Table of Contents
Strand Map Service Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: How can I verify that a given Benchmark ID is still active?
A: Over time AAAS has revised the maps and Benchmarks and the Strand Maps database contains both current and deprecated benchmarks. The deprecated benchmarks are not marked as such - they simply become orphaned and no longer appear in any active map.
If you wish to verify that a given Benchmark appears in an active Map, you must traverse the relationship graph up from the Benchmark ID through a Grade band and a Strand up to a Map. If a path through both a Grade band and Strand lead to the same Map, the ID is current (appears in that Map). If not, it is deprecated.
The JSON explorer makes it easy to do via your web browser. Here's the steps:
1. Plug in a Benchmark ID and click 'View JSON.' For example, SMS-BMK-1709:http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/cms1-2/docs/jsapi/api_v1/json_explorer.jsp?ObjectID=SMS-BMK-1709&Format=SMS-JSON
2. On the page that appears, in the section 'Internal relationships,' click on the 'explore' link shown for one of the 'is part of' relationships for a Grade band, which has an ID of the form SMS-GRD-XXXX. For example, SMS-GRD-0860:http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/cms1-2/docs/jsapi/api_v1/json_explorer.jsp?ObjectID=SMS-GRD-0860&Format=SMS-JSON
3. On the page that appears, the section 'Internal relationships' will show on 'is part of' relationship to a Map with an ID of the form SMS-MAP-XXXX if it appears in a active Map. In this example, the Grade band is shown to exist in Map SMS-MAP-1627.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 but this time following a Strand, which as an ID of the form SMS-STD-XXXX. In this example, we see that Strand SMS-STD-1630 is also connected to Map SMS-MAP-1627: http://strandmaps.nsdl.org/cms1-2/docs/jsapi/api_v1/json_explorer.jsp?ObjectID=SMS-STD-1630&Format=SMS-JSON
5. If a path from the Benchmark ID through both a Grade band and a Strand lead to the same Map, the Benchmark is active, otherwise it is deprecated.
The JSON explorer issues the necessary API requests and displays them in the browser for you. You can use it to do the task manually, or if you have a large number of IDs to verify, you could set up a routine to do it programmatically via the API.
Note that when submitting resource alignments to the NSDL, it is OK to supply us all SMS Benchmark IDs, even if they are deprecated. The active ID alignments will be used to connect your resources and any deprecated ones will be ignored in the UI.