Test A New Metadata Structure

July 11th, 2013

How Can You Test A New Metadata Structure?

You will have to test any new structure because of several reasons:

all the requests are working with a new metadata prefix
the oai_dc format is still not functioning
for every format, a new record is required
if all those conditions are met, you can consider the new format as viable

Extending a form

Here are the main steps required to extend a form

Deciding the name and a few namespaces
Developing the XML schemes for the container and the new elements
Creating the test records and validating them
Modifying the deposit (source code or the configuring files) to support the new format
Testing and validating the results
Using a new metadata format

For other protocols, the names and the schemes are already agreed. It shoud be easy to work with those type of files as you won’t need any particular schemes. Anyway, the specifications of the XML scheme are going trough periodical revisions, allowing IMS to keep up with those changes.

Implementing an existing format

If you want to implement an existing format in an XML scheme, you must modify the answers of Live Metadata Formats to include the new format.

<scheme>The URL of the scheme</scheme>

<metadata Namespace>The URL of the Namespace<metadata Namespace>

</metadata Format>

you will have to pay attention to the other verbs (the list sets requests, the identifiers requests) to accept Metadata Prefix with the new ims setting.

Summary

OAI-PMH allows any metadata format as long as it is coded in XML using a scheme. All the deposits must support oai_dc to ensure a minimum level of operability. If oai_dc is not populated with enough elements, it can’t be extended. If oai_dc is not precisely enough to ensure operability, a Dublin Core scheme can be used.

PURL

A PURL is an URL that sends to an intermediary location instead of the internet. The PURL can finis the transactions normally.

URI

The URI-s are strings that identify different items from the internet. The URI can be called URL-s even if the URL-s is more limited than the URI-s. The URI schemes can be used in a few schemes including HTTP and URI FTP schemes.

XML Namespaces

An XML namespace is a collection of names that identifies an URI reference. They are used in XML documents as types of elements and attribute names. The XML namespaces are different from the conventional namespaces used in programming, as the XML language has an internal structure.

XML Schemes

The XML Schemes represents vocabularies that allow the machines to interpret the rules. The XML schemes give methods to define the structure of the content and the semantics of the XML.

Container

The containers are locations from the OAI-PMH where the XML code can be used according to an external scheme. The containers exist to give extensibility to a community extension.

DCMI

DCMI is a forum that is openly engaged in developing the standards for operability. The forum allows a wide gamma of applications. The activities of DCMI include workgroups, workshops, conferences, and unified standards.