How to write your own EML XML file

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Instructions
• Example file(s)
• What changed in the version 1.1 of the GBIF Metadata Profile since 1.0.2?

Introduction

The IPT contains a built-in metadata editor that allows you to easily fill in resource metadata, validate it, and produce an EML file that is always valid XML.

Below is a simple set of instructions for non-IPT users wishing to generate their own custom EML XML file complying with the latest version of the GBIF Metadata Profile: 1.1.

Instructions

1. Use the schema location for version 1.1 of the GBIF Metadata Profile in the <eml:eml> root element: <eml:eml ... xsi:schemaLocation="eml://ecoinformatics.org/eml-2.1.1 http://rs.gbif.org/schema/eml-gbif-profile/1.1/eml.xsd" ...>.
2. Fill in all mandatory metadata elements specified by the schema, plus any additional metadata elements desired. When updating an existing EML file using an earlier version of the GBIF Metadata Profile, refer to the section below for a list of what's new in this version.
3. Ensure the EML file is valid XML. The Oxygen XML Editor is an excellent tool with built-in validator you can use to do this. Java programmers could do this for example by using the EmlValidator.java from the GBIF registry-metadata project.

Example file(s)

An example EML complying with v1.1 of the GBIF Metadata Profile can be found here. Note this file has been generated by the ALA IPT.

What changed in the version 1.1 of the GBIF Metadata Profile since 1.0.2?

1. Support for a machine readable license. Note instructions on how to provide a machine readable license can be found here. I assume it would make sense to make this change when implementing issue #78.
2. Support for multiple contacts, creators, metadataProvider and project personnel
3. Support for userIds for any agent (e.g. ORCID)
4. Support for providing information about the frequency with which changes are made to the dataset
5. Support for providing a project identifier (e.g. to associate datasets under a common project)
6. The description can be broken into separate paragraphs versus all lumped into one
7. Support for providing information about multiple collections