This is a proposal for workflows that client libraries should support to make the experience with each library similar and users can easily adopt examples and workflows.
For best experience libraries should still embrace best practices common in their environments. This means clients can...
Clients can use snake_case, camelCase or any method used commonly in their environment. For example, the API request to get a list of collections can either be names get_collections or getCollections. This applies for all names, including scopes, method names and parameters.
Each method belongs to a scope. To achieve this in object-oriented (OO) programming languages, methods would be part of a class. If programming languages don't support scopes, you may need to simulate it somehow to prevent name collisions, e.g. by adding a prefix to the method names (like in the "procedural style" example below). Best practices for this will likely evolve over time.
Example for the clientVersion method in openEO:
openeo_client_version()If you can't store scope data in an object, you may need to pass these information as argument(s) to the method.
Example:
Each scope is assigned to a scope category, of which there are three:
openEO.Connection, File, Job, UserProcess, Service.Capabilities. Method names should be prefixed if name collisions are likely.Method names across ALL the scopes that belong to the root or API categories MUST be unique. This is the case because the parameter in hasFeature(method_name) must be unambiguous.
Method names of scopes in the Content category may collide with method names of scopes in the root/API categories and names should be prefixed if collisions of names between different scope categories are to be expected.
# ParametersThe parameters usually follow the request schemes in the openAPI specification. The parameters should follow their characteristics, for example regarding the default values.
Some methods have a long list of (optional) parameters. This is easy to implement in languages that support named parameters such as R. For example, creating a job in R with a budget would lead to this method call:
Other languages that only support non-named parameters (i.e. the order of parameters is fixed) need to fill many parameters with default values, which is not convenient for a user. The example above in PHP would be:
To avoid such method calls client developers should consider to pass either
This basically emulates named parameters. The member variables / dictionary keys should use the same names as the parameters. The exemplary method call in PHP could be improved as follows:
# Method mappingsNote: Some scopes for response JSON objects are still missing. We are open for proposals.
Parameters with a leading ? are optional.
openEO (root category) Description Client method Connect to a back-end, includes version discovery (GET /.well-known/openeo), requesting capabilities and authentication where required. Returns Connection. connect(url, ?authType, ?authOptions) Get client library version. clientVersion() # Parameters
connect: null, basic or oidc (non-exclusive). Defaults to null (no authentication).connect: May hold additional data for authentication, for example a username and password for basic authentication.Connection (API category) Description API Request Client method Get the capabilities of the back-end. Returns Capabilities. GET / capabilities() List the supported output file formats. GET /file_formats listFileTypes() List the supported secondary service types. GET /service_types listServiceTypes() List the supported UDF runtimes. GET /udf_runtimes listUdfRuntimes() List all collections available on the back-end. GET /collections listCollections() Get information about a single collection. GET /collections/{collection_id} describeCollection(collection_id) List all pre-defined processes available on the back-end. GET /processes listProcesses() List authentication providers (may also list HTTP Basic). GET /credentials/oidc / GET /credentials/basic listAuthProviders() Get information about the authenticated user. GET /me describeAccount() Lists all files from a user. Returns a list of File. GET /files listFiles() Opens an (existing or non-existing) file without reading it. Returns a File. None getFile(path) Upload a user file. Returns a File. Shortcut: getFile(path).uploadFile(source) uploadFile(source, path) Validates a process graph. POST /validation validateProcess(process) Lists all user-defined processes of the authenticated user. Returns a list of UserProcess. GET /process_graphs listUserProcesses() Creates a new user-defined process. Returns a UserProcess. Shortcut: getUserProcess(id).replaceUserProcess(process) setUserProcess(id, process) Get all information about a user-defined process. Returns a UserProcess. GET /process_graphs/{process_graph_id} getUserProcess(id) Executes a process graph synchronously. POST /result computeResult(process, ?plan, ?budget, ?additional) Lists all jobs of the authenticated user. Returns a list of Job. GET /jobs listJobs() Creates a new job. Returns a Job. POST /jobs createJob(process, ?title, ?description, ?plan, ?budget, ?additional) Get all information about a job. Returns a Job. GET /jobs/{job_id} getJob(id) Lists all secondary services of the authenticated user. Returns a list of Service. GET /services listServices() Creates a new secondary service. Returns a Service. POST /services createService(process, type, ?title, ?description, ?enabled, ?parameters, ?plan, ?budget, ?additional) Get all information about a service. Returns a Service. GET /services/{service_id} getService(id) # Parameters
authenticateOIDC: May hold additional data required for OpenID connect authentication.createJob and createService (also below in updateJob and updateService): May hold additional key-value-pairs as object. The object should be merged with the body of the request.Capabilities (Content category)
Should be prefixed with Capabilities if collisions of names between different scope categories are to be expected.
api_version apiVersion() Get the back-end version. backend_version backendVersion() Is the back-end suitable for use in production? production isStable() Get the name of the back-end. title title() Get the description of the back-end. description description() List all supported features / endpoints. endpoints listFeatures() Check whether a feature / endpoint is supported. endpoints > ... hasFeature(methodName) Get the default billing currency. billing > currency currency() List all billing plans. billing > plans listPlans() List all links. links links() # Parameters
hasFeature: The name of a client method in any of the scopes that are part of the API category. E.g. hasFeature("describeAccount") checks whether the GET /me endpoint is contained in the capabilities response's endpoints object.File (API category)
The File scope internally knows the path.
GET /files/{path} downloadFile(target) Upload a user file. PUT /files/{path} uploadFile(source) Delete a user file. DELETE /files/{path} deleteFile() # Parameters
downloadFile: Path to a local file or folder.Job (API category)
The Job scope internally knows the job_id.
GET /jobs/{job_id} describeJob() Modify a job at the back-end. PATCH /jobs/{job_id} updateJob(?process, ?title, ?description, ?plan, ?budget, ?additional) Delete a job DELETE /jobs/{job_id} deleteJob() Calculate an time/cost estimate for a job. GET /jobs/{job_id}/estimate estimateJob() Get the log files for a job. GET /jobs/{job_id}/logs debugJob() Start / queue a job for processing. POST /jobs/{job_id}/results startJob() Stop / cancel job processing. DELETE /jobs/{job_id}/results stopJob() Get STAC catalog with download links. GET /jobs/{job_id}/results listResults() Download job results. GET /jobs/{job_id}/results > assets downloadResults(target) # Parameters
downloadResults: Path to a local folder.UserProcess (API category)
The UserProcess scope manages the user-defined processes and internally knows the process_graph_id.
GET /process_graphs/{process_graph_id} describeUserProcess() Create or replace a user-defined process at the back-end. PUT /process_graphs/{process_graph_id} replaceUserProcess(process) Delete a user-defined process. DELETE /process_graphs/{process_graph_id} deleteUserProcess() # Scope: Service (API category)
The Service scope internally knows the service_id.
GET /services/{service_id} describeService() Get the log files for a web service. GET /services/{service_id}/logs debugService() Modify a secondary web service at the back-end. PATCH /services/{service_id} updateService(?process, ?title, ?description, ?enabled, ?configuration, ?plan, ?budget, ?additional) Delete a secondary web service. DELETE /services/{service_id} deleteService() # Processes
The processes a back-end supports may be offered by the clients as methods in its own scope. The method names should follow the process names, but the conventions listed above can be applied here as well, e.g. converting filter_bands to filterBands. As parameters have no natural or technical ordering in the JSON objects, clients must come up with a reasonable ordering of parameters if required. This could be inspired by existing clients. The way of building a process graph from processes heavily depends on the technical capabilities of the programming language. Therefore it may differ between the client libraries. Follow the best practices of the programming language, e.g. support method chaining if possible.
Some simplified example workflows using different programming styles are listed below. The following steps are executed:
/tmp/job_results/.Please note that the examples below do not comply to the latest process specification. They are meant to show the differences in client development, but are no working examples!
# R (functional style) # Python (mixed style) # Java (object oriented style) # PHP (procedural style)RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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