The web based application supports online editing, publishing and searching of ISO-19115:2006 formatted metadata as well as FGDC and Dublin Core formatted metadata.

The application has several features implemented to make life easier for those publishing metadata. Some of the available features are:

• Metadata editors can use a default editing view (simplified), and advanced view (providing access to all available metadata elements provided by the standard) and an XML view (to directly edit the XML structure, for those that really dare touching the source document :)

• A template system. Users can create custom templates compliant with the available metadata standards. These templates can be prefilled with common information (for example contact details, metadata language etc...).

• Existing metadata records can be cloned. The created duplicate record can serve as the basis for a new metadata record.

• An XML insert form, allowing to copy/paste an XML formatted metadata. The form also allows the publisher to apply an XSL transformation on import. This allows for instance to import and transform metadata generated by other GIS applications. New transformation documents (XSLT) can be added by the administrator of the GeoNetwork based instance.

• A batch import allows to import large numbers of XML formatted metadata all at once. This function requires the metadata to be located on the machine running the GeoNetwork opensource based catalog.

• The GeoNetwork Administrator Survival Tool (GAST) offers additional import and export functions using the Metadata Exchange Format (MEF) as defined by the project.