[Freegis-list] Clearinghouse

[Alexander Pucher]

Wow, a lot of information coming in the last days. Thanks you all so 
far-John, Jan and Felipe.

My personal intention (that's why I posted my question) is simple. We 
have a lot of geodata in our dept., stored in several ArcGIS personal 
geodatabases. All I want to do is to set up a web-based  intranet search 
engine, so that dept. members can search the available data. In a first 
step, it is not needed that users can actually download the datafiles-a 
metadata result list of the queried data would be enough. I think, this 
is not really a clearinghouse, for it would only have one peer.

Changes are good that some of my colleagues will try to set up a 
ESRI-based system, but my intention is to do it with free software.

I had a look at the Z39.50 protocol stuff from FGDC and played around a 
bit with the Isite software package. Looks good, but still some 
questions remain like "how to get all the metadata out of ArcGIS in 
batchmode" etc.

I will have a look at your URLs (esp. the PHP item) and will come back 
as soon as I've been through them.

Best wishes,
alex


Felipe Nievinski wrote:

>Hi.
>
>On Mon, 01 Apr 2002, John Reid wrote:
>
>>I'm currently looking at setting up a demo dataset using freely
>>available datasets for my local area, concentrating initially on storage
>>of data catalogues and metadata.  
>>
>
>John, 
>I just read your message. The message below is in response to Alexander's message.
>The idea of the addition to the SDI Cookbook is great. I'll get back to you asap.
>
>
>On Tue, Mar 26, 2002, Alexander Pucher wrote:
>
>>I'm recently planning to set up an geodata clearinghouse using free
>>software. Right now, all data is stored in an ArcGIS personal
>>geodatabase. I've searched the web and found some stuff from the FGDC
>>(mainly the Isite package).
>>
>
>By clearinghouse I understand a decentralized system of servers 
>full of metadata in a networked environment, used for resource 
>discovery.
>
>The Z39.50 protocol is widely used for communication between 
>computers in a clearinghouse. Isite is a package of (free 
>software) programs for distributed searching. It contains a 
>Z39.50 server implementation, besides other things.
>
>By using Isite you can:
>- index a file collection, each file being a metadata record,
>- search locally this database,
>- receive queries via Z39.50.
>
>If you just want to create and add a server peer to an existing 
>clearinghouse (for example, registry.gsdi.org) this is almost 
>all you'll need to do. You can then notify the clearinghouse 
>maintainer that your server is ready to be accessed, and 
>perform queries on local or remote Z39.50 servers using a 
>Z39.50 client or through an already available http to Z39.50 
>gateway.
>
>To manage your metadata file collection (create, update and 
>delete records), do it by hand offline, or build a web-based 
>system using your prefered language. There is available (see 
>URL below) a set of very elucidative Perl scripts which makes 
>a metadata entry system.
>Any modification to your metadata-base you'll have to re-index 
>it and restart the Z server.
>
>If you also want to build your own http to z39.50 gateway, be 
>prepared to dig deep. As far as I can tell you, the Isite zcon 
>defines the presentation of the search results (the way it 
>formats Z39.50 responses into HTML) in its source code, so 
>you'll have to hack its internals just to add your 
>university logo to the results page, for example. 
>Maybe the PHPYAZ (again, see URL below), a Z39.50 client 
>for PHP, can do a better job. 
>
>If you want to serve the actual data online, provide links for 
>it in the metadata records (the metadata standards usually 
>define linkage fields to provide this information). Look at a (free) 
>Web Map Service server or a Web Feature Server if you want 
>to provide dynamic content rather than just static files.
>
>Just some ideas.
>Commentaries are welcomed.
>
>The URLs:
>- Isite 2.05 - General Instructions
>  http://www.awcubed.com/Isite/FGDC-README.html
>- Web-based FGDC Metadata Entry System
>  http://130.11.52.178/metaover.html
>- PHPYAZ
>  http://www.indexdata.dk/phpyaz/
>- Spatial Data Infrastrucures Implementation Guide 
>  Chapter Four: Geospatial Data Catalog -- Making data discoverable
>  http://www.gsdi.org/pubs/cookbook/cookbook0515.pdf  
>
>regards,
>Felipe N.
>
>
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>
>


-- 
________________________________________________________

Institut fuer Geographie und Regionalforschung
Universitaet Wien
Kartografie und Geoinformation

Departement of Geography and Regional Research
University of Vienna
Cartography and GIS

Universitaetstr. 7, A-1010 Wien, AUSTRIA

Tel: (+43 1) 4277 48644
Fax: (+43 1) 4277 48649
E-mail: pucher at atlas.gis.univie.ac.at

FTP: ftp://ftp.gis.univie.ac.at
WWW: http://www.gis.univie.ac.at/karto
________________________________________________________

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