Purpose

Short: Convert dublin core metadata stored in text files to other machine-readable formats to be used by other software.

Long: Assist in cataloguing batches of similar or series-based items from a collection by:

• decreasing the complexity of logging each individual item/issue
• minimizing repetitive typing and template editing
• combining the information that is shared across items in a collection in one place

Usage

Process Instructions

1. Edit Config File: If desired, edit the configuration file to customize the format of the header
2. Edit Shared File: Edit the settings to include any and all shared metadata applicable to all of the items in the given batch (e.g language, publisher, etc.)
3. Create Text File/s: Create a text file of the basic metadata for each item in the collection.
4. Run Script: Run the script to create, in that directory, the desired output/s encoded with the dublin-core metadata you logged in the text files.
5. Check and Utilize Output: Ensure that everything has been placed in the appropriate field by checking a few individual item representations.
6. Clean up or Reference Text Files: After completion of the above tasks, the text files can be discarded as irrelevant, or used as a quick reference to the metadata info along- side where you're storing the files themselves.

Output Types

Flag	.ext	Description
C	.csv	output originally intended for use with DSPace-Labs/SAFBuilder.
X,x	.xml	[One or many] is a commonly used in SOAP APIs
J,j	.json	[One or many] is commonly used by REST APIs
M	.mrk	MARC format which will likely need to be compiled into .mrc
...	...	Feel free to fork and create more output types or suggest different uses.

Raw Help Output

Use -h at any time to get (something like) the following:

usage: dublin-core-text-parser

A cataloguing tool for converting specially formatted text files
containing dublin core metadata into various formats

 -c,--config <arg>   Reference to a file containing alternative header
                     arrangements
 -C,--csv            Create a single .csv  file containing metadata of
                     each item
 -h,--help           Display the help information
 -J,--json           Create a single .json file containing metadata of
                     each item
 -M,--mrk            Create a single .mrk  file containing metadata of
                     each item
 -o,--output <arg>   Name the output file
 -s,--shared <arg>   file location of the shared.csv file containing the
                     shared fields
 -X,--xml            Create a single .xml  file containing metadata of
                     each item

External Links

• Wiki for this program!
• Dublin Core documentation
• Sample Dublin Core JSON object
• DSpace SimpleArchiveFormat documentation