[GRASS-dev] [SoC] <gsoc2014> <grass metadata> <week 6>

Thu Jul 3 04:40:15 PDT 2014

Hi Stefan,
On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 9:46 AM, Blumentrath, Stefan <
Stefan.Blumentrath at nina.no> wrote:
>
> Hi Matej,
>
>
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> Metadata is a current topic I my organization at the moment, so your work
comes exactly at the right time for me. Here in NINA people are using many
different kinds of GIS software and we are considering introducing
GeoNetwork as a central metadata storage solution, which makes metadata
management to some extend independent from the GIS software used. Among
public and environmental organisations, GeoNetwork is quite popular for
metadata management (amongst others Mapping authorities from Netherlands,
Switzerland, and the Nordic countries are using it, see also:
http://geonetwork-opensource.org/gallery/gallery.html).
>
>
>
> I have no real personal experience with GeoNetwor (yet), but from what I
read in the documentation I could imagine two ways how GRASS metadata could
make their way into such a central metadata catalogue:
>
> 1)      XML import (+ this option is in place when GRASS metadata is
written to XML, - import requires manual labor)
>
> 2)      Metadata harvesting (GeoNetwork can “harvest” metadata from other
CSWs, so maybe pycsw already provides automatic an interface in that
direction(?). That would be great!)

pycsw is a CSW server that allows to harvest information from other OGC
services, as well as Geonetwork. This latter offers also the editor, while
pycsw doesn't, but is used internally by other applications which offer
full metadata management (and a GUI), such as CKAN, GeoNode, etc. and the
idea is to add GRASS to this list as well :-)
If you want to stick with geonetwork, you can harvest the metadata from the
pycsw, there's no need of manual work.

>
>
>
> When it comes to consistent metadata, I guess e.g. lists with values for
metadata fields will in practice have to be more or less dynamic (as new
staff member are being employed, new topics for spatial analysis arise
(requiring new keywords), new types of data being developed and so on). Not
sure if manipulating the templates is convenient enough for average users
(seems to be mainly suitable for users with some degree of programming
experience). However, good to know that providing a custom set of values is
already possible through the templates.
>
> If you start working on a DB for metadata related content, feel free to
let me know if I can support you by any means (yet I will be on leave for
almost the rest of the year, which means I can spend only a limited amount
of time).

The idea is to allow user to generate a custom template using the gui, that
can be reused for any metadata generated afterwards. Your idea of a
database deserves consideration as well

Thanks
Madi

>
> However, I had a second look on GeoNetwork in this regard, and GeoNetwork
is (naturally) using a database for metadata management (one option here is
PostgreSQL). If it would be possible to just connect to that same DB (e.g.
for fetching and storing key words, data on contact persons…), that would
be really, really great, as this ensures that metadata produced in GRASS
are 100% compliant to metadata standards used in GeoNetwork (if GRASS users
also use GeoNetwork).
>
>
>
> Anyway, Rome was not built in a day and I am 100% sure that your work
will be very, very useful already from what you planned for GSoC.
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Stefan
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> grass-dev mailing list
> grass-dev at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-dev

-- 
Best regards,

Dr. Margherita DI LEO
Scientific / technical project officer

European Commission - DG JRC
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
Via Fermi, 2749
I-21027 Ispra (VA) - Italy - TP 261

Tel. +39 0332 78 3600
margherita.di-leo at jrc.ec.europa.eu

Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not
in any circumstance be regarded as stating an official position of the
European Commission.

Hi Matej,

Thanks for your reply.

Metadata is a current topic I my organization at the moment, so your work
comes exactly at the right time for me. Here in NINA people are using many
different kinds of GIS software and we are considering introducing
GeoNetwork as a central metadata storage solution, which makes metadata
management to some extend independent from the GIS software used. Among
public and environmental organisations, GeoNetwork is quite popular for
metadata management (amongst others Mapping authorities from Netherlands,
Switzerland, and the Nordic countries are using it, see also:
http://geonetwork-opensource.org/gallery/gallery.html).

I have no real personal experience with GeoNetwor (yet), but from what I
read in the documentation I could imagine two ways how GRASS metadata could
make their way into such a central metadata catalogue:

1)      XML import (+ this option is in place when GRASS metadata is
written to XML, - import requires manual labor)

2)      Metadata harvesting (GeoNetwork can “harvest” metadata from other
CSWs, so maybe pycsw already provides automatic an interface in that
direction(?). That would be great!)

When it comes to consistent metadata, I guess e.g. lists with values for
metadata fields will in practice have to be more or less dynamic (as new
staff member are being employed, new topics for spatial analysis arise
(requiring new keywords), new types of data being developed and so on). Not
sure if manipulating the templates is convenient enough for average users
(seems to be mainly suitable for users with some degree of programming
experience). However, good to know that providing a custom set of values is
already possible through the templates.

If you start working on a DB for metadata related content, feel free to let
me know if I can support you by any means (yet I will be on leave for
almost the rest of the year, which means I can spend only a limited amount
of time).

However, I had a second look on GeoNetwork in this regard, and GeoNetwork
is (naturally) using a database for metadata management (one option here is
PostgreSQL). If it would be possible to just connect to that same DB (e.g.
for fetching and storing key words, data on contact persons…), that would
be really, really great, as this ensures that metadata produced in GRASS
are 100% compliant to metadata standards used in GeoNetwork (if GRASS users
also use GeoNetwork).

Anyway, Rome was not built in a day and I am 100% sure that your work will
be very, very useful already from what you planned for GSoC.

All the best,

Stefan

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