Service Changes

The spec for GIPSE has changed, and so has the client, since the last time I got grid viewer working. Thus, I have been doing a lot of refactoring, and planning more refactoring for some of the places we want to take grid viewer, and it's taking some time.

On the service side, all the names of the objects being returned have changed, and that means all the classes have to be changed and the ways they are loaded too. That also means the metadata has changed and needs to be set up.

Also, the grid service will now allow for cumulative loads... in that one can load more than one set of results onto the map.. which is a completely new paradigm that will have to be handled, in addition to the already shaky paradigms of multiple, variable regions. And the new idea of having services come from a central repository instead of a database (like a Wiki page or UDDI).

But, I think I have finally gotten it all mapped out in my mind, and have built the task lists, and have started the massive refactoring that will be needed.

The thing is, I know this will happen again (new service bits), so I need to keep in mind where all these changes occur and try to make them obvious and as isolated as possible. Then it is more likely that a change in the GIPSE structure can be propogated without a change in the grid view dynamics, and generally less changes the better.

Finally, I think I am going to introduce a simple "this is the data we got back from the service" page for the sake of debugging and sanity. It will help immensely to see what is coming back to figure out how the grid viewer is interpreting it and illuminating other options or assumptions.