Proposed change of name for ProvDAL --> ProvSAP (François Bonnarel):
During the TCG meeting, it has been objected that the name
ProvDAL was confusing. Just because in DAL WG, everything is .... DAL !!! I (FB must confess that I think that I was the one who introduced the name
ProvDAL, by proximity with "SimDAL". Just because
SimDAL is strongly bound to a model and has a PARAMETER based interface. But actually this name (
SimDAL) is very atypical in the VO and not really appropriate.
On the other side, everything which has a parameter-based interface, is called Simple Access Protocol in the VO (SSAP, SIAP 1 or 2, SLAP, SCS,...) thus marking an opposition with using
ADQL based interface which offers much more query complexity. So after thinking to it and eliminating other bad options we made a consensus on
ProvSAP for "Provenance simple access protocol"). I hope that everybody in the group is happy with that.
ProvSAP and
ProvTAP are easily distinguished this way.
Proposed restructuration of the ProvDM draft:
- section on the core model (without Descriptions, Parameters, ActivityFlow), so fully W3C compliant,
- section for the Descriptions, that are only linked through the Activity-ActivityDescription relation (this would go well with the serialization as a Bundle in the W3C context, that influences the Activity instance)
- section for Parameter (connection of Configuration with Provenance), for which the main use case would be the compatibility with web services in the VO framework, i.e. a Parameter class directly linked to the Activity Class, seen as a simplified Entity that influences the Activity instance. If it is Used, it should then be seen as a general Entity.
- the relation Entity-EntityDescription relation will not be part of the first standard, paragraph in the Appendices (it could be a way to connect Data Structuration with Provenance)
- section on ActivityFlow (connection of Workflows with Provenance), but moved to the Appendices and out of the standard for now (still not well understood)