[Go-essp-tech] esg gateway information model

[Luca Cinquini]

Hi Bryan:

On Nov 16, 2009, at 4:09 AM, Bryan Lawrence wrote:

> Hi Folks
>
> I'm interested in the underlying information model for the esg  
> gateway, and in particular the interfaces.
>
> On the telco it was pointed out that (currently) changes in the db  
> schema are not gracefully supported between versions (I totally  
> understand why). What's rather interesting for me is trying to  
> understand what's there now, and what might be there in the future.  
> Do you have your data model documented anywhere (Nate showed a  
> subliminal UML at the Hamburg meeting, more of that would be  
> great).  Will it be possible to track changes between the schema as  
> versions appear (whether or not you provide a utility to do content  
> migration)?
>
> I think from previous conversations, I've understood that you've got  
> most (if not all???) of the information duplicated in both the  
> relational database and in triples ... and you use the rdf  
> representation for the between gateway metadata migration. Is there  
> an RDFS or OWL representation of that data model which is  
> independent of the relational implementation or is one generated  
> from the other? If it's independent, is it documented anywhere where  
> we can see it?

The OWL model actually contains only a subset of the total metadata  
that is stored in the relational model, specifically the objects and  
properties that are needed for searching, and for the model trackback,  
including the gridspec. The RDF/OWL model documentation is the  
ontology itself, which you can find it at this URL:

http://ontologies.ucar.edu/owl/esg.owl (the core ontology only)
or
http://ontologies.ucar.edu/owl/esg_all.owl (master ontology that  
imports all others).

There are many tools to visualize the ontological model, I personally  
typically just use Protege, but in the past we have used Jambalaya  
with good results for limited portions of the ontology.

thanks, Luca

>
> Thanks in advance,
> Bryan
>
> -- 
> Bryan Lawrence
> Director of Environmental Archival and Associated Research
> (NCAS/British Atmospheric Data Centre and NCEO/NERC NEODC)
> STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
> Phone +44 1235 445012; Fax ... 5848;
> Web: home.badc.rl.ac.uk/lawrence
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