Introduction

Although Harvester is included with a Metacat installation (beginning with Metacat version 1.4.0), it is an extention to Metacat's functionality that may be used optionally.

Definitions

Managing Harvester

• Configuring Harvester
• Running Harvester
• Reviewing Harvester reports to the Harvester Administrator

Configuring Harvester

Harvester must be configured to interact with a working Metacat installation. Thus, a Metacat installation that has been properly configured and installed is a pre-requisite to running Harvester. Additionally, Harvester has a number of settable properties that control its behavior. All Harvester configuration information is managed in a single file, metacat.properties, located at:

      METACAT_HOME/lib/metacat.properties

Harvester properties are grouped together in metacat.properties, beginning after the comment line:

      # Harvester properties

The Harvester Administrator should edit metacat.properties, setting appropriate values for the harvesterAdministrator property, the smtpServer property, and possibly other properties. The following table is a summary of each property and its function.

Running Harvester

1. Open a system command window or terminal window.
2. Set the METACAT_HOME environment variable to the value of the Metacat installation directory. Some examples follow:
   • On Windows:

     set METACAT_HOME=C:\somePath\metacat

   • On Linux/Unix (bash shell):

     export METACAT_HOME=/home/somePath/metacat

3. cd to the following directory:
   • On Windows:

     cd %METACAT_HOME%\lib\harvester

   • On Linux/Unix:

     cd $METACAT_HOME/lib/harvester

4. Run the appropriate Harvester shell script, as determined by the operating system:
   • On Windows:

     runHarvester.bat

   • On Linux/Unix:

     sh runHarvester.sh

The Harvester application will start executing. It will begin its first harvest after delay number of hours (as specified in the metacat.properties file). The application will continue running a new harvest every period number of hours until a maxHarvests number of harvests have been completed.

Reviewing Harvester Reports to the Harvester Administrator

After every harvest, Harvester will send an email report to the Harvester Administrator detailing the operations that were performed during the harvest. The report will contain information about each of the Harvest Sites that were harvested from, such as which EML documents were harvested and whether any errors were encountered.

The harvest report will contain a list of log entries, where each log entry describes an operation that was performed by Harvester. Log entries that show a status value of 1 indicate that an error occurred during the operation, while those that show a status value of 0 indicate that the operation was completed successfully.

The Harvester Administrator should review the report, paying particularly close attention to any errors that are reported and to the accompanying error messages that are displayed. When errors are reported at a particular site, the Harvester Administrator should contact the Site Contact to determine the source of the error and its resolution. See Reviewing Harvester Reports to the Site Contact for a description of common sources of errors at a Harvest Site.

Errors that are independent of a particular site may indicate a problem with Harvester itself, Metacat, or the database connection. Refer to the error message to determine the source of the error and its resolution.

Managing a Harvest Site

• Registering with Harvester
• Composing a Harvest List
• Preparing EML Documents for harvest
• Reviewing Harvester reports to the Site Contact

Registering with Harvester

A Site Contact registers a site with Harvester by logging in to the Harvester Registration page and entering several items of information that Harvester needs to know about the site.

1. Logging in to the Harvester Registration Page

   The Harvester Registration page is accessed from Metacat. For example, if the Metacat server that you wish to register with resides at the following URL:

     http://somehost.somelocation.edu:8080/knb/index.jsp

   then the Harvester Registration page would be accessed at:

     http://somehost.somelocation.edu:8080/knb/style/skins/knb/harvesterRegistrationLogin.html

   After bringing up this page in your browser, login to your Metacat account by entering your username and password. The username should include the full LDAP specification, for example:

     Username:   uid=jdoe,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org
     Password:   *******
     

   In some cases, a Site Contact may need to login to an anonymous account rather than his or her personal account. For example, a LTER Information Manager may need to login to a dedicated account, named with a three-letter acronym, that has been set up for the LTER site. For example:

     Username:   uid=GCE,o=lter,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org
     Password:   *******
     

   is the account login that would be used by the LTER Information Mangager at the GCE (Georgia Coastal Ecosystems) site.

2. Registering with Harvester

   After logging in, you will be presented with a web form that prompts you to enter information about your site and how often you want to schedule harvests at your site. For example:

     Email address:            myname@institution.edu
     Harvest List URL:         http://somehost.institution.edu/~myname/harvestList.xml
     Harvest Frequency (1-99): 2
     Unit:                     ( ) day(s)    (*) week(s)   ( ) month(s)
     

   After values have been entered for each of these fields, click the Register button to register your site with Harvester.

   In the example shown above, Harvester will attempt to harvest documents from the site once every 2 weeks, it will access the site's Harvest List at URL "http://somehost.institution.edu/~myname/harvestList.xml", and it will send email reports to the Site Contact at email address "myname@institution.edu".

3. Unregistering with Harvester

   At any time after you have registered with Harvester, you may discontinue harvests at your site by unregistering. Simply login as described above and then click the Unregister button. After doing so, Harvester will discontinue harvests at the site.

Composing a Harvest List

A Harvest List is an XML file that holds a list of EML documents to be harvested. For each EML document in the list, the following information must be specified:

• docid, which consists of the:
  • scope, e.g. "demoDocument". The scope is an identifier that indicates which group of documents this document belongs to.
  • identifier, e.g. "1". The identifier is a number that uniquely identifies this document within the scope.
  • revision, e.g. "5". The revision is a number that indicates the current revision of this document.
• documentType, e.g. "eml://ecoinformatics.org/eml-2.0.0". The documentType identifies the document as an EML document.
• documentURL, e.g. "http://www.lternet.edu/~dcosta/document1.xml". The documentURL specifies a place where Harvester can locate and retrieve the document via HTTP.

The contents of a Harvest List XML file must conform to a particular XML Schema, as defined in file harvestList.xsd. The contents of a valid Harvest List can best be illustrated by example. The sample Harvest List below contains two <document> elements that specify the information that Harvester needs to retrieve a pair of EML documents and upload them to Metacat:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<hrv:harvestList xmlns:hrv="eml://ecoinformatics.org/harvestList" >
    <document>
        <docid>
            <scope>demoDocument</scope>
            <identifier>1</identifier>
            <revision>5</revision>
        </docid>
        <documentType>eml://ecoinformatics.org/eml-2.0.0</documentType>
        <documentURL>http://www.lternet.edu/~dcosta/document1.xml</documentURL>
    </document>
    <document>
        <docid>
            <scope>demoDocument</scope>
            <identifier>2</identifier>
            <revision>1</revision>
        </docid>
        <documentType>eml://ecoinformatics.org/eml-2.0.0</documentType>
        <documentURL>http://www.lternet.edu/~dcosta/document2.xml</documentURL>
    </document>
</hrv:harvestList>
  

After editing the Harvest List, ensure that the Harvest List XML file resides at the appropriate location on disk as specified by the URL that was entered during the registration process.

Preparing EML Documents for harvest

To prepare a set of EML documents for harvest, ensure that the following is true for each document:

• The document contains valid EML
• The document is specified in a <document> element in the site's Harvest List, as described above
• The file resides at the appropriate location on disk as specified by its URL in the Harvest List

Reviewing Harvester Reports to the Site Contact

After every scheduled harvest that takes place at a particular Harvest Site, Harvester will send an email report to the Site Contact detailing the operations that were performed during the harvest. The report will contain information about the operations that were performed by Harvester at that site, such as which EML documents were harvested and whether any errors were encountered.

The Site Contact should review the report, paying particularly close attention to any errors that are reported. Errors are indicated by operations that display a status value of 1, while operations that display a status value of 0 indicate that the operation completed successfully.

When errors are reported, the Site Contact should try to determine whether the source of the error is something that can be corrected at the site. Common causes of errors might be:

• A document URL specified in the Harvest List does not match the location of the actual EML file on the disk
• The Harvest List does not contain valid XML as specified in the harvestList.xsd schema
• The URL to the Harvest List that was specified during registration with Harvester does not match the actual location of the Harvest List on the disk
• An EML document that Harvester attempted to upload to Metacat does not contain valid EML

If the Site Contact is unable to determine the cause of the error and its resolution, he or she should contact the Harvester Administrator for assistance.