Introducing the EOSC node (sort of)
Got a little impatient so started making a thing
EOSC is moving towards federation of services and resources across multiple nodes. There has been a lot of discussion as to exactly how this is going to be accomplished across various EU projects, and while I have (for obvious reasons) been the most active in the service catalogue working group, since we are actively involved (along with EMBL, EuroBioImaging, and Elixir) in forming the primary EOSC node for the Life Sciences in Europe I have been involved in monitoring the other requirements.
Some of these requirements are technical, some are process, but all are in some level of flux as to what integration is required in order to be considered “federated”. As an engineer, attempting to budget my team’s availability and plan, this makes things a little bit of a nightmare.
Anyway, in an attempt to a) avoid constantly tinkering with our production systems, b) avoid installing lots of additional software, c) start the argument lively discussion about how implementations should work (since I find it’s best to have something implemented and be told why you’re wrong, rather than engage in hypotheticals), I got a little bored and made a thing…
The eosc-node is a very very lightweight node.js application, which can easily run in a container. It is configured by a simple json file. It exposes an endpoint that simply describes a node’s configuration (where it’s catalogue is, it’s Helpdesk is etc), and does it its the most lightweight way possible. No databases required.
What it also does is provide a pluggable set of classes to expose endpoints which act as crosswalks between what you have sitting behind your node (e.g. an ARIA service catalogue) and whatever is expected by the EOSC federation – an EEN catalogue, DCAT, etc.
My team has already extended the node to crosswalk into connecting to the EOSC-Beyond sandbox.
Anyway, the EOSC federation is moving fast, and we will be probably building on this tool to support our needs. Others in the federation, who don’t feel like extensively modifying their production systems to connect, may find this tool of use. Enjoy!
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