Data Objects

Introduction

Whereas for flat data objects, the record is both the original and preview itself, for data objects it is split into 3 records

A “container” record storing no file itself (aka a metadata-only object)
An original representation storing the original file
An access representation storing the preview file

Record Tree

The data objects are organized into the Record Treeby having the data record as the parent, followed by the original representation as the direct child and the access representation as the child of the original representation and hence the grandchild of the data record.

Comparison with flat data objects

By making sure for data objects that the life cycle, export and preview URIs behave similarly to the flat data objects, the transition will be minimal.

Here we provide a comparison between flat data and data objects.

Concept	Flat Data	Data

Concept	Flat Data	Data
Records	Single record	Data record Original representation record Access representation record
Original	The original is the single record itself	The original is the original representation record
Preview	The preview is the single record itself	The preview is the access representation record
Technical metadata	The technical metadata is that of the original file itself. The technical metadata of the preview is only limitedly available in the metadata field `Internal.Browses`	The data record has no technical metadata itself but the original representation record and the access representation records each have their own technical metadata. The API returns for the data object the technical metadata of the original representation to make behave similarly to flat data objects.
Previews URIs `PathToKeyframe` `PathToKeyframeThumb` `PathToPreview`	The preview URIs refer to the single record itself.	The data record and original representation automatically refer to the preview URIs of the primary access representation.
Export	When exporting with Option “Browse = false” the original is exported Option “Browse = true” preview is exported	From version `24.1` When exporting with Option “Browse = false” the original representation is exported Option “Browse = true” the access representation is exported

Object Lifecycle

Lifecycle Step	Flat Data	Data

Lifecycle Step	Flat Data	Data
Create	The single record is created. During ingest the preview is stored as file on the record itself.	When uploading a data record in the MediaHaven REST API The original representation is created instantly in addition to the data object itself The access representation is generated during the ingest of the data object
Update	The single record is updated	By using Metadata Inheritancethe updated metadata is inherited from data object to the representations if configured for the metadata field.
Publish	The single record is published	By using Publish Cascade the representations are automatically published when the data object is published.
Delete	The single record is deleted	By using (Un)delete Cascade the representations are automatically deleted when the data object is deleted.

API

Action

Action
Finding the original representation	Use the representations API endpoint Or fetch the record specified by the metadata field `OriginalRecordId` on the data object Or search with `+DataRecordId:<data record ID> +IsOriginal:true`
Finding the access representation	Use the representations API endpoint Or search with `+DataRecordId:<data record ID> +IsAccess:true` Or fetch the record specified by the metadata field `PreviewRecordId` on the original representation Note: the metadata field `PreviewRecordId` on the data object points to the original representation
Get the technical metadata	Fetching the technical metadata for the data object returns the technical metadata of the original representation Fetch the technical metadata of the access representation
Omit representations from search results	If you do not want the representations in the search results you can filter them out by searching only with `+RecordStructure:(Data Intellectual)`
Export	Use the regular export API for exporting the file itself Specify the export option combine “ZipTree” to export it as a zip containing all representations

Advantages

Because data objects are more rich than flat objects, it allows for additional features

Having multiple previews represented as multiple access representations
Separating the technical metadata between originals and previews
Possible future features
- Changing the original by uploading a new original representation (wishlist item under review)
- Deferring the creation of the original representation by downloading the original from an External Source URLasynchronously (wishlist item under review)