Welcome to the MetaData Discussion

Metadata Issues and datatypes supported

This is a discussion of MetaDataSupported, the kinds of things supported in the metadata, our relation to international metadata standards, geographic metadata etc.

Overview of the Metadata Process (loading metadata)

In order to organize your data documentation(MetaData) so that the TheDataWeb can use it for data searching and for data manipulation it needs to be set up in a standard MIFXML format so that the computer can understand and manipulate it. {Here is a PreView of how metadata is used in Data FERRETT data browser.}

• Step 1: Create metadata There are several ways of creating metadata for the TheDataWeb.
  • Direct creation of MIFXML (This is preferred, everything else is transformed into MIFXML for actual loading) Detailed description of MIF Transactions
  • or..Creation of MifText which we convert to MIFXML
  • or.. Submitting DDIXML to utility that will converts to MIFXML
  • or.. Creating a special utility that will read and convert from a foreign metadata data base or format.

• Step 2: Submit it to the Review (staging system) Read Metadata into Data Directory for Staging & Review^?

• Step 3: Review (documentation is being developed for this)

• Step 4: Correct if necessary Correct the metadata and repeat steps 1,2,3 until metadata is correct then continue with step 5.

• Step 5: Submit to Public (or Private) Data Directory (metadata repository) Read Metadata into Production Data Directory

• Step 6: Publish (release data to network)
  • Review your "embargoed data" one last time in the production system.
  • Run release utility to make data available and visable to DataWeb^? data network.

MetaData Web Utilities

•   - advanced search
• WebTopicList - all topics in alphabetical order
• WebChanges - recent topic changes in this web
• WebNotify - subscribe to an e-mail alert sent when topics change
• WebRss, WebAtom - RSS and ATOM news feeds of topic changes
• WebStatistics - listing popular topics and top contributors
• WebPreferences - preferences of this web