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Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:17:25 -0500
From: "Kevin R. Coombes" <kevin.r.coombes@gmail.com>
Organization: UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
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To: user@couchdb.apache.org
CC: Paul Davis <paul.joseph.davis@gmail.com>,
 Jeroen Janssen <jeroen.janssen@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: formal database schema?
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That was the sort of table I had in mind in my initial question.  I've 
thought about adding an extra column that indicates which fields are 
used as keys for which views.

On 4/9/2012 12:43 PM, Paul Davis wrote:
> There's really not much in the way of a formal definition/diagram for
> JSON documents. If I were going to try and mollify a reviewer I'd
> probably generate a three column table with a key/path column, type,
> and intent.
>
> Also, in a pinch, UML isn't necessarily a bad way to try and show such
> things as long as you have explanatory text describes some of the
> assumptions that change since its non-relational.
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 1:34 PM, Kevin R. Coombes
> <kevin.r.coombes@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Hmm.  This _might_ be what I want, even though my immediate reaction is that
>> it may be too self-referential to send back to the reviewer.  (Is JSON
>> really the write language/format in which to describe JSON documents?)  But
>> it's a start; thanks.
>>     Kevin
>>
>>
>> On 4/9/2012 9:41 AM, Jeroen Janssen wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but there is a draft
>>> JSON schema specification at http://json-schema.org/ which is "a JSON
>>> based format for defining the structure of JSON data".
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Jeroen
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 4:34 PM, Kevin R. Coombes
>>> <kevin.r.coombes@gmail.com>    wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> We just had a manuscript that describes three applications of CouchDB in
>>>> bioinformatics  accepted with minor revisions.  (I think this will be the
>>>> first paper describing a CouchDB application in the area of
>>>> bioinformatics.)
>>>>
>>>> One of the requested minor changes is for "schematics, data models, etc".
>>>>   I'm sure that the reviewer is thinking about the kinds of schema
>>>> diagrams
>>>> that can easily be supplied for a relational database.  Other than a
>>>> table
>>>> or a screenshot showing the reviewer what a typical document looks like
>>>> in
>>>> these databases, does anyone know of equivalent tools or diagrams to
>>>> describe a document-oriented database? Are there any (formal) design or
>>>> document conventions that have evolved or are evolving for describing
>>>> databases built using Couch?
>>>>
>>>>     Kevin
>>>>
>>>> In case anyone wants to take a look at the applications, here are the
>>>> URLs:
>>>>
>>>> geneSmash
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   http://app1.bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/genesmash/_design/basic/index.html
>>>> drugBase
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>   http://app1.bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/drugbase/_design/basic/index.html
>>>> HapMap-CN
>>>>
>>>>   http://app1.bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/hapmap/_design/basic/index.html
>>>>