The MEDIN stylesheet and ESRI Arc 10: metadata format conversion MEDIN Workshop BGS, Edinburgh, June 2015
Arc metadata ESRI ArcGIS metadata are stored as XML data (as occurs with other ESRI software) – Arc XML is not required to comply with specific XML schemas or external (to Arc) definitions – Arc XML does adhere to international industry standards MEDIN Workshop BGS, Edinburgh, June 2015 – BUT! The XML does not follow the ISO standard (XML implementation of the ISO standard for geospatial metadata)
MEDIN metadata MEDIN also store metadata as XML – MEDIN metadata also follow industry standards – MEDIN metadata must follow the ISO XML encoding – MEDIN metadata must comply with MEDIN discovery metadata schema as shown earlier Pa ge 3 MEDIN Workshop BGS, Edinburgh, June 2015 Marine ESRI metadata ≠ MEDIN metadata
Differences betwe ARC & MEDIN XML
Fixing the problem! 2 stage process 1.Population of ArcCatalog metadata with suitable entries to meet MEDIN metadata standard 2.Transformation of Arc XML to MEDIN XML MEDIN provides resources to support this
Population of metadata in ArcCatalog 1.Select ‘INSPIRE Metadata Directive’ from the available metadata styles 2.Turn off auto-population so only MEDIN required metadata are entered manually 3.Ensure that no style controls are active when entering the metadata. Plain text only should be used. 4.When the user interface appears, work down through the topics on the left hand side, starting with Item Description. Need Guidance? Use the appropriate ArcGIS MEDIN converter guide (see GIS tools on MEDIN website), MEDIN metadata standard guidelines and DASSH helpdesk for assistance on populating everythingGIS tools
Transformation Pa ge 7 ArcGIS 9 Metadata ArcGIS 10 Metadata MEDIN Metadata Transformation e.g. Internal usee.g. External / Publish to DAC
Stylesheets Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) –Specifies rules for transforming one XML instance into another XML instance –The output XML instance will have a different structure from the input XML instance Pa ge 8
Transform Procedure Download MEDIN stylesheets (available on website)available on website –ArcGIS 9 version –ArcGIS 10 version (or the Validate button) Locate saved complete ARC XML metadata record Convert using stylesheet in one of: ArcGIS 9 or 10 ArcToolBox Metadata Maestro Other XSL stylesheet processor if desired Pa ge 9
Stylesheet Tools Pa ge 10
Validation Transformation of XML instance does not mean work complete Some required fields in MEDIN XML that cannot be populated through ArcCatalog Population in ArcCatalog and transformation does not guarantee correct XML structure Therefore, need to validate in Metadata Maestro or online tool
MEDIN GIS reference layers MEDIN provide 115 GIS reference layers on many marine topics – compiled by a range of organisations Layers are categorised using INSPIRE themes. All layers available under the Open Government Licence Downloadable using a searchable interface at