[CF-metadata] Are There Best Practices for Developing New NetCDF Conventions?

From: John Caron <caron>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:03:08 -0600

Russ Rew wrote:
>
>> So we are wondering what the netCDF conventions community thinks
>> about these considerations, and any advice or experience they may
>> offer us on how to add our own attributes to a netCDF file in a
>> coherent way that is harmonious with other, existing conventions.
>
> For now I would recommend simple prefixes as part of the attribute
> name in new conventions comprehensive enough that name clashes with
> existing conventions are likely.

should be "unlikely".

I could see mimicking XML namespaces somewhat, by adding a prefix to attribute names, but what should the seperator charactor be? Unfortunately the ":" wont work, since right now in CDL syntax we have:

  char time(record=63, time_len=21);
     time:long_name = "forecast date and time";

suppose you want to add an attribute "title" and indicate its in the "Dublin Core" namespace. Possible examples:

  char time(record=63, time_len=21);
    time:long_name = "forecast date and time";
    time:dc_title = "forecast date and time";

  char time(record=63, time_len=21);
     time:long_name = "forecast date and time";
     time:dc/title = "forecast date and time";

  char time(record=63, time_len=21);
     time:long_name = "forecast date and time";
     time:dc#title = "forecast date and time";

  char time(record=63, time_len=21);
     time:long_name = "forecast date and time";
     time:dc at title = "forecast date and time";

etc. At the moment the "/" seems the most natural with less possible conflicts.


this would just be a convention, but we could start a "namespace" convention page, to minimize conflicts, just listing them:

Prefix Convention XML namespace Owner
 dc Dublin Core "http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" Dublin Core Initiative
 thredds THREDDS "http://unidata.ucar.edu/thredds/" Unidata
 ...
Received on Tue Jul 10 2007 - 14:03:08 BST