What's New in InPort

November 8, 2016

This patch contains various fixes for issues identified following the 3.7 Release.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

October 4, 2016

This release consists of various enhancements and bug fixes across the application.

Features include:

• The InPort XML Loader has been expanded to include support for Data Set Information, Project Information, Document Information, and FAQs.
• Additional catalog item types, Project and Document, are now supported by the InPort XML Loader, in addition to Data Sets and Entities.
• Two new Support Role types have been added: Co-Author and Principal Investigator.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

July 28, 2016

This patch provides several enhancements in support of new EDM metadata requirements for Entities and Attributes. It also contains various fixes for bugs identified following the 3.6 Release.

Features include:

• A new rubric at the Entity level has been added, in accordance with current EDM requirements for Entity and Attribute metadata.
• A new "Quick Edit" Data Attributes form has been added, to facilitate addition and modification of Data Attributes fields affected by the new EDM metadata requirements.
• A new hierarchy details page has been added (linked from the current View in Hierarchy page), which displays additional item information such as items' publish status and rubric score.
• Rubric scores for Data Sets and Entities have also been added to the Child Items section of their parent.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

July 11, 2016

This patch prevented an issue in the Table / Column Loader with operations that made use of ROWID. The issue was introduced by a bug in the new version of Oracle DB.

The patch was installed prior to the database upgrade, to ensure no users would encounter the issue.

June 30, 2016

This release consists of various enhancements and bug fixes across the application.

Features include:

• The rubric has been updated to display an Overall Score (consisting of the Wave 1 and Wave 2 scores) and a separate Entity and Attributes score for Data Sets.
• The InPort XML Loader has been expanded to include support for URLs, Activity Logs, Issues, Technical Environment, Catalog Details, and remaining fields in the Extents section.
• RELAX NG and XSD schema files have been provided for validation of InPort XML files for uploaders.
• The Max Length field under Data Attributes for Entity items has been made optional.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

April 28, 2016

This patch largely consists of fixes for bugs identified following the 3.5 release.

This includes:

• A separate page of NOAA DMPs in the Statistics section for use by NOAA EDM.
• Added catalog item type to the display of Related Items on the catalog item page.
• Several modifications were made to InPort XML to be more consistent with the order of sections and fields across the application.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

March 29, 2016

This release provides several enhancements in supporting EDM metadata requirements and metadata creation.

Features include:

• The rubric has been updated to include an Entity and Attributes score, based on new metadata requirements for NMFS.
• The InPort XML Loader has been expanded to include support for Entity catalog items, the Data Attributes section, and the Keywords section.
• Catalog items can now be cloned, to speed up creation of similar items.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

More Information on Cloning Items

Catalog items can now be cloned. This feature can be accessed in two different ways: 1) When creating a new child item, a Cat ID can be specified to copy from, or 2) An existing item can be cloned by going into the Item Actions menu and selecting Clone Item, in which case the new item will be created under the same parent (it can be moved to a different place in the hierarchy after creation, if desired).

Items can be cloned as a different type of catalog item, however only the sections which apply to the new catalog item will be copied over.

A clone operation copies only the metadata fields of the item being cloned; it will not copy over any child items.

February 2, 2016

This release provides several enhancements for importing metadata.

Features include:

• Support for batch upload of multiple InPort XML files in a single zip file.
• The InPort XML Loader has been expanded to include support of all Item Identification and Data Quality section fields.

Additionally, the InPort Stats page has been made available in the navigation options. Although this feature has been available previously, it is being opened up to a wider audience for additional feedback. The Data Sets report has been modified to include links to each Data Set's Data Management Plan in the interest of providing an up-to-date, online repository of NOAA DMPs for NMFS. Links have also been included for the ISO19115 and InPort XML exports of the data set.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

More Information on the Batch InPort XML Loader

A new batch loading capability has been added, to allow multiple InPort XML files to be loaded into InPort to create/update items in one zip file. All normal restrictions apply -- you must have the appropriate role to modify the affected catalog items, and the catalog items must be in an editable workflow state (e.g. Draft for Authors and Publishers, Review/Revise for Publishers).

A link to the Batch InPort XML Loader is available in the right sidebar of the My InPort page. To batch load a set of InPort XML files, zip all desired files into a single .zip file and upload them. The zip file will be queued up and loaded into InPort, and a validation report with the results will be provided. To check on the status of your loaded file, visit the My InPort page.

InPort XML Load field support is an ongoing effort and currently limited to PARR-related fields for Data Sets. It is continuously being expanded until full field support across all catalog item types is supported. Please see the full documentation on the InPort XML Loader for more information.

December 17, 2015

This release provides several enhancements in supporting EDM metadata requirements.

Features include:

• A new InPort XML format has been created, with the ability to export full InPort records as XML. Please see the notes below for more information.
• All fields which do not have an FGDC equivalent, and are required for PARR, are now preserved on an FGDC update.
• Several UI improvements have been made to ease the copying of data between items.
• The InPort XML Loader has been expanded to include support of the Access Information section. This completes load support for all fields required for PARR.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

Enhanced Copying Features

Sections that previously supported "Copy from Parent" now also support "Copy from Cat ID", where fields can be copied from an arbitrary catalog item, specified by its Cat ID, provided you are able to view that catalog item.

The Data Management section now supports the Copy from Cat ID feature as well.

In addition, multiple sections from an arbitrary catalog item can be copied in one step. This bulk "Copy from Cat ID" capability is available for all users with an Author or higher role on the catalog item, under the Item Actions menu.

More Information on the New InPort XML Format

A new custom XML format is under development, which will allow both export, import, and update of a full catalog item of any type via XML.

Import and update capabilities are being implemented piecemeal through multiple releases. As of this release, fields that are required for PARR and DMP generation (for Data Sets only) are fully supported. Full Data Set imports will be supported later this year, followed by support of other catalog item types.

A preliminary implementation of the full export of any catalog item is included in this release. This export format replaces the existing XML export, which is now considered an obsolete, legacy format. While there are many similarities between the two, the newer format has greater internal consistency, and is based on how the sections and fields for catalog items are currently organized and represented in InPort. More importantly, the new format is intended to be the same for both importing and exporting.

This preliminary implementation is designated as version "0.9", since it is still in provisional status and may change as the import/update capability is completed. However, it can still be useful as a reference on existing items, for users who plan to upload InPort XML files. It also represents all the information InPort has on a particular catalog item in its entirety, which may be useful for archival or integration purposes.

The legacy XML format is no longer listed in the Export options on an item, however it will still be available for a limited time by typing in the address manually (append "/xml" to the URL for a catalog item, e.g. https://inport.nmfs.noaa.gov/inport/item/123456/xml).

December 1, 2015

This patch largely consists of fixes for bugs identified following the 3.3 release.

This includes:

• A critical bug in the DMP preview and PDF export, which indicated an invalid Physical Location even when valid, has been fixed.
• A new Help page, Importing Metadata into InPort, was added to assist users interested in the new InPort XML load capability.
• A new Help page, Tools, Scripts & Downloads has been added to consolidate the various scripts and downloads used across InPort to a single page.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

November 3, 2015

This release provides several enhancements in supporting EDM metadata requirements and DMP generation.

Features include:

• The metadata rubric has been updated with the finalized measures for meeting NMFS metadata requirements. Completion guidance has also been added to assist users entering metadata.
• The InPort XML loader has been expanded to include all DMP-related fields. Please see the loader documentation (in the sidebar when loading an XML file) for more details. Note that catalog items must be in an editable workflow state to be updated. See the help section on Importing Metadata into InPort for more information and documentation on this feature.
• The structure of geographic areas and time frames has been modified to better support the range of scenarios in which data is being collected. A new section, "Extents" has been added, which now houses both Time Frames and Geographic Areas. Geographic areas have been made repeatable so that one or more bounding boxes or geographic area descriptions can be entered. In addition, a new, repeatable vertical extent component has been added. Existing time frames and geographic areas have been automatically converted to the new structure.
• DMP PDF files can now be batch exported at the Project level, for all externally published Data Sets under the Project.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

August 27, 2015

This patch largely consists of fixes for bugs identified following the 3.2 release. In addition, the metadata rubric has been updated for the NMFS EDM Wave 1 and Wave 2 fields for assessing metadata completeness.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

July 28, 2015

This release provides the first set of features necessary to generate Data Management Plans based on metadata in InPort. Fields required for the Data Management Plan that did not already exist in InPort have been added for Data Sets. A new metadata section, Data Management, contains most of these fields, with a few additional fields in the Data Set Information and Data Quality sections.

Supporting features include:

• A dynamic preview of the Data Management Plan based on existing information.
• A PDF export of the Data Management Plan document.
• An XML upload capability for new fields added to InPort in support of the Data Management Plan. See the help section on Importing Metadata into InPort for more information and documentation on this feature.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

Important Notice on Common Core Exports

Please note that as of this release, support for Common Core has been removed from InPort, as well as the WAF.

June 18, 2015

This patch largely consists of fixes for bugs identified following the 3.1 release, as well as some ISO 19115 export enhancements.

This includes:

• A fix for an issue where only the first URL specified as an Online Resource was appearing in the ISO 19115 export.
• Addition of Originators into the ISO 19115 export.
• Addition of Data Stewards into the ISO 19115 export.
• A fix for detection of expired passwords for external non-NOAA users.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

Important Notice on Common Core Exports

The Common Core export functionality will no longer be supported, and will be removed from InPort as of next release. All externally published data sets are harvested and incorporated into data.noaa.gov and data.gov, and are available in the latest version of Common Core at those locations.

April 23, 2015

This release consists of several enhancements to the FGDC uploader, continued work on the migration of Forms functionality into the web application, usability improvements, and bug fixes.

• The Lineage section in FGDC is now supported for FGDC uploads. In addition, the lineage source citation URL was also added as a new field. Please see the important notice below for users who have been uploading FGDC files with lineage information.
• Several critical problems with the upload of entities and attributes have been fixed. The maximum file upload size has also been increased to 1 MB.
• A new Statistics area in InPort has been created and is in the conceptual and development phase. This area is not linked directly from any page or navigation menu, but can be accessed here. Please understand that the two initial reports are only a tiny sliver of what we hope to implement in this area. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for statistics and reports that would be useful for you or your organization.
• ISO 19115 exports now include the name of the Data Set's parent project, as a Project Keyword. In addition, the previously default reference system of EPSG:4326 has been removed, as it does not apply to all InPort data sets. A future release may support this as an option for metadata authors.

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Important Notice on Lineage

As of this release, lineage is now processed for FGDC file uploads, and stored into InPort's native implementation of lineage. This has implications for InPort users who have previously uploaded FGDC files which contained lineage information.

Previously, lineage information found in FGDC files was unsupported and not processed, but it was stored internally and preserved so that it could be grafted into the FGDC export of the resulting Data Set. The preserved FGDC lineage information was also used to generate the corresponding lineage section in the ISO 19115 export. In other words, even though FGDC lineage information was not viewable directly in the InPort Data Set, it was still preserved and used for exports.

Now that lineage information found in FGDC files is processed and stored in InPort's native lineage implementation, we will eventually discontinue use of the preserved FGDC lineage information for FGDC and ISO 19115 exports. Only the lineage information contained in InPort's native implementation will be used as a basis for metadata exports.

There will be a transitional period of approximately 3 months (ending when InPort Release v3.2 is released). During this time, any preserved lineage information will still be used as a fallback for FGDC and ISO 19115 exports, if no InPort lineage information exists. After this transitional period, however, only lineage information that appears in the native InPort lineage section will be used for metadata exports. If no lineage information exists in the InPort lineage section, no lineage information will be exported.

If you have uploaded FGDC files prior to this release which contained lineage information, you are strongly recommended to update the corresponding Data Sets, preferably before the transition period has ended, to avoid missing lineage information in your exports. This can be done in 2 different ways:

1. If you only use FGDC uploads to create/update your Data Set, then perform an additional FGDC Update with the most recent version of your FGDC file.
2. If you created your Data Set, but made manual changes to your Data Set on InPort, then the safest approach is to enter in the Lineage information directly in InPort's interface. This is due to the fact that an FGDC Update will completely overwrite the existing record, and all information entered manually in InPort after the upload will be lost.

Here is a summary of the changes before this release, during, and after the transition period:

Prior to this Release

• FGDC Upload: Lineage information in uploaded FGDC files was not processed or stored in InPort's native lineage section, but the XML was preserved.
• FGDC Export: If preserved FGDC lineage metadata existed, it was grafted into the Data Set's FGDC export. If no preserved FGDC lineage metadata existed, any metadata present in InPort's native lineage implementation was used as the basis for the FGDC export.
• ISO 19115 Export: If preserved FGDC lineage metadata existed, it was used as a basis for the Data Set's ISO 19115 export. If no preserved FGDC lineage metadata existed, any metadata present in InPort's native lineage implementation was used as the basis for the ISO 19115 export.

As of this Release, and During the Transition Period

• FGDC Upload: Lineage information in uploaded FGDC files is now processed and stored in InPort's native lineage section. The XML is also preserved.
• FGDC Export: If InPort native lineage information exists, it is used as the basis for the Data Set's FGDC export. If no InPort lineage information exists, the preserved FGDC lineage XML is used as a fallback and grafted into the Data Set's FGDC export.
• ISO 19115 Export: If InPort native lineage information exists, it is used as the basis for the Data Set's ISO 19115 export. If no InPort lineage information exists, the preserved FGDC lineage XML is used as a fallback, and is the basis for the Data Set's ISO 19115 export.

After the Transition Period

• FGDC Upload: Lineage information in uploaded FGDC files will continue to be processed and stored in InPort's native lineage section. The XML will not be preserved.
• FGDC Export: Only InPort's native lineage information will be used as the basis for the Data Set's FGDC export.
• ISO 19115 Export: Only InPort's native lineage information will be used as the basis for the Data Set's ISO 19115 export.

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For the complete list of release changes, please see the release notes.

February 24, 2015

This patch largely consists of fixes for bugs identified following the 3.0 major release.

In addition, a few "quality of life" improvements were made:

• A "Jump To" button is included in the Catalog Hierarchy view to scroll to the currently selected Catalog Item (useful if it is off-screen).
• Most email addresses that appear in fields now are a clickable link to open the user's mail client with the email address populated.
• Direct links have been added for each field within the Metadata Rubric report to make changes. The links only appear if you have an appropriate role to modify the record.

For the complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

January 28, 2015

Release 3.0 represents a major update of InPort -- a year-long effort where every component of InPort was affected in some way. Some of these changes are drastic and obvious, but others are more hidden and affect what's underneath the hood.

This information is intended to help introduce the InPort community to some of the more notable changes, and help transition users to the new system.

• Changes for All Users
• Notes for Metadata Authors
• Entity Extract Loading
• Notes for Librarians
• Where Did It Go?

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Changes for All Users

User accounts are now tied to your NOAA account. Use your NOAA email/username and password to login to the InPort web application. Note that you must still be authorized to access InPort in order to login, so if you did not have an existing InPort account prior to this release, you must be authorized for InPort by your organization's Librarian. If you previously had an InPort account, but are not able to login with your NOAA credentials, please contact InPort Support.

Note: Librarians and Sys Admins must still use their previous InPort accounts to login to the Forms applications (Library Manager, Sys Admin Tools, etc.). Please see the Notes for Librarians section for more details.

If your registered email address in InPort is not a NOAA email address, you should have received a notification with a password for you to login with. If you did not receive any notification, please contact InPort Support. This only applies to users with non-NOAA email addresses.

Users can now browse metadata libraries within the web application. Visit the Organizations page to view all available libraries. Guest users are able to browse through all externally published libraries, while logged-in users can also browse internally-published libraries, as well as any unpublished libraries or portions of libraries that they have been granted access to.

The My InPort page (logged-in users only) displays all the libraries or catalog items that you have been given a special authorization for.

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Notes for Metadata Authors

The Catalog Editor module, previously an Oracle Forms application, has been migrated and integrated directly into the web application. This represents a major change to how metadata is now edited in InPort, as well as a new foundation for making InPort more user-friendly and up-to-date with modern web technologies. We welcome any and all feedback on the new interface, as this release represents a start, and not an end, to usability improvements in InPort.

There is no longer a separate application/module for editing metadata. Instead, you can browse or search for catalog items within the web application, and then edit them directly on the View Catalog Item page. Note that you must have been granted an Author or higher role to edit Catalog Items. In addition, Catalog Items must be in an appropriate workflow state to be edited (i.e. Draft, Review / Revise).

InPort now supports a Lineage section for Data Sets. This means that lineage-related metadata can be inputted directly in InPort, and this information will be reflected in all metadata exports. Note: the new lineage information in InPort is not yet integrated with the lineage processing for FGDC file uploads. If you create records in InPort with FGDC file uploads, it is recommended for now that you do not modify InPort's lineage fields, as it will interfere with the preservation of the FGDC lineage data. A future release will more tightly integrate FGDC lineage processing with InPort's native lineage implementation, so that this is no longer a concern.

Data Entities that are directly under Data Sets can now be bulk approved and published when the parent Data Set is approved/published. Previously, all items had to be individually approved. This is a convenience feature for metadata authors who need to make frequent changes to data sets, but don't need to modify child entities often.

Browser-based spell-check has been integrated. As metadata editing is now integrated in the web application, built-in web browser spell-checking features are now utilized, if they are available. Note that spell-checkers work somewhat differently across the various browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc.), and are not available in older versions of some browsers.

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Entity Extract Loading

For users who upload Oracle table / column metadata with an extract (.lis) file, the process in release 3.0 is almost the same as before. Extract files must be uploaded to a Project -- when viewing a Project as a logged-in user, click on the More Actions menu to upload a file. The uploaded file must then be processed in the Table / Column Loader, which is still on Oracle Forms. This module will eventually be migrated into the web application, but users will need to continue to use Oracle Forms for now.

If you need to use the Table / Column Loader and are an InPort Librarian or System Administrator, you can use your previous InPort account credentials (not your NOAA username and password) to access the Table / Column Loader.

If you are not a Librarian or System Administrator, your account must be specifically enabled to use this module under the 3.0 system. Please contact InPort Support to set your account up for access.

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Notes for Librarians

The Library Manager module for library, organization, and user management, will eventually be migrated into the web application, similar to the Catalog Editor. In the meantime, Librarians must still perform library and user management within Oracle Forms. To access the Library Manager, login to InPort with your NOAA credentials. Then, under the Admin menu, click on Library Manager.

To use the Library Manager module, Librarians must use their previous InPort account credentials to login to Forms, NOT their NOAA account credentials. We realize it is inconvenient to have two logins for different areas of the application. However, this is a temporary, but necessary measure until the Library Manager has been migrated off of Oracle Forms. We apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.

In addition, the user creation process is slightly different in this release. As before, new users can and should be created in the Library Manager, and then granted whatever roles are appropriate for their needs. However, an InPort username can no longer be created for them at this point. Instead, you must contact InPort Support to have a new user's account enabled and hooked up to his/her NOAA credentials. The InPort team is currently working on a way to simplify this process, so that Librarians can eventually enable these accounts on their own without any intervention from InPort Support.

Note: If you only need to create a new person so that they can be referenced in a Catalog Item (e.g. Support Roles), but that person does not need to actually login to InPort, then their NOAA account does not need to be linked. You can simply create them in your Library, and they will be available immediately with no further action required.

As of InPort 3.0, Catalog Items that were at any time previously published can now be deleted. This action is only allowed for InPort users with a Librarian role. It is still highly recommended to Withdraw, and not delete obsolete items that were previously published. However, the new deletion capability can be used to remove items that were created in error, or truly should not be made available to anyone.

Also as of this release, due to increased security measures, access to reports will require logging in again. On the first time accessing any report from Forms in a single session, there will be a login prompt. Your Oracle username and password should be used for this (not your NOAA account). This should only need to be done once for the session.

A new Support Roles Report has been added which displays all the catalog items that an InPort user has been assigned to as a Support Role (e.g. Point of Contact, Metadata Contact, Distributor, etc.). To access this report, click on a user in the Library Manager tree, and select the Support Roles Report from the Reports menu (or right-click on the user and select the report from the menu).

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Where Did It Go?

Here is a quick rundown of InPort features that have moved in InPort 3.0, and where to find them:

Change Workflow/Publish Status - On the Catalog Item View page, click on the Change button next to the workflow status display at the top of the page. Note that you must be logged-in and have the appropriate role to change the workflow status. You can also change workflow status from the View Catalog Hierarchy page.

Metadata Export Formats - Metadata export formats (FGDC, ISO 19115, etc.) are still available on the Catalog Item View page, but on the left side, under the View Item As menu.

FGDC Upload / FGDC Update - For FGDC uploads, go directly to the Project that the new Data Set will be under. Under the More Actions menu, click on Upload FGDC. For FGDC updates, go directly to the Data Set that will be updated. Under the More Actions menu, click on Update from FGDC.

Entity Extract Upload - Go directly to the Project that contains the Data Set for which the Entity Extract will apply to. Under the More Actions menu, click on Upload Entity Extract.

Add / Delete / Move Catalog Items - These actions are available when selecting items in the View Catalog Hierarchy page. They are also available under the More Actions menu when viewing a Catalog Item.

Edit Catalog Items - Individual sections of a catalog item can be edited by clicking on the Edit button for each section when viewing a Catalog Item. Note that these buttons are only available when logged-in, for users with authorization to edit metadata records. The Catalog Item must also be in an editable workflow state to be edited.

Hierarchy with Details Report - This report has been removed from InPort until further notice, as it was causing critical performance and stability issues.

User History Report - For logged-in users, click on History in the main navigation menu under My InPort.

Catalog Item History Report - When viewing a Catalog Item, click on Catalog Item History in the page header. You must be logged-in to view this report.

User Roles Report - When viewing a Catalog Item, click on User Roles in the page header. You must be logged-in to view this report.

Catalog Hierarchy Report - This report has been replaced by the Catalog Hierarchy functionality in the web application. In addition, when viewing any Catalog Item, you can see its location in the Catalog Hierarchy by clicking on View in Hierarchy in the page header.

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For more information and details, please consult the InPort Release Notes page.