Long Term Ecological ResearchNetwork Information System

LTER MetacatAdvanced Query Interface

LTER Information Manager’s MeetingMontreal, Canada4-7 August 2005

Mark Servilla (LNO)

LTER Network Information System 2

Goals & Products

• Initial design - 2004 IM Meeting, Portland• Supported under the LTER NISAC• More expressive queries to Metacat• Interface provides

– Simple query form– Advanced query form

• Subject• Author• Spatial• Taxonomic

– Simple “browse catalog” (KNB like)

LTER Network Information System 3

Goals & Products cont.

• Decouple from Metacat to enhance portability– Runs as a separate web application (as a

servlet in a Tomcat container)

• Utilize standard patterns and designs– Apache Struts MVC design

• Parameterized for site-specific skins (in progress)

LTER Network Information System 4

Metacat Notes

• Performance issues are being addressed by metacat-dev– Separate active versus deprecated xml_nodes– Generate database indices for key columns– DBA configurable indices– Enhance xml_node query syntax– Improve host hardware

configuration/recommendations (e.g., up memory, clustering, etc…)

LTER Network Information System 5

Architecture

Windows/Linux/Unix

Java 1.4.2

Jakarta Tomcat 5

Metacat 1.5

LTERQuery Interface

Apache Struts

MetacatDatabase

prairie.lternet.edu

LTER Network Information System 6

Architecture “X”

Windows/Linux/Unix

Java 1.4.2

Jakarta Tomcat 5

LTERQuery Interface

Apache Struts

Metacat 1.5

Windows/Linux/Unix

Java 1.4.2

Jakarta Tomcat 5

MetacatDatabase

prairie.lternet.edu

server.X.edu

LTER Network Information System 7

Architecture “X-Y”

Windows/Linux/Unix

Java 1.4.2

Jakarta Tomcat 5

LTERQuery Interface

Apache Struts

Metacat 1.5

Windows/Linux/Unix

Java 1.4.2

Jakarta Tomcat 5

MetacatDatabase

prairie.lternet.edu

server.X.edu

server.Y.edu

LTER Network Information System 8

LTER Custom Unit Registry

Demonstration