1. WG Research Data Collections Draft outputs of a RDA bottom-up effort P9 - April 2017
Co-chairs: Bridget Almas, Frederik Baumgardt, Tobias Weigel, Thomas Zastrow
- @resdatall
CC BY-SA 4.0

2. Motivation for Research Data Collections
(Research) data management beyond single objects
Not just describe collections, but enable actions on them
Create, Read, Update, Delete, List plus some others
Machine agents as primary users
Contribute an essential component to the Data Fabric
Provide a cornerstone API specification against which tools and services can be built across community boundaries

3. Design considerations
Key requirements:
Favor limited functionality over support for use case details
Offer extension points
Use by machine agents primarily
No constraints on particular back-ends
No mandatory use of PIDs (supported, but optional)

4. API: Structure

5. API: Service Features
GET /features

6. API: Collections Create/Read/Update/Delete/List
LIST GET /collections CREATE POST /collections READ GET /collections/{id} UPDATE PUT /collections/{id} DELETE DELETE /collections/{id}

7. API: Collection Member CRUD/L
LIST GET /collections/{id}/members CREATE POST /collections/{id}/members READ GET /collections/{id}/members/{mid} UPDATE PUT /collections/{id}/members/{mid} DELETE DELETE /collections/{id}/members/{mid}

8. Building bridges: Interfacing
Clients:
able to interact with compatible endpoints, independent of provider/community/infrastructure concerns
Servers:
able to provide a basic interface, but still tailored (service features)
can also extend beyond API specification -

9. Current implementations and use cases
REPTOR: data repository, also covering DTR and DFT recommendations
Tufts: Python/Flask implementation for Perseids Project
backends for file system, RDF/LDP, MongoDB
iDigBio: Python and redis-based
Use cases:
Perseids, iDigBio, GEOFON, DKRZ/CMIP6, CAU Kiel/IGSN – more are welcome! -

10. Next steps: Feedback is essential!
Final recommendation to be available at P10
Specification scope is now fixed – no further extensions
Further testing and feedback on the implementations
Finalize specification after feedback from use cases and potential adopters
Assemble accompanying report, publish together with specification

11. https://rd-alliance.org/ - https://twitter.com/resdatall
Backup slides -

12. Collection properties Description
Collection Object
persistent
dynamic
< IDENTIFIER > +
Collection state
Membership
Capabilities
Mapping function
Collection properties
Description
is a
Metadata
set of actions
< IDENTIFIER > +
Collection state
Set of item identifiers
< IDENTIFIER >
Item metadata
< IDENTIFIER > +
Collection state
… + ...
explicitly defined (naming all identifiers)
implicitly defined (generation rule)