# '$RCSfile: README,v $' # Copyright: 1997-2002 Regents of the University of California, # University of New Mexico, and # Arizona State University # Sponsors: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and # Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, # University of California Santa Barbara # Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office, # University of New Mexico # Center for Environmental Studies, Arizona State University # Other funding: National Science Foundation (see README for details) # The David and Lucile Packard Foundation # For Details: http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/ # # '$Author: obrien $' # '$Date: 2009-02-26 21:10:21 $' # '$Revision: 1.45 $' # # 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: Ecological Metadata Language --------------------------------- Version: 2.1.0 Feedback and bugs to: eml-dev@ecoinformatics.org http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org Contributors: Matt Jones (jones@nceas.ucsb.edu) Chad Berkley (berkley@nceas.ucsb.edu) Jivka Bojilova (bojilova@nceas.ucsb.edu) Dan Higgins (higgins@nceas.ucsb.edu) Chris Jones (cjones@lifesci.ucsb.edu) Corinna Gries (corinna@asu.edu) Peter McCartney (peter.mccartney@asu.edu) James Brunt (jbrunt@lternet.edu) David Blankman (dblankman@lternet.edu) Owen Eddins (oeddins@lternet.edu) Mark Schildhauer (schild@nceas.ucsb.edu) John Harris (harris@nceas.ucsb.edu) Matthew Brooke (brooke@nceas.ucsb.edu) Scott Chapal (scott.chapal@jonesctr.org) Tim Bergsma (tbergsma@kbs.msu.edu) Ken Ramsey (kramsey@jornada.nmsu.edu) Saurabh Garg (sgarg@nceas.ucsb.edu) Margaret O'Brien (mob@msi.ucsb.edu) Mark Servilla (servilla@lternet.edu) James Brunt (brunt@lternet.edu) Web site: http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/eml The Ecological Metadata Language consists of a number of modules that define an XML markup syntax for ecologically relevant metadata. It was originally based on work done by the ESA Committee on the Future of Long-Term Ecological Data (http://esa.sdsc.edu/FLED/FLED.html) and on a related paper on ecological metadata by Michener et al. (see Michener, William K., et al., 1997. Ecological Applications, "Nongeospatial metadata for the ecological sciences" Vol 7(1). pp. 330-342.). Version 1.4 follows that paper closely in its content implementation, but Version 2 has been modified substantially after experience using the specification and from feedback from the ecological community. This release represents the consensus view of a large number of knowledgeable scientists and data managers on what metadata are relevant to ecological data and how best to represent it. Of course, many might differ in opinion about specific decisions made during the development of EML; we would like to encourage users to faithfully use the specification in the spirit of community building. It is better if we all use a metadata language that covers most of our needs than to modify it and use one that is perfect but not shared with anybody. It is notable that some of the rules regarding EML that are important are expressed only in the EML specification, not in the XML Schema files. This is because XML Schema was not able to express some of the constraints that we felt were important to creating a coherent metadata document, particularly with respect to identifiers and references to identifiers. Thus, we have included a new EML Validity Parser. It checks both EML rules and the schema rules to be sure an XML document is a valid EML document. It is included with the release, and provided as an online service. See docs/index.html. DOCUMENTATION ------------- Please see the docs/index.html directory for a a list of the relevant documents pertaining to EML. In particular, this release ships with a full version of the EML Specification, which is the definitive document explaining the rules associated with the Ecological Metadata Language. FILES ----- ############ The files in this distribution are a part of the EML 2.1.0 release. ############ The files in this directory include a "docs" directory that contains the EML Specification and all documentation for the modules, and an XML Schema document for each of the modules that make up EML. Also included is a schema for supporting documentation, and an instance document defining standard attribute units for EML. The "lib/sample/eml-sample.xml" file is a sample document illustrating the use of EML. The "test" directory contains a number of sample instance documents used for testing the schemas, and an application for checking document validity under JUnit (see http://junit.org). ############ This RELEASE of EML can be retrieved from CVS using the tag "RELEASE_EML_2_1_0". Previous versions of EML (such as 2.0.1) are available from this repository using the analagous release tag (e.g., RELEASE_EML_2_0_1). ############ HIGHLIGHTS IN THIS RELEASE -------------------------- This release addresses bugs which caused the schema to be invalid with respect to the W3C specifications using modern validators (e.g., http://www.w3.org/2001/03/webdata/xsv). Although the changes were minor, one was incompatible with 2.0 releases, which necessitated the version number "2.1". In the 2.0 series, the content model for additionalMetadata included an element whose cardinality was 0..many, alongside . This construct is non-deterministic, and so a child element was added to the additionalMetadata section to contain the content. Additionally, several elements of txt:TypeText required additional definition so that mixed content could be accommodated. These errors were not apparent with validation software available in 2004-2005, but were brought to light more recently. Several small changes were made to the enumeration list and unitTypes for standard units and stmml descriptions of customUnits. Two elements in the literature schema were allowed to be optional so that articles-in-press could be described. The named type for element gRing was changed to GRingType. EML makes use of the STMML schema (stmml.xsd) for describing custom units and describing its included list of standardUnits (unitList). The STMML schema was also found to be non-deterministic, and the most reasonable fix for this bug was not compatible with earlier versions. This error was NOT related to elements used by EML (unitList or unitType). However, given that authors of EML instance documents may have made use of other parts of stmml.xsd, it was decided to the advance the namespace used for stmml-related files to "stmml-1.1", in keeping with the pattern of version naming in EML. The stmml authors have been contacted. KNOWN ISSUES (see also http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/) ----------------------------------------------------------- Some areas of EML remain problematic for particular data types, and these are being addressed by sub-groups of the EML development group. These will be addressed in a backwards-incompatible release in the future. Areas of future development include: 1. use of external (or multiple) dictionaries 2. handling of ongoing data, (e.g.,use of temporal coverage elements) 3. spatial datasets and map projections BUGS FIXED AND NEW FEATURES IN CURRENT RELEASE (see also http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.1.0 (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) Schema changes: 1132: eml.xsd, physical.xsd: fix access rule ambiguities 2054: eml.xsd: added the tag to additionalMetadata 1154: resource.xsd: required element offline has no required children 3480: resource.xsd, physical.xsd: nearly duplicate complexTypes, DistributionType and PhysicalDistributionType 3165: resource.xsd: provide a place for a url description 3227: coverage.xsd: gRing was declared as GRingPointType, is now GRingType 1019: coverage.xsd: altitudeUnits should use eml-unitDictionary 3500: coverage.xsd: restrict boundingCoordinates to realistic lat/lon ranges 1152: attribute.xsd: dateTime elements are named inconsistently; standarized on dateTime 2272: attribute.xsd: base types in BoundsGroup changed to xs:float 3051: attribute.xsd: missing units were added to enumeration list to match eml-unitDitionary 2568: attribute.xsd, entity.xsd: inconsistent naming of methods elements, standardized to 2703: text.xsd: refined element declarations in txt:TextType for para, section; added ulink, citetitle 3163: literature.xsd: cardinality of volume and pageRange is now 0..1 3164: literature.xsd: literature needs a contact tree 3445: stmml.xsd: non-deterministic 2083: stmml.xsd: dimension 'current' was wrongly entered as 'charge' Parser : 3232: EML parser should use full-schema-checking 3836: runEMLParser script should include sax-validate Stylesheets : 3508: create a stylesheet for EML2.0.x to EML 2.1.0 3590: eml-documentation stylesheet problem with derived content. 2048: param attributeindex defined twice in eml-settings.xsl 2085: Access control rules adapted for 2.0.1 and 2.1 (currently not shown) 2147: EML Stylesheet problem with web address URL's 2226: EML2 style sheet double the number of complex delimited f... 3492: the word 'unit' should be pluralized by default PREVIOUS RELEASES -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.0.1 Changes- (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) 249: Update XSLT stylesheets for EML 2.0 modules 939: spelling errors for 'its' in index 960: parser not correctly parsing tag in additiona... 1008: inline element doesn't support character child 1017: documentation error in eml-methods 1031: enumeratedDomain doesn't define value order for ordinals 1035: Technical documentation on eml-methods has an error 1124: update precision field definition and cardinality 1129: Change temporalCoverage calendarDate type 1132: fix access control rule ambiguities 1136: kelvin conversion incorrect in unit dictionary 1149: BoundsGroup bounds min & max have incorrect cardinality 1150: documentation for KeyTypeCode is wrong 1151: misspelled element name 1153: dateTimeDomain element should be optional 1155: Documentation incorrect for dateTimeDomainType bounds 1195: tracking bug for 2.0.1 release 1233: dateTime formatString Documentation contains incorrect ex... 1529: no tag to specify how to handle mutltiple, repeated delimimeters 1652: eml-constraint documentation error 2.0.0 Changes- (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) 670: DateTimeDomain id/reference validation 924: make date time its own measurement scale 661: spell check eml-attribute.xsd and synchronize with unitDi 918: example tag in eml:documentation 2.0.0rc3 Changes- (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) 471: eml spec overview document 624: eml-methods/methodsType needs clarification on choice/seq... 627: links broken in EML FAQ 629: unit conversion coefficients need checking 637: attributeDomain should be required 638: request for id/ref in attributeDomain 654: scope of the unit element 655: need better model for numeric domains for attributes 625: Cardinality regarding eml-methods should be corrected in ... 626: ProcedureStepType schema needs revision to protect sequen... 628: eml-physical has lit: rather than cit: references 632: broken link in faq 634: Documentation of reference elements in the schemas 656: physical should be repeatable RC2 Changes- (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) 568: accommodate of stateful connection information 586: resolve validation problem with missing keys 588: Remove lineage tags in documentation stylesheets 589: eml-coverage: convert element references to types 592: fix validation error with xs:anyType 594: change cardinality for designDescription and studyAreaDes... 596: Proposal: make attribute optional in OtherEntityType. 597: In eml-dataTable caseSensitive and orientation are modele... 598: literature namespace references are inconsistent 599: storageType is repeatable in eml-attribute 600: eml-storedProcedure - problems & proposal 601: element names in spatial modules do not follow guidelines 602: eml-physical fixed textFormat to allow mixed fixed/delimited 608: release preparation tasks for EML2.0.0rc2 622: redundancy in eml-physical/binaryRaster RC1 Changes- (numbers refer to the corresponding Bugzilla bug) 471: created an EML specification overview document 495: created FAQ for EML 588: removed lineage tags from documentation stylesheet 484: eml-attribute changes to unit and attributeDomain 579: fixed eml-docbook validation problems 491: eml-coverage changed to correctly import types and to fix singleDateTime model 485: eml-physical changed to fix fixed ascii descriptors and distribution 477: complexTypes imports changed to consistent model 486: fixed spelling errors in eml-constraint 492: eml-literature changed for EndNote consistency 496: copyright updated throughout 557: textual elements changed to use docbook subset define in eml-text.xsd 563: changed id types from xs:ID to xs:string to allow numeric ids 482: eml-dataset changed to include method element 489: eml-protocol completely revised based on feedback, eml-method.xsd created 544: eml-attribute storageType and attributeDomain documentation clarified 556: format of eml namespaces changed to include ecoinformatics.org 539: added additionalInfo and alternateIdentifier to eml-dataTable.xsd 568: redesigned DistributionType to allow richer connection descriptions 566: changed imports in eml-resource to import resource types not elements 567: created eml sample documents and XML validation framework using ant/junit Beta9 Fixes- 1) Changed packaging concept to use internal id and references instead of triples 2) Review and revised all modules according to agreed upon changes from the April, 2002 EML meeting at Sevilleta Field Station Beta 8 Fixes- 1) Fixed illegal declaration of type and extension in eml-entity 2) Updated all PNG image files Beta 7 Fixes- 1) Added a 'style' subdirectory with a style sheet for most modules to translate the metadata to HTML 2) Changed names of coverage elements to be human readable 3) Updated the namespaces to reflect the current version number of EML 4) Added an eml-data module for the in-lining of data. 5) Added the eml module for creating packages all in one file. It is a single node with a model of ANY so any of the eml modules can be put into it. 6) Numerous bug fixes (see bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org) Legalese -------- This software is copyrighted (1997-2002) by The Regents of the University of California, University of New Mexico, and Arizona State University and licensed under the GNU GPL; see the 'LICENSE' file for details. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0225676, DEB-9980154, DBI-9904777, DEB-0072909, DBI-9983132, and DEB-9634135. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF). This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/). See the LICENSE file in lib/apache for details. The source code, object code, and documentation in the com.oreilly.servlet package is copyright and owned by Jason Hunter. See the cos-license.html file for details of the license. Licensor retains title to and ownership of the Software and all enhancements, modifications, and updates to the Software. This product includes software developed by the JDOM Project (http://www.jdom.org/). See jdom-LICENSE.txt for details.