Top-level

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Top Level Fields

These header fields uniquely define this BCO. These fields are required for every BCO and are represented at the top level object.

Condensed example:

       {
           "object_id": "https://example.com/BCO_948701/1.0",
           "spec_version" : "https://w3id.org/ieee/ieee-2791-schema/2791object.json",
           "etag": "d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e",    
           "provenance_domain": {
           },
           "...": { }
       }

BCO version “spec_version”

The version of the BCO specification is used to define the BCO. It is recommended that this value is a permalink as defined in the w3id.org/biocompute repository.

       "spec_version": "https://w3id.org/ieee/ieee-2791-schema/2791object.json"

BioCompute Object Identifier “object_id”

A unique identifier that should be applied to each BCO instance. These can be assigned by a BCO database engine or manually generated. IDs should never be reused. It is recommended that the BCO identifier is based on a UUIDs (sometimes called GUIDs) to ensure uniqueness, either as a location-independent URN (e.g. urn:uuid:2bf8397b-9aa8-47f2-80a7-235653e8e824) or as part of an identifier permalink, (e.g. http://repo.example.com/bco/2bf8397b-9aa8-47f2-80a7-235653e8e824). While the UUID is the preferred method, IDs expressed as a URN or URL will satisfy the standard.

The following is the recommended format for a BCO object_id, and what has been implemented by the BCODB:

The "object_id" consists of four different parts:

   |  <protocol>  |      <hostname>        | <BCO accession>  | <BCO version>  |
   | ------------ | ---------------------- | ---------------- | -------------- |
   |   https://   | biocomputeobject.org/  |   /BCO_000001    |     /1.5       |

1. Protocol: It is recommended that this be HTTPS or at least HTTP see Scheme in RFC 3986 for more detail on protocols.
2. Hostname: see Host in RFC_3986
3. BCO Accession: composed of 2 parts separated by an underscore( _):
   • The BCO Prefix: A 3-5 alphanumeric characters. Preferably one registered via the BioCompute Registry
   • BCO identifier: a numeric identifier appended to the prefix
4. BCO version: This is the version of the BCO, as recorded on the Provenance Domain

   "object_id": "https://biocomputeobject.org/BCO_000001/1.5"

ETag “etag”

A string-type, read-only value, protects the object from internal or external alterations without proper validation. The string should be generated through the use of an SHA-256 hash function. Everything EXCEPT for the etag, object_id, and spec_version should be included in the generation of the hash. For example:

   "provenance_domain": {},
   "usability_domain": [],
   "extension_domain":{},
   "description_domain": {},
   "execution_domain": {}, 
   "parametric_domain": [], 
   "io_domain": {},
   "error_domain": {}

will generate the following:

   "etag": "584C7FE128717E1712426AB19CAAEA8BC1E27365B54285BBEA1221284C7D3A48"

Additional domains

Additional description about the BCO itself is also provided in the provenance domain, description domain and usability domain. Other domains detail areas like execution and error ranges.