[kepler-dev] [Bug 1548] New: - consolidating data access user interfaces

[bugzilla-daemon@ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548

           Summary: consolidating data access user interfaces
           Product: Kepler
           Version: 0.0
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: other
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: interface
        AssignedTo: tao at nceas.ucsb.edu
        ReportedBy: jones at nceas.ucsb.edu
         QAContact: kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org


Currently Kepler contains several distinct methods for binding data sources to a
workflow.  These include the EML200DataSource actor, the JDBC data source
actor(s), the incipient EcoGrid access interfaces, the GridFTP actor, and
probably others.  Each of these exposes the data in a different way, and is
therefore multiply representing data in a confusing way.  We need to consolidate
these approaches to find a single UI that can encapsualte all of the data access
approaches.

This proposal is to use and adapt the user interface described in
kepler/docs/dev/screenshots and related design documents to data access in
EcoGrid, GridFTP, JDBC, and other sources.  This would allow a user to view data
uniformly in the workflow, regardless of which data access protocol is used to
get the data.  This would also allow the user to specify subsetting constraints
(WHERE clause) uniformly, and to choose which attributes from the joined
relations are exposed to the workflow.  Finally, it would allow us to use richer
metadata descriptions of underspecified data sources (like those found at the
other end of JDBC connections) so that the user (and ultimately the SEEK SMS
system) can reason about these data sources effectively.