How to Publish Resources

How to Publish Resources

The success of a geoportal depends on the quality resources it hosts. A resource must be published to the geoportal and approved before it can be discovered through the geoportal search. There are several ways to publish a resource.

Note:

Publishing privileges are only available to users who are registered in the geoportal organization's LDAP. To become a publisher, first Create a regular registered user account, and then send a message requesting to be made a publisher to the geoportal administrator (you can do this through the geoportal's Feedback link). Once the geoportal administrator has worked with his/her security administrator to grant your login Publisher status, you will be able to login to the geoportal as a Publisher.

1. Register a resource on the network
2. Upload or validate metadata file from the local disk
3. Use dedicated editor to create metadata manually
4. Publish through the Geoportal Publish Client
5. Publish using the CSW INSERT transaction
6. Publish through the REST API

Register a resource on the network

By registering a resource on the network, you provide connection information to a resource that can be revisited by the geoportal catalog for new resources and updates. This process is called synchronization. For example, if you had a web-accessible folder (WAF) containing metadata records describing data holdings for your organization, you could register that folder and the geoportal would copy the resources from the WAF to the geoportal catalog. Further, it would also visit the WAF frequently to check if there were new records, delete records in the geoportal catalog that were no longer in the WAF, and update existing records that had changed. There are several types of resources that can be registered, as discussed below. To register a resource, follow these steps:

1. Login to the geoportal and click on the Administration tab.
2. Select the Add link at the top.
3. You can choose between three options. Choose the first, Register a resource on the network.
4. On the next page, you will see a form with several sections. The first is Protocol Type. Select the protocol radio that corresponds to the resource which you want to synchronize, as follows:
   • URL:
     • GetCapabilities URL to an OGC service (OWS, WMS, WCS, WFS, WPS, SOS, SPS, CSW, or KML)
     • REST URL formatted in GEORSS
     • OpenSearch description XML
     • URL to a metadata XML (such as FGDC, ISO-based profiles, Dublin Core, etc.)
   • ArcGIS:
     • URL to an ArcGIS Server which contains services
     • URL to one specific service, e.g., MapServer, GlobeServer, ImageServer, GeoDataServer, MobileServer, GPServer, GeocodeServer, GeometryServer,NAServer, FeatureServer, SearchServer, WMSServer, WFSServer, and WCSServer
   • ESRI MS: ESRI Metadata Server service / ArcIMS metadata service
   • OAI: Open Archive Initiative service
   • WAF: URL to a web-accessible folder

   Note:

   ArcIMS Image services, ArcIMS Feature services, and Z39.50 connections are not supported through the Register a network service feature.

5. After you have chosen the protocol, a number of fields that correspond to that protocol will display. Enter information in the fields. The table below describes what each field means.

   Field	Description
   Url	URL by which the geoportal should access the resource. The geoportal will use the information available from the URL to generate the metadata document describing the resource. You can test that the service is running by clicking the Test button next to the Url input box.
   Title	The title of the resource. Some resources, such as CS-W catalogs, have titles by default. Entering a title for a resource that already has a title will result in the new title being displayed on search results.
   Additional fields for ArcGIS protocol	REST Url: the REST URL to the ArcGIS Server service. SOAP Url: Because the REST URL for an ArcGIS Server service is not explicitly associated with its SOAP URL, this allows the SOAP URL to be associated with the resource in the geoportal catalog.
   Additional fields for ESRI MS protocol	Port Number: port upon which the metadata service is running. Service Name: name of the metadata service to be accessed - e.g. Browse_Metadata. User Name: user name if service is secure. User Password: user password if service is secure. Root Folder: if you want to harvest only from a certain publisher's folder, indicate which folder here.
   Additional fields for OAI protocol	Prefix: prefix of the metadata records stored in the OAI database. Set: name of the set or database from which you want to retrieve resources.
   Additional fields for WAF protocol	User Name: if the folder is secure, then this is the username to access to the folder. User Password: if the folder is secure, then this is the password to access to the folder. Note: Subfolders will be automatically included.
   Additional fields for CSW protocol	Profile: CSW profile used to communicate with the resource.

6. After you have filled out the additional fields related to the Protocol Type, specify who will own the resources retrieved from the registered resources by choosing a user from the Resource ownership dropdown.
7. After defining the resource ownership, check the appropriate options in the Purpose of the registration section. Each option is described below:
   • Allow this resource to be found when searching for metadata: Checking this option means that the resource you are registering on the form will be discoverable when a user searches for resources on the search page.
   • Include this endpoint on the federated search list: This option is only available when the Protocol Type is CSW. Checking this option allows the resource to be listed as a remote catalog in the federated search on the Search page.
   • Allow this resource to be synchronized at an interval: Checking this option indicates that this resource should be synchronized at a specified time interval, which is defined further down in the form. If you uncheck this option, then the next set of options are automatically disabled and you can proceed to the bottom of the form.
8. After checking the Purpose options, move to the Choose actions to be performed during synchronization section and check the appropriate options. Each is described below:
   • Update this resource description: This option means that when the resource is synchronized, the metadata describing the resource itself will be updated if the source endpoint has been updated. For example, if you register a CS-W catalog GetCapabilities endpoint, and between synchronization intervals the GetCapabilities information is updated, the resource's metadata will be also updated the next time the resource is synchronized.
   • Copy the entire contents of this remote catalog into the local catalog: Checking this option means that when synchronization occurs, all child resources within the registered resource will be harvested into the local geoportal catalog. For example, a CS-W endpoint containing 1000 records would harvest all 1000 records into the geoportal catalog each time synchronization occurs, if this option is checked.
   • Automatically approve newly acquired resources: Checking this option means that all harvested child resources from the registered resource will be automatically approved after they are synchronized and published to the geoportal.
9. After checking the synchronization options, indicate How often do you want this resource so be synchronized by selecting one of the radios.
10. Next indicate if you prefer to receive a notification email that provides the results of the synchronization activity. You can update your email information by clicking the My Profile link at the top right of the geoportal interface.
11. Click the Save button at the bottom of the form. This publishes a metadata document that describes the resource. The resource will be added to the list of resources in the geoportal on the Administration > Manage page.

Upload or validate metadata file from the local disk

Uploading a metadata XML file from your local machine or mapped network drive is a quick way to get one local metadata document published to the geoportal, or to check that a metadata record is valid. A valid document will have all the mandatory metadata elements populated, and will publish to the geoportal. An invalid document will fail to publish. To validate or upload a metadata file, follow these steps:

1. Login to the geoportal.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Click the Add link.
4. On the Add page, select Upload metadata file from the local disk from the choices listed.
5. On the Upload page, click the Choose File button and browse to the location of your metadata XML file.
6. Click OK to load the file into the interface.
7. If you want to validate the document, click the Validate button. If your document is invalid, the geoportal will report which elements in the document need to be addressed. If the metadata schema to which the document conforms is not supported by the geoportal, the error will say that the schema is invalid. If the document is valid, you will see a successful message.
8. When you are ready to upload the file, click the Upload button. After a few moments, you will receive a message saying one of the following:
   • Your document was published successfully. This means that it is posted in the geoportal, and awaits administrator approval before it can be discovered through search.
   • Your document was replaced successfully. This means that it has replaced another existing document in the geoportal with this uploaded version. This occurs when you are republishing a document to update it. The geoportal checks the following items below in the order listed to identify if a document is replacing another. If the geoportal does not find a match using this criteria, the document will be duplicated:
     1. Checks for an internal file identifier. Examples are an ISO fileIdentifier metadata element or an Esri/PublishedDocID element.
     2. Checks the file name, looking for the following pattern: {uuid}.xml.
     3. Checks where the document is coming from by looking at the source URI. Source URI is assigned at the time of publishing, and is stored in the geoportal database.
   • An error message. There are many different errors. Examples are failure to publish because the document is invalid, failure because the metadata schema is unrecognized, or that the document itself cannot be parsed (the document may not be xml, or a valid schema).
9. You can see your uploaded document by clicking on the Manage link at the top of the page. The document will be listed in the table of resources.

Use dedicated editor to create metadata manually

The geoportal supports creating standards-based metadata to describe your resource using the geoportal interface. Using the dedicated editor to create metadata manually is a good way to publish resource information when you don't have existing metadata to upload or the resource can't be registered as a resource on the network. The geoportal Create Metadata interface supports several metadata schemas out of the box, and can be configured to support additional standards or profiles. For more information about metadata schemas supported by the Geoportal, see Custom Metadata Profiles . To create metadata using the geoportal Create Metadata interface, follow these steps:

1. Login to the geoportal as a publisher or an administrator.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Click the Add link.
4. On the Add page, select Use dedicated editor to create metadata manually from the choices listed.
5. On the next screen, a list of the available metadata schemas will display. Click the radial next to the schema to which you want your metadata document to conform.
6. On the next page, a form with many fields loads. Fill out as much information as possible about your data resource. Fields shown in bold-italic are mandatory; the form will not publish if these are not filled out. Other fields are optional. Some elements that are not mandatory become mandatory when its section is activated. Sections are portions of the form that define a group of information elements. If a section has a blank box next to it, then it is not mandatory but optional. To activate that portion of the form and enter in information, put a check in the blank box and the section will expand, revealing the now-mandatory and optional elements.
7. When you have finished filling out the form, there are three options at the bottom of the screen. Choose any of them, according to their functionality.
   • Validate: submits the metadata form to the geoportal and will report any errors or missing values necessary for the document to publish.
   • Save as Draft: saves the metadata document with a "Draft" status. If you want to finish the record later, you will need to login, go to the Administration tab, select your draft document, and click the pencil icon to open the document in this Create Metadata form again.
   • Save: saves the information you have entered, and submits the form to the geoportal for publishing.
8. When you are ready to publish the metadata to the geoportal, click the Save button and your metadata will be published. Remember that the published metadata will not be retrieved in search results until it has been approved by the geoportal administrator.
9. You can see your created metadata by clicking on the Administration tab. It will be listed in the table of resources.

Publish through the Geoportal Publish Client

If you use ArcGIS Desktop to author and update information associated with your resource, the easiest way to publish the resource to the geoportal is through the Geoportal Publish Client. The Publish Client allows you to publish many resources at one time. See the Publish Client topic for more information on how to install and use the Publish Client.

Publish using the CSW INSERT transaction

It is possible to interact with the Geoportal resource catalog directly using Catalog Service for the Web (CS-W) protocol. One of the supported transactions in the Geoportal's CS-W service is insert. Using a CS-W insert request, it is possible to insert a record into the geoportal catalog. For more information, see the topic on the Geoportal Catalog Service.

Publish through the REST API

It is possible to publish resource metadata using the HTTP PUT operation. In this scenario, you would need to have access to an XML Editor that can open and save XML documents using HTTP GET and HTTP PUT protocols. This publishing would work similar to the process of editing a metadata document using an XML editor.