[Opensim-users] Meta-data for IAR and OAR + Sharing

[Jeroen van Veen]

How about RDF for OAR metadata?

kind regards,

Jeroen

On Saturday 19 June 2010 02:05:32 Justin Clark-Casey wrote:
> On 18/06/10 23:47, Revlin John wrote:
> > This is related to a thread from the dec '09 archives, "Re: OAR File
> > Sharing Revisited", but I have some subject matter to add to the
> > previous discussion that I don't think was directly addressed.
> > 
> > The OAR & IAR file formats need a meta-data component, most likely
> > XML-based. This would facilitate many file sharing capabilities, allow
> > for some sort of version system AND, most importantly I think, allow for
> > tracking relationships between OAR's. The last capability seems to
> > relate back to "Re: OpenVCE OAR on Mega-Region?" thread from jan '10.
> 
> There actually is already a metadata file contained within OARs and IARs
> called archive.xml.  It doesn't act as a manifest but it does record
> version numbers for upward compatibility purposes.
> 
> > Right now there's no mechanism for tracking relationships between
> > multiple OARs other than the archive's filename which tells almost
> > nothing about contents of the archive. Dido for IAR. A Meta-data system
> > of OAR/IAR archives should first and fore-most list the contents of the
> > archive as well as additional meta-data for each of individual component
> > of those contents. Version tracking is particularly useful  in the case
> > where a second user wishes to edit and re-archive the contents of an
> > OAR, which would be a kind of sim re-mix. The would also allow for
> > saving/loading multi-region sims in ways that address some of the
> > short-falls of the current megaregion scheme (terrain load-tile still
> > isn't working on my server, but I digress...)
> 
> Not being able to save multi-regions is annoying and will ideally be fixed
> one day.  Loading/saving regions is unfortunately probably more
> complicated than simply load/saving the separate 256x256 spaces.
> 
> > I also think that the issue of sharing content is seperate from the
> > issue of running the OpenSim server, meaning it should not be handled by
> > another os module. All that the OpenSim server requires for loading new
> > content from OARs and IARs is that the archive be placed in a folder
> > under the bin heiarchy (I download OARs to bin/import/oar)  and then
> > loaded via the server command line. This is a pretty simple mechanism,
> > although some extra command line tools like the ability to list the
> > contents of an archive before loading it (via meta-data component) would
> > be extremely helpful.
> 
> Archives are actually just tar.gz files.  You can untar them and inspect
> their contents.  See
> 
> http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OpenSim_Archives
> 
> for more details.
> 
> > However, the issue of retreiving OARs and IARS from a remote location is
> > another matter. What's needed is a  separate application for tracking
> > and sharing OAR/IAR and it would naturally implement the above mentioned
> > meta-data component. Given these needs it seem like an appropriate
> > system might be something like a feed/subscription system, kind of like
> > a podcast/aggregator app. Feeds allow an app to track updates to content
> > without requiring the host system to actually download such content. The
> > retreival process can be managed, customized and automated, much like
> > the process of retrieving new and past episodes in a podcast feed.
> > Although the podcast system is limited by centralization, I think an
> > OAR/IAR feed system could implement some form of peer-to-peer
> > distribution capability, as well as allowing for multiple
> > creator/authors for a single feed (and multiple versions of a single
> > OAR/sim).
> 
> I'm not going to address this point directly, but I will note that it's
> possible to load iars/oars on the command line from an URL as well as a
> file.
> 
> Any more complicated arrangement should almost certainly be left for tools
> outside OpenSim, imo.  There are hooks by which add-on region modules can
> call load/save oar/iar functionality.
> 
> > This would be awesome. My lexicon of technical terms kind of fails me
> > when I think about the possibilities for OpenSim. If there's any
> > interest in these ideas I'd love to have an extensive group discussion
> > on the details of a potential implementation.
> > 
> > play and have fun,
> > Revlin
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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