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Revision 4764

Added by daigle almost 16 years ago

Add documentation for serviced based architecture and utilties classes.

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docs/dev/utilities-classes.html
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<!--
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  * utilities-classes.html
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  *
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  *      Authors: Michael Daigle
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  *    Copyright: 2009 Regents of the University of California and the
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  *               National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
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  *  For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/
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  *      Created: 2009 January 19
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  *      Version: 
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  * 
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Metacat Utilities Classes</title>
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      <td colspan="7"><div class="title">KNB Software Development Guide: Metacat Utilities Classes</div></td>
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    <tr>
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      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Metacat Utilities Classes</p></td>
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  <div class="header1">Table of Contents</div>
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  <div class="toc">
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#Overview">Overview</a></div>
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  </div>  
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  <a name="Overview"></a><div class="header1">UtiltiesOverview</div>   
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  <p>Metacat contains its own utilities classes (as opposed to the utilities classes
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  available in the generic utilities module).  These utilities classes provide services
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  that are specific to Metacat.  Some of the properties that typify a utility are:</p>
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  <ul>
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    <li>Static methods - all methods are called statically.</li>
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    <li>No state - there are no state variables in a utility.</li>
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    <li>Return UtilException on error - this should be the only checked exception 
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    that gets thrown</li>
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  </ul>
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  <p/> If state becomes an issue, you may want to use a service class to provide
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  the functionality you need.  See the 
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  <a href="./service-base.html">Metacat Service Based Architecture page</a> for more 
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  information on services.</p>
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docs/dev/service-base.html
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<!--
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  * metacat-architecture.html
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  *
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  *      Authors: Michael Daigle
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  *    Copyright: 2009 Regents of the University of California and the
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  *               National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
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  *  For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/
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  *      Created: 2009 January 19
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  *      Version: 
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  *    File Info: '$ '
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  * 
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  * 
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-->
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Metacat Service Based Architecture</title>
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<!-- unfortunately, we have to look for the common css file in the 
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     user docs directory.  This is because the user docs deploy to 
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     the top level of the metacat docs on the knb web server -->
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../user/common.css">
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./default.css">
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</head> 
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<body>
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  <table class="tabledefault" width="100%">
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    <tr>
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      <td rowspan="2"><img src="./images/KNBLogo.gif"></td>
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      <td colspan="7"><div class="title">KNB Software Development Guide: Metacat Service Based Architecture</div></td>
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      <td><a href="/informatics" class="toollink"> Informatics </a></td>
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      <td><a href="/education" class="toollink"> Education </a></td>
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      <td><a href="/software" class="toollink"> Software </a></td>
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    </tr>
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  </table>
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  <br>
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  <table width="100%">
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    <tr>
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      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Metacat Service Based Architecture</p></td>
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        <!-- a href="add back file here when one exists" -->Back<!-- /a --> | <a href="./index.html">Home</a> | 
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        <a href="./utilities-classes.html">Next</a>
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      </td>
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  <div class="header1">Table of Contents</div>
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  <div class="toc">
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#Overview">Overview</a></div>
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#BaseService">Extending BaseService Class</a></div>
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#ServiceService">Controling Services With ServiceService Class</a></div>
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  </div>  
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  <a name="Overview"></a><div class="header1">Overview</div>   
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  <p>Metacat is migrating toward a service based architecture.  Basically, 
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  what this means is that any internal service that Metacat provides should be 
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  represented in a singleton class that extends the BaseService class.</p>
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  <p>There are a few basic questions that can be asked when you are creating a 
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  class to decide if it should be a service.</p>
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  <ul>
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    <li>Does this class perform some action repeatedly throughout the lifetime of 
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    the Metacat application?</li>
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    <li>Does it make sense for this class to cache certain information?  This is 
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    typically information that is accessed often and seldom changes.  For example,
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    system properties rarely change and are constantly being accessed.  (Thus the 
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    PropertyService class.)</li>
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    <li>Would it make sense for the information in the class to be refreshable?  Note 
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    that this is not a strict requirement, since, as we will discuss, a class can
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    declare itself to be non-refreshable.  A good example of a non-refreshable
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    class might be a database service.  If core database information changes,
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    that usually requires a system restart, and not a service refresh.</li>
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  </ul>  
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  <p>Any of these could signify the need for a service.  Note that another option
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  is to create a utility class.  Utility classes are singletons that have static 
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  methods and less state requirements.  See the 
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  <a href="./utilities-classes.html">Utilities Classes page</a> for more information.</p>
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  <a name="BaseService"></a><div class="header1">Extending BaseService Class</div>   
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  <p> All Services extend the BaseService class except the ServiceService class (discussed
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  next). </p>
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  <p>Currently, BaseService defines three methods:</p>
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  <ul>
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    <li> refreshable() - a package level abstract method that reports whether the class can be
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    refreshed.  This has package level access because we only want ServiceService to be 
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    able to access this information.  You will need to decide at implementation time
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    whether it makes sense to refresh your service and return the appropriate boolean from
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    this method.</li>
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    <li> doRefresh() - a protected abstract method that performs the service refresh.  It is 
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    protected because it should only be called by the refresh() method (see next).  Typically,
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    an implementation of the doRefresh() method updates any cached values in the service and 
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    performs any appropriate state-specific service updates.</li>
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    <li> refresh() - a package level method that calls refreshable() and doRefresh().  It has
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    package level access because we only want the ServiceService to be able to refresh the 
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    service</li>
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  </ul>
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  <a name="ServiceService"></a><div class="header1">Controling Services With ServiceService Class</div>   
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  <p> The ServiceService class is a exception to the BaseService extension rule.  This service
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  controls all other services.  It maintains a registry of available services.  </p>
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  <p>Some of the methods available via ServiceService are: </p>
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  <ul>
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    <li>registerService() - register a service by sending the service name and an instance of 
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    the service. </li>
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    <li>refreshService() - refresh a service by name.</li>
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  </ul>  
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docs/dev/metacat-architecture.html
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  *      Authors: Michael Daigle
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  *    Copyright: 2008 Regents of the University of California and the
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Metacat Architecture</TITLE>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Metacat Architecture</title>
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<!-- unfortunately, we have to look for the common css file in the 
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     user docs directory.  This is because the user docs deploy to 
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     the top level of the metacat docs on the knb web server -->
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./default.css">
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  <table class="tabledefault" width="100%">
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    <tr>
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      <td colspan="7"><div class="title">KNB Software Development Guide: Metacat Architecture</div></td>
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    </tr>
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      <td><a href="/data.html" class="toollink"> Data </a></td>
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      <td><a href="/informatics" class="toollink"> Informatics </a></td>
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      <td><a href="/biodiversity" class="toollink"> Biocomplexity </a></td>
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  <br>
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      <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Metacat Architecture</p></td>
......
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      </td>
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    </tr>
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  </table>
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  <div class="header1">Table of Contents</div>
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  <div class="toc">
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#Overview">Architecture Overview</a></div>
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    <div class="toc1"><a href="#Sections">Architectural Sections</a></div>
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  </div>  
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  <a name="Overview"></a><div class="header1">Architecture Overview</div>   
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  <p>Metacat is implemented as a Java Servlet, and so communicates using basic
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  HTTP protocol semantics.  The figure below shows the basic structure of
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  the Metacat architecture. A well defined interface for inserting, 
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  updating, deleting, querying, and transforming (using XSL) XML documents
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  is presented.  We would like to add the DOM API as an alternative 
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  supported mechanism for interacting with Metacat, but have not yet
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  implemented this functionality. </p>
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  <p><img src="../user/metacat.gif" /></p>  
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  <a name="Sections"></a><div class="header1">Architectural Sections</div>   
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  <p> Please refer to the following sections for more information on each area. 
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  <ul>
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    <li> <a href="./service-base.html">Service Based Architecture</a></li>
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    <li> <a href="./utilities-classes.html">Utilities Classes</a></li>
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    <li> <!-- a href="./managing-properties.html" -->Managing Properties<!-- /a --></li>
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    <li> <!-- a href="./configuration-infrastructure.html" -->Configuration Infrastructure<!-- /a --></li>
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  </ul>
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docs/dev/index.html
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     but we have avoided RDBMS specific features in order to maintain portability
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     to other relational databases.
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  </p>
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  <p>
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     Metacat is implemented as a Java Servlet, and so communicates using basic
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     HTTP protocol semantics.  The figure below shows the basic structure of
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     the Metacat architecture. A well defined interface for inserting, 
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     updating, deleting, querying, and transforming (using XSL) XML documents
57
     is presented.  We would like to add the DOM API as an alternative 
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     supported mechanism for interacting with Metacat, but have not yet
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     implemented this functionality.
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  </p>
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  <p><img src="../user/metacat.gif" /></p>
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  </td>
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</tr>
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<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
......
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  <td>The pages below provide more detailed descriptions of the 
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      various development and architecture subjects involved in Metacat.
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    <ul>
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      <li> <!-- a href="./metacat-architecture.html" -->Metacat Architecture <!-- /a --></li>
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      <li> <a href="./metacat-architecture.html">Metacat Architecture </a></li>
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      <li> <!-- a href="./metacat-dev-hardware.html" -->Metacat developement hardware requirements <!-- /a --></li>
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      <li> <!-- a href="./metacat-eclipse-project.html" -->Setting up a Metacat Eclipse project <!-- /a --></li>
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      <li> <a href="./building-metacat.html">Building Metacat</a></li>

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