Proposal: Extract subtemplates batch function on selected metadata records

[simonp]

Small proposal at ​http://trac.osgeo.org/geonetwork/wiki/extractSubtemplates

[simonp]

Patch added to proposal page.

[simonp]

Updated patch with doco, extra strings for language added since original patch, test output (xpath, nr elements selected by xpath, a subtemplate and the element in the metadata record with xlink attribute)

Can we finish the vote on this please asap? I don't want this to get too far behind any other changes in the pipeline.

Thanks, Simon

[heikki]

hi Simon,

small questions :

• do you think that for the average GN user, it's feasible to expect they know enough XSLT to write the title-extractor ? Would it be an option to automatically suggest title candidates (for example list all elements wrapping a gco:CharacterString, let the user choose one, and then create the title-extractor XSLT on the fly) ?

• the Do You Really Want to Do This check, made me think: is it useful to implement the reverse operation also ? For a given sub-template, the user could say 'normalize it' (or what's a good term) and it would be merged into all docs that have it linked, and then delete the subtemplate ?

kind regards Heikki Doeleman

[simonp]

heikki

They already have to enter an XPath so probably best in the short term to accept an XPath of a title as an easier optional alternative to the extract title XSLT. This would make things somewhat easier for the user not familiar with XSLT - I can implement this pretty easily. Ultimately the title and the xpath should be a pick option as you suggest that could be offered to the user in the metadata viewer perhaps.

I had also thought of the opposite operation as you suggest and that it could be implemented in the manage directory interface (and there are others that are needed there too) but for the moment the immediate need is to break up some large records (that break the editor!) and allow users with existing records to separate out common content.

As usual so many things that we still need to do :-)

Cheers and thanks very much for your comments! Simon

[simonp]

I've updated the command to allow an XPath to be specified to extract the title from the subtemplate and reattached the patch. Also updated the images in the proposal to reflect these changes. The xslt can still be specified as an alternative.

Cheers, Simon

[simonp]

Committed in svn rev 9121