So Roy, let me see if I understand what you want:
A RESTful application, but with limits on the extent of REST, such that you
solely use GET but not POST?
Legitimate question, and I may have missed context here: What's the issue
with POST? It almost seems like you're trying to shoehorn a SOAP
application into a RESTful framework, which we CAN do, but my experience
suggests that wrestling the input params into a SOAP app leads to one-off
use cases (one of my biggest gripes about SOAP). Thus, your plan to use GET
(ie., REST) makes great sense to me, but why lose the utility of POST in
the process?
Thanks gerry
On Sun, Jul 1, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Roy Mendelssohn <roy.mendelssohn@xxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
> On Jul 1, 2012, at 11:25 AM, Dennis Heimbigner wrote:
>
> > Roy-
> >
> > > ... One comment. I think you misunderstood my point about
> > > Matlab and R. I am not interested in Matlab specific
> > > implementations. The point was because the URL completely
> > > defines the request, I can implement scripts in any application
> > > that can send an URL and receive a file in terms of functions
> > > built-in to that application - that is my clients do not break as
> > > the application or operating system change.
> >
> > Not quite sure I understand. This phrase "...receive a file in
> > terms of functions built-in to that application" sounds
> > like you are creating an association between functions defined
> > on the client side and functions defined on the server side.
> > Can you elaborate?
>
> Okay, let's start with my original example. Put the following URL in your
> browser:
>
>
> http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/erdBAsstamday.nc?sst[(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z):1:(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z)][(0.0):1:(0.0)][(30):1:(50.0)][(220):1:(240.0)]
>
> You just downloaded a netcdf file that was a subset of a larger virtual
> file. And try this one:
>
>
> http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/erdBAsstamday.png?sst[(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z):1:(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z)][(0.0):1:(0.0)][(30):1:(50.0)][(220):1:(240.0)]
>
> You just got a png of the same data. These URL's completely define the
> service request, in this case the service is ERDDAP. So given that, any
> application that has a command that can send an URL and receive a file, can
> use the service. In the case of Matlab that command is "urlwrite". In
> case of R, that command is "download.file". So now we can develop scripts
> for Matlab and R that are based on the commands "urlwrite" or
> "download.file", can use the service by just constructing the proper URL,
> and therefore every command in the script is a command built into that
> application, so the updating and maintenance of that command is the job of
> the application developer.
>
> Just to either make the point clearer or to muddy the waters (you never
> know), here is a brief matlab script that uses the command (it does use
> the m_map toolbox for mapping but that is separate from the service):
>
> > link='
> http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/erdBAsstamday.mat?sst[(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z):1:(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z)][(0.0):1:(0.0)][(30):1:(50.0)][(220):1:(240.0)]
> ';
> > F=urlwrite(link,'cwatch.mat');
> > load('-MAT',F);ssta=reshape(erdBAsstamday.sst,201,201);
> > pcolor(double(ssta));shading flat;colorbar;
> > latitude= erdBAsstamday.latitude;
> > longitude= erdBAsstamday.longitude;
> > [Plg,Plt]=meshgrid(longitude,latitude);
> > m_proj('mercator','lon',[-140 -115], 'lat', [30 50]);
> > m_pcolor(Plg-360,Plt,double(ssta));
> > shading flat;
> > m_coast('patch',[.7 .7 .7]);
> > m_grid;
> > colorbar;
> >
>
>
> And similarly in R:
>
> > library(ncdf4)
> > library(lattice)
> > download.file(url="
> http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/erdBAsstamday.nc?sst[(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z):1:(2010-01-16T12:00:00Z)][(0.0):1:(0.0)][(30):1:(50.0)][(220):1:(240.0)]",
> destfile="AGssta.nc",mode='wb')
> > AGsstaFile<-nc_open('AGssta.nc')
> > sst<-ncvar_get(AGsstaFile,'sst',start=c(1,1,1,1),count=c(-1,-1,-1,-1))
> > lonval<-ncvar_get(AGsstaFile,'longitude',1,-1)
> > latval<-ncvar_get(AGsstaFile,'latitude',1,-1)
> > image(lonval,latval,sst,col=rainbow(30))
> >
>
>
> To see this idea taken to a further level, see
> http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/xtracto/
>
> -Roy
>
>
>
> **********************
> "The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S.
> Government or NOAA."
> **********************
> Roy Mendelssohn
> Supervisory Operations Research Analyst
> NOAA/NMFS
> Environmental Research Division
> Southwest Fisheries Science Center
> 1352 Lighthouse Avenue
> Pacific Grove, CA 93950-2097
>
> e-mail: Roy.Mendelssohn@xxxxxxxx (Note new e-mail address)
> voice: (831)-648-9029
> fax: (831)-648-8440
> www: http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/
>
> "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."
> "From those who have been given much, much will be expected"
> "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK
> Jr.
>
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