[Go-essp-tech] Prototype of Dataset Versioning and Dataset Replication Links

[Bryan Lawrence]

Hi Nathan

Happy new year. (I wonder how many months into the new year I can keep sayiing that :-)

Sorry I didn't get back to you quicker ...  especially since the examples have disappeared :-)

However, I did look at them quickly the other day, so I'll try and remember my first impressions (I may have it all wrong, I was hoping to make some time a bit quicker to have a proper think) ... but we are where we are.

Firstly, thanks for doing this. I'm about to quibble a bit, but I'm pretty pleased there is something to quibble about, so well done :-)

> Example 1, the name of the site will/would take you directly to the 
> dataset on the replicated site.
> 
> Example 2, shows two links, Collection will go directly to the 
> collection, Website will go to the portal/home page for that particular 
> institution.
> 
> Example 3, the name link will take you to the portal/home page for the 
> particular institution, the View Collection link would take you directly 
> to that collection on that particular site.

What do you get if you click on the download data on the main frame? I rather think that the default link for the replicates should be identical to that ... you could also provide a link to the *same* page viewed on the other sites (I think that would be the same as the example one link) ... but I don't think much else is necessary. 

So I think I'm recommending a variant on example 2 (it may be the same, I'm not sure of the vocabulary you use :-)

Except that I would possibly lay it out differently. It's not obvious that having it as a RHS panel will work with real numbers of replicates etc.  It might be better to use icons underneath the download data ...  and have you thought about using user session info to allow the user to configure their default for downloads? (But none of *my* suggested options in this paragraph are really important from where I'm sitting, I'll be just glad if the machinery gets the links available for the page, we can lay it out differntly when we see what it looks like with real data and real replicants.)

Cheers
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