OGDI DataLab v5 Projects Topology

The OGDI project is a C# solution with many projects. The structure and relationships appear quite complex but actually only have a few components:

• Configuration Tool – a web application that allows the definition of the data catalogues / end-points;
• Data Loader – a tool to load or update data in the Azure Storage;
• Data Service – a RESTful web service to expose the data.

The solution also has two main locations – local and cloud.

Windows Azure is needed to execute an instance of a web role (DataBrowser.Cloud) in a Cloud Service (formerly Hosting service). It exposes the configuration information and the actual data also stored in the same cloud in two Storage Accounts.

The configuration tool (ConfigTool) is used to define end-points – a link to the data catalogue in the storage.

The Data Loader (DataLoaderGuiApp) allows configuring and uploading of data from CSV or KML files into the catalogues.

Some of the projects in the OGDI DataLab solution are just examples of the functionality and are not ready to be installed in production environment. Their use may require advanced understanding of the cloud technologies and administration.

Finally, once the DataBrowser web role is installed as a Cloud Service on Windows Azure, it will have a basic user interface and can be used to get access to the catalogues. At the same time, it is mostly an interface to read metadata, querying and browse through data using a simple table view or map view. It is intended to provide RESTful data to client applications that connect to its URI. The clients use the Data Service to query the data catalogues.