Chicken vs Egg: Tokens and Collections #213

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opened 2026-06-22 19:42:56 +00:00 by mih · 4 comments

mih commented

2026-06-22 19:42:56 +00:00

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I am exploring the new admin API. It is not intuitively clear what should be created first: a token or a collection. Both want information on the respective other entity.

In the previous file-based configuration approach both types of information were given at the same time. The documentation appears to be silent about a file-less initialization.

I am exploring the new admin API. It is not intuitively clear what should be created first: a token or a collection. Both want information on the respective other entity. In the previous file-based configuration approach both types of information were given at the same time. The documentation appears to be silent about a file-less initialization.

mih commented

2026-06-22 19:48:09 +00:00

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I confirmed that I cannot create a token without a collection, and that I cannot create a collection without a token.

cmo commented

2026-06-23 06:55:03 +00:00

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The correct order is to create the collections before tokens. Token names are not validated during collection creation, but collection names are validated during token-creation (there is a note in the description of the token-creation endpoint, i.e., POST /tokens, in README.md, but it is completely lost in the amount of information. The documentation needs to be improved and moved out of README.md).

The correct order is to create the collections before tokens. Token names are not validated during collection creation, but collection names are validated during token-creation (there is a note in the description of the token-creation endpoint, i.e., `POST /tokens`, in `README.md`, but it is completely lost in the amount of information. The documentation needs to be improved and moved out of `README.md`). I

cmo commented

2026-06-23 06:57:17 +00:00

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@mih wrote in orinoco/dump-things-server#213 (comment):

I confirmed that I cannot create a token without a collection, and that I cannot create a collection without a token.

It should be possible to create collections that reference tokens that do not yet exist (the test setup does so). There might have been another issue that prevented the collection from being created.

Trying to create a token for a non-existent collection will fail.

@mih wrote in https://hub.psychoinformatics.de/orinoco/dump-things-server/issues/213#issuecomment-7619: > I confirmed that I cannot create a token without a collection, and that I cannot create a collection without a token. It should be possible to create collections that reference tokens that do not yet exist (the test setup does so). There might have been another issue that prevented the collection from being created. Trying to create a token for a non-existent collection will fail.

mih commented

2026-06-23 07:33:40 +00:00

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Maybe. It is, however, not at all obvious that a token can be "imaginary", and one can thereby have invalid configurations.

I think the documentation needs to be revisited from the POV of the current behavior. It is all about configuration files, and those are, at the same time, a lot less relevant now.

Maybe. It is, however, not at all obvious that a token can be "imaginary", and one can thereby have invalid configurations. I think the documentation needs to be revisited from the POV of the current behavior. It is all about configuration files, and those are, at the same time, a lot less relevant now.

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