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LSID Assigning and Resolution Authority

Motivation A humongous amount of biological data resides in legacy databases. While LSIDs are being standardized as the norm for global unique identifiers for such data, it is unclear how LSIDs can be mapped to existing data. We have defined a trigger-based approach to facilitate LSID assignments. Methodology We have defined a SQL-like domain-specific language to define an export schema (from an existing database schema) marking the data that needs to be assigned LSIDs. Our system will compile the schema into appropriate runtime tables and triggers. These triggers assign LSIDs to the existing data when run intially as a batch process and on the fly to new data additions/updates. The LSID resolution authority maps this data to RDF.

Demo
I have setup an LSID assigning authority using the above architecture for CT scan data of specimens stored at UTCT. The specimen records are mapped to Darwin Core records and image slices and each is assigned an LSID. I have also setup an LSID resolution authority, written in PHP. Some sample LSIDs have been listed below: urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:2 (Darwin Core record for specimen) urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:1 (Specimen details including image) urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:121 (Specimen slices) Instructions to resolve these LSIDs  using IBM's Firefox Plugin:

  1. Install the plugin from sourceforge
  2. In the address bar enter the desired LSID, prefixed with the LSID resolution protocol, 'lsidres'
  3. The LSID is resolved and its metadata is displayed in the browser
  4. The 'Save Data' button at the top-right corner of the window can be used to save the data
Instructions to resolve these LSIDs manually in a browser:
  1. http://utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu/authority/ - Returns authority wsdl
  2. http://utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu/authority/?lsid=urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:2 - Returns data services wsdl
  3. http://utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu/authority/metadata.php?lsid=urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:2 - Returns RDF metadata for the LSID
  4. http://utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu/authority/data.php?lsid=urn:lsid:utct-test.tacc.utexas.edu:ctdataset:2 - Returns RDF wrapped data for the LSID