Standards Support
The Geoportal Server supports several metadata standards by default. Its Create metadata form will generate metadata for each of these with no configuration required. The metadata created with the form is not exhaustive and will not include all elements defined in the standards. However, elements that are considered mandatory to the standard or that enhance the usability of the metadata for geographic purposes are included. Details for the out-of-the-box standards that Geoportal Server supports are given below. If you want to change the existing information captured in Geoportal Server metadata forms or add another profile, see the Add a Custom Profile topic.
Note, support for ISO 19115-2 and the UK Gemini profile begin at version 1.2.
The FGDC standard comes from the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, a publication authored by the United States Federal Geographic Data Committee that specifies the information content of metadata for digital geospatial datasets. The standard provides a common set of terminology for concepts related to the metadata. U.S. government agencies that receive federal funds to create metadata had to follow this standard in the past. Now there is a move for government agencies to use the North American Profile for their metadata instead. The FGDC standard implementation is freely available online, and contains 334 elements. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for FGDC can be found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\fgdc folder.
ISO standards come from the International Organization for Standardization, a federation of standards institutes that work to define criteria for international standards. ISO 19115 is used for describing geographic datasets. ISO 19115-2 is used to describe metadata with instrumentation information. ISO 19119 is used to describe web services. To distinguish ISO 19115-2 metadata, check for the 'gmi' namespace and <gmi:mi_metadata></gmi:mi_metadata> tags. To distinguish ISO 19119 Services metadata, check for the presence of tags, which will only be present in the ISO 19119 Services sections of metadata. The ISO standards must be purchased, and are available at http://www.iso.org/iso/store.htm. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for ISO 19115, ISO 19115-2, and ISO 19119 are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\iso folder.
Note: The GXE Metadata Editor capability has been enabled for ISO 19115 only. For ISO 19115-2 and ISO 19115, the respective definition.xml files define the metatdata editor online form interface.
In the past, U.S. government agencies were mandated to use the FGDC standard for formatting metadata. Recently this has changed, as it has become important for an internationally recognized standard to be used to facilitate data sharing across borders, specifically on the North American continent. The North American Profile is based on the ISO 19115 (dataset) and ISO 19119 (services) metadata profile, but implements additional mandatory values that are not mandatory as per the ISO standards alone. For more information on the North American Profile, see the Federal Geographic Data Committee's NAP website. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for the North American Profile are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\iso\nap folder.
INSPIRE (Spatial Information in Europe) brings together quality geographic information to a single access point for Europe. INSPIRE metadata is based on the ISO 19115 (dataset) and ISO 19119 (services) standard. INSPIRE also implements extended elements and different mandatory elements than the standard ISO. For more information about INSPIRE, see the INSPIRE Community Geoportal. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for INSPIRE metadata are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\iso\inspire folder.
UK GEMINI is a specification produced and is maintained by the AGI Standards Committee. It is a free of charge resource provided by the AGI and is used in the UK. UK GEMINI specifies a core set of metadata elements for use geospatial discovery metadata services. For more information, see http://www.agi.org.uk/uk-gemini.
The Dublin Core standard comes from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). The DCMI is an open international organization that seeks to build consensus in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. The Dublin Core standard has two levels: Simple and Qualified. Simple Dublin Core describes fifteen elements, whereas the Qualified Dublin Core has additional elements and element refinements. The Geoportal Server Create metadata form for Dublin Core follows the Simple Dublin Core.The Dublin Core standard is freely available online. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for Dublin Core are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\dc folder.
ArcGIS metadata is the metadata created in ArcGIS Desktop version 10 to briefly describe and identify a metadata resource. To learn more about ArcGIS Metadata, see the webhelp for ArcGIS Desktop Metadata. Files in the Geoportal Server that define support for ArcGIS metadata are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\esri folder.