This is the final post in a series of blog post about the new approach for Metadata with ArcGIS 10. Here is the link to part 1 and part 2 of this series.
Simple item descriptions
As
crazy as it seems to the metadata community, some GIS professionals
have no interest in or requirement to create standards-compliant
metadata. While ArcGIS clearly embraces metadata standards, it must also
support people who aren’t required to follow them.
Another goal
of ArcGIS 10 was to introduce simple, generic descriptions of items; it
is this type of simple description on which ArcGIS Online is based. A
simple item description is merely a very small subset of ArcGIS
metadata, and the metadata style supporting it is essentially a very
restrictive filter that only allows a few pieces of information.
ArcGIS
metadata supports all standards; one is not preferred over the others.
As a result, the Item Description metadata style is the default style in
ArcGIS 10. The beauty of the new metadata environment is the simple
description someone provides today can easily be turned into
standards-compliant metadata later, if requirements change, merely by
changing the metadata style.
Integration with ArcGIS software
With
a single body of metadata content to draw on, it becomes easier for
ArcGIS software to leverage information in an item’s metadata. Another
goal was to start making this possibility a reality. For example, with
ArcGIS 10 when you create a layer, the layer’s description will be
populated automatically if it has ArcGIS metadata including layer
description content.
Similarly, if you change a map’s
properties in ArcMap, that content is saved in both the map document and
in ArcGIS metadata if metadata exists. When you change the same
information in the map’s metadata using the ArcGIS metadata editor, the
changes are also saved in the map document. When a map is packaged,
information in ArcGIS metadata (if it exists) will provide the
descriptive information needed to build the package, and that same
information will become the map’s description if it is shared with
ArcGIS Online.
Focus on geoprocessing
ArcGIS
software has increasingly focused on making typical GIS tasks available
as geoprocessing tools. In ArcGIS 9.3.1 some metadata tasks were
available both as geoprocessing tools and as buttons on the ArcCatalog
Metadata toolbar, while others were available only as buttons or as
geoprocessing tools. An important goal for ArcGIS 10 was to make all
metadata tasks available as geoprocessing tools because a Metadata
toolbar is not provided in the Catalog window to support metadata tasks.
Several new tools were added to the Metadata toolset in the Conversion
toolbox to support importing, exporting, and synchronizing metadata.
Because
the ISO 19139 metadata standard is an implementation specification that
provides a set of XML schemas in XSD format for validating metadata,
new geoprocessing tools were also added to validate metadata using XML
schemas. This basic form of validation is required to satisfy metadata
standard requirements. Future updates to the ArcGIS metadata editor will
include more integrated validation for metadata content.
Conclusion
ArcGIS
10 provides one way for everyone to manage their metadata. Because
there is just one metadata environment to build, we can focus on
improving usability and everyone will benefit. There is a better
framework for a global environment where users must support multiple
metadata standards. And, with one set of metadata content to build on,
metadata can become more integrated with ArcGIS software.
As we continue to improve metadata support in ArcGIS, we think you’ll start to agree that change can be good.
Post provided by Aleta (Esri Metadata Team)
13 Responses to A new approach for Metadata with ArcGIS 10 (part 3)
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As crazy as it seems to the metadata community, some GIS professionals have no interest in or requirement to create standards-compliant metadata
I must say I am a little offended by this statement. I have little interest in creating standards compliant metadata mostly because I rarely distribute the data to outside organizations. Not much sense in going to the trouble of proper formatting if nobody is going to read it. I still try to maintain metadata and it generally is in one of the standard forms but that is only by design of the software.
What can I say? Some people evangelize metadata standards as the answer to all. Some people point to Google and other examples to make the case that you can get a lot done without following any standards. The ArcGIS user community consists of people who traverse the spectrum of opinions relating to metadata and we need to support them all. With the changes made in ArcGIS 10 we have a good opportunity to meet all of their requirements without compromising the ability to share information.
Any plans to include an ANZLIC compliant translator?
See following post:
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/11229-metadata-and-anzlic-compliance
My experience with Item Description for Script Tools has been extremely disappointing.
I cannot edit it from ArcMap (I can, but only bare-bones summary info…Have to go to ArcCatalog for detailed info.)
I cannot add graphics anymore. I can, but they show up inconsistently.
Sometimes, edits I make in ArcCatalog do NOT show up in ArcMap. I can see them in ArcCatalog, but not in ArcMap.
In one instance, a detailed explanation of a script shows up that is a “leftover” from the script I started with. It needs to be updated, but I cannot find it anywhere. It is not in the tool Properties. It is not the “Summary” explanation from Item Descriptoin. It’s in there somewhere, and I’ll keep digging until I find it.
This thing has really been a mess.
When you are in ArcMap, make sure you open the tool’s description from the Catalog window, not the ArcToolbox window. It is a known issue that if you open the Item Description window from the ArcToolbox window it will show the description for the selected item in the Catalog window, *not* the description for the selected tool in the ArcToolbox window.
If you open the tool’s description from the Catalog window in ArcMap you’ll see the process of editing the tool’s description is exactly the same in the Item Description window as in ArcCatalog. If this is not your experience then I suggest you contact support.
The Item Description page in the editor will only show the controls for describing tools if the selected item in the Catalog is actually a tool.
Can you describe backwards compatibility? Will metadata authored in v10 be readable in v9x? Will metadata authored in v9x, then editted in v10 be readable in 9x?
I just had some back and forth with tech support on this. avienneau
chime in if I am misunderstanding something.
1. CSDGM2-format (“FGDC Metadata”) created in 9.3.1 can be stored viewed in 10.x. The FGDC metadata is stored “parallel” with the ArcGIS metadata. You need to turn on the FGDC stylesheet (ArcMap/ArcCatalog Options / Metadata tab) to see it. This stylesheet was released as a patch to 10.0 final and is included in ArcGIS 10 SP 1
and later.
2. A “legacy” FGDC metadata editor is available for editing existing 9.3.1 metadata. It does not support “refresh” from the dataset, if you want to populate FGDC metadata you need to use ArcGIS 9.3.1.
FGDC metadata may be imported (“upgraded”) to ArcGIS metadata, but information will be lost – as the new ISO 19139 standard does not support some FGDC elements and the importer is targeted to ISO 19139.
http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisdesktop/archive/2010/06/25/FGDC-Metadata-Editor-for-ArcGIS-10.aspx
3. FGDC metadata may be imported (“upgraded”) to ArcGIS metadata, but information will be lost – as the new ISO 19139 standard does not support some FGDC elements and the importer is targeted to ISO 19139.
4. A translator is provided to go the other way – export FGDC metadata from an ArcGIS metadata record. If FGDC metadata exists (either from editing in 9.3.1 or using the Arc 10 9.3.1-editor addin, most of them are included in the “translated” output.
Responding to SarahFalzarano: This topic needs to be the subject of its own separate post because I can’t do it justice in comments. While we may provide the ability to see ArcGIS 10 metadata in previous versions of ArcGIS, the content would be read-only. If what you really need to do is share your data and metadata created in ArcGIS 10 with someone who has a previous version of ArcGIS and they need to be able to edit the metadata, this is an entirely different problem. Possible, but not something I can describe in 100 words or less.
Responding to curtvprice:
1. Yes and no. It isn’t actually necessary to use the FGDC CSDGM Metadata style to see any 9.3.1 FGDC metadata that is present. Any metadata style provided with ArcGIS 10 except for Item Description will show this content under the FGDC Metadata heading.
It is important to recognize that the patch that provided FGDC support for ArcGIS 10 did so by providing a new metadata STYLE. Metadata styles are a new concept in ArcGIS 10. One property of a metadata style governs the display of metadata using a STYLESHEET. Metadata styles and metadata stylesheets are not synonymous. The patch, which is also included in SP1, does not actually provide a new stylesheet for viewing metadata. It provides a new metadata style that configures ArcGIS 10 to handle metadata content in a manner that is appropriate for the FGDC CSDGM standard.
2. Yes. The FGDC metadata editor add-in lets you edit content stored in FGDC XML elements, which are visible under the FGDC Metadata heading. This content will not be automatically updated when the data changes. It also can’t be exported or validated using the buttons in the Description tab or on the Metadata toolbar in ArcCatalog.
3. No. Our intent is for ArcGIS metadata to include all FGDC metadata content. If you upgrade FGDC metadata to ArcGIS metadata, in general, information should not be lost in the process. Sure, there are some fixes we need make, and there is room for discussing semantics about things that are similar but not identical, but in general there should be no significant loss of information.
4. Yes and no. I refer you to this graphic from part 2: http://downloads2.esri.com/blogs/images/dev_22115.jpg. The ArcGIS metadata editor in the Description tab edits the big blue stovepipe’s ArcGIS metadata XML elements; this includes any 9.3.1 FGDC metadata content that was upgraded to version 10. The FGDC metadata editor add-in edits content in the FGDC XML elements associated with the little yellow stovepipe’s footprint in this diagram. The attribute descriptions that are shared between the two is the content where these two footprints overlap.
The Export button on the Description tab takes content from the big blue stovepipe and uses a translator (provided by the patch) to create an FGDC XML file from it. The translator doesn’t at all interact with the yellow footprint content edited by the FGDC metadata editor add-in except for attribute descriptions, which are shared between the two.
In previous versions of ArcGIS, and with regards to an enterprise GIS, the metadata was stored in the GDB_UserMetadata table. Has this changed? We have used an online dll that is basically a “metadata viewer” that works within a customized ArcMap environment. Perhaps an add-in that can do this and give the capability to show different stylesheets as before?
The internal structure of a geodatabase changed with ArcGIS 10 as described in this Help topics: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/The_architecture_of_a_geodatabase/003n000000r4000000/. An item’s metadata is now stored in the GDB_Items table in the Documentation column. At the bottom are links to topics that cover the new geodatabase schema in detail for individual RDBMSs. The Documentation column doesn’t have the same data type in all RDBMSs.
Is it possible to import metadata created in ArcGIS10 to a 9.3.1 SDE geodatabase? The import is failing for me.
When I export a feature class from a FGDB in ArcGIS10 to a 9.3.1 SDE geodatabase, the metadata is not coming over with the layer. Even when I open the Metadata Editor (in ArcGIS 10 Desktop) and run Import metadata and select by FGDB feat class, or an exported .xsl1 file, the import fails. The process log shows some validation errors. The metadata was created under the metadata style setting for FGDC CSDGM from Customize > ArcCatalog Options > Metadata tab.
Yes, it is possible to get metadata created in an ArcGIS 10 geodatabase into a 9.3.1 geodatabase. Please contact technical support so that you can get appropriate help with your import/export issue. If I try to guess what you are doing based on the comments you posted I would be doing just that — guessing.