complete GCE eml and custom units question

[Wade Sheldon]

David and Matt,

Well, I think I have the major issues worked out and managed to completely map my attribute classification system to eml measurementScale and units so I can generate more complete eml from our RDMS (see the attached docs, but ignore the data file url because it's just a proxy for testing). I created a match table relating my datatype (~= storageType), variabletype (~= measurementScale), numericaltype (~= numberType)  and units to eml equivalents. To deal with the units dictionary I wrote a xslt sheet to convert the relevant section of the xml file to tabular format with 1 additional bit field to serve as a custom unit flag, and uploaded it to the database. When I need to define a custom unit I add it to this units dictionary table (filling in all relevant stmml:units attribute fields) with the custom bit set, and then the SQL view generates appropriate standardUnit/customUnit tags and a suitable stmml:units fragment to incorporate into the additionalMetadata section (allowing me to automate the incorporation of custom unit definitions using a SELECT DISTINCT approach on a per dataset basis). This was a bit complex to code but is maintainable, because I didn't have to change anything about our current system -- just add eml lookup tables and 1 mapping table (plus a form to manage the assignments).

Not surprisingly, this process shook out some underlying mistakes in my original attribute classifications which I'm going back and cleaning up. I am also still tweaking datetime info to generate appropriate precisions for numerical data component attributes. I'm now setting up the code to dynamically produce eml-described datasets with user-definable delimiters, missing value codes and Q/C flag options. I hope to have that up very soon.

Now for a brief question: how can I properly include descriptions along with custom unit definitions in the additionalMetadata section? I tried duplicating the format in the unitsDictionary doc using stmml:units opening and closing tags with a description element within, but the docs wouldn't validate until I removed the description and converted to the attribute-only empty tag format. This is a potentially big issue for me, so I'd like to get those descriptions in.

Regards,

Wade Sheldon


P.S. If you want to see any other representative docs, just request provisional eml for any data set in our data catalog and tack on '&detail=full' to the query string. I plan to maintain support for varying levels of metadata detail in case it becomes useful (although I may change the default from 'basic' to 'full' after I'm satisfied with the docs).

_________________

Wade Sheldon
Management Information Systems Specialist
School of Marine Programs
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-3636
http://gce-lter.marsci.uga.edu/lter/bios/wsheldon.htm

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams
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