Hub (dissemination architecture)

Method of registering, querying, and disseminating data or reference metadata by means of a central, service-based platform (the hub).

The hub architecture supports the "pull" method only i.e., a group of partners agree on providing access to their data directly from their database according to standard processes, formats and technologies (e.g. web service). From the data management point of view, the hub is also based on a pre-specified datasets, which are not kept locally at the central hub system. The query process operates as follows:

1. A user identifies a dataset through the graphical user interface (GUI) of the hub using the structural metadata, and requests it;
2. the hub translates the user request in one or more queries and sends them to the related data providers' systems;
3. data providers' systems process the query and send the result to the hub in standard format (e.g. SDMX-ML 2.1);
4. the hub puts together all the results originated in all implicated data providers' systems and presents them in the requested format. This could be a human-readable, non-SDMX format such as a table.

urn:sdmx:org.sdmx.infomodel.conceptscheme.Concept=SDMX:CROSS_DOMAIN_CONCEPTS(2.0).HUB