A new mechanism to use the Conditions Database REST API to serve the ATLAS detector description

An efficient and fast access to the detector description of the ATLAS experiment is needed for many tasks, at different steps of the data chain: from detector development to reconstruction, from simulation to data visualization. Until now, the detector description was only accessible through dedicated services integrated into the experiment's software framework, or by the usage of external applications. In this work we explore the possibility of using a web access-based conditions database to store and serve the detector description, aiming at a simplification of the software architecture of the experiment and a reduction in the number of software packages to be maintained. We will also share the lessons learned while developing the new system to efficiently serve an experiment's geometry data to clients through a REST API.