For the first time in a decade, metadata has a new look and feel with ArcGIS 10. While it may take some getting used to, these changes provide new opportunities for creating and managing metadata. While adapting to the new environment, it may help to understand the goals for metadata with this release.
To start with, both the FGDC and ISO metadata editors provided with ArcGIS 9.3.1 were written using Visual Basic 6. Several metadata utilities provided with ArcGIS Desktop and developer samples were also written using Visual Basic 6. Since ArcGIS 10 doesn’t support Visual Basic 6, the stage was set to build a new metadata solution.
Support for metadata standards
One goal for ArcGIS 10 is to support creating complete metadata that complies with the following standards.
- The Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM).
- ISO 19139, Geographic Information – Metadata – Implementation Specification. This standard provides instruction for implementing ISO 19115, a metadata content standard for describing data, and ISO 19119, a metadata content standard for describing services
- The North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 (NAP). This has been adopted in Canada and by the U.S., though the FGDC CSDGM remains the defacto U.S. standard at this time.
- INSPIRE Metadata Implementing Rules, for Europe.
Satisfying this requirement is difficult when the standards themselves are often in flux. New profiles of these standards are being created and several ISO metadata standards are entering phases of review and revision, including ISO 19115 and ISO 19119. With the review of ISO 19110 Feature Cataloguing Methodology, support for documenting feature attributes will likely be added to a future revision of ISO 19139. And, in an increasingly global society, there is a need to create metadata that satisfies multiple standards and profiles so information can be shared among different communities.
The solution is to create one new metadata editor that lets you author metadata content appropriately for all metadata standards. With one environment for working with metadata, all ArcGIS users can have the same metadata experience, and that experience will remain constant despite ongoing changes to the standards themselves. Whether you author FGDC metadata today or North American Profile metadata tomorrow, you work with metadata the same way in ArcGIS 10.
Updated technology
You might miss the ArcGIS 9.3.1 FGDC metadata editor because you’re an FGDC CSDGM expert and know it like the back of your hand. But, let’s face it, it’s not a very good application—as witnessed by the continuing frustrations of new metadata users.
Others might miss the ArcGIS 9.3.1 ISO metadata editor because it’s easier to use and has a nice way to help you create valid metadata. But, because of its design limitations, an enormous number of new pages would be required to create ISO 19139-compliant metadata and there’s nothing easy about that.
Our goal with ArcGIS 10 was to build an easy-to-use metadata editor based on the best qualities of the old editors but with modern Web-style forms for editing content. This includes future updates to ArcGIS 10 features such as reusing contact information and validating metadata content in a similar manner to the 9.3.1 ISO metadata editor.
The resulting ArcGIS metadata editor is based on the .NET 3.5 Framework, which uses W3C-compliant XSLT stylesheets for metadata display. This is an improvement on the ArcGIS 9.3.1 metadata environment, which was based on version 3.0 of the Microsoft MSXML parser, using its decade-old XML technology for managing metadata content and its proprietary XSL stylesheet technology for viewing metadata. However, the .NET Framework prevents ArcGIS 10 from supporting the old, non-standard XSL stylesheets that were used in previous ArcGIS releases. Also, the new forms for editing metadata require changing how some information is stored in the metadata because of how they interact with XML documents.
More blog post on this new approach for metadata coming soon… Next up we’ll cover the new XML format and talk about Metadata styles.
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28 Responses to A new approach for Metadata with ArcGIS 10 (part 1)
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Originally posted by rpe2: Our goal with ArcGIS 10 was to build an easy-to-use metadata editor based on the best qualities of the old editors but with modern Web-style forms for editing content.
My issue is with the web style forms. Some items seem repititive and with the tabs you could see that it wasn’t repititive just in another section of the metadata. I don’t have a required metadata standard in my organization (I actually don’t have any metadata requirements) but I want a simple interface that still meets those standards if I want to share my data.
The metadata editor at ArcGIS 10 has caused us a lot of problems so far in that it will not let us upgrade our metadata smoothly because it balks on characters such as & and < included in our comments etc. The metadata was originally generated in 8.X and that seems to also be part of the issue as well based on reading some of the ESRI help. Solutions?
My question is simple – how do you edit the *real* Citation Title in the XML with the editor? Metadata should have clarity, and that is not what is happening in GIS metadata. In ArcCatalog 10, under the FGDC Metadata display, the Citation Title may be the plain English title proper given by the author. Under the ArCGIS Metadata the Citation Title is the SDE dataset Name or filename. When you click on Edit the default content of the Item Description Title is the object or file Name, despite actual XML standard content. Where is the actual Citation Title if I wanted to make a change? And why the original keywords entered in the actual metadata XML do not show up in the editor’s Keywords section?
The new metadata interface is neither helping experienced GIS users nor educating the new GIS users. Are you telling us the most critical information about GIS data is messed up because ESRI cannot afford to write some new XSL files?
In response to Eric112200: The cause of the upgrade problem with the & and < characters has been identified and it will be addressed with SP2.
In response to dchiang:
There are two places in the ArcGIS metadata editor where you can edit the item’s primary Citation Title: on the Item Description page > Title, and on the Citation page > Titles > Title.
The title displayed at the top of the page when you look at an item’s metadata in the Description is the ArcGIS metadata Citation Title – the one that is provided in either of these two locations in the ArcGIS metadata editor. ArcGIS 10 works the same as previous versions of ArcGIS in that if a descriptive title hasn’t been provided, the item’s name will automatically be added to ArcGIS metadata as the default title.
The content that you can see under the FGDC metadata heading in the Description tab is FGDC metadata content that was provided using the ArcGIS 9.3.1 FGDC metadata editor. This content is displayed for reference and is effectively read-only. The ArcGIS metadata editor only edits metadata content that is stored in the new ArcGIS metadata XML format—the topic to be covered in the next metadata blog post.
FGDC metadata content that was provided with ArcGIS 9.3.1 must be upgraded to the ArcGIS metadata format using the Upgrade Metadata geoprocessing tool before that content can be edited using the ArcGIS 10 metadata editor. Once this process is complete, the keywords that you see under the FGDC metadata heading will also show up in the keywords section under the ArcGIS metadata heading and will be available in the Keywords page in the ArcGIS metadata editor.
The Upgrade tool updated the keywords section of the new format so the 9.3 FGDC keywords now appeared in the Editor, but the dataset title did not automatically update to the original descriptive title under the new Overview/Citation/Titles/Title path.
Regarding upgrading FGDC metadata and losing the title… yes, the Upgrade Metadata tool does actually copy the title over, but when ArcGIS automatically updates the metadata to include the latest properties the descriptive title is lost at that point. We will look for a solution.
In response to ksjosh82: The FGDC and ISO metadata standards have a lot in common, but the information is organized differently. While it is straightforward to create FGDC-compliant metadata from ISO-organized metadata content, the reverse is not true. Therefore, ArcGIS 10 organizes content in an ISO manner.
FGDC metadata has seven main sections and three with reusable content: citations, contacts, and times. Some concepts like access, use, and security constraints are virtually identical for describing metadata and data but are not considered a reusable section.
ISO metadata standards are based on UML models and take advantage of their flexibility. Classes are reused whenever appropriate, including: citations, contacts, online resources, extents (spatial and temporal), constraints, maintenance details, spatial references, data formats, and so on. General classes may also have specialized subclasses. For example, general raster classes have imagery subclasses that inherit the general raster content and add imagery-specific elements.
ISO metadata also has more repeating elements than FGDC metadata. (When exporting, if FGDC allows only one, only the first element is exported.)
So, yes, by design the ArcGIS metadata editing forms have sections that repeat more and differently than in the 9.3.1 FGDC metadata editor.
@avienneau
But my biggest gripe is the web style metadata editing. It seems terribly disorganized to me and not nearly as user friendly as the editor in 9.3.1 and prior.
I also notice that there are some elements within the FGDC that I cannot edit, or at least I can’t figure out how. The line called Online Linkage is incorrect. Its under the citation section. It’s yet another example of fixing something that for many of us was not broken.
At present there are two different ways that URLs describing the location of a resource can be provided in ArcGIS metadata. When FGDC metadata is exported from ArcGIS, the URLs provided using both methods will be included in the exported FGDC citation as online linkages.
1) In the resources’s citation, a URL can be provided in association with a contact. For example, if you are creating FGDC metadata you will provide contacts that are designated as the originator and possibly also as the publisher of the resource. You can put the online linkage URL in one of the contact’s online contact information: Citation Contacts page > Contact > Contact Information > Online Resource > Linkage. This is not the best way, but it is one way.
2) A better way is to provide the resource’s URL as part of the digital transfer information for the resource: Distribution page > Digital Transfer Options > Online Resource > Linkage. When ArcGIS metadata is exported to FGDC format, an FGDC Distribution Information section will only be generated in the output file if a Distributor contact has been provided. So, putting the resource’s URL on the Distribution page doesn’t mean you’re obligated to provide full FGDC Distribution Information content.
When FGDC metadata is upgraded or imported to ArcGIS metadata, the resource citation’s online linkage is recorded in the second location. This is a different approach to organizing information, but one that is analogous to the FGDC citation online linkage concept.
Temporal extent exists in the imported version of my arc10 metadata but I can’t find to edit it anywhere. I don’t think going into the raw xml to edit was the intention.
The ArcGIS 10 metadata editor is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application. The Microsoft WPF Toolkit doesn’t come with a control that lets us pick a time of day, so we need to build one of our own. We are working on building a solution, and can’t support temporal extent until we do as the solution may affect the format in which we store dates and times in ArcGIS 10 metadata. This issue is NIM063413, if you want to periodically check on our progress.
I have a question regarding the web metadata editor, concerning the INSPIRE norm, we are allowed to have 1 or more keywords, however the web editor only allows to have one keyword per metadata.
Is there anyway to change this? Changing the ***-definitions.xml, for example?
Or should the changes be more on code side, as opposed to the schemas.
Thanks for your time.
I don’t know what web editor you are asking about. I can only comment about the metadata editor in ArcGIS Desktop.
None of the metadata editors that have ever been provided with ArcGIS Desktop have ever limited you to providing only one keyword. In ArcGIS 10 if you enter any tags for searching on the Item Description page, separate them by commas. When entering formal keywords for an item’s metadata on the Topics & Keywords page, separate them using carriage returns — this lets you use a phrase for a keyword that includes a comma, e.g. for place names, if this is relevant in your situation.
I’m sorry, I realised that I posted my question in Desktop 10 blog, my question was about geoportal extensions…
Feel free to delete it, since it has nothing to do with this blog.
Best regards.
Has issue NIM063413 (not being able to edit temporal extent) been fixed? I tried searching for the issue number but it doesn’t show up in the list of known issues. If it has been fixed, how does one go about editing temporal extents?
A fix for this issue is not yet available.
I’m not sure if I’m reading things correctly but it sounds like I need to hit the “upgrade” button if I want to see Metadata from 9.3 in 10. Is this really the case and do I have to upgrade every single feature class and shapefile individually? That is a lot of “upgrading”.
You don’t have to upgrade just to see metadata. You have to upgrade if you want to edit or otherwise manage your metadata content in ArcGIS 10.
Upgrading is accomplished using the Upgrade Metadata geoprocessing tool. Upgrading one item at a time is fine when you’re getting your feet wet. After that, the best way to upgrade is to open this tool in batch mode from the Conversion toolbox, or write a Python script that upgrades all appropriate items.
There doesn’t seem to be a way to create/edit the FGDC require elements: “Time Period of Content”, or citation “Originator”. You would think if it’s required there would be a way to create it?
If you look at the above comments from Jan. 31st you’ll see the answer about Time Period of Content. Time Period of Content = Temporal Extent. You define the originator by adding a “Citation Contact” and specifying that contact’s role as being the “originator”.
It will be a while before I see ArcGIS 10, so maybe the new metadata tool will have a feature I would like to see. Currently using 9.3.1. I would like to be able to import sections of one metadata to another without resorting to copy/paste. If I import the metadata itself, the Geoprocesing gets over written and replaced with the geoproccessing of the metadata imported.
In ArcGIS 10, importing metadata is accomplished using the Import Metadata geoprocessing tool. This tool won’t overwrite an item’s existing geoprocessing history or remove its thumbnail, for example.
We will start introducing methods for managing portions of a metadata document that are common to many items in ArcGIS 10.1, beginning with managing contact information.
We have upgraded our desktops to ArcGIS 10 but our ArcSDE is still at 9.3.1. Is it true that we will not be able to upgrade our metadata and edit it until we upgrade our SDE to 10 also?
You can upgrade the metadata stored in a 9.3.1 ArcSDE geodatabase to the ArcGIS metadata format using ArcGIS Desktop 10. Upgrading the metadata is completely independent from upgrading the geodatabase.
If you later upgrade the geodatabase to version 10, that operation doesn’t change the metadata format or content in any way — it will just be stored in a new place in the geodatabase schema.
I am trying to edit metadata in Arc10 (I just upgraded from 9.3). When I enter information and save, and then return to the Description tab, I can see the summary information and credits, but not the information under the description heading. Why?
It’s difficult to say without any details, but there was a known issue with 10.0 for displaying descriptions when certain characters were included in the content, especially: &, < , or >. With 10.0 SP3, fixes were made to the display so you could at least see the text, even if you couldn’t see any text formatting. A fix should be available in SP4 via NIM064369.