Commercial vs Self-Serve Hosts
Hosting can be provided by either commercial services (whether for-profit or not-for-profit) or via self-serve hosting. The latter enables OpenQualia to be implemented by an end user with nothing more than their home printer and a free DropBox account (or similar).
Any OpenQualia member can (but is not required to) provide a website or application that allows a user to select a measurement file and make it available at a OpenQualia compatible URL.
Every OpenQualia member that measures targets (their own, or as a metrology service) is strongly encouraged to make those measurements available at a OpenQualia compatible URL using their own service, another commercial service, or the self-serve option detailed below. However, a private use of OpenQualia is allowed; that is, an OQ Label Host can choose to create labels where the URL is not publicly accessible but is only accessible for credentialed users. Private OQ Labels created by one OQ Label Host will not work with other OpenQualia compatible software (e.g. a private label made on ImageZebra would not be readable by DT Nexus) so users should be encouraged to use public settings.
Every DT target that is purchased with measurement (starting 2025) will ship with an OQ Label that points to that measurement as hosted at targets.digitaltransitions.com.
ImageZebra will allow users of their website to add measurements for a particular target, and print a OQ Label to place on (or near) their target, and will host the encoded URL.
It is important that anyone be able to create OQ Labels (not just OpenQualia members) so it is important that users be able to easily make their own measurements and make them accessible at a compatible URL. Therefore the standard has been designed to allow an end user to host the file themself using a service such as DropBox.
This can be accomplished using the following steps:
- Start with a CGATS measurement file (your own, or from a vendor) – check that it meets the “OpenQualia Compatible Measurement File Format” requirements
- Create a Dropbox account at dropbox.com
- Upload a compatible CGATS file to that account
- Select the uploaded file and “Copy Link”
- At the end of the link will appear DL=0. Change this to DL=1 which means the link will directly download the file rather than take you to file on the dropbox website.
- Add the OQ Label URL parameters manually. For example adding &Manufacturer=DT&TargetType=DTNGT2&TargetID=DT-AR-2020041&AccessMode=ActiveMeasurement to the end of the URL provided by Dropbox.
- Print that QR Code and place it on or near the target.
Note that self-served OQ Labels will take users directly to the measurement file, rather than an interactive view. That is an understood limitation of self-serving, and does not prevent the labels from working with OpenQualia compatible software such as ImageZebra or DT Nexus [add additional software packages that support in time for announcement].
