cmosher01 / ark-n2t

ARK resolver servlet

ark-n2t

Copyright © 2024, Christopher Alan Mosher, New York, New York, USA, [email protected].

ARK resolver servlet.

Definitions

{ARK} format: "ark:" {NAAN} "/" [{shoulder}] {blade} {checksum}

• {blade} has an associated {blade-length} and {alphabet}
• {checksum} has an associated {checksum-algorithm}
• {shoulder} is optional
• {shoulder} format: one or more alpha (from {alphabet}) followed by exactly one numeric (from {alphabet})

Once an {ARK} has been minted with a {shoulder}, there is no indication that the shoulder is actually a shoulder, versus just a random string of characters. Then we refer to the resulting [{shoulder}]{blade} as {shoulder-blade}.

{URL} is a URL.

{datastore} is a database, such as a SQL relational database.

{checksum-algorithm} takes as input a {NAAN}, {shoulder-blade}, and {alphabet}; and returns {checksum} (a single character from {alphabet}).

{alphabet} is an ordered list of alphanumeric characters.

Actions

Resolve

• Given a valid {ARK}, find (the single, if any) associated {URL} in the {datastore}.

Find

• Given a {URL}, find (any or all) associated (valid) {ARK}'s in the {datastore}.

Mint

• Given a {URL}, generate a valid, random, unique {ARK} (given: {NAAN}, {shoulder}, {alphabet}, {blade-length}, and {checksum-algorithm}), and store them (linked together) in the {datastore}.

Parse

• Given an arbitrary string, verify it is in correct {ARK} format, and get its {NAAN}, {shoulder-blade}, and {checksum}.

Validate

• Given an {ARK} verify its {checksum} (using its associated {alphabet} and {checksum-algorithm}).

Notes

Parsing, analyzing, or changing {URL}'s is out of scope.

Recommended {alphabet}: bcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxz23456789

Trivial SQL datastore:

CREATE TABLE Ark (
    ark VARCHAR(256),
    url VARCHAR(2048)
)

where:

• ark is the {ARK} (including the ark: label, therefore being a "Compact ARK"),
• url is the {URL}.

Complete representation would also need these pieces of information, which would apply to a set of Ark rows:

• Which {checksum-algorithm} was used to generate the {checksum}'s.
• The {alphabet} used in minting the {ARK}'s.