Project

General

Profile

1
#
2
#  '$RCSfile$'
3
#   '$Author: jones $'
4
# '$Revision: 2441 $'
5
#     '$Date: 2005-04-01 16:30:00 -0800 (Fri, 01 Apr 2005) $'
6
#
7

    
8
Metacat: XML Metadata Database
9
------------------------------
10

    
11
Version: 1.4.0 Release
12

    
13
Send feedback and bugs to: metacat-dev@ecoinformatics.org
14
                           http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org
15

    
16
Contributors: Matt Jones (jones@nceas.ucsb.edu)
17
              Chad Berkley (berkley@nceas.ucsb.edu)
18
              Jing Tao (tao@nceas.ucsb.edu)
19
              Jivka Bojilova (bojilova@nceas.ucsb.edu)
20
              Dan Higgins (higgins@nceas.ucsb.edu)
21
              Saurabh Garg (sgarg@nceas.ucsb.edu)
22
              Duane Costa (dcosta@lternet.edu)
23

    
24
Metacat is a flexible database storage system for XML formatted
25
documents and associated binary files. Metacat models the structure of the
26
XML document, therefore allowing storage of XML documents with arbitrary
27
schemas. Metacat supports several databases on the back-end, including Oracle,
28
PostgreSQL and SQL Server (limited).  The server supports XML document
29
storage, retrieval, query, validation, and transformation (using the XSLT
30
stylesheet language).  In addition, there is a mechanism for replicating the
31
database to other metacat instances for backup and load balancing purposes.
32
Metacat currently uses an LDAP database for authenticating users, but was
33
written to accomodate other authentication services as well.
34

    
35
Installation
36
------------
37
See the file "docs/user/metacatinstall.html" for detailed instructions.
38

    
39
Release Notes for 1.4.0:
40
------------------------
41

    
42
This is a major release, and is the first to introduce many new features to
43
Metacat.  Some of the major new features in this version of Metacat include:
44

    
45
* Added a new 'Harvester' that allows documents to be periodically pulled
46
  from distributed sources into metacat, useful for interfacing with other
47
  system types. See the Metacat Tour for details.
48
* Added new 'skins' capability to allow the GUI for the metacat web interface
49
  to be more easily customized to fit into site needs.  The skin is based on
50
  a flexible mix of XSLT, CSS, and Javascript.
51
* Added a web-based metadata entry form for submitting limited EML documents
52
  as part of a data registry.  The GUI for the registry is customizable and 
53
  is integrated with the 'skins' system for the main metacat interface.  The
54
  registry subsystem is written in Perl, and can simultaneously be used to 
55
  present multiple 'registry' interfaces.
56
* A new 'client API' has been developed and implemented in Java and in Perl 
57
  so that metacat functions can be accessed from any program in those
58
  languages.  The client API supports the major metacat servlet actions,
59
  including login(), logout(), query(), insert(), update(), delete(), and 
60
  upload(). See the Metacat Tour for details.
61
* Added a new 'getlog' action that produces a usage history for all major
62
  events.  So now an XML report can be generated for document reads, inserts,
63
  deletes, etc.  See the new section in the Metacat Tour.
64
* Added a new 'buildindex' action that can rebuild the index entries for any
65
  document in the database.
66
* The configuration file for metacat (metacat.properties) has been moved out
67
  of the jar file and into the WEB-INF directory, allowing far easier changes
68
  to the configuration parameters.
69
* Results in default web interface are sorted by title in the XSLT 
70
  (configurable)
71
* Many bugs were fixed.
72

    
73
Details of all changes can be found in the bug database here:
74
http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/buglist.cgi?product=Metacat&target_milestone=1.4
75

    
76
Release Notes for 1.3.1:
77
------------------------
78

    
79
This is a simple interim bug fix. No major functionality changes. Bugs fixed 
80
include:
81
 1) Metacat 1.3.0 doesn't work in Java 1.3 because a subtle API differnce in 
82
    Java 1.3 and Java 1.4. Currently, Metacat 1.3.1 will work in both Java 1.3 
83
    and Java 1.4.
84
 2) Distribution package size was reduced.
85

    
86

    
87
Release Notes for 1.3.0
88
------------------------
89

    
90
In 1.3.0 release, the structure of the xml_access table was changed and a new
91
table, xml_accesssubtree was added. If you try to update a previously 
92
installed Metacat, you should run a script file to updated the table structure 
93
before installation.
94
For Oracle user: At the SQLPLUS prompt type the following -
95
@src/reviseformetacat13.sql
96
For Postgresql user: At install directory prompt type the following -
97
psql exp < src/reviseformetacat13_postgres.sql
98
(where 'exp' is the database name).
99

    
100
After installation, user should run "ant schemasql" command to register EML2
101
schema in xml_catalog table.
102

    
103
If you are a new Metacat user, this step is unneeded.
104

    
105
Note: 1) We recommend to use Tomcat 4 and JAVA 1.4 to run Metacat. Otherwise, 
106
         it will cause potential replication issues.
107
      2) Delete the xercesImpl.jar and xmlParserAPIs.jar files 
108
         which are in $CATALINA_HOME/common/endorsed. They are old version and
109
         don't support XML schema validation.
110

    
111
New Features in 1.3.0
112
  1) Partialy support EML2 document. User can store, query, read and write
113
     EML2 documents. However, Metacat only support access control in resource
114
     level. The subtree level access control will be ignored.
115
  2) Support other xml document base on namespace/schema.
116
  3) Support query for attribute value
117
  4) Assign MIME type to data file base on metadata when user try to read it.
118
  5) Owner can assign access rules to a document which does not have access 
119
     document to apply it.
120
  6) Support exporting single file, not only whole package
121
  7) Resupport Microsoft SQL Server.
122

    
123
Fixes in 1.3.0:
124
  1) Couldn't finish delta T replication for large set of documents.
125
  2) Couldn't create access control during delta T replication.
126
  3) Eorr will be written to a seperated log file if some documents
127
     were failed in replication.
128
  4) Decrease the time to create access rules during insert or update 
129
     a package.
130
     
131
Documentation
132
-------------
133
See the docs directory for detailed documentation and installation
134
instructions.
135

    
136
Details of the Metacat architecture can be found on the website for
137
the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB):
138

    
139
  http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/metacat/
140

    
141
Contributions to this work are welcome.  Please see the above web site
142
for details on how to contribute.
143

    
144
Major Known Bugs or Feature Requests (see http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org)
145
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
146
If you discover a bug please report it, either by email (above) or by using
147
our bug tracking system (http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org). There is a
148
list of currently unimplemented features in Bugzilla that we are working on
149
for the next release.
150

    
151
Legalese
152
--------
153
This software is copyrighted by The Regents of the University of California
154
and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
155
and licensed under the GNU GPL; see the 'LICENSE' file for
156
details.
157

    
158
This material is based upon work supported by the
159
National Science Foundation under Grant No. DEB99-80154, DBI99-04777, and
160
0225676.  Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed
161
in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
162
the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
163

    
164
This product includes software developed by the Apache Software
165
Foundation (http://www.apache.org/). See the LICENSE file in lib/apache
166
for details.
167

    
168
The source code, object code, and documentation in the com.oreilly.servlet
169
package is copyright and owned by Jason Hunter. See the cos-license.html file
170
for details of the license.  Licensor retains title to and ownership of the
171
Software and all enhancements, modifications, and updates to the Software.
172

    
(2-2/5)