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Research Data Archiving Project

 bullet What’s new
 bullet    HTML export feature
 bullet Bug fix descriptions
   
   
 bullet Contact Info
  bullet Dave Rugg
 

drugg@fs.fed.us

   
  USDA Forest Service
 

North Central Research Station
1992 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108

 

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Metavist 2005

An Editor for FGDC metadata, including the Biological Data Profile

version 1.3 (released May 2006)

What’s new

For new metadata documents, the default style sheet is no longer expected to be a copy of NBII_classic.xsl in the document directory. Instead, the program now defaults to the copy of NBII_classic.xsl in the program directory. This works even if you install to a program directory other than the default of C:\Program Files\Metavist.

Version 1.0 placed a shortcut on the desktop. Version 1.2 places a shortcut on the desktop and adds a shortcut to the Start menu. This should more closely conform to Windows XP expectations of very little desktop content. It can also help reduce the desktop clutter for Windows 2000 users who don’t use the software frequently.

Export HTML feature

One major feature has been added to the program — the ability to directly export HTML suitable for use in a Web browser. Version 1.0 relied on the use of style sheets to display the underlying XML in a browser. A drawback of this approach was that any paragraph structure in the XML representation was lost in the HTML display. The HTML exported from the program retains the paragraph structure, making it easier to read the metadata document.

To use this feature: create or open metadata document, go to File menu and select "Export HTML". You will be asked to specify a style sheet and then specify a destination file for the HTML. The output is UTF-8, all special characters are preserved, paragraph breaks are preserved. Firefox displays the output file correctly as it written. IE needs you to open the file in Notepad and re-save it (same name or new name, doesn't matter) — this will cause any special characters, such as m-dashes or Greek letters, to display correctly. Because of the prevalence of IE as a browser, performing the Notepad step is probably worthwhile.

A couple of files in the program directory demonstrate this. "special.xml" is a very short metadata document that just has some special characters in the Abstract element. "special.html" is the HTML output from the program that displays correctly in Firefox but not IE; "special.notepad.html" has been opened and saved in Notepad (no other changes) and it displays correctly in both Firefox and IE.

Disclaimer: This feature was added fairly quickly and does not have as much error checking/recovery/reporting as the rest of the program. While this will be addressed in version 2.0, you should be aware that the HTML export feature may be somewhat fragile. And I would greatly appreciate hearing of problems you encounter with it (or any other part of the program).


Bug Fixes

Version 1.1

Planar Coordinate System Definition (reported by Ken Papp, Alaska DNR)
Ken: Why do I get an error telling me that I have changed the grid projection and that parameters need to be updated if I only made changes to the "Planar Coordinate Information" (i.e. layer name or abscissa resolution)? This requires me to click on "Edit Parameters" in the "Coordinate System" tab, do nothing, click "OK", then click "OK" again.

Dave: This is symptomatic of a more generic problem – If you fire up a copy of Metavist, open a document that has Spatial Reference Info already present, go to the Spatial Reference tab and click on Edit in the Planar area, your pre-defined Planar Coordinate System Definition pops up. Click on OK without doing anything else and the “Specification error” message (displayed below) incorrectly pops up.

Bug is fixed; December 1, 2005

 

Time Period of Content (reported by Dave Rugg, USDA Forest Service)
If you set a single date and then convert to a range of dates, the initial conversion works correctly but the program won’t let the user change the beginning date (the controls work properly in the edit window, but when the OK button is clicked the beginning date is always set to be the same as the ending date).

Bug is fixed; April 13, 2006


Available Time Period (reported by Laurie Porth, USDA Forest Service)
The graphical interface doesn’t work – clicking Add doesn’t do anything. (This is an optional item in Distribution Information section, under Distributor/Prerequisites & Availability.)

Bug is fixed; April 17, 2006


Dates (reported by Dave Rugg, USDA Forest Service)
BCE and pre-BCE dates are written correctly when a document is saved, but the program fails to process them correctly when reading a metadata document.

Bug is fixed; April 18, 2006


Writing the Data Quality section (reported by Dave Rugg, USDA Forest Service with help from Terry Giles, US Geological Survey)
The manual says that the presence of a Logical Consistency Report, a Completeness Report, or Lineage–Processing Steps will cause the Data Quality section to be processed when writing a metadata document. Version 1.0 actually uses only the Report elements.

Bug is fixed; April 28, 2006


Version 1.2

No bug fixes. HTML export feature added.


Version 1.3

Citation Information (reported by Ken Papp, Alaska DNR)
Publication day is not parsed into the form, and so is subject to being lost when Citation Information is edited.

Bug is fixed; May 9, 2006


Entity & Attribute – Detailed (reported by Ken Papp, Alaska DNR)
The first specification of Ending Date of Attribute Values sets Ending Year = 1. When editing Attribute Values, Ending Date does not appear in the editing window.

Bugs are fixed; May 9, 2006 (Ending Year now initializes to same value as Beginning Year)


Distribution Information (reported by Ken Papp, Alaska DNR)
When there are multiple distributors, the wrong Digital Forms are presented for editing when editing Distributors other than the first distributor.

Bug is fixed; May 16, 2006


Other issues

  • “MetaPad” is used as the name of the software instead of “Metavist”, reflecting earlier programming. I think this has been fixed via search and replace, but would appreciate hearing of any stray instances. (last search April 13, 2006)
  • Spelling errors shouldn’t exist in interface windows or error pop-ups, but would appreciate hearing of any stray instances. (some spelling errors fixed April 13, 2006, including the misspelling in the error message addressed in the next issue)
  • When a metadata document is opened that contains an old-style SPCS Zone Identifier made up of some text and a number, the error message (displayed below) can be misleading because there may be 4 digits in the Identifier. The new error message specifies that the Zone Identifier must be a 4 digit number with no text. (April 13, 2006)



Thank you for your interest!!


 

Science for Peoples’ Sake

Since 1923, the North Central Research Station has been the leading Federal agency for natural resource research and development in the Midwest. We provide the scientific basis for decisions and policies that affect the management and use of forests in the region. Our research and development advances the understanding of ecosystems, interactions between people and those ecosystems, and ways to provide benefits for people within the capabilities of the land.

 Last modified: May 2006