MetaScribe John Ulmer NOAA Coastal Services Center An FGDC Metadata Record Builder

What is MetaScribe? Where is MetaScribe? When to use MetaScribe? Templates Check you template Build a Record Caveats Presentation Outline

What is MetaScribe? MetaScribe: Is a Web-based template-driven FGDC metadata record builder. Is intended to reduce the labor required to build a metadata record. Is written in Perl using the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Intended to create collections of similar records. Uses ‘cns’ and ‘mp’ to proof the output.

Where is MetaScribe?

When to use MetaScribe? MetaScribe works well when: You are building multiple records with largely redundant content. You have a few (~< 25) items which will change from record to record. Those few items are the same items in each record. MetaScribe does not work well when: Your records have little redundant content. Your records will have varying numbers of repeating fields.

Templates Template Construction is not trivial! A working understanding of the FGDC CSDGM is required. A template must be plain text. The tags behave like HTML. If you can write a little HTML, you can build a template.

Build a template 1 - Write your first metadata record. 2 - Check it with ‘cns’ and ‘mp’. 3 - Identify variable portions and replace them with tags following this form. 4 - Each unique tag_name will produce a data entry field in the resulting screen. 5 - Multiple instances of the same tag_name will produce a single input field.

About the Tags Each tag has a name and attributes. The tag_name is the first item in the tag. Each unique tag_name will produce an input field in the data entry screen. The type, label, and value attributes are mandatory. The type attribute controls the style of input field to be presented and can be a ‘textbox,’ ‘textarea,’ ‘checkbox,’ ‘select,’ ‘simple_list,’ or ‘fgdc_list.’

The label attribute shows up as the label for the field in the data entry screen and can give instructions or translate FGDC-ese into English. The value attribute can define the default content for the field, or it can be instructions to your users. The fgdc attribute is optional. If used, it must contain a valid FGDC field name from the CSDGM. When combined with the type attribute of fgdc_list, it inserts the indicated FGDC field name before each line entered into the field. More About the Tags

A Brief Example These tags, Publication_Date: Title: produce this input screen.

MetaScribe’s Template Checker You can upload your draft template into MetaScribe’s template checker. It will parse your tags and present a report of the each tag with it’s associated type, label, value, and fgdc content.

Build a Record To build a record: First, upload your template into MetaScribe. You can either browse to your template file or cut and paste the text into the text box. Next, fill in the fields as prompted. Finally, submit the input screen.

Caveats (You knew there’d be a few.)  MetaScribe uses ‘cns’ and ‘mp’ to proof the new record. If either of them show an error, MetaScribe will report the error and will not produce the record. Consequently, those things which cause ‘cns’ or ‘mp’ to report errors will prevent the delivery of a record.  Text wrapping is quirky. MetaScribe uses a simple text wrapping routine. If the output for a given template wraps inappropriate, you will need to adjust the template.

Demo the Thing