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Generate Technical Metadata for GIS Data

Technical Metadata for GIS Data

Technical metadata can be programmatically extracted from the dataset.

Step 1: Generate or Update the Technical Metadata

How to generate an ArcGIS 1.0 XML file for a dataset one at a time.
  1. Open ArcCatalog and use the Catalog Tree to navigate to the location of the dataset.
  2. Click on the dataset in the catalog tree.
  3. Open the Description tab in the main window.  This action will update or create a new metadata file in the ArcGIS Metadata 1.0 Format.  
How to generate an ArcGIS 1.0 XML file for a batch of files.
  1. Download the datasets and unzip all of the files into a flat folder.  
    • With 7-Zip, use the option without the “*/”, which will keep the files in separate folders
    • Folders can be flattened with the following command line script (Mac tested):  find [DIRECTORY] -mindepth 2 -type f -exec mv -i '{}' [DIRECTORY] ';'
  2. Download a zip of the project’s Custom ArcGIS Toolbox of Batch Metadata Scripts. Unzip the folder into a location that you can access from within ArcCatalog.
  3. Use the Catalog Tree to navigate to the downloaded folder of custom scripts.
  4. Expand the toolbox and select the tool called “Synchronize ArcGIS Metadata for Feature Classes”
  5. The input is just the folder containing the datasets.  Details about the tool:
    • The input is a flat folder with only feature classes.  (Move any other files out of the folder)
    • The tool will extract the attribute table, the geometry, the filename, the format, and the spatial extents.
    • A new XML file will be created with the extracted metadata.
    • The created metadata file will be in the ArcGIS Metadata 1.0 format.
    • If a metadata file already exists, this script will update it with technical metadata,
    • The attribute selected for the Synchronization script is "not_created." If the user would like a different attribute, they should edit the enclosed python file.

Step 2: Extract the XML files into a separate folder

Once the technical metadata has been generated, the dataset is no longer needed.  At this point, the XML files should be copied and placed into a separate folder.
General Procedure
  1. Open the flat folder of dataset in desktop window
  2. Sort by file type
  3. Copy and paste the metadata files to a new folder.
Metadata Files by Dataset Format
Shapefiles
  • The extension for the ArcGIS 1.0 metadata files will be .shp.xml
  • If there are XML files present that do not have the .shp part of the extension:
    • These are likely NOT ArcGIS 1.0 metadata
    • If these files contain descriptive metadata that is not present in the shp.xml file, the Import Metadata tool can be used to merge them.* (needs reference)
Geodatabases
  • There will not be an XML file present.
  • The metadata is stored within the geodatabase.  
  • To export, use the custom script found in the toolbox called called “Export to ArcGIS Metadata.” Details:
    • The inputs for the tools must be a data element, and can include multiple types of formats, including a feature dataset, a feature class, and rasters.
    • This tool was designed specifically for exporting metadata from geodatabases. Geodatabases store metadata natively within tables, and ArcGIS does not provide a tool for exporting this metadata into an XML format.
    • The tool uses an XSLT that creates a copy of the metadata stored in the ArcGIS Metadata 1.0 Format.
    • The user will also need to select an output location as a folder where the created XML files are saved.
    • The XML file will be named automatically after the file name of the input datasets.
Rasters

  • Common raster formats (GeoTIFF and ArcGrids) should have an embedded metadata file with extension .xml
  • Other formats may not support an associated metadata file.  See this page for details on possible formats.  Try the “Export to ArcGIS Metadata” tool or just create a blank metadata file that will be populated with values in subsequent steps.
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