This is intriguing to me. Let me see if I understand this correctly.
If I host my own proxy, and customize it as you suggest, so that
the domain (http://shield.mydomain.com <http://shield.mydomain.com/>)
is part of the handle name space, I can then create my Handle so that
the URL only contains the final destination (todo.txt). This way, if
shield ever changes to dagger I only have to update the information
in the proxy server.
I think I just rehashed exactly what you wrote, but I want to be
clear on this. If this is correct, it is almost exactly what we had
envisioned the Handle system to be.
Thanks again
Tim Donnelly
Systems/Network Administrator
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
(303)759-3399 x106
*On Fri Mar 23 7:38 , Giridhar Manepalli sent:
*
Tim,
Adding to what Larry Lannom has already mentioned:
Handle Sytem provides advanced capabilities to be used by service
providers that provide a low entry barrier for the clients to use
these
capabilities efficiently.
Coming back to your particular case: I would recommend you to
slightly
customize the handle proxy software. Handle proxy software is the
one
that is deployed in various locations and people use them by calling
hdl.handle.net.
You may very well deploy your own proxy server (let's say
hdl.coalliance.org) with slight customization. The customization is
necessary to allow the root domain of the your web server
(http://shield.mydomain.org/
<parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fshield.mydomain.org%2F>
) be part
of your handle namespace.
The handles can now have todo.txt as part of the URL handle
record. (for
example, in the handle 98765/todo).
Now, as a result of the customization at the proxy level - you could
access http://hdl.coalliance.org/98765/todo
<parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fhdl.coalliance.org%2F98765%2Ftodo>
and that would resolve to
http://shield.mydomain.org/
<parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fshield.mydomain.org%2F>
todo.txt
If the root domain of your webserver changes - this would require
you to
just change a single configuration at the proxy level. This would
relieve you from using a batch process to update all the handles
(and
even before, documenting what those handles are).
Based on your use case and requirement, you may pursue either of the
options (proxy customization or batch update process) - we are
glad to
guide you in either of your efforts, if need may be.
Thanks,
Giridhar
Tim Donnelly wrote:
OK, that makes some sense. I assume then that if I have 1 million
handles (which is not outside the relm of possiblity for the
project)
that I can use a batch process to update all of those if, for some
reason, it becomes necessary?
While it's not excatly what we were thinking, I can see that
there is
some value added by the Handle System.
Thanks for all the replies.
Tim Donnelly
Systems/Network Administrator
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
(303)759-3399 x106
*On Fri Mar 23 6:10 , handle-info-request@cnri.reston.va.us
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sent:
*
Message: 2
To: handle-info@cnri.reston.va.us
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handle-info@cnri.reston.va.us
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Subject: Re: [Handle-info] Please help me understand the value of
Handle
From: Michael Judd <
<javascript:top.opencompose('handle-info@cnri.reston.va.us','','','')>m.judd@griffith.edu.au
<javascript:top.opencompose('m.judd@griffith.edu.au','','','')>
m.judd@griffith.edu.au
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Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:04:48 +1000
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Hi Tim,
I'm no handle expert but here goes...
Handles are just updatable mappings to URLs.
They allow you to publish URLs to documents that, as long as you
maintain
the mapping, will always resolve.
So in your example, originally you might have given the URL
<javascript:top.opencompose('m.judd@griffith.edu.au','','','')>http://hdl.handle.net/98765/todo
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fhdl.handle.net%2F98765%2Ftodo>
to
someone so that they could see the
document at http://shield.mydomain.org/todo.txt
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fshield.mydomain.org%2Ftodo.txt>
.
(Any handle server should be able to resolve any handle, but since
handle
servers themselves are suseptable to hostname changes etc. you
should use
the cnri handle server (hdl.handle.net) when giving out handle
URLs as it
is guaranteed not to change.)
Back to your example, after your hostname change you would update
98765/todo to point to http://dagger.mydomain.org/todo.txt
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fdagger.mydomain.org%2Ftodo.txt>
so
that
everyone who went to http://hdl.handle.net/98765/todo
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fhdl.handle.net%2F98765%2Ftodo>
would continue to
see the correct document.
Originally you may have had another document at http://
whatever.mydomain.org/whatever.txt that you created the handle
http://hdl.handle.net/98765/whatever
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fhdl.handle.net%2F98765%2Fwhatever>
for. This handle will still be valid
as long as http://whatever.mydomain.org/whatever.txt
<http://webmail.coalliance.org/parse.pl?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwhatever.mydomain.org%2Fwhatever.txt>
points to the
document.
Handles with the same prefix (98765) don't have to resolve to the
same
server. The prefix is just used to locate the actual handle server.
Using DNS cnames and aliases you can keep URLs that simply move
servers or
change hostnames resolving. But what happens if an organizations
domain
name changes? Or what happens if the repository software the
documents
exist in changes, and all the relative links change? This is where
the
value of handles and other persistant URL schemes come.
That's how I see it anyway. :)
Cheers!
Regards,
Michael Judd
Nathan Campus, Griffith University.
Brisbane 4111. Australia.
m.judd@griffith.edu.au
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07 3735 3801
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