Third-Party Data Services

Oasis provides custom tools for accessing a few specific image and catalog services but for general archive access we rely on data servicE interfaces created by others. These services are written as standard CGI / HTML-form applications with no involvement between their development and that of Oasis.

The connection to Oasis usually comes on the results pages for these "third-party" services in the form of "Oasis Links". An Oasis Link is essentially an indirect URL; the data supplier's URL wrapped in Oasis applet URL. Essentially, this tells the Oasis running on the user's machine to go and get the data referenced and display it.

This data goes directly from the data supplier and the user's machine; IRSA is not involved. Nor is IRSA involved in any way in the construction of the above results pages, which is why the term "third-party" is used.

There is also a mechanism for a service provider to optionally allow the user's instance of Oasis to aid in filling out forms (e.g. to define the area of interest to be that of the current image displayed by Oasis). However, since this involves a much closer coupling of the service and Oasis than the Oasis Links it is used less frequently.

For more information on the underlying technology, see the documentation on Oasis Links.