Metadata Editor (MDE)

The Metadata Editor (mde) is a tool for creating and editing XML metadata documents. It was originally created as a 'stand-alone' tool several years ago at NCEAS, and it has been incorporated in MORPHO as an example of a 'plug-in' module. It allows the user to create XML metadata documents that follow certain rules in their structure. These 'rules' are defined in what is called a "document type description" or DTD. [Another newer method for defining metadata structure is called an 'XML Schema', and such schemas may be used in the future.]

Note that the user of MORPHO is not limited to using the XML editor included with MORPHO. There are a variety of commercial, shareware, and free XML editors that are available. Others are also certain to appear with the rapid growth of XML as a standard method for sharing data.

An example screen showing how the editor appears when the "Edit Document" tab is clicked is shown below. Note that several of the menu items and toolbar buttons that were 'grayed out' and inactive become active when the "Edit Document" tab is brought to the front (e.g. the "New and "Open" menus/buttons).


Metadata Editor Screen

Creating a new metadata document requires the user to choose the type of document that is desired. The document types that the mde already knows about can be seen by selecting the Options menu item under the Edit menu. A window like that shown below will appear. When, as shown, the "Document Type" item is selected, a list of metadata types appears as a list in the upper right. This shows information about the document types that the system is currently configured to handle. Information about the selected document type appears below. Of particular interest is the location of the actual DTD file which defines the document strucure (the 'eml-dataset.dtd' reference shown in the second box) and the Public ID ("-//NCEAS//eml-dataset//EN" in the example). Note that the user can extend this list and add new document types.


When a new document type has been selected, the mde will build a 'skeleton' document with a minimum structure required by the dtd or schema. The user must then fill in the acual values for the elements created (which have no data in the automatically built skeleton).