stac-utils / stac-utils/pystac

Remove SELF_CONTAINED as a Catalog type

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#299 5 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Python
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463
Forks
134
Avg merge
10h
Merged PRs (30d)
4

Description

catalog_type distinguishes between ABSOLUTE_PUBLISHED, RELATIVE_PUBLISHED, and SELF_CONTAINED.

However the only different between RELATIVE_PUBLISHED and SELF_CONTAINED is that there is no self link on the root catalog of a SELF_CONTAINED catalog.

I don't think this is enough of a difference to warrant calling out as a catalog type. For one, the absolute self link at root isn't really used in most (all?) tooling other than for user to know where the root cat lives. I guess stac-browser uses it to display and create the absolute link for it.

You can always just ignore the self link or remove it entirely. Or we could just have an option to save it or now when you save a catalog (include_self_on_root). This is clearer than having a catalog type where it isn't obvious what the practical difference is.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the catalog_type entry point and every use of ABSOLUTE_PUBLISHED, RELATIVE_PUBLISHED, and SELF_CONTAINED. Determine whether the intended outcome is removing SELF_CONTAINED or adding an include_self_on_root save option; the issue does not define acceptance criteria, so completion would require a maintainer decision.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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