WhatIsProxyMetadata

Description of Proxy Metadata

Proxy metadata is a type of collection that always has a relationship to another collection. This relationship is neither superior nor subordinate, and it is bi-directional. A proxy metadata collection has only the following fields

• dc:identifier like all collections
• dc:description which contains in-line base64 encoded string of the proxy metadata byte stream

When a client requests a particular proxy metadata, the system will search for the identified collection. If it cannot find a collection with the identifier, the system will return an HTTP 404 error.

When it finds the collection, the system will search for the identified proxy in that record's dc:relation fields. Once it locates the proxy identified in the dc:relation list, it will retrieve the proxy collection with that identifier and return the contents of the dc:description contained in an envelope

<output>
   <response>
        <proxy>
            <!-- insert base64 string -->
        </proxy>
   </response>
</output>

The consuming client will have the responsibility to interpret the base64 string, store the contents of the decoded string, and create functionality to interact with the proxy metadata returned. The ldr metadata storage responsibility's ends as soon the proxy metadata is returned.

Proxy metadata is stored as a collection containing two elements

• dc:identifier
• dc:type with value "proxy"
• dc:description

It looks like the following sample record, which has an identifier of "biz-bob-mods" that uniquely identifies it in the context of the metadatastorage system. It has a dc:type field with value proxy. Finally, it has a dc:description field that has a value of a string of alphanumeric characters terminating in two equal signs which is a base64 string of some byte stream.

<collection>
    <dc:identifier>biz-bob-mods</dc:identifier>
    <dc:description>Aakl23985423905;==</dc:description>
    <dc:type>proxy</dc:type>
</collection>