EDAM Data Catalog - Services Library

The Catalog services are similar to a file system to allow the specification of paths, folder, and files and store data as binary files or other content-types. The Library contains:

• Catalog Db (the Repository)
• Catalog Model (C# classes and resources)
• Catalog Service Client (implements a client for catalog web API)
• Catalog Explorer (Uno Platform App for testing or adding data)

Details of each follow.

Catalog Repository

This first implementation uses an EF based repository to manage Containers, (File) Items, and Item Data (Files), details follow:

• Containers are similar to a file-system drive. They have a "root" item that is automatically created and will have its independent tree representation that can be built by submitting file paths as you will do in a File System.

• A container (File) Item can be a branch or leaf of a Tree and may have zero, one, or more data (Files) that are defined independently and stored in the Data Store as binary (blob) files.

• A Data (File) is a child of an Item and will hold the binary blob.

Catalog Model

The Catalog Model define the C# classes used in the related Catalog Repository implementation of a database to manage Containers, (File) Items, and Item Data (Files), details follow:

• Containers are similar to a file-system drive. They have a "root" item that is automatically created and will have its independent tree representation that can be built by submitting file paths as you will do in a File System.

• A container (File) Item can be a branch or leaf of a Tree and may have zero, one, or more data (Files) that are defined independently and stored in the Data Store as binary (blob) files.

• A Data (File) is a child of an Item and will hold the binary blob.

The Catalog Tree Builder can be used to prepare a Tree that could be viewed in Web or other related targets.

Catalog Service Client

The Catalog Service Client implements the ICatalogService class and method to access the related Web base API. The Edam.Data.CatalogService project implements the API and could participate in an .Net Aspire project.

Catalog Explorer

This (Uno Platform) console application is provided to demonstrate how to use the Edam.Data.Catalog (DB and Model) libraries.

The main objective is to have a Catalog of items such as folders and files that will work both in Windows or a Browser (WebApplication) with the minimum dependencies to other external (paid) services. The (TO-BE) Catalog Services API will include all the expected functionality to allow access to file and folders for EDAM Projects but still these services should be independent and its functionality applicable to any application.

Catalog Service Interfaces

As of this version there are 2 available implentations to support the Catalog Service instance including:

• local service - implemented by instancing the Catalog Service within the host.
• web service - implemented by firing web-service that implements the interface.

The selection of one or the other is done by detecting the Uno Platform Environment.OSVersion.Platform variable that will conditionally instance the appropiate instance (local or other). Get an instance of the Catalog Service by calling:

var catalogService = CatalogServiceHelper.GetCatalog([connection-uri]);

or

var catalogService = await CatalogServiceHelper.GetCatalogAsync([connection-uri]);

Note that the optional connection URI can be a connection string if local or an http URI if a web service is required. If not provided it must be set using the main project appsettings.json setting the DefaultConnectionString and/or the CatalogServiceBaseUri.

What is next?

• Test services under the Windows platform.
• Test services under WebAssembly platform.