[Digir-protocol] tModel values for schema differentiation

[Kevin W. <kf...@co...>]

--Concept--
Should the DiGIR community consider using multiple tModel values
to differentiate between provider sites offering alternate or
extended schema representations of provider data?

--Discussion--
As extensions to the Darwin Core schema proliferate within the DiGIR
provider community how are services based on alternate or extended
schemas supposed to differentiate themselves from strict DWC sites?
Should multiple schemas representing a provider data resource be
co-mingled?

Portal code, or more specifically the presentation layer of the portal
engine, separates provider resource lists based on the various conceptual
schemas returned by discovery requests. This may be confusing to the
portal user not knowing which data resources were available by schema.
Automatons can resort to filtering based on specific DiGIR-Resource
tags, but discovery or metadata requests risk overstated inventory
counts if numerous resource schemas mapped to a single data set are
'mixed' together.

Separate tModel values based on schema enforce a stronger provider
identity which can result in more specific WSDL entries.

Some may consider this a solution to a problem that doesn't exist,
while others may find that the separation of provider services based
on schema enhances the service.

Comments?



KFW