[QGIS-Developer] QGIS server and metadata

Fri Nov 1 03:42:08 PDT 2019

Dear Colleagues,
thanks, if I may weigh in here re. metadata:

Metadata remain key to whatever you do in computing and in the public eye.
Lack of standardized, and good and accepted, visionary metadata, are the
wide failure
of most (software) projects, and if they want to remain and be of wider,
global relevance.
While additional internal notes might be good, or useful, metadata must all
be public, as a scheme.

Now, people have thought about it for decades already,
and there are FGDC geospatial metadata to work from and to use.
Those are the high detail ISO standards, and beyond.
Without following those logics, and also the libraries, governments,
science funders etc
and their online repositories to link to, the metadata will go nowhere.

Metadata cannot, and must not, be done as a home brew and as a quick fix.
We see wide failures there in R and its analysis tools, or in GRASS GIS etc.
(=hand drawn manuals or internal reviews are not cutting it).

I refer people to the Metadata Wizard by USGS as one of several 'rocks'
and main pillars to consider here. Using Metadata Light instead are not
cutting it.

Arguably, innovation in metadata is good, but I assume technically it is
XML as the platform with the stylesheets etc in ISO.

Just my few 2 cents on the issue.
Very best
  Falk

PS There is an earlier plugin in QGIS that does FGDC metadata but it does
not work. Any pointers
on how to fix it ? That would be VAST progress and benefit QGIS indeed.

On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 9:52 PM Nyall Dawson <nyall.dawson at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 1 Nov 2019 at 02:42, Alessandro Pasotti <apasotti at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > IMO what is missing here is a bridge between the new metadata API in
> QGIS core and the "old" QGIS server metadata API.
>
> It was always a deliberate choice to keep these two separate. The
> thinking was that the metadata you use for your local projects and
> layers isn't necessarily going to match what you want to publish and
> advertise to external users. You might have sensitive information in
> there, or just "internal only" details which you don't want/need to
> publish.
>
> I think all that's missing here is a button to auto-populate server
> metadata by copying it from the project or layer metadata. It'd give a
> quick way to initial populate the published metadata, which you could
> then tweak as needed...
>
> Nyall
>
>
> >
> >
> >>
> >> On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 11:47 AM Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Thanks Ale for the explanation. Indeed, a suboptimal situation.
> >> > Perhaps worth an ad hoc crowdfunding.
> >> > Cheers.
> >> >
> >> > Il 31/10/19 16:40, Alessandro Pasotti ha scritto:
> >> > >
> >> > > On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 4:28 PM Paolo Cavallini <
> cavallini at faunalia.it
> >> > > <mailto:cavallini at faunalia.it>> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > >     Hi all,
> >> > >     apparently our server does not expose the metadata stored in
> the project
> >> > >     and layer properties:
> >> > >     * is this true?
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > There is a metadata section in the server configuration (Service
> >> > > Capabilities) of the project properties, modeled on WMS/WFS
> metadata,
> >> > > they are exposed. The sad thing is that when the new metadata
> framework
> >> > > was developed it was not connected with the existing server
> metadata, so
> >> > > we currently have two separate APIs for metadata, the old very
> limited
> >> > > one for the server and the new one. On the other hand, the old
> existing
> >> > > API is exactly what was required by WMS/WFS.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >     * is there any reason for this, besides the usual lack of
> resources to
> >> > >     implement it?
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > Not that I'm aware of.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >     * anyone has estimates or plans to implement it?
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > Not that I'm aware of.
> >> > >
> >> > > I though about it for WFS3 but I couldn't find the time/resources
> to do
> >> > > anything (mainly because of missing API in the server), for now I've
> >> > > just implemented what was available in the server's WFS code.
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >     Moreover, I wonder how users are managing their metadata from
> QGIS, now
> >> > >     that several plugins that helped compiling them are not
> available for
> >> > >     current versions. Any feedback will be appreciated.
> >> > >     Cheers.
> >> > >     --
> >> > >     Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu <http://www.faunalia.eu>
> >> > >     QGIS.ORG <http://QGIS.ORG> Chair:
> >> > >     http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
> >> > >     _______________________________________________
> >> > >     QGIS-Developer mailing list
> >> > >     QGIS-Developer at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:
> QGIS-Developer at lists.osgeo.org>
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> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >> > > --
> >> > > Alessandro Pasotti
> >> > > w3:   www.itopen.it <http://www.itopen.it>
> >> > >
> >> > > _______________________________________________
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> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> >> > QGIS.ORG Chair:
> >> > http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
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> >
> >
> > --
> > Alessandro Pasotti
> > w3:   www.itopen.it
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