|
| 1 | +# Crosswalk between openEO API and OGC API - Processes |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This document gives a brief overview over similarities and differences between |
| 4 | +- **openEO API, v1.2.0** |
| 5 | +- **OGC API - Processes - Part 1: Core, v1.0.0** |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +In the following I use **OAP** as an abbreviation for **OGC API - Processes - Part 1**. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +## General |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +OCG API - Processes defines just processing, while the openEO API has a much broader scope. |
| 12 | +openEO covers many parts that other OGC API specifications define, some are aligned some are not. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +The openEO API covers the following "categories" of endpoints: |
| 15 | +- [API discovery](#api-discovery) - partially covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 |
| 16 | +- [Authentication](#authentication) - not defined by OGC |
| 17 | +- [Data Discovery](#data-discovery) - covered by various other OGC APIs (Coverages, EDR, Features, Records, ...) |
| 18 | +- [Process Discovery](#process-discovery) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 |
| 19 | + - [Pre-defined processes](#pre-defined-processes) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 |
| 20 | + - [User-defined processes](#user-defined-processes) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 2 and 3 |
| 21 | +- [Data Processing](#data-processing) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 and 3 |
| 22 | + - [Synchronous processing](#synchronous-processing) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 |
| 23 | + - [Batch Job processing](#batch-job-processing) - covered by OGC API - Processes - Part 1 |
| 24 | + - [On-demand processing](#on-demand-processing) - covered by other OGC APIs (Maps, Tiles, ...) |
| 25 | +- [File Storage](#file-storage) - not covered by OGC APIs |
| 26 | +- [Data Access and Visualization](#data-access-and-visualization) - covered by other OGC APIs (Coverages, Features, Maps, Tiles, ...) |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +Both APIs use HTTP as the basis and encourage HTTPS. |
| 29 | +HTTP 1.1 is required for OAP, while openEO doesn't specify a specific HTTP version. |
| 30 | +The APIs follow REST principles and make use of HTTP content negotiation. |
| 31 | +The APIs make broad use of "Web Linking" (compatible between OAP and openEO). |
| 32 | +Both specifications recommend the implementation of CORS. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +The default encoding for requests and response bodies is JSON. OGC API recommends to also support |
| 35 | +HTML as an response body encoding. openEO uses client software to render HTML output from JSON. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +Both specifications make broad use of OpenAPI 3.0 and JSON Schema for specification purposes. |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +Many API endpoints in OAP and openEO support pagination through links with the relation types `next` |
| 40 | +and `prev`. These endpoints have a `limit` parameter to enable pagination for a specific page size. |
| 41 | +**Note:** Pagination is rarely used in openEO implementations and most clients don't support it consistently. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +## API discovery |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +Discovering the API, connecting to it and reading the capabilities is always the first step clients |
| 46 | +need to execute. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +### Well-known document |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +- openEO: `GET /.well-known/openeo` |
| 51 | +- OAP: n/a |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +openEO clients usually connect to the well-known document first to discover different versions or |
| 54 | +implementations of a server. Thus a client can choose a suitable API versions inclusing choosing |
| 55 | +between production and development instances. Then the openEO client connects to the selected |
| 56 | +instance's [landing page](#landing-page), which OGC API - Processes clients always directly connect |
| 57 | +to. openEO clients can usually also directly connect to the landing page though. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +This folder structure with the document resides usually outside of the actual API implementations, |
| 60 | +i.e. in the root of the host or domain. |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +### Landing page |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +- openEO: `GET /` (required) |
| 65 | +- OAP: `GET /` (required) |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +As the landing pages both are based on top of OGC API - Common, they are very similar. |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +Some differences include: |
| 70 | +- openEO requires the following additional fields: |
| 71 | + - Defined in OAP, but not required: `title`, `description` |
| 72 | + - Not defined in OAP: `api_version`, `backend_version`, `stac_version`, `id`, `endpoints`, (`type`) |
| 73 | +- The relation type to link to the conformance classes is `conformance` in openEO (originating from |
| 74 | + OGC API - Features / STAC API) and `http://www.opengis.net/def/rel/ogc/1.0/conformance` in OAP. |
| 75 | + Two links with the same target but different relation types will be required. |
| 76 | +- The existance of API endpoints in openEO is primarily checked through `endpoints`, which is |
| 77 | + not present in OAP. OAP uses links, which openEO primarily uses for non-API-related links. |
| 78 | + Nevertheless, links such as required in OAP can be added easily to an openEO implementation. |
| 79 | + The following additionl links are relevant for OAP: |
| 80 | + - One of the link relations `service-desc` or `service-doc` is required in OAP. They should link |
| 81 | + to an API description (e.g. OpenAPI or rendered HTML version). |
| 82 | + - A link with relation type `http://www.opengis.net/def/rel/ogc/1.0/processes` to `/processes` is |
| 83 | + required for OAP, but not in openEO. |
| 84 | + - A link with relation type `http://www.opengis.net/def/rel/ogc/1.0/job-list` to `/jobs` can be |
| 85 | + added in OAP, but is not present in openEO. |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +### Conformanc classes |
| 88 | + |
| 89 | +- openEO: `GET /conformance` (optional) |
| 90 | +- OAP: `GET /conformance` (required) |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +Both endpoints are 100% equivalent. |
| 93 | +OAP requires a separate endpoint that lists conformance classes. |
| 94 | +openEO additionally allows to list the conformance classes in the landing page (follows STAC API). |
| 95 | +Conformance classes are only fully defined since openEO API v1.2.0. |
| 96 | + |
| 97 | +## Authentication |
| 98 | + |
| 99 | +- openEO: `GET /credentials/basic` and/or `GET /credentials/oidc` |
| 100 | +- OAP: n/a |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +OpenEO defines two authentication mechanisms: |
| 103 | +- OpenID Connect (primary) |
| 104 | +- HTTP Basic (secondary, primarily for development/testing purposes) |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +OAP doesn't define any authentication machanisms, but both authentication mechanisms can also be |
| 107 | +implemented for OAP. The main issue will be that OAP clients will likely not support them. |
| 108 | + |
| 109 | +The availability of the authentication mechanisms is detected through the `endpoints` in the |
| 110 | +[landing page](#landing-page) in openEO, while in OAP you need to parse the OpenAPI document for it |
| 111 | +(which implicitly requires a link to an OpenAPI 3.0 file with relation type `service-desc` in the |
| 112 | +landing page). |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | +## Data Discovery |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +Data Discovery is not covered by OAP, but it can be "plugged in" through various other OGC APIs |
| 117 | +(e.g. Coverages, EDR, Features, Records, ...). Except for OGC API - Processes - Part 3, it is not |
| 118 | +clear how the processes defined in OAP can access resources from the other APIs. The processes |
| 119 | +probably need to implement data access individually through OGC API clients. As such, OAP could |
| 120 | +also be made compliant with STAC API - Collection and STAC API - Features. STAC API - Collections |
| 121 | +is required by openEO, STAC API - Features is optional in openEO, but would likely be required to |
| 122 | +allow data access through OAP processes. |
| 123 | + |
| 124 | +## Process Discovery |
| 125 | + |
| 126 | +OAP does not mandate the use of any specific process description to specify the interface of a |
| 127 | +process. It defines a "default" encoding in the conformance class "OGC Process Description" though. |
| 128 | + |
| 129 | + TBC, there seems to be a |
| 130 | + [conflicting statement](https://github.com/opengeospatial/ogcapi-processes/issues/325) in OAP. |
| 131 | + |
| 132 | +The openEO API specifies a single encoding for process descriptions. |
| 133 | +This means in principle that OAP can return openEO processes, but it has to be assumed that OAP |
| 134 | +client will expect OGC Process Descriptions and won't be able to read openEO processes by default. |
| 135 | + |
| 136 | +### Pre-defined processes |
| 137 | + |
| 138 | +- openEO: `GET /processes` (required) |
| 139 | +- OAP: `GET /processes`, `GET /processes/{processID}` (both required) |
| 140 | + |
| 141 | +In openEO `GET /processes` returns the full process metadata, while in OAP it only returns a summary. |
| 142 | +The general structure of the response of `GET /processes` is the same (`processes` and `links`). |
| 143 | +The OGC Process Description and the openEO process description are not compatible though. |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +openEO doesn't define an endpoint yet to retrieve an indivdual process such as |
| 146 | +`GET /processes/{processID}` in OAP. |
| 147 | +There is a [proposal](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-api/pull/348) available to add such an endpoint. |
| 148 | +openEO has the concept of namespace for processes though and thus defines the endpoint at |
| 149 | +`GET /processes/{namespace}/{process}` which would conflict with OAP. |
| 150 | + |
| 151 | +Some notable differences in the process description: |
| 152 | +- OAP defines `jobControlOptions`, which is |
| 153 | + [undefined in openEO](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-api/issues/429) yet |
| 154 | +- OAP defines `outputTransmission`, which is |
| 155 | + [probably](https://github.com/opengeospatial/ogcapi-processes/issues/326) not available in openEO |
| 156 | +- OAP allows multiple outputs, openEO only allows a single output |
| 157 | + (potential workaround: wrap in an array or object) |
| 158 | + |
| 159 | +Below is a simple process encoded in the two variants discussed here: |
| 160 | +- [OGC Process Description](oap-echo-example.json) |
| 161 | +- [openEO Process](openeo-echo-example.json) |
| 162 | + |
| 163 | +### User-defined processes |
| 164 | + |
| 165 | + TBD, lower priority as it's not covered by OAP. |
| 166 | + |
| 167 | +## Data Processing |
| 168 | + |
| 169 | +### Synchronous processing |
| 170 | + |
| 171 | +### Batch Job processing |
| 172 | + |
| 173 | +### On-demand processing |
| 174 | + |
| 175 | + TBD, lower priority as it's not covered by OAP. |
| 176 | + |
| 177 | +## File Storage |
| 178 | + |
| 179 | +- openEO: `/files` (various methods), `/files/{path}` (various methods) |
| 180 | +- OAP: n/a |
| 181 | + |
| 182 | +As it is neither available in OAP nor in any of the OGC APIs, we don't make any comparisons here. |
| 183 | + |
| 184 | +## Data Access and Visualization |
| 185 | + |
| 186 | + TBD, lower priority as it's not covered by OAP. |
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