Getting Started as a Data PartnerInitial Setup and Operations AgreementECHO works with pre-approved Data Partners to establish an Operations Agreement (OA) using an ESDIS ECHO template and to perform the necessary setup procedures. To apply for approval, applicants must submit a 1-page application addressing how the candidate data could be used for Earth Science research or in conjunction with NASA EOS data. ECHO will present this request to ESDIS, who in turn will present it to the appropriate Data Center, if necessary. The cognizant data center will review each application and coordinate with HQ Program Managers for approval to include data in ECHO.
After approval, Data Partners are provided with access information and tools to understand the API and create metadata ingest files that conform with the ECHO schemas. The ECHO Operations team works closely with new Data Partners to establish/implement policies, ordering options, and other configurations needed to manage metadata in the ECHO system. Preliminary efforts are conducted in a testing environment, and when ECHO and the Data Partner are in agreement of readiness, Data Partner activities are promoted into the ECHO Operational system for public usage. Using the ECHO SystemThe ECHO API exposes Web Services to allow Data Partners to manage data access restrictions, ordering configuration and option forms, process orders, and perform reconciliation. Additional services allow for the management of user profiles and groups, event notification subscriptions, service invocations, and more. For a full view of the ECHO API Web Services, view the API documentation found here: http://api.echo.nasa.gov/echo/ws/v10/index.html. The information referenced in the Data Partners section of this website will describe in greater detail the functionality available for use by ECHO Data Partners. The Data Partner User's Guide found below has also been created as a consolidated reference for ECHO Data Partners.
New ECHO Data Partners should also review the Systems section of this website to gain a clear understanding of the different ECHO instances and their specific use. In brief, Data Partners should direct their testing to the ECHO Alpha Testbed or Partner Test systems. The ECHO Team will work with Data Partners wishing to become an Operational Data Partner when sufficient testing has been performed. Utilized TechnologyECHO utilizes the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to represent collection, granule, and browse metadata. These XML documents are validated by the Document Type Definition (DTD) and XML Schema specifications. ECHO Data Partners should have a basic understanding of XML and the related technologies. ECHO utilizes the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) to expose the web services that are offered by the ECHO API and is compliant with the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. The WSDL document can be interpreted by programming tools and environments that generate code to expose the functionality natively (e.g., in Java, C/C++, etc.). The actual details of the transport protocol used are handled internally by the code. The ECHO System uses the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) as its transport protocol. All communication with the ECHO API must be performed utilizing a secure connection. ECHO uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection protocol to communicate securely with client applications. All unsecure communication will be denied by the ECHO System. All communication from the ECHO system will also utilize the SOAP protocol and may be configured to connect using the secure SSL protocol. Data Partners will also want to become familiar with the ECHO Data Model. |
