[eml-dev] additionalMetadata/access

[Matt Jones]

Yes, it is ignored, as per the EML 2.0.1 spec.  The spec says that only very
specific access control trees will be enforced, in particular in the
/eml/dataset/access subtree for the whole data package, and in the
additionalMetadata if (and only if) the describes tag points to the right
place in the entity distribution tree.  All else is ignored.

So, technicall this should have no impact on the EML document.  however, I
think we should just leave it in place, as the contributor may be using that
access block for some other purpose, one that is not specified in EML.  This
would be a perfectly legitimate use of additionalMetadata, and it could be
disruptive for other people if we remove it.  That said, I think it is far
more likely that the access block is an improperly formed EML access
directive, in which case it would be nice if we let the person know that
this block is malformed and maybe give them a chance to correct it in the
translated EML 2.1 document by specifying which entity the access block was
supposed to apply to.  If giving the user the choice is hard to do in an
automated conversion, then its probably best to just leave it in place,
although this will probably continue to go uncorrected if we take this
approach.

Matt

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Margaret O'Brien <mob at icess.ucsb.edu>wrote:

> Hi y'all-
> I'm trying to come up with possible uses of access trees in
> additionalMetadata so that these trees get moved to the proper location.
> Here is a case: an EML201 author has created an additionalMetadata access
> tree that has no <describes> sibling. What happens to it? <describes> is
> optional, and its absence means that the additionalMetadata section applies
> to the entire document. Does this mean that this access tree overrides the
> access set at the document level? Mike thought that currently, metacat did
> not respect any document level access except that explicitly set in
> eml/dataset/access (eml201).
>
> thanks -
> margaret
>
> --
>
>
> ========================
> Margaret O'Brien
> Information Management
> Santa Barbara Coastal LTER Marine Science Institute
> University of California
> Santa Barbara, CA  93106-6150
>
> 805-893-2071
> mob at icess.ucsb.edu
> http://sbc.lternet.edu
> ========================
>
>


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew B. Jones
Director of Informatics Research and Development
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
UC Santa Barbara
jones at nceas.ucsb.edu                       Ph: 1-907-523-1960
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinfo
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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