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Geonetwork: Metadata Editing Tool

So far, we have explored using ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Online, Oxygen, and Omeka for editing and transforming our geospatial metadata.  This week, we took a closer look at Geonetwork's capabilities as a metadata editor.

Geonetwork is an open source, ISO-centric geospatial metadata catalog that can also function as a geoportal.  Judging from its example use cases, it is primarily utilized in Europe and Africa. For installation, it does require a little more setup time & knowledge than the other editing tools we have been using, but once installed, the user experience is quite straightforward.  I installed a local-only, test version on my desktop, and here are a few highlights from what I have discovered:

Users & Groups
Each University can be set up as a working group within a Geonetwork instance, and each user can be assigned editing permissions related to specific groups.

Import
Metadata files can be imported in a batch. I had success importing both ArcGIS metadata format files as well as ISO formats. However, it doesn't support directly importing FGDC metadata format. 

Export
Metadata files can be exported in a batch as xml files or MEF zipped files.  MEF (Metadata Exchange Format) exports a folder for each record titled by the metadata file identifier, and includes an ISO 19139 XML, thumbnails, and basic catalog information specific to Geonetwork.


Editing Interface
  • A user can choose 3 different editing views: 
    • Simple: default, one page, shows existing fields
    • Full: split into multiple tabs, user can add new fields (most useful view)
    • XML: view and edit as an ISO XML record
  • Fields are displayed in a nested format and sections can be opened and closed with arrows
  • Some lookup is built in, such as searching for coordinate systems
  • Thesauri can be added for more authority control
  • Validation is included as well as "Suggestions," which can automatically fix some errors.
  • Tooltips: this can be enabled to show basic element descriptions



Geonetwork Editing Interface: Full View


Associated Resources
Geonetwork has a cataloging GUI that features a box called "Associated Resources."  This box allows a user to click a 'plus' button to insert attributes or attachments into the metadata records.  This could be helpful in a collaborative environment, because it facilitates more standardized entries by automatically inserting values into certain fields.  This eliminates the issue of different users choosing different fields for the same type of value.
  • Related records: parent and children
    • Geonetwork makes it very easy to create parent-child relationships between records by clicking the plus icon and navigating the database to attach a related record.
    • This creates an ISO entry in the child record only:
   <gmd:parentIdentifier>
      <gco:CharacterString>e473b779-4b52-4ff9-b12b-301644e826e9</gco:CharacterString>
   </gmd:parentIdentifier>
    • Note: adding related records in the aggregation fields is also appropriate and probably more useful when exporting the metadata to other applications

        • Inserting online links
          • Many of the metadata files we have collected for our first round do not include linkages to viewing or downloading datasets.   Additionally, several of the records that do include linkages have them inserted into varying levels within the metadata fields.  
          • Adding links in Geonetwork can be done with the same "Associated Resources" box.  When a users clicks a 'plus' button, links and descriptions can be added via the GUI.  After saving and viewing the metadata as XML, here is where Geonetwork inserts the link:

        <gmd:distributionInfo>
            <gmd:MD_Distribution>
                <gmd:transferOptions>
                    <gmd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions>
                        <gmd:onLine>
                            <gmd:CI_OnlineResource>
                                <gmd:linkage>
                                    <gmd:URL>here is where the download link shows up</gmd:URL>
                                </gmd:linkage>
        • Adding thumbnails
          • Thumbnails can be added by upload or referencing a URL.
          • If the thumbnail is uploaded, it will also be part of the MEF export.  If a URL is used, the link to the image will not be included in exported metadata.
          • Thumbnails makes the portal somewhat easier to browse.

        Associated resources GUI in Geonetwork



        In closing, I'll add that there is much more functionality to Geonetwork, which I haven't covered here.  It has been around for about a decade, but the most recent version, Geonetwork 3, featured many improvements and came out in April 2015.
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