Update strategy

The GLIC tools update consists of two major steps. The first needs to be performed by the tool provider and the second by the GLIC update service.

Tool provider

The work of the tool provider consists of two parts:

• Each tool provider has to create a JSON file following the tool information format and provide this JSON file on a public accessible URL. This URL should be at the same domain as the described tool. It is also possible to describe several tools in a single JSON file. For example a web database that provides webpages, a webservice API and a SPARQL endpoint can describe all three components in a single JSON file. It is also possible to generate the JSON information on the fly using a dynamic script (e.g. php, jsp). This approach may be preferable for databases that have a changeable content and want to provide up-to-date information.
• After the creation of the JSON file this file needs to be registered with the GLIC tool registration following the tool registration format. If the developer is not a collaborator on this repository (s)he can create an issue to add his tool by providing the URL of the JSON file and a contact email.

After this the tool will be added to the GLIC webpage with the next update. The tool provider can update the JSON file at any time with most recent information.

GLIC update service

Once per week the GLIC update script will download the newest information files and update the GLIC tool store with up-to-date information about existing tools and add new tools. This process is performed as follows:

• The latest version of the tool registry is downloaded.
• Clear all old tools from the store. This will make sure that tools that have been "unregistered" disappear.
• For each registered JSON file
  • Download the JSON file.
  • Parse all tool information objects in the file.
  • Write the tool in the tools store.
  • If any of this steps fail send a notification email to the GLIC admin and the contact email provided in the tool registry.