INSPIRE Registry lifecycle info issues
Hi,
As by 30 April 2018 Member States need to report on CDDA (Common Database on Designated Areas) and the reporting to EEA is now linked to INSPIRE trough linked data, we noticed that some values in the INSPIRE Registry (http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/registry/) were changed quite recently. Actually some registry values that had status ”valid” before, now have their status ”superseded” (not valid). The problem that we are facing is the following:
We do not know where to look in the Registry in order to see what information need to be written in the metadata files regarding the date and the type of date for thesaurus, namely publication, creation or revision and we are confused seeing different publication/revision dates in different sources.
To better understand, the value
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/metadata-codelist/PriorityDataset/LocationOfSites-ecdf-32
is now superseded and its successor is the valid value, namely:
http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/metadata-codelist/PriorityDataset/NationallyDesignatedAreasCDDA
Q1. When the registry values are changed, does somebody knows where in the Registry we can find the information that needs to be written in the <gco:date> and <gmd:CI_DateTypeCode> elements of the metadata for the dataset as shown below:
<updated>2018-03-26T10:54:57.968+02:00</updated>
Q2. In the Implementation Guidance for Priority Datasets https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects/2016-5/wiki/Implementation it is indicated the 2018-04-04 date of publication even if the atom is indicating the date of 2018-03-26 as date of revision . Are these the dates in the guidance the correct dates and data types to be used or they are just indicated as an example ?
Where this 2018-04-04 date is coming from and where it is stored in the registry and why the date in atom feed differs from the date in the guidance document ?
Q3. Why the guidance is indicating the data type "publication" instead of "revision"? The 2018-04-04 or 2018-03-26 are not the date of the publication of the Inspire Priority Dataset registry because this registry had values in November 2017 as can be seen in the question below.
Q4 The powerpoint https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/attachments/download/2411/PRES-1.2_Registry-PriorityDataset.pptx. indicates in slides 6 & 7 the <gco:Date> as "2017-11-16" and the <gmd:CI_DateTypeCode> as "revision". These dates are provided as example only or they are the values that need to be used ?
<gmd:date>
<gco:Date>2017-11-16</gco:Date>
</gmd:date>
<gmd:dateType>
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode codeList="http://standards.iso.org/iso/19139/resources/gmxCodelists.xml#CI_DateTypeCode" codeListValue="revision">revision</gmd:CI_DateTypeCode>
</gmd:dateType>
</gmd:CI_Date>
</gmd:date>
Q5. Looking at the http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/metadata-codelist/PriorityDataset registry there are two versions of the codelist, namely:
But it seems that the registry is showing exactly the same information in both of versions, with no difference in between. It seems that it is not possible to see which were the values in the previous codelist version. There is no lifeCycleInfo associated to these versions, both indicating the same date of update, providing the same atom. Does the date of 2018-03-26 indicates when the version 1 was superseded by version 2 ? If there will be three versions of the codelist, how it will be possible to see when the change between codelist 1 and codelist 2 occurred, as most probably only the change between the codelist 2 and codelist 3 will be seen in the update date. How to deal with codelists that have overlaping periods, namely in the same period of time time can be valid two codelists, one that will be deprecared at a certain date in future (i.e in two years from a certain date) but is still valid even if not recommended anymore and another one that is valid and recommended to be used from a certain date, including present date ? Where this life cycle info is stored ? The real example is that currently there is a reporting period for CCDA, but exactly within this reporting period the values in the codelist are changed and there is no transition period allowing use of the older values for a certain period.
Q6. Which is the correct date to be used (we think that 2018-03-26 should be the correct one as it is stored in the Registry), which is the correct data type to be used (we think that "revision" should be used for all those registries that have multiple versions and ”publication” for those with no versions).and which is the mechanism that the data providers need to use in order to know when a change of the registry/thesaurus occurs ?
Best regards,
Iurie Maxim
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Hi,
We noticed that the Priority datasets are visible in the INSPIRE Geoportal only if the
<gco:Date> is set to 2018-04-04
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode> is set to publication
as can be seen bellow:
However the INSPIRE priority data set codelist (http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/metadata-codelist/PriorityDataset/PriorityDataset.ro.atom)
Does anybody has any clue from where the 2018-04-04 is coming and why the dateType is ”publication” instead of ”revision” ?
Iurie Maxim
Dear Iurie,
there has indeed be some confusion about the correct date and date type to be used.
The correct date and date type is the one specified in the Implementation Guidance for Priority Datasets at https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects/2016-5/wiki/Implementation:
3. Add the citation information for the used controlled vocabluary. For the citation, the following information shall be used:
We require the use of "publication" as the date type to refer to the date when the new major version (v2.0) was officially published. There may be some minor updates or bug fixes in the coming weeks, but we will not change the date of publication for each of these minor updates.
The date included in the Atom format of the registry is a "system time" for the date of the last update in the registry. This date will change when data in the registry changes, so it is a "date of last update/revision". We are aware that this may be confusing, so we are discussing the possibility to add an explicit date of publication in a future release of the registry software.
Hope this clarifies the issue.
Best regards,
Michael
Hi Michael,
Many thanks for the information provided. We noticed what we need to add in the metadata to pass the validation, even if some clarifications were needed as can be seen here https://ies-svn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/issues/3220
It is good that you are discussing the possibility to add an explicit date of publication in a future release of the registry software and please take into consideration that for data providers is important to have a mechanism to know when something was changed in the Registry in order to allow a certain period of time to change the datasets, services or the metadata according to the new changes in the Registry.
Currently such mechanisms do not exist and a dataset that is valid at a certain date will not be valid the next day after the values in the registry were changed. The registry is not indicating an update date that can be supplied trough a feed and monitored by the data provider.
Therefore, if minor or major changes occur but the date is not changed and provided to indicate an revision, the data provider can’t be aware by the fact that the Registry was changed (i.e: some values were superseded or some values were added).
In this context it is almost impossible for a data provider to maintain a dataset and its corresponding network services and metadata valid over time. Similarly, as the EC/JRC is monitoring all services through the INSPIRE Geoportal, the data providers need to be able to monitor the changes that occurs in the Registry in order to be able to change the data sets, services or metadata.
Currently there is no such mechanism in place.
Even more, it should be taken into consideration that a certain period of transition should exist if changes in the Registry occurs. If a certain value is changed, then it should not become invalid the next day, because the next day the dataset/service/metadata will became invalid as well. Values in the Registry should have lifeCycleInfo and a certain value even if it is superseded by another one, then it should still be valid for a certain period of time to allow data providers the necessary time to revise the dataset/service/metadata..
As regards the dateType ”publication” instead of ”revision”, I do not think it is correct unless the version of the vocabulary is indicated somewhere in the metadata, that currently is not indicated.
Based on your info I understand that the version 1 of the ”INSPIRE priority data set” vocabulary had the following information:
While the version 2 of the ”Inspire priority data set” vocabulary has this information
Because nothing indicates in the metadata that first vocabulary is version 1 and second one is version 2, the information is not understandable nor by humans, nor by machines.
Both humans and machines understand that the INSPIRE priority data set vocabulary has two publications dates. If date type should remain ”publication” as sugested, than the version of the vocabulary should appear somewhere to diferenciate between resources (i.e.: in the title ”INSPIRE priority dataset v.2.0”, but I do not think it is advisable).
In any case, for data providers is important to have a mechanism (i.e.: RSS feed) to know when a certain vocabulary is updated. If a major change of the vocabulary is considered to be a ”publication” of a new version of the vocabulary, while minor changes are considered ”revisions” of the same vocabulary version, then this information should be clear and the version of the vocabulary should be exposed and used (i.e.: version 2.12). However I think that the best is to use the date as being the version, but in this case the date type is ”revision”, and not ”publication”.
What do you think?
Can someone clarify in the context of a vocabulary what means date of creation, date of publication and date of last revision?
If looking at http://standards.iso.org/iso/19139/resources/gmxCodelists.xml#CI_DateTypeCode%22
the terms are explained as following:
Creation - date identifies when the resource was brought into existence
Publication - date identifies when the resource was issued
Revision - date identifies when the resource was examined or re-examined and improved or amended
I understand that there is only one resource with the title INSPIRE priority data set and this resource was firstly created at a certain date, but it became available to public only it was published in the Registry at a certain publication date. Then this resource was updated at a certain revision date. The same resource can be revised as many times, but is still a revision of the same resource. In order to have another publication date, it should be another resource created and then published.
So in order to have two publication dates there should be two separate resources. Two separate resources can be obtained either if the titles of the thesaurs differs, like for example:
<gco:CharacterString>INSPIRE priority data set version 1</gco:CharacterString>
<gco:CharacterString>INSPIRE priority data set version 2</gco:CharacterString>
or if for the <gmd:CI_Citation> it is added an element to differentiate between the two resources by indicating the version, as for example the element <gmd:edition>. See http://www.datypic.com/sc/niem21/e-gmd_CI_Citation.html
Best regards,
Iurie Maxim
http://essensys.ro
I don't know if my question(s) should be asked here or somewhere else on the forum...
In conclusion there is still lots of confusion about the tagging of the priority data set in the metadata.
(I know the keyword is different in both examples but my question is mainly about the format)
Is it enough to use the character string encoding: as mentioned above
or should we use: as presented in the Annex II: Tagging of priority datasets for INSPIRE Thematic Viewer
This last option seemed to give some error using the geonetwork validator...
Both have different dates that are linked to the thesaurus...
Besides that it is still not clear why datasets can be found in de http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/discovery/ but not in http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/thematicviewer/PriorityDomains.action
Dear Katia,
the ‘Implementation guidance and support” for priority data sets specify that " there are two supported options for the encoding of priority dataset keyword(s) and the used controlled vocabulary:
therefore you can choose either the first or the second one, since they both are valid.
Kindly note that:
<gco:Date> is set to '2018-04-04'
<gmd:CI_DateTypeCode>is set to 'publication'.
Regarding your second question i.e. why some data sets available in the Geoportal are not visible in the Thematic Viewer, I would like to point out that the Thematic Viewer shows only those data sets for which the INSPIRE Geoportal was able to find a Download Service.
Therefore first thing is to check (clicking on the relevant INSPIRE metadata link in the Geoportal) whether those metadata you are not able to find in the Thematic Viewer report any “DOWNLOAD_MATCHING_DATA_IS_AVAILABLE” missing aspect in the "INSPIRE Resources Linkage Aspects (Documentation)" section.
If so, that’s likely the reason why they are not visible.
Conversely, should the “DOWNLOAD_MATCHING_DATA_IS_AVAILABLE” be verified, yours is a question for the INSPIRE Geoportal Helpdesk or the Thematic Viewer team.
Should this latter be the case, and you find out something remarkable for the users of Thematic clusters, would you please feedback here?
Thank you
Stefania