OSID — Filing Entities

Filing

The Filing OSID provides a means for managing and accessing files and directories. The Filing OSID is used to abstract assumptions made about using a specific file system, or can be used to provide a file-based application a file system oriented view of other OSIDs.

Files

The Filing OSID defines a file access session that maps to a single File. This is the simplest application of the Filing OSID can be used in circumstances when it is desirable to confine knowledge of directories within a provider.

Directories

Directories are hierarchical OsidCatalogs of Files.

Differences from OSID Patterns

The Filing OSID assumes the pathname and filename of a File or Directory is globally unique. Typically, only the Id field is unique in an OsidObject. In the Filing OSID, there are two unique identifiers for identifying Files and Directories.

The Id is used to conform to existing OSID patterns and more easily create relationships to other auxiliary services such as the Journaling OSID, Relationship OSID, or the Ontology OSID. However, in a file system one is accustomed to traversing a file system using path names.

The standard OsidSessions refer to Files and Directories using their Ids. The file system-oriented and content sessions access and manipulate the file system using path names. Access to these sessions via the OsidManagers provide for both a path name and Directory Id.

The cataloging in the file system and content sessions behave differently than that in other OsidSessions. Typically, one is constrained to OsidObjects within the OsidCatalog, and its children in a federated view. In these sessions which use the path name as a key, Files and Directories outside the local Directory may be accessed with the use of absolute path names.

Finally, there are no hierarchical service patterns in the Directory OsidCatalog and a File or sub-directory may belong to one and only one Directory.

Example

FilieSession session = filingManager.getFileContentSession();
DataInputStream dis = session.getInputStream("/etc/passwd");

Sub Packages

The Filing OSID contains a Filing Allocation OSID for examining and managing file system utilization and user quotas.

Directory Entry

Osid Object

DirectoryEntry defines methods in common to both File and Directory. The concatenated path and name are assumed to be unique.

Inherited elements

Name	Syntax	Many	Description
Identifiable
`id`	id		the `Id`
Extensible
`recordTypes`	type	⋆	the record types available
Browsable
`properties`	Property	⋆	a list of properties
OsidObject
`displayName`	displaytext		the display name
`description`	displaytext		the description
`genusType`	type		the genus type of this object

Name	Syntax	Description
`name`	string	the entry name
`isAlias`	boolean	`true` if this is an alias, `false` otherwise
`path`	string	the path
`realPath`	string	the path
`ownerId`	id	the `Agent Id`
`owner`	Agent	the `Agent`
`createdTime`	datetime	the created time
`lastModifiedTime`	datetime	the last modified time
`lastAccessTime`	datetime	the last access time

File

File represents a file in a file system.

Inherited elements

Name	Syntax	Many	Description
Identifiable
`id`	id		the `Id`
Extensible
`recordTypes`	type	⋆	the record types available
Browsable
`properties`	Property	⋆	a list of properties
OsidObject
`displayName`	displaytext		the display name
`description`	displaytext		the description
`genusType`	type		the genus type of this object

Name	Syntax	Many	Description
`hasSize`	boolean		`true` if this file has a size, `false` otherwise
`size`	cardinal		the size of this file