User database

Design of new user database intended for the 2.5 (CryoClim) release of METAMOD

Design

Database tables

User

U_id	A_id	U_name	U_email	U_password	U_institution	U_telephone	U_session

DataSet

DS_id	U_id	A_id	DS_name

Info

DS_id	I_type	I_content

File

DS_id	F_name	F_timestamp	F_size	F_status	F_errurl

The table details are presented below:

User

U_id	Unique user id (autoincremented number). Primary key
A_id	Application id. Many METAMOD applications share the same database. This field has the same value as the APPLICATION_ID in the master_config.txt file.
U_name	User name as given in registration form
U_email	User E-mail address as given in registration form
U_password	User password
U_institution	User institution acronym as given in registration form
U_telephone	User telephone number as given in registration form
U_session	User session id. Random string generated when the user initiate a new interactive session.

The U_session field is used to track the state of an interactive user session. The user may only have one interactive session active at any time. If the user initiate a new session when another session is already active, the old session disappears. If the user tries to continue the old session, an error message will be submitted. This is the same mechanism used in the old (METAMOD 2.3 and earlier) file-based version.

The A_id field connects the user to one of the METAMOD applications that share the same database. If the same person wants to be a user of more than one of these METAMOD applications, she/he must apply for a user account in each application, and the database will contain independent rows in the user table, one for each application.

DataSet

DS_id	Unique dataset id (autoincremented number). Primary key. Not same number as in the Metadata Database
U_id	Identifies the user owning the dataset.
A_id	Application id.
DS_name	Dataset name. Name of dataset as provided by the user. Not the same name as in the corresponding field in the Metadata Database. But the last part of the name found in the Metadata Database field (everything after '/') will correspond to this field.

The combination of the A_id and DS_name fields will provide an alternative unique key that can be used to find a dataset without knowing the owning user.

Info

This table is used to contain various information about a dataset. Each piece of information is identified by the dataset it belongs to (DS_id) and a type tag (I_type) that is a short acronym for a limited set of information types.

DS_id	Identifiles the dataset this info-row belongs to
I_type	Type tag. Short acronym that identifies the information type.
I_content	The text string representing a piece of information. This can be a single entity (unstructured text) or an XML document.

For the time being, the following information types (I_type) will be needed:

DSKEY	Dataset key (also called directory key or dirkey) as provided by the user. Single entity
LOCATION	Location. Single entity. Absolute path to the directory under which all files belonging to the dataset are found. The files may be found directly in the location direcory, or in any subdirectory of the location directory at any level.
CATALOG	Partial URL to a THREDDS dataset. Single entity. Combined with the file name, this URL can be used to access the content of a file through a TDS server. It can also provide the URL that points to the THREDDS catalog containing the METAMOD dataset.
WMS_URL	URL to the WMS service that can display data from the dataset. Single entity.
WMS_XML	XML document that describes available alternatives for displaying the dataset in WMS. For example, the parameters that can be displayed. Each parameter may have a palette (for example “BOXFILL/redblue”) found in a style element in the GetCapabilites document. If no palette is found, a default palette is used for the parameter.

Additional information types may be added later, for example to implement projection information:

PROJECTION_XML	XML document used to represent reprojection information. The document contains, among other things, each projection the user has asked for (“Lat/Long”, “Stereo” etc.). Each projection contains attributes: method, projString, xAxis, yAxis and toDegree.

File

DS_id	Dataset this file belongs to. Part of primary key.
F_name	Name of file. Part of primary key.
F_timestamp	Timestamp of last change
F_size	File size (bytes)
F_status	Status (OK or errors)
F_errurl	URL to error report (if errors)

This table is used to display recent changes to the data provider. It will not contain a complete inventory of files in the repository. This table will be purged (rows with old timestamps removed) periodically.

API design

This paragraph defines a set of subroutine/function calls that are used to read and write information to/from the user database. These functions will be implemented in PHP and/or Perl as needed.

The functions are defined as methods in a Userbase class. Inside a Userbase object, there may be a current user and a current dataset. The current user will always own the current dataset. There may also be a current file that will belong to the current dataset.

Open/close functions

Method	Purpose	Parameters
new	Create a new Userbase object and set up a connection to the User database	OUT: Userbase object reference
close	Save any pending changes to the database, and close the connection	None
revert	Revert any changes to the database made by this Userbase object. Close the database connection.	None

User functions

Method	Purpose	Parameters
user_find	Search for an existing user in the database and make him/her the current user.	IN: User E-mail address, application id (A_id).
user_create	Create a new user and make it the current user.	IN: User E-mail address, application id (A_id).
user_set	Set user properties for the current user	IN: Property name (one of 'U_name', 'U_password', 'U_institution', 'U_telephone', 'U_session'), property value
user_get	Get user properties for the current user.	IN: Property name (one of 'U_name', 'U_password', 'U_institution', 'U_telephone', 'U_session'). OUT: property value
user_first	Make the first user in the database the current user.	OUT: true if found, false if no users exist.
user_next	Make the next user in the database the current one.	OUT: true if found, false if already last user.

Dataset functions

Method	Purpose	Parameters
dset_create	Create a new dataset and make it the current dataset. The current user will be the owner of the new dataset.	IN: Dataset name, dataset key.
dset_find	Find a dataset in the database and make it the current dataset. Also make the user that owns the dataset the current user.	IN: Application id, dataset name. OUT: true if the dataset is found, false otherwise.
dset_first	Make the first dataset (owned by the current user) the current dataset	OUT: true if found, false if no such dataset exists.
dset_next	Make the next dataset (owned by the current user) the current dataset.	OUT: true if found, false if already last dataset.

Dataset information functions

Method	Purpose	Parameters
info_get	Get information from the current dataset.	IN: Information type (I_type). OUT: Value of I_content field (single entity or XML).
info_put	Add or replace content fields in the current dataset.	IN: Information type (I_type), value of I_content field (single entity or XML).

File functions

Method	Purpose	Parameters
file_find	Search for an existing file (owned by the curent dataset) and make it the current file.	IN: File name (F_name). OUT: true if found, false otherwise.
file_create	Create a new file (for the current dataset) and make it the current file.	IN: File name (F_name)
file_set	Set file properties for the current file	IN: Property name (one of 'F_size', 'F_status', 'F_errurl'), property value
file_get	Get file properties for the current file.	IN: Property name (one of F_name', 'F_size', 'F_status', 'F_errurl', 'F_timestamp'). OUT: property value
file_first	Make the first file (in the current dataset) the current file.	OUT: true if found, false if no files exist.
file_next	Make the next file in the database the current one.	OUT: true if found, false if already last file.