bennychow commented on code in PR #11041:
URL: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11041#discussion_r3033357480


##########
format/view-spec.md:
##########
@@ -160,7 +178,121 @@ Each entry in `version-log` is a struct with the 
following fields:
 | _required_  | `timestamp-ms` | Timestamp when the view's 
`current-version-id` was updated (ms from epoch) |
 | _required_  | `version-id`   | ID that `current-version-id` was set to |
 
-## Appendix A: An Example
+#### Storage Table Identifier
+
+The table identifier for the storage table that stores the precomputed results.
+
+| Requirement | Field name     | Description |
+|-------------|----------------|-------------|
+| _required_  | `namespace`    | A list of strings for namespace levels |
+| _required_  | `name`         | A string specifying the name of the table |
+
+### Storage table metadata
+
+This section describes additional metadata for the storage table that 
supplements the regular table metadata and is required for materialized views.
+The property "refresh-state" is set on the [snapshot 
summary](https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/#snapshots) property of a storage 
table snapshot to provide information about the state of the precomputed data.
+
+| Requirement | Field name      | Description |
+|-------------|-----------------|-------------|
+| _optional_  | `refresh-state` | A [refresh state](#refresh-state) record 
stored as a JSON-encoded string |
+
+#### Freshness
+
+A materialized view is "fresh" when the storage table adequately represents 
the result of the view query at the current state of its dependencies.
+Since different systems define freshness differently, it is left to the 
consumer to evaluate freshness based on its own policy.
+
+**Consumer behavior:**
+
+When evaluating freshness, consumers:
+
+- May apply time-based freshness policies, such as allowing a staleness window 
based on `refresh-start-timestamp-ms`.
+- May compare the `source-states` list against the states loaded from the 
catalog to verify the producer's freshness interpretation.
+- May parse the view definition to implement more sophisticated policies.
+- When a materialized view is considered stale, can fail, refresh inline, or 
treat the materialized view as a logical view.
+- Should not consume the storage table as it is when the materialized view 
doesn't meet the freshness criteria.
+
+**Producer behavior:**
+
+Producers should provide the necessary information in the [refresh 
state](#refresh-state) such that consumers can verify the logical equivalence 
of the precomputed data with the query definition.
+Different producers may have different freshness interpretations, based on how 
much of the refresh state's dependency graph should be evaluated.
+Some producers expect the entire dependency graph to be evaluated and 
therefore include source MV dependencies. Other producers may only expect 
dependencies in the MV's SQL to be evaluated and therefore do not include 
dependencies of source MVs.
+
+When writing the refresh state, producers:
+
+- Should provide a sufficient list of source states such that consumers can 
determine freshness according to the producer's intent. If the producers intent 
is such that it doesn't rely on the source-states to determine freshness, it 
may provide an empty list.
+- If the source state cannot be determined for all objects (for example, for 
non-Iceberg tables) may leave the source states list empty.
+- If a stored object is reachable through multiple paths in the dependency 
graph (diamond dependency pattern), all distinct source states have to be 
included in the list.

Review Comment:
   Case C is what I think we agreed on (during 4/2's sync) to be the default 
behavior in Spark. Case B is really an optimization of Case C since the 
consumer could recursively fetch the refresh state for the MV tables and 
combine them together.
   
   I think we are trying to improve the case where consumer doesn't parse SQL 
and has enough information to decide whether it can use the MV's storage table 
or not.
   
   The producer could include the following information into the refresh state 
to help this consumer:
   
   - used-source-mvs: boolean - Whether the refresh used source materialized 
view(s).
   - expanded-source-mvs:  boolean - Whether the refresh state expanded source 
materialized view(s).  (i.e.  case B or case C)
   - contains-non-iceberg-sources:  boolean - Whether the materialized view's 
SQL included non-Iceberg sources
   
   This information is easy for the producer to write into the refresh state 
and helps convey freshness intent.  A non-SQL parsing consumer could have a 
requirement that it can only use MVs that refresh with other MVs as long as it 
can deeply validate all dependencies (i.e. used-source-mvs=true, 
expanded-source-mvs=true and contains-non-iceberg-tables=false).



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