[webservices] ws_station network identifier

[Chad Trabant]

Got it. The network start/end dates don't change often but on occasion they do.  I think the most common case is when a temporary network code is extended to match an extended experiment time window.  The only other useful identifier that I can think of is the network description contained in the <Description> tags, although that is subject to change as well but also doesn't change often.  Perhaps by checking the description you can figure out when it's the same network versus something new more often than not.

Chad

On Jun 14, 2011, at 5:04 PM, John D. West wrote:

> That was what I assumed from the output of the web service. The question is: can a start date or end date EVER change? If an incorrect date is entered and then later corrected, I end up with overlapping networks because network code + start date + end date combine to form the unique identifier.
> 
>      -- John
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 4:58 PM, Chad Trabant <chad at iris.washington.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hello.
> 
> In general, networks, like stations and channels, have the notion of a start time and an end time.  For permanent networks there are normally not breaks in the continuity.  For temporary networks there are often blocks of years allocated for specific experiments, for example XY 2005-2006, XY 2007-2009 and XY 2010-2010.  We would not consider those temporary networks to be modifications of an existing network, but instead to be logically different networks.  Essentially the network code combined with the start and end time uniquely identifies a "network", when the dates change and the network code is recycled it should be considered a new network.  Not sure I understood your question, did that help at all?
> 
> Chad
> 
> On Jun 14, 2011, at 2:00 PM, John D. West wrote:
> 
> > Hello.
> >
> > I'm using the station webservice in EMERALD to maintain a local cache of network, station, and component metadata. In the Network level, reuse of network codes makes it difficult to differentiate between new and modified networks, e.g., if a network EndDate changes, my system registers it as a new usage of the network code instead of modification of an existing network.
> >
> > Is there some unique identifier for each network which can be included in the web service?
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >      -- John
> > _______________________________________________
> > webservices mailing list
> > webservices at iris.washington.edu
> > http://www.iris.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/webservices
> 
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.iris.washington.edu/pipermail/webservices/attachments/20110614/9f7f3e00/attachment.htm>