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README.md

SFB 1280 MetaDataApp

Introduction and wiki

One of the most important steps in managing research data is the creation of metadata. Metadata represents characteristics of the raw data collected, such as the creator, date, subjects. License, publisher, etc. are also metadata. However, selecting the appropriate metadata fields is a difficult task. The easiest way is to have a template that contains a mapping to bibliometric metadata standards such as DublinCore and DataCite: The SFB 1280 metadata schema is such a template with 16 fields developed by SFB representatives. In accordance with the SFB's research data management policy, storage of this metadata is mandatory for all SFB 1280 groups.

Please refer to this project's wiki page for information about the SFB 1280 metadata schema.

About this project

To save researchers noticeable routine work in creating metadata in the medium term, the SFB 1280 INF project developed the SFB 1280 MetadataApp. The MetaDataApp is a Java application with a graphical user interface that allows researchers to easily enter metadata, as well as store metadata in local json files along with research data using an inheritance strategy. It allows the input of SFB 1280 metadata, as well as additional DublinCore and DataCite metadata that have no mapping to SFB 1280 metadata but are important for publishing the data according to the FAIR principles later. You can download an already exported version of the program here as a .jar file to get a first overview of the program.

The MetaDataApp will store the entries in a json file format that allows further use in a database (see related project: SFB 1280 DatabaseApp) and other repositories. Json is a well-established data-interchange format that can be transformed easily in any pipeline regardless of programming language use. The SFB 1280 DatabaseApp is an additional developed Java application that makes the thus created metadata searchable and search results easily retrievable.

Structure of the project

Important Files and Folders

  • Source code: The code of the actual project. Found in src/AppJ_V03.java
  • Libaries: The crucial libaries are
    • gson.2.6.2.jar
    • jcalendar-1.4.jar
    • jgoodies-forms-1.8.0.jar
    • jgoodies-forms-1.8.0-source.jar
    • json-simple-1.1.jar
    • miglayout15-swing.jar
  • .classpath: Might be important to setup the libs, but this can be done manual as well.

Structure of the code

Line 0 to 71:

Imports. External Libaries:

  • JSON-Simpel
  • GSON

Both for JSON handling

Line 92 to 266

Functions for input field formatting. Those functions get a input component as a parameter and add certain listener to it. For example: This could be a listener, which colours the field red, whenever the input format is not correct.

Line 271 to 357

Utilily functions

Line 358 to 370

Java main function

Line 371 to 470

All used variable, which can be changed and will be saved are declared and initiated here.

Line 476 to 584

If there is already a meta.JSON file, then this code area will read the data out of this file into the variables.

Line 590 to 1640

UI of the application

Line 1641 to 1808

Adding special features to the UI. Such as adding enforced formats to input fields.

Line 1809 to 1948

Save the content to a new meta.JSON file.

Line 1949 - END

UI (Panels)

License and Citation

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Please cite as: Zomorodpoosh, Setareh, Diers, Erik, Linn, Sandra, Merz, Christian J., Pacharra, Marlene, & Otto, Tobias. (2023). MetaDataApp v2.0. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8040229

Contact

If you have any questions about the MetaDataApp, or if you have feature requests or found bugs, please contact the SFB's INF project via email: sfb1280data@rub.de

Funding

The development of the SFB 1280 subject code generator was carried out as part of the SFB 1280 INF project, supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (German Research Foundation, project number 316803389). CJM received support by the SFB 1280 A09 project.