Publication lifecycle

An item (i.e., a metadata record and, optionally, content files uploaded with it) contributed in ELG goes through a set of states before its publication on the catalogue (ELG publication lifecycle), as depicted in the following figure:

Publication lifecycle

The states are:

  • new item: A provider creates an item, by creating a metadata record through the interactive editor or by uploading a metadata file and, optionally, content files.

  • draft: When using the interactive editor, the provider can save the metadata record, even without filling all mandatory elements; only compliance as to the data type of the elements is checked (e.g. elements that take URL must be filled in with the accepted pattern).

  • syntactically valid: The metadata record complies with the ELG metadata schema and all mandatory elements are filled in. The provider can still continue to edit it until satisfied with the description and can then submit it for publication; once submitted, the provider receives an email message.

  • submitted for publication: The record is no longer editable. Depending on the item type and the source (see table below), the item is validated at the metadata, technical and legal level. The validation aims to check the consistency of the description and, where required, the technical compliance of the item to the ELG specifications; it doesn’t include any qualitative evaluation. The validation is currently performed by the ELG consortium members. When validators identify a problem, they contact the provider for further information and may ask the provider to edit the metadata; in such cases, the status of the item is changed to syntactically valid again and the provider is notified to make the appropriate amendments.

  • published: When the validator(s) have approved an item, it is automatically visible via the ELG public catalogue. Once approved by the human validators and subsequently published, a metadata record cannot be edited any more.

Note

Only the metadata records created via the editor can be saved as draft. The XML metadata files cannot be imported unless they are syntactically valid (which is the status they are automatically set to).

The following table shows the validation operations foreseen for each item type / source of metadata.

Type of records

Validation type

Metadata

Technical

Legal

Harvested metadata

N/A

N/A

N/A

Metadata records uploaded by ELG admin

N/A

N/A

N/A

Metadata only records 1

Yes

N/A

N/A

ELG-compatible services

Yes

Yes

Yes

LRTs uploaded (hosted) in ELG

Yes

Yes

Yes

1

Metadata only records are records for projects, organizations but also for LRTs that are not uploaded in ELG. These records are considered automatically technically and legally valid.