[IPT] star schema functionality request

["Markus Döring (GBIF)"]

Eli,
if you are certain that you will need to reproduce complex and highly  
normalised data you might want to consider plain RDF.
There are tools like D2RQ that do the relational db mapping, but they  
have their own problems:

http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/d2rq/

Markus


On May 10, 2009, at 11:16 AM, Tim Robertson (GBIF) wrote:

> Hi Eli,
>
> A star schema for data transfer is indeed limited in scope, but  
> offers a
> lot more than is possible with a flat file, and supports many use  
> cases we
> face in the GBIF network related to serving occurrence oriented and
> taxon/species oriented data.  Therefore I don't foresee the IPT  
> handling a
> more relational model than the star in the *near* future due to the
> complexity of designing the user interfaces and output models to  
> support
> this.  Are you thinking of developing this functionality yourself  
> using
> the IPT as a base platform?  We can branch the source head if you  
> get a
> patch for this.
>
> If you are looking to serve very normalised data, perhaps asking your
> providers to support a standard exchange format is probably the best
> option, which I believe EOL does now.  You might consider evaluating  
> if
> TapirLink supports a more normalised format, to provide a tool that
> providers can install and map to your output model.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>> Markus, Tim,
>> It is a concern for EOL usage of the IPT that the star schema is  
>> missing
>> the functionality to add extension to another extension and not just
>> always to the main DWC. The denormalized approach of doing actually  
>> this
>> doesn't look good and providers will not like it.
>>
>> Another concern is the size of the recordset if we will (denormalize)
>> repeat the main data object many times to accommodate many  
>> references,
>> agents, audience type associated with it.
>>
>> We will continue testing IPT's usage for EOL while trying to  
>> minimize the
>> overhead of the denormalized approach. But it would really be  
>> helpful to
>> add the functionality making the star schema more relational.
>>
>> Thanks.
>> Eli
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IPT mailing list
>> IPT at lists.gbif.org
>> http://lists.gbif.org/mailman/listinfo/ipt
>>
>>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> Tim Robertson
> Systems Architect
> Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat  (GBIF)
> Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
> http://www.gbif.org
> trobertson at gbif.org
> Phone: +45 35 32 14 87 (Office)
> Fax: +45 35 32 14 80
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