The SsoDNet project aims to build the core of a VO-compliant information system dedicated to the solar and extrasolar system objects, to enable astronomers to explore and retrieve various parameters, directly from their desktop or preferred VO softwares.

SsoDNet is developped by the VO-IMCCE and VO-Paris teams, in the frameworks of the Europlanet project (IDIS node Planetary Dynamics and Extraterrestrial Matter), and the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. It was thought to meet the requirements of the planetary scientist community, in particular to provide an easy access to data which are used daily. SsoDNet does not claim to collect and store all the (planetary) data which exist around the world. SsoDNet acts as a data aggregator and an open hub, thought to allow planetary scientists to share with each other their databases.

Who has never dream to be able to gather at once all the data needed to solve a problem? SsoDNet aims to answer that, by proposing an information system dedicated to solar and extrasolar system objects, and built over a concept of data sharing and two corner stones:

a name resolver

to identify (extra) solar system object names, and to resolve them to celestial coordinates

a search engine

to seek for all the resources referring to the requested target(s), within the shared databases

The resources which are available through SsoDNet are composed of heterogeneous dataset of astronomical products shared by planetary scientists. If you are interested to share your data, or if you just want to know how it works, follow the guide (TBD). All the data gathered through SsoDNet are published in scientific reviews. They belong and are under the responsibility of the publisher(s). SsoDNet just acts as a hub which ensure the connection and the interoperability of the data (i.e. no transformation or conversion process). Read our data policy (TBD) for more information.

The figure on the right enlightens the global architecture of SsoDNet, which is composed of four layers: a user interface, a Web service layer, a data access layer, and the cloud of providers.

The user interface acts as a client of the Web service. It gather the parameters which compose the user request, and posts the request to the end point of SsoDNet. The most simple interface is to use a data transfert program, such as curl or wget, and to send HTTP requests. A more user friendly Web interface can easily be developed to gather the user parameters and display the results. Feel free to make your own!

The Web service layer is built uppon a XML + SOAP + WSDL technology. The public interface of the SsoDNet Web service is described in the SsoDNet WSDL. The user requests are handled by the SsoDNet server.

The data access layer is composed of two parts: a name resolver, and a search engine. The name resolver is used to resolve the name of the targets requested by users. It access directly a dedicated database which contains all the known designations of solar and extrasolar system objects. The search engine is used to seek for planetary data among the resources registered in the SsoDNet internal registry. Read more... (TBD)

The provider cloud refers to all the data which are shared by planetary scientists. Some are stored locally in the SsoDNet core database, and most of them are stored remotely by the curators. Read more... (TBD)

Each response sent back by the SsoDNet service contains a ticket number. This 12 digits number (e.g. 123003240449) identifies each request and may be used to retrieve information on its processing. If you face with errors by using the SsoDNet service (it could occur that no relevant error message is returned), please report us the ticket number corresponding to the problem. It will help us to anderstand and solve it, and you will help us to improve the services.

The information regarding requests sent to SsoDNet is stored in a dedicated database. No personal information is stored, except the IP address of the client, which is employed to make statistics on the geographical localization of the SsoDNet users. The SSsoDNet logs are never disseminated nor sent on request. You can access to the public logs by using the following URL:

http://vo.imcce.fr/webservices/ssodnet/showLog.php?ticket=[#ticket]&method=[method]

where:

#ticket

Ticket number of the request

method

Keyword defining the service: SsoDNet(Search Sso), SsoDNet(Resolve Sso), SsoDNet(getAvailability)

(TBD)

If SsoDNet was helpful for your research work, the following acknowledgment would be appreciated: "This research has made use of IMCCE's SsoDNet VO tool".