Glossary · Packages and variants

iiRDS Consumer

Also known as: iiRDS-consuming application, iiRDS import

In iiRDS (intelligent information Request and Delivery Standard), an iiRDS Consumer is an application that reads and processes iiRDS-compliant information on the receiving end, for example on a server, in a content delivery portal or in a web application. It is a role defined in the specification, not an RDF class.

iiRDS term
Ontology
Information architecture

In one sentence

An iiRDS Consumer is the application that reads and processes iiRDS packages on the receiving end, such as a content delivery portal or a service app.

Example

A content delivery portal imports machine-x200_en.iirds, reads META-INF/metadata.rdf and shows service technicians only the maintenance topics for their product variant, with a list of the spare parts each task needs.

In-depth wiki articleiiRDS Consumer: the software role that reads and processes iiRDS packages

How it applies

Role, not class: Like the generator, the consumer is a conformance role for software. There is no iirds:Consumer class in the vocabulary.
Reading packages: All processing applications must support the iiRDS ZIP archive. A consumer identifies the package by its mimetype entry, reads META-INF/metadata.rdf and follows each rendition's source path.
What to ignore: Consumers must ignore additional files in the root directory that iiRDS metadata does not reference, such as files added for VDI 2770 interoperability. The specification recommends ignoring any other files in META-INF and, from iiRDS 1.3, the iirds:has-rendition relation of nested packages.
Robustness: In self-contained packages such as iiRDS/A, consumers may omit the few cross-references the specification exempts (href and cite in iiRDS XHTML5), for example without internet access — and the content must still be consumable. An iiRDS XHTML5 consumer must be able to ignore or modify class values without loss of meaning.
Delivery features: Metadata is what makes a consumer useful. It filters information units by product, lifecycle phase and qualification, renders directory structures, and builds lists of supplies from functional metadata.
Out of scope: The standard does not specify how a consumer is implemented, which features it offers or how it displays content.

Consumer vs. Generator

The iiRDS Generator creates the package; the consumer receives and processes it. The package format is the only contract between the two, which is why a consumer can process packages from any generator that follows the specification.