Make treatment of direct retrieval and service for provenance access more equally visible (ISSUE 422)
--- a/paq/prov-aq.html Mon Nov 19 23:55:46 2012 +0000
+++ b/paq/prov-aq.html Tue Nov 20 10:37:47 2012 +0000
@@ -310,20 +310,29 @@
<section>
<h2>Accessing provenance information</h2>
<p>
- Web applications may access <a class="internalDFN">provenance information</a> in the same way as any resource on the Web, by dereferencing its URI. Thus, any provenance information may be associated with a <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>, and may be accessed by dereferencing that URI using web mechanisms.
+ This specification describes two ways to access <a class="internalDFN">provenance information</a>:
+ </p>
+ <ol>
+ <li>Direct access: given a <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>, simply dereference it, and</li>
+ <li>Indirectly via a service: given the URIs of some resource and a <a class="internalDFN">provenance service</a>, use the service to access provenance of the resource.</li>
+ </ol>
+ <p>
+ Web applications may access provenance information in the same way as any resource on the Web, by dereferencing its URI (commonly using an HTTP GET operation). Thus, any provenance information may be associated with a <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>, and may be accessed by dereferencing that URI using web mechanisms.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When there is no easy way to associate a provenance-URI with individual resources (e.g. for resources not directly web-accessible, or whose publication mechanism is controlled by someone else), one may provide provenance information about multiple resources through through a service interface. A REST protocol for provenance retrieval is defined in Section <a href="#provenance-services" class="sectionRef"></a>.
</p>
<p>
How much or how little provenance information is returned in response to a retrieval request is a matter for the provenance provider application.
</p>
<p>
- It may be useful to provide provenance information about multiple resources through through a service interface. A REST protocol for provenance retrieval is defined in Section <a href="#provenance-services" class="sectionRef"></a>.
- </p>
- <p>
When publishing provenance information, a corresponding <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a> or <a class="internalDFN">service-URI</a> should be discoverable using one or more of the mechanisms described in <a href="#locating-provenance-information" class="sectionRef"></a>.
</p>
+ <!--
<p>
Some alternative practices for accessing provenance information are discussed in <a href="#best-practice" class="sectionRef"></a>
</p>
+ -->
</section>
<!-- == Sect 3 =================================================================================== -->