Use registered media types for HDF5 and NetCDF, and stop claiming media_type must be IANA-registered

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
87/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python
Domain
backend, documentation

Research direction

Start by reading the Distribution.media_type docstring in app/models/distribution.py and the Distribution table in docs/data-model/dataset.md. Update the specified NetCDF examples in docs/data-model/reference-datasets.md, scripts/seed-example-catalogue.py, and tests/api/v1/test_dataset_router.py as well. Done when the wording and listed media types match the issue, with Zarr unchanged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

documentation metadata

Follow-up to #238. There we kept application/x-zarr because Zarr has no registered media type yet (zarr-developers/zarr-specs#123), and said we'd fix the places where our docs claim too much.

Wording

The Distribution.media_type docstring in app/models/distribution.py says the value "must be a registered IANA media type string". FDS doesn't check this, and its most common value, application/x-zarr, isn't registered. Reword it to ask for the IANA media type where the format has one, and otherwise the name the format's own community uses, with format (dct:format) giving the format's readable name either way.

The media_type row of the Distribution table in docs/data-model/dataset.md calls application/x-zarr an IANA media type. Reword it to match.

HDF5

HDF5 is registered as application/vnd.hdfgroup.hdf5. Replace application/x-hdf5 in:

  • app/models/distribution.py (docstring example)
  • docs/data-model/dataset.md (media_type row of the Distribution table)
NetCDF

application/netcdf is on IANA's provisional list, registered by Unidata in 2021. Replace application/x-netcdf in:

  • docs/data-model/dataset.md (1 example)
  • docs/data-model/reference-datasets.md (8 examples)
  • scripts/seed-example-catalogue.py (6 places; 3 others already use application/netcdf)
  • tests/api/v1/test_dataset_router.py (2 payloads)
Not affected

No code depends on the exact strings. The UI and derive_storage_options_type match substrings (netcdf, hdf, icechunk), and the new names still contain them. fds.apps.l only holds FAIR-MAST Zarr records and has no device-level datasets, so nothing stored there should need changing.

Zarr stays application/x-zarr until the Zarr project registers a media type.

Dominant language
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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