International Virtual Observatory Alliance

Difference: SODA10Err3 (4 vs. 5)

Revision 52023-03-17 - FrancoisBonnarel

  META TOPICPARENT 
  name="SODA-1_0-Errata"
- META TOPICPARENT
+  name="SODA-1_0-Errata"
-<
<
+ Server-side Operations for Data Access version 1.0 Proposed Erratum 3: Wrong VOTable syntax in BAND example
->
>
+ Server-side Operations for Data Access version 1.0 Proposed Erratum 3: Ambiguous text and wrong VOTable syntax in BAND example
 Author: François Bonnarel

Date last changed: 2023-01-23

Date accepted:

 Rationale
-<
<
+In section 4.2, the VOTable excerpt given for the BAND PARAM is somewhat ambiguous for the MIN and MAX elements syntax. The values of these elements are single doubles while the  BAND arraysize  attribute is 2. It has to be clarified that the MIN single value applies to  the two elements in the BAND array as well as the MAX value. This is consistent with a generic rule for MIN/MAX values for  array-valued PARAMs and FIELDS as  described in the VOTable specification starting for version 1.5. In addition the closing tag of the VALUES element is wrongly written
<verbatim></VALUE></verbatim>
->
>
+In section 4.2, the VOTable excerpt given for the BAND PARAM is somewhat ambiguous for the MIN and MAX elements syntax. The values of these elements are single doubles while the  BAND arraysize  attribute is 2. It has to be clarified that the MIN single value applies to  the two elements in the BAND array as well as the MAX single value. This is consistent with a generic rule for MIN/MAX values for  array-valued PARAMs and FIELDS as  described in the VOTable specification starting for version 1.5. PARAMs and FIELDs with "interval" xtype do not apply a specific rule for MIN/MAX interpretration.
->
>
+In addition the closing tag of the VALUES element is wrongly written
<verbatim></VALUE></verbatim>
 instead of
<verbatim></VALUES></verbatim>

This ambiguity orignally described on github in SODA issue #2 (https://github.com/ivoa-std/SODA/issues/2)

 Erratum Content 

This Erratum proposes following changes.
-<
<
+ Fix VOTable syntax
->
>
+ Modify text and fix VOTable syntax
 In §4.2 "*SODA Service Descriptor from DataLink*" of SODA-1.0, update the BAND  text and example  in

from
-<
<
+For float-valued intervals (e.g., the standard BAND and TIME parameters), VALUES/MIN and VALUES/MAX should be used to communicate the range
->
>
+For float-valued intervals (e.g., the standard BAND and TIME parameters), \xmlel{VALUES/MIN} and \xmlel{VALUES/MAX} should be used to communicate the range
 of values for which clients can expect to receive data. Example:
<PARAM name="BAND" unit="m" ucd="em.wl;stat.interval"
    datatype="double" arraysize="2"      
    xtype="interval" value="">     
    The wavelength intervals to be extracted
-<
<
->
>
-<
<
+ <MIN value="3e-7"/>
 to
-<
<
+ <MIN value="3e-7 5.5e-7"/>
->
>
->
>
+For float-valued intervals (e.g., the standard BAND and TIME parameters), \xmlel{VALUES/MIN} and \xmlel{VALUES/MAX} are single values
 which apply to  the two elements in the BAND array, as stated in the VOTable specification starting from version 1.5. 
There is no specific rule to apply for parameters with xtype=interval.  Example:
<PARAM name="BAND" unit="m" ucd="em.wl;stat.interval"
    datatype="double" arraysize="2"      
    xtype="interval" value="">     
    The wavelength intervals to be extracted. MIN (resp. MAX) is the minimal (reps. maximal) value of the two bounds of the interval
-<
<
+from
-<
<
+<MAX value="8e-7"/>

to

<MAX value="2e-7 8e-7"/>

from

</VALUE>

to

</VALUES>
  Impact Assessment
-<
<
+Fixing the VOTable syntax in an example will make no harm to any service and will avoid implementers writing code delivering incorrect VOTables.
->
>
+Making the text less ambiguous will help implementers to deliver correct values of MIN/MAX elements for intervals.
->
>
+Fixing the VOTable syntax in an example will make no harm to any service and will avoid implementers writing code delivering incorrect VOTables.

View topic | History: r9 < r8 < r7 < r6 | More topic actions...