'$RCSfile: eml-entity.xsd,v $' Copyright: 2000 Regents of the University of California and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis For Details: http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/ '$Author: jones $' '$Date: 2001-07-13 17:35:36 $' '$Revision: 1.18 $' This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA eml-entity The EML Entity Module defines the logical characteristics of every entity in the dataset. Entities are usually tables of data with a fixed logical structure, but could also be other types of data such as raster or vector image data. The "table-entity" element is used to describe all table entities, and the "other-entity" element would be used to describe all other types of entities. Specific details of non-tabular entities are left to other standards (e.g., for remote sensing data, one should include a spatial metadata module such as the FGDC Content Standard for Digitial Geospatial Metadata [CSDGM]). Table Entity descriptor Descriptor of one table entity in the dataset. The table entity element is a descriptor of one entity in the dataset identified by its name. The entity element can contain information about the entity's orientation, number of records, case sensitiveness, and temporal, geographic and taxonomic coverage. The entity element was introduced into EML 1.4 as file. Entity's record orientation Specification of the entity's record orientation. This element contains specification of the entity's record orientation by element's attribute "columnorrow". The valid attribute values are "columnmajor" or "rowmajor". If the attribute is not specified, "columnmajor" is used. The orientation element was introduced into EML 1.4. Attribute of orientation element Specification of the entity's record orientation. This attribute specifies the entity's record orientation. The valid attribute values are "columnmajor" or "rowmajor". If the attribute is not specified, "columnmajor" is used. The columnorrow attribute was introduced into EML 1.4. Data case sensitiveness Specification of text case sensitiveness in the entity. This element contains specification of text case sensitiveness of the data in the entity. It is specified from element's attribute "yesorno". The valid attribute values are "yes" or "no". If the attribute is not specified, "yes" is used. The caseSensitive element was introduced into EML 1.4. Attribute of caseSensitive element Specification of text case sensitiveness in the entity. This attribute specifies text case sensitiveness of entity's data. The valid attribute values are "yes" or "no". If the attribute is not specified, "yes" is used. The yesorno attribute was introduced into EML 1.4. Number of records The integer count of the number of records inthe entity This element contains a count of the number of records in the entity. This is typically an integer value, and only includes records that represent observations. It would not include any details of physical formatting such as the number of header lines (see eml-physical for that information). 975]]> Introduced in EML 2 Other Entity descriptor Descriptor of one one non-table entity in the dataset. The other entity element is a descriptor of one entity in the dataset identified by its name. The element can contain information about the entity's basic identity, its temporal, geographic and taxonomic coverage, and its type. The entity element was introduced into EML 1.4 as file. Entity type Contains the name of the type for this entity. This element contains the name of the entity's type. The entity's type is typically the name of the data type represented in the entity, such as raster image, vector image, etc. Raster Image]]> The entityType element was introduced into EML 1.4 as entityFormat. Base Entity descriptors Basic information about an entity common to all entity types. Basic information about all entity types, including name and coverage of the entity. The term entity is used in the sense of an entity in a relational model; it generally represents a table, but can also represent an image or other type of data. The eml-entity was introduced into EML 1.4 as eml-file. Unique identifier The unique identifier of this metadata file or object. The identifier field provides a unique identifier for this metadata documentation. It will most likely be part of a sequence of numbers or letters that are meaningful in a larger context, such as a metadata catalog. That larger system can be identified in the "system" attribute. Multiple identifiers can be listed corresponding to different catalog systems. nceas.3.2]]> The 'identifier' field is derived from the eml-dataset meta_file_id filed in EML 1.4. Catalog system The catalog system in which this identifier is used. This element gives the name of the catalog system in which this identifier is used. It is useful to determine the scope of the identifier, and to determine the semantics of the various subparts of the identifier. Unresolved issue: can or should this be a URI/URL pointing to the catalog system, or just the name? nceas.3.2]]> New to EML 2.0. Entity name Entity name specifier The name identifies the entity in the dataset: file name, name of database table, etc. SpeciesAbundance1996 The entityName was introduced into EML 1.4. Entity description General description of the entity and its contents A paragraph of text generally describing the entity, its type, and relevant information about the data in the entity. Species abundance data for 1996 at the VCR LTER Introduced in EML 2