# Overview
ro-crate-rs is a rust library that aims to provide a robust, portable
and scalable solution to dealing [RO-Crates](https://www.researchobject.org/ro-crate/1.1/)
within the varying software environments that are present across a
Synthetic Biology Laboratory stack (it's current focus).
This implementation was specifically created to address the challenges of data
handling on automated robotic systems within an automated synthetic biology lab,
however it's noted that this could have more general applicability to other environments.
It enforces minimal
RO-Crate structure adherence through it's defined data types, but equally allows
the crate to be as expansive as needed.
# Basic structure
RO-Crates are based upon the JSON-LD (Javascript Object Notation for Linked Data Model),
using keys that have been defined in schema.org vocabularies, or other custom ontologies. In this library,
RO-Crates are deserialised directly into a `RoCrate` structure using `serde`.
The base Ro-Crate is formed out of a `struct RoCrate` containg a `@context` and a `@graph`.
The `@context` object contains a value refering to either a:
- Reference Context
- Embedded Context
- Extended Context
The `@graph` object is a `vector` containing other RO-Crate entity structures that are one of the following:
- Metadata Descriptor
- Root Data Entity
- Data Entity
- Contextual Entity
Within the `@graph`, there can only be one Metadata Descriptor and Root Data Entity, whilst
there can be zero to many Data Entities or Contextual Entities
Each entity structure consists of an `@id` (or `id` for struct field) and a `@type`
(or `type_` for struct field). For Metadata Descriptor and Root Data Entity, they
consist of other fields that have been determined to be a requirement by the
RO-Crate specification. Fields that have been determined as MUST by the RO-Crate
specification are required in their relevant data structure, whilst fields determined
as SHOULD are Options. Any field that is not described as MUST or SHOULD within
the specification can be added as a `dynamic_entity`.
Each entity structure also has a field called `dynamic_entity`, which allows the
population of any form of JSON-LD compatible value within the statically typed
requirements of rust. These, by default, are instantiated as `None`.
Fig 1 is an example of a base RO-Crate:
Fig 2 is a diagram describing how each file relates to one another with a brief
intro to the main structures involved.
# Usage
To use, you will need to install rust. It's strongly recommended to use the `rustup` tool.
Follow the installation found on the [rust website](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install). Once
this is installed, you can then use cargo.
To compile for testing, use `cargo build` or `cargo build --release` is performance is a concern.
# Docs
To compile docs, run `cargo doc --open` and the documentation will open in your
default browser.