Dear Kepler community,

I've written a csw module for kepler that is intended to allow search of 
OGC-CSW (catalog services - web) servers in much the same way as the ecogrid is 
searched through the 'Data' tab. The main features of the module are:

- Results that match the search criteria (specified using an OGC filter query 
in the csw configuration) are returned in the dataset pane (as for ecogrid 
searches) and can be dropped into workflows as a datasource

- Result records dropped into the workflow are composite actors with internal 
actors created from data links in the metadata (eg. ISO onlineresource 
elements). Currently three types of actors can be created with parameters 
populated from the metadata: database table, OPeNDAP and data turbine

- Results from the CSW service can be requested in either csw:Record (a 
dublin-core profile) or ISO19115/19139 when using the 'Sources' button to open 
the preferences interface (as for ecogrid). All records are converted to 
csw:Record via xslt for interpretation by the code. You can add your own format 
to the configuration and an xslt to convert it to csw:Record if your CSW 
service returns something different. 

    - You can also alter the supplied xslts csw-RecordTocsw-Record.xsl and/or 
gmdTocsw-Record.xsl (for ISO19115/19139) if your metadata doesn't use the same 
conventions for describing data linkages that the code expects to find in 
csw:Record metadata

- You can do authenticated CSW queries across one or more services by grouping 
CSW services with a serviceGroup name and specifying a domain (as for ecogrid) 
with the name of the domain matching the CSW serviceGroup name - you use the 
standard Tools->Ecogrid Authentication to specify usernames/password for these 
serviceGroups. Currently the GeoNetwork way of doing authentication via a 
sessionid cookie is supported but you can add your own class to do this if you 
need something different.

- Although the test case and the case I've developed this for is the GeoNetwork 
CSW service, it should be configurable to suit any CSW service (and any 
authenticated CSW service that uses sessionid cookies).

I've had a few exchanges with Matt Jones about this module and various subjects 
like how to override config properties etc so that I can make this into a 
conformant kepler module (thanks for the help with that Matt) - and I think 
it's ready for others to look at, use and/or suggest ways it can be improved. 

It is planned to use this for our local projects in our organisation and thus 
to do some further development on it (for example, to support creation of other 
types of actors from data linkages in metadata and to publish workflows back to 
a CSW catalog) but I'm hoping others will be interested in this and perhaps 
improving it as a kepler module as I'd definitely like to contribute the code 
to the community.

Cheers and thanks very much for creating and maintaining Kepler!
Simon
----
Simon Pigot - [email protected]
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade,
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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