[webservices] Beta release of ws-station, including a new StationXML schema

[Philip Crotwell]

Hi

Echoing John and going one step further, I wish you would consider
adopting a less disruptive server upgrade policy that brings new
versions of the web services online in parallel with the existing ones
when there are "breaking changes". It is really unfair, IMHO, to
expect users to all be using version X clients on April 1 and to all
switch to version Y on April 2. This is a problem for your users,
especially as these web services become more popular.
Users just do not upgrade software that rapidly and I think the DMC,
once it "releases" a service from beta mode to production, has an
obligation to support the client software that is coded to that
version for some reasonable period of time. Otherwise you are saying
that there MUST be a new release of Emerald, SOD, and every other ws
client program on April 2nd. New versions won't work on April 1st and
the old version won't work on April 2nd.

This could be easily accomplished if the version of the web service
was part of the URL.

I too do not wish to stand in the way of progress, but it is hard for
me to justify putting time and effort into building a web services
client if I can't count on my software working tomorrow.

Philip

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 9:05 PM, John D. West <john.d.west at asu.edu> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I don't like to be the one to slow down progress, but I have oral exams on
> April 2 and have no time before them to test the beta or update EMERALD to
> handle the new schema. Is there any chance we can put this one off for a
> week or two?
>
> Many thanks,
>
>      -- John
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 6:04 PM, Yazan Suleiman <yazan at iris.washington.edu>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hello webservice users,
>>
>> The DMC has released a beta version of our ws-station service and would
>> appreciate any level of feedback.  The changes in this release include an
>> update to the StationXML schema making the results NOT backwards compatible
>> with the current service (more details below).  Also introduced are new time
>> range selection parameters.
>>
>> http://www.iris.edu/wsbeta/station/
>>
>> We anticipate this version replacing the current service on April 2nd.
>>  After which any clients depending on the (few) changes in the schema will
>> not work correctly.  In particular, the beta Java IRIS-WS Library (and the
>> related MATLAB support) will stop working properly.  We plan on releasing
>> new versions of the IRIS-WS Library at the same time to match this update in
>> the ws-station service.
>>
>> regards,
>> Web services team
>>
>>
>> Details of the changes include:
>>
>> 1) New starttime and endtime parameters, the timewindow parameter is now
>> deprecated as these two parameters provide the same and much more
>> functionality.  In addition to allowing start and end times to be specified
>> independently these new parameters allow time to be specified (as opposed to
>> only a date).  See the service help for details.
>>
>> 2) The service has been updated to the latest StationXML schema:
>> http://www.data.scec.org/xml/station/20120307/station.xsd
>>
>> The relavent changes for ws-station users are as follows:
>>
>> A) The SEED "site name" is now placed in the <Name> element inside the
>> <Site> tag.
>> before:
>> <Site>
>>  <Country>Ankober, Ethiopia (near Debra Birhan)</Country>
>> </Site>
>>
>> after:
>> <Site>
>>  <Name>Ankober, Ethiopia (near Debra Birhan)</Name>
>> </Site>
>>
>> This rearrangement also removes the <Name> element previously found inside
>> of a the Channel <Epoch> tag.
>>
>> B) Removed the swap_order attributes from the Station <Epoch> tag
>> <StationEpoch> instead of <StationEpoch swap_order_16="BIG_ENDIAN"
>> swap_order_32="BIG_ENDIAN">
>>
>> C) Removed stage 0 response structure, this is replaced by the 'Channel'
>> 'InstrumentSensitivity structure'.
>>
>> D) Added new elements describing <PolesZeros> and <Coefficients>:
>> <PzTransferFunctionType> and <CfTransferFunctionType>
>>
>> E) Replaced <GainUnits> with <SensitivityUnits> inside of
>> <StageSensitivity> tag of a response cascade.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> webservices mailing list
>> webservices at iris.washington.edu
>> http://www.iris.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/webservices
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> webservices mailing list
> webservices at iris.washington.edu
> http://www.iris.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/webservices
>