As we mentioned in the introduction to this guide, GNos provides tools to describe any type of geographic data (verctor layers, raster, tables, map services, etc.) as well as general document like reports, projects, papers, etc. For the purpose of this Quick Start Guide, an example of required and useful metadata elements to properly describe a thematic map will be provided hereafter. You should gather as much information as possible to identify and understand the map’s resource and characteristics you want to describe. Use the default view to start. If necessary, you can always switch to advanced view or come back later and edit the record with the additonal information collected.
Please follow these steps to enter your map's metadata. Note that we will only go through the fields that have been identified as compulsory (i.e. those fields marked with the asterix [*], mandatory or highly recommended).
Title * : Under the Identification Info field, give your map a name. There will be a default name of your data. Use free text to describe your map here.
Date * : Indicate the exact date of creation, publication or revision on your map.
Presentation Form: Specify the type of presentation, i.e. digital, hard copy, table, etc.
Abstract * : Enter some description of the map.
Purpose: Enter a short summary of the purposes for your map to be developed.
Status: Specify the status of your map within the following options: completed, historical archive, obsolete, ongoing, planned, required, under development.
Point of Contact: Enter all mandatory information and others you have at hand for the contact of the person(s) associated with this resources of the map. Note that some fields are only conditionally mandatory, such as Organization Name if Individual Name and Position are not entered.
Maintenance and update frequency * : Specify
the frequency with which you expect to make changes and additions to your map
after the initial version is completed. If any changes are scheduled you can
leave As Needed selected from the drop-down list.
Descriptive Keywords: Enter keywords that describe your map. Also specify the type of keyword you are entering, i.e. place, theme, etc. Remember that you can add another keyword field if you need to add different types of keywords.
Access Constraints: Enter an access constraint here, such as a copyright, trademark, etc. to assure the protection of privacy and intellectual property.
User Constraints: Enter a user constraint here to assure the protection of privacy and intellectual property.
Other Constraints * : Enter other constraint here to assure the protection of privacy and intellectual property. Note that this field is conditionally mandatory if Access and Use constraints are not entered.
Spatial representation type: Select, from the drop-down list the method used to spatially represent your data. The options are: vector, grid, text table, stereo model, video.
Scale Denominator * : Enter the denominator for an equivalent scale of a hard copy of the map.
Language * : Select the language used within your map
Topic category * : Specify the main ISO category/ies through which your map could be classified (see Annex for the complete list of ISO topic categories).
Temporal Extent * : Enter the starting and ending date of the validity period.
Geographic Bounding Box * : Enter the longitude and latitude for the map or select a region from the predefined drop-down list. Make sure you use degrees for the unit of the geographic coordinates as they are the basis for the geographic searches.
Supplemental Information: Enter any other descriptive information about your map that can help the user to better understand its content.
Distribution Info: Enter information about the distributor and about options for obtaining your map.
Online Resource: Enter information about online resources for the map, such as where a user may download it, etc. This information should include a link, the link type (protocol) and a description of the resource.
Reference System Info: Enter information about the spatial reference system of your map. The default view contains one element to provide the alphanumeric value identifying the reference system used. GNos uses the EPSG codes which are numeric codes associated with coordinate system definitions. For instance, EPSG:4326 is Geographic lat-long WGS84, and EPSG:32611 is "UTM zone 11 North, WGS84". Using elements from the advanced view, you may add more details on data projection, ellipsoid and datum. Note that if this information is provided, a reference system identifier is not mandatory.
Data Quality: Specify the hierarchal level of
the data (dataset series, dataset, features, attributes, etc.) and provide a general explanation on the production processes (lineage) used
for creating the data. The statement element is mandatory if the hierarchical
level element is equal to dataset or
series. Detailed information on completeness, logical consistency and positional, thematic and
temporal accuracy can be directly added
into the advanced form.
Metadata Author * : Provide information about the author of the map, including the person’s name, organization, position, role and any other contact information available.
After completion of this section, you may select the Type of document that you are going to save in the catalogue. You have three options: Metadata, Template, Sub-template. By default Metadata is set up.
When done, you may click Save or Save and
Close to close the editing session.
Next, you need to create a graphic overview of your map which will be for a double purpose; as small thumbnail will be displayed in search results and as large thumbnail with much more details, to allow users to properly evaluate the data usefulness. As for the latest, the image that you will use as source should be a significant reproduction of the real dataset, possibly inclusive of the legend.
To create a thumbnail, go to the editing menu for your map. If you are no
longer in editing mode, retrieve the map from one of the search options then
click on Edit. Then follow these simple steps:
From the editing menu, click on the
Thumbnailsbutton on the top or bottom of the page. (Figure 4.10, “The thumbnail wizard button”)
You will be taken to the
Thumbnail Managementwizard (Figure 4.11, “Thumbnail wizard”).To create a small or large thumbnail, click on the
Browsebutton next to either one. It is recommended that you use 180 pixels for small thumbnails and 800x600 for large thumbnails. Using the ‘Large thumbnail’ option allows you to create both a small and large thumbnail in one go.You can use GIF, PNG and JPEG images as input for the thumbnails.
A pop up window will appear allowing you to browse your files on your computer.
Selectthe file you wish to create a thumbnail with by double-clicking on it.Click on
Add.Your thumbnail will be added and displayed on the following page.
You can then click on
Back to Editingand save your record (Figure 4.12, “Completed thumbnail wizard”).
Finally, you can upload the dataset stored on your local computer and then create a link between data and related description. Files in whatever format can be uploaded: doc, PDF, images, vector layers, etc. For the latter the distribution in a compressed file is recommended. You can include the verctor data, the legend, any documentation that can help the interpretation of the data, related reports, detailed descriptions of the data processing, base data used to create the dataset specified and/or other relevant information. Follow these guidelines for uploading datasets:
Make sure the total size of the compressed file is reasonable (less than 50 MB). Should your data be bigger than 50MB, consider a different mechanism to serve this data, e.g. through an FTP or HTTP server and than link the resource through an online resource ‘Web address (URL)’.
You can create several smaller files when appropriate and upload them sequentially.
You add the size of the file at the end of the description field.
To Upload a Dataset, follow these steps (Figure 4.13, “An online resource”):
The URL field can be left empty when uploading a file. The system will automatically fill this field out;
Select the correct protocol to be used. If you do not see the buttons to browse and upload when File for download is selected, save the metadata and return to the upload section. Both buttons should appear;
Provide a short description of the data;
Click the
Browsebutton and navigate to the folder where the file to be released is stored. Consider if you want to upload multiple files as one unique zip file or as multiple separate downloads. It is a good idea to add additional documentation with the datasets that provide the user with information related to the data described. Remind: the size of a single file to upload can't exceed 50 Mbytes;Click
Uploadand thenSave.
As an important step of entering metadata to your map, you need to assign privileges for each map. This means that you will identify which work groups have which privileges, i.e. view, download, etc. for your particular map.
For instance, you can fdefine if the information and related services is visible to all (Internet users) or just to internal users only (Intranet). Privileges are assigned on a per group basis. Depending on the user profile (Guest, Registered User, Editor, Admin etc.) access to these functions may differ on a per user basis.
To assign privileges for your map, follow these steps:
Find your map by using the search option. Whether you have multiple or single results from the search, on top of the individual record or next to the record you will always see a row of buttons including a Privileges button (Figure 4.14, “The editing toolbar with
Privilegesbutton”).
Click on the Privileges button. This will take you to a new page. You can assign certain privileges to specific groups by selecting or deselecting them from this page. Simply click on the small box next to the privilege to place or remove a checkmark. Set All and Clear All buttons allow you to place and remove the checkmarks all at once (Figure 4.15, “Privileges settings”).
Below is a brief description for each privilege to help you identify which ones you should assign to which group(s).
Publish: Users in the specified group/s are able to see the map, i.e. if searching with matching criteria.
Download: Users in the specified group/s are able to download the map.
Interactive Map: Users in the specified group/s are able to get an interactive map. The interactive map has to be created separately using a Web Map Server, which is part of the GeoNetwork opensource application.
Featured: When selected, the map is placed in the Features Maps of the home page and it appears there randomly.
Notify: Users in that work group receive notification that the map has been uploaded.
As a final step to entering metadata for a map, you should assign categories for it. The assigned categories will determine the categories the map will display under on the home page. To assign categories for a map, follow these steps:
Find your map by using the search option. Whether you have multiple or single results from your search, on top of the individual record or next to the record, you will always see a row of buttons including a Categories button.
Click on the Categories button. This will take you to a new page. You can assign one or multiple categories selecting or deselecting them from this page. Simply click on the small box next to the category to place or remove a checkmark. (Figure 4.16, “Category management”)
