Metacat

A more short term solution might be needed for NCEAS data collection. Hence
assigning priority as P1.
Rick also talks about abstract being optional.

Rick's comments:
For the following required data fields there are no default values that could
be selected when there is no logical choice for that metadata set. In some
cases, this can lead to erroneous values in the metadata.
• NCEAS Project(s): When there is no associated NCEAS project associated
with a data set, should there be a ‘None’ field for the user to select? (Or
will there ALWAYS be an associated project?) (I think Matt said that this
would not be the case at NCEAS - SG)
• Latitude / Longitude, for cases where geographic coordinates are not
available for a data set. (Bug 1303)
• Data Set Abstract, for cases where there is no abstract (I have seen
this in several of the WG datasets). (Bug 1303)

• NCEAS Project will ALWAYS be available. If it is not, the admin database
  needs to be updated. This field should be required.

• We could make spatial coverage/lat/lon optional for NCEAS data. But it really
  cuts down on our ability to locate data of interest. There are a few data sets
  for which a location is meaningless, but that should be fairly rare. There is
  no reasonable default value for spatial coverage. Lets chat with Mark about this.

• Abstract should remain as required. If the metadata provider can't give a
  simple description of the data, they probably are not prepared to fill out this
  form for that dataset. It is the most basic info, and I think it shoul remain
  required.

Following variables can now be specified from the cfg file to control
behaviour of the skin: hasKeyword, hasMethod, hasSpatial, hasTaxonomic and
hasTemporal. Following two also can be used: spatialRequired and
temporalRequired

Both abstract and project will always be required. Rest of the sections can be
controlled from above described variables.

Original Bugzilla ID was 1303