

• • A Report Instance can be saved in the workspace, an explicit action is required by the end user to export it to the VME-DB.

• • The editing of References will be performed through a separated WebApp (CNR To Do) called Reference Editor. In the Reference Editor a reference can be edited through the following steps:
    • Step1: The list of VME Reports available is shown to the User, the User chooses a VME Report containing the Reference he wants to edit.
    • Step2: The list of the all the References "Associated" to the yet chosen VME Report is shown, User chooses the Reference.
    • Step3: At this point the User acquires a Lock on this Reference, the user edits and saves, the reference is committed in the VME-DB (still through [3]), the reference is unlocked.

• • Each Report Instance having References is guaranteed to show the most updated ones since, wether the Report Instance comes

  directly from [3] or was previously saved in the workspace, [2] always asks [3] these references (that comes directly from [1]).
  ([3] passes [2] the reference identifier not the reference itself).
  

• From an developer point of view:

types: {Vme,Refs,InformationSource,GeneralMeasure,History1,History2}

A ReportRef has attributes id and type

[3] Draft Interface 

Type getTypes();
 
ReportEntry - List<nameValue>
 
List<ReportEntry> listReports(type);
 
ReportModel getReport(type, reportId);
 
publishDelta(List<ReportModel>);
 
publishRef(ReportModel);