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The Manifest pattern can also provide updates on the linked content as these become available. It can consult a contributing repository to make sure that linked content is still available, and available to the specific user. The real potential of the Manifest approach becomes apparent when we expand our definition of what might be considered a manifest. Here are some examples:
- Additional bookmark formats, perhaps supporting content requests from other open sources (Wikipedia Commons for example) as well as repositories with established relationships.
- A folder of XML documents representing requests for the products of processing by external tools. For example a request that a document be processed by MorphAdorner. The processed content would be added to the request folder.
- A Business Process Execution specification (or other workflow definition) defining a process for acquiring and processing content.
- A Java jar file containing code to be executed in a sand boxed (restricted) environment. The code might be executed on specific content objects. Similarly a restricted Python or Ruby script.
I recently had a conversation with our media architect about an unrelated project that involved working with image content from the California Digital Library. The situation illustrates how flexible the current architecture is. His group creates online journals, blogs, and collaborative sites using Drupal.
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