= CLARIN Virtual Collection Registry= 

== Description ==

From the [[./Requirements|requirements description]]:

 A virtual collection (VC) is a collection that is the result of browsing or searching repositories rather than being the result of construction and first-time publication by an organisation. Another characterisation is that the resources in a VC are already available in other collections, and the VC can be considered a derived collection. Nevertheless these VCs may need to be citable for future use and should therefore be able to be registered in a register, the VCR.

The Virtual Collection Registry (VCR) is an online registry that provides a REST service as well as a web based graphical user interface for the creation, publication, management and retrieval of virtual collections. Published collections are made available as CMDI records over OAI-PMH.

These components are available at the following locations '''(currently referencing the alpha deployment!)''':

* [http://catalog-clarin.esc.rzg.mpg.de/vcr/app /vcr/app]: GUI
* [http://catalog-clarin.esc.rzg.mpg.de/vcr/service /vcr/service]: REST service
* [http://catalog-clarin.esc.rzg.mpg.de/vcr/oai /vcr/oai]: OAI-PMH endpoint

The [source:/VirtualCollectionRegistry/trunk/VirtualCollectionRegistry/src/main/java/eu/clarin/cmdi/virtualcollectionregistry/gui/pages/HelpPage.html help page] explains the core concepts and terminology relevant to the VCR (based on the information gathered on [[./Help|this page]]).

=== REST service ===

The VCR REST service provides CRUD operations on a 'virtualcollection' resource. Its internal XML format for input and output is defined by an [source:/VirtualCollectionRegistry/trunk/VirtualCollectionRegistry/src/main/resources/META-INF/VirtualCollection.xsd XML schema]. In addition, it supports JSON for input and output and CMDI and HTML output for individual collections (via content negotiation).

A full description of the service can be found in [source:/VirtualCollectionRegistry/trunk/VirtualCollectionRegistry/doc/Protocol.txt Protocol.txt].

==== Form submission service ====

A special endpoint of the VCR REST service allows input from HMTL forms to create new virtual collections. This way, other web applications (such as the [[CmdiVirtualLanguageObservatory|VLO]]) can prepare a collection based on resources gathered in their workflows, and allow the user to send them to the VCR with a single click while preserving the ability to authenticate via Shibboleth.

The submission endpoint is ''/vcr/service/submit''. It accepts the following form parameters:

* type (required)
* name (required)
* metadataUri (list, required)
* resourceUri (list, required)
* description (required)
* keyword
* purpose
* reproducibility
* reproducibilityNotice
* creationDate
* queryDescription
* queryUri
* queryProfile
* queryValue

An example implementation (based on Wicket) can be found in the [source:/vlo/branches/vlo-3.1-vcr/vlo-web-app/src/main/java/eu/clarin/cmdi/vlo/wicket/pages 'VirtualCollectionSubmissionPage' in the experimental branch of the VLO].

== Technical notes ==

=== Development ===

=== Deployment ===

== Tickets ==

Milestones: 
 * [milestone:VirtualCollectionRegistry-1.0]

Open tickets:


[[TicketQuery(status=accepted|assigned|new|reopened), component=VCRegistry, order=priority, format=table, col=summary|priority|owner|reporter)]]