Project

General

Profile

1
#
2
#  '$RCSfile$'
3
#   '$Author: leinfelder $'
4
# '$Revision: 8223 $'
5
#     '$Date: 2013-09-17 16:32:11 -0700 (Tue, 17 Sep 2013) $'
6
#
7

    
8
Metacat: XML Metadata and Data Management System
9
------------------------------------------------                      
10

    
11
Version: 2.2.0 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
              Veronique Connolly (connolly@nceas.ucsb.edu)
24
              John Harris (harris@nceas.ucsb.edu)
25
              Callie Bowdish (bowdish@ecoinformatics.org)
26
              Will Tyburczy (tyburczy@ecoinformatics.org)
27
              Matthew Perry (perry@nceas.ucsb.edu)
28
              Chad Burt (underbluewaters@gmail.com)
29
              Ben Leinfelder (leinfelder@nceas.ucsb.edu)
30
              Chris Barteau (barteau@nceas.ucsb.edu)
31
              Shaun Walbridge (walbridge@nceas.ucsb.edu)
32
              Michael Daigle (daigle@nceas.ucsb.edu) 
33
              Lauren Walker (walker@nceas.ucsb.edu) 
34

    
35
Patch contributors:
36
              Andrea Chadden (chadden@nceas.ucsb.edu)
37
              Chris Jones (cjones@msi.ucsb.edu)
38
              Johnoel Ancheta (johnoel@hawaii.edu)
39
              Owen Jones (owen.jones@imperial.ac.uk)
40

    
41
Metacat is a flexible database storage system for XML formatted
42
documents and associated binary files. Metacat models the structure of the
43
XML document, therefore allowing storage of XML documents with arbitrary
44
schemas. Metacat supports several databases on the back-end, including Oracle,
45
PostgreSQL and SQL Server (limited).  The server supports XML document
46
storage, retrieval, query, validation, and transformation (using the XSLT
47
stylesheet language).  In addition, there is a mechanism for replicating the
48
database to other metacat instances for backup and load balancing purposes.
49
Metacat currently uses an LDAP database for authenticating users, but was
50
written to accomodate other authentication services as well.
51

    
52
Installation
53
------------
54
See the file "docs/install.html" for detailed instructions
55
for your OS.
56

    
57
Release Notes for 2.2.0:
58
------------------------
59
This is a major release of Metacat that includes a new customizable UI and 
60
improved LDAP account management features
61

    
62
Release Notes for 2.1.1:
63
------------------------
64
This is a minor patch release of Metacat that addresses
65
a bug in DOI publishing.
66

    
67
Release Notes for 2.1.0:
68
------------------------
69
This is a major release of Metacat that includes a SOLR-based search feature
70
* Optional SOLR search index
71
* Client certificate delegation (using a service provider like CILogon)
72

    
73
Release Notes for 2.0.8:
74
------------------------
75
This is a patch release for Metacat
76
* Enforce DataONE prohibition on whitespace in identifiers
77
* Use unique filenames for Registry data uploads
78

    
79
Release Notes for 2.0.7:
80
------------------------
81
This is a patch release for Metacat replication
82
* Replication SQL performance enhancement
83
* Comply with DataONE schema for SystemMetadata.submitter
84

    
85
Release Notes for 2.0.6:
86
------------------------
87
This patch release focuses on Metacat support for DataONE-enabled Morpho clients
88
* MN.generateIdentifier() support for UUID and DOI
89
* DOI registration support using EZID service
90
* Pathquery support for specifying multiple document owners
91

    
92

    
93
Release Notes for 2.0.5:
94
------------------------
95
This patch release focuses on Metacat support for Oracle
96
*SystemMetadata table names have been shortened to comply with Oracle limits.
97
*SANParks/SAEON spatial zip file download fixed
98
*Pathquery performance fix
99
*Hazelcast 2.x upgrade
100
*Correct handling for deleted and archived objects for both Metacat and DataONE APIs
101

    
102
Release Notes for 2.0.4:
103
------------------------
104
This patch release focuses on Metacat-Metacat replication.
105
*Allows Metacat to stream replication update information between servers to avoid connection timeout issues
106
*Allows Metacat replication when source host does not provide SystemMetadata (DataONE)
107
*Fixes an access control issue that could allow search results to include protected documents
108

    
109
Release Notes for 2.0.3:
110
------------------------
111
This is another critical patch release of Metacat 2.0.
112
*Addresses a bug that prevented Metacat replication from completing (timeout error)
113
*Uses more efficient SystemMetadata synchronization using shared Hazelcast map
114

    
115
Release Notes for 2.0.2:
116
------------------------
117
This is a critical patch release of Metacat 2.0.
118
*Addresses a bug that prevented updates to DataONE identified datapackages (e.g., using DOIs)
119
*Addresses a bug that prevented the use of the Metacat API 'getaccesscontrol' action
120
*Updates the Foresite ORE library to correctly serialize resource map documents
121

    
122
Release Notes for 2.0.1:
123
------------------------
124
This is a minor patch release of Metacat 2.0. Please see the previous release notes for complete information.
125
*Addresses an identifier issue during ORE generation for DataONE services
126
*Increases compatibility with older EML content and the Xalan XSLT processor
127
*Removes XSLT 2.0 support (Saxon)
128

    
129
Release Notes for 2.0.0:
130
------------------------
131
This major release includes support for DataONE.
132
*The DataONE v1.0.0 Member Node service APIs are now the preferred method for communicating with Metacat
133
*The existing EcoGrid and Metacat Servlet APIs are deprecated but still available.
134
*EML-embedded access control rules using permOrder="denyFirst" are no longer supported (https://redmine.dataone.org/issues/2614) 
135
*Replication now utilizes client certificates to establish SSL connections between replication source and target servers
136
*Access control rules now apply to objects on a per-revision basis rather than per-docid
137
*Bugs fixed include:
138
-SANParks skin/TPC (5561, 5530, 5533, 5542, 5543, 5544, 5551, 5563, 5566, 5567, 5569, 5353)
139
-Registry (5114, 5244)
140
-Replication (4907, 5537, 5536, 5534, 5520, 5519, 3296)
141
-Spatial cache regeneration can be skipped during reconfiguration/redeployment/upgrade (3811)
142
-Pathquery support for temporal search criteria (2084)
143
-Character encoding of XML now respected (internationalization) (2495, 4083, 3815)
144

    
145

    
146
Release Notes for 1.9.5:
147
------------------------
148
This release fixes those bugs:
149
*Metacat could not download the included schemas in an external schema file during inserting.
150
*Workflow scheduler could not work since the metadata standard of kepler kar file was changed. 
151
*Earthgrid could not transform the Earthgrid query with concept "/" to the Metacat path query correctly.
152
*Document access rules are now preserved when documents are archived during the 'delete' action.
153

    
154
Release Notes for 1.9.4:
155
------------------------
156
This release fixes bugs in the FGDC data package upload and download interface utilized
157
by the SANParks and SAEON skins.
158

    
159
Release Notes for 1.9.3:
160
------------------------
161
This release fixes a harvester bug that prevented the EML harvester from processing
162
harvest lists.
163
The Kepler skin has been updated to support KarXML 2.1.
164
Ecogrid query services now support multiple namespace searches.
165

    
166
Release Notes for 1.9.2:
167
------------------------
168
This release primarily holds the addition of the Threshold of Potential
169
Concern workflow functionality (TPC).  The following issues were addressed:
170

    
171
* Create a properties file for use by JUnit Tests (Bug 2994)
172
* security issue with skins (Bug 3368)
173
* reorganize classes into a more functional specific structure (Bug 3510)
174
* Add admin names as dropdown in configuration login (Bug 3729)
175
* KNB metacat replication error log file is empty (Bug 3885)
176
* Create TPC Report web browse/search pages (Bug 4165)
177
* Create archive extraction functionality (Bug 4166)
178
* Create Workflow Scheduler (Bug 4167)
179
* metacat didn't update xml_path_index table while a document was updated (Bug 4367)
180
* Enforce permissions for tpc workflow viewing and scheduling (Bug 4420)
181
* Fix cross platform TPC GUI issues (Bug 4556)
182
* TPC Sanparks page content lenth issue (Bug 4557)
183
* Create validate and isAuthorized unit tests (Bug 4558)
184
* Cannot insert replication server via gui (Bug 4594)
185
* Timed Replication takes many hours and drives the load up on KNB (Bug 4616)
186
* [ESA] Update fails when document rev number is missing (Bug 4627)
187
* fails to catch some insert and update failures (Bug 4637)
188
* must support java 1.6 (Bug 4641)
189
* Convert build to pull eml from svn instead of cvs (Bug 4644)
190
* handleGetRevisionAndDocTypeAction should search both xml_documents and xml_revisions table (Bug 4645)
191
* Metacat couldn't update a document from client, which previous versions only stay in xml_revisions table (Bug 4649)
192
* metacat runs out of memory (Bug 4658)
193
* ESA skin links are hard coded to data.esa.org (Bug 4698)
194
* Update release 1.9.2 release notes (Bug 4707)
195
* Handle writing a text node > 4000 characters to the db. (Bug 4708)
196
* Metacat should run against Tomcat 6 (Bug 4716)
197

    
198
Release Notes for 1.9.1:
199
------------------------
200
The 1.9.1 release holds the bug fixes found after releasing 1.9.0 beta.  
201
These bugs were primarily replication issues.  There is no difference 
202
in functionality between 1.9.0 and 1.9.1 
203

    
204
Release Notes for 1.9.0:
205
------------------------
206
This release focuses on simplifying the Metacat installation process by 
207
creating a binary (war) installation.  The need to build the application
208
on the server has been removed (although the option is still available).
209
In order to facilitate this method of installation, a few major modifications
210
were made to the code:
211

    
212
  -- Ant token replacement was removed for all non-build variables in the 
213
     application (most of this was already done in 1.8.1).
214

    
215
  -- The Metacat properties confguration was moved into the application
216
     itself.
217

    
218
  -- Database schema version detection and install/upgrade utilities were 
219
     added to the application.
220

    
221
Also, this release includes several enhancements:
222
  -- it supports the new EML 2.1.0 version.  
223

    
224
  -- Documents are now stored on the local filesystem as well as in the 
225
     database in order to preserve document integrity.
226
     
227
  -- Metacat verifies new schemas when they are added.
228

    
229
  -- Additional access is propegated with documents during replication.
230

    
231
High priority bugs were addressed in this release as well.
232

    
233
The enhancements/bugs addressed are:
234

    
235
* escaped "less than" in inlinedata causes invalid eml output (Bug 2564)
236
* need to set filename for download files (Bug 2566)
237
* add ability for search engines to index metacat documents (Bug 2826)
238
* EML citation section should include both organizationNames and individualNames (Bug 3059)
239
* refactor skins to get organization list from metacat getOrganizations() function (Bug 3114)
240
* Update dataknp.sanparks.org packageId attributes to match Metacat Ids (Bug 3258)
241
* New documents explicitly set as public access don't show up correctly (Bug 3262)
242
* Modify confguration utility in metacat (Bug 3371)
243
* Integrate perl token replacement changes (Bug 3372)
244
* Create skin specific configuration utility (Bug 3373)
245
* Add authentication for configuration utility (Bug 3374)
246
* Create a sorted properties utility (Bug 3375)
247
* Add DB upgrade/install functionality to java code (Bug 3376)
248
* Create ANT install target for developers (Bug 3377)
249
* Create LSID server installation (Bug 3380)
250
* Create unit test code for 1.9 additions (Bug 3381)
251
* create simple turnkey installer for metacat Phase I (Bug 3461)
252
* Maps do not display in Firefox version 3 (Bug 3462)
253
* Replicate access rules in replication (Bug 3464)
254
* Metacat casesensitive="true" option in pathquery expressions is broken (Bug 3472)
255
* Add full schema checking when metacat register new schema (Bug 3474)
256
* Incorporate EML 2.1.0 access changes in metacat (Bug 3495)
257
* getprincipals action returns invalid XML document (Bug 3527)
258
* Update knbweb to serve new metacat install (Bug 3545)
259
* Replication should write to disk (Bug 3554)
260
* Update acknowlegements in metacat readme (Bug 3588)
261
* Validate the ldap administrator field. (Bug 3616)
262
* Allow for different authentication services in metacat configuration (Bug 3680)
263
* Tag utilities module and have metacat check out that tag (Bug 3685)
264

    
265
Release Notes for 1.8.1:
266
------------------------
267
This release focuses on bug fixes. In this release, the problem that Metacat 1.8.0 and previous 
268
versions use illegitimate EML 2.0.1 schemas is addressed: first, Metacat 1.8.1 comes with
269
legitimate EML 2.0.1 schemas; second, existing invalid EML 2.0.1 documents will be 
270
automatically fixed while maintaining their package ID during the Metacat 1.8.1 upgrading process. 
271
Details please see:
272
http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3239
273
http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3241
274

    
275
Note: after upgrading the Metacat to version 1.8.1, some replication issues may be seen, e.g., the 
276
EML 2.0.1 documents from Metacat 1.8.0 or ealier verions may be rejected since Metacat 1.8.1 uses
277
different EML 2.0.1 schemas (see bug 3239). If this is case, Metacat administrators should notify
278
their counterparts to upgrade previous version Metacats to 1.8.1. 
279

    
280
The fixed bugs include:
281

    
282
*Character set (charset) problem when filling out form (Bug2797)
283
*Charset bug: > "less than" symbol does not display correctly (Bug2517)
284
*Metacat performance issue in Sanparks skin (Bug 3174)
285
*Metacat using illegitimate versions of EML schema (Bug 3239)
286
*Update older invalidated eml201 document in Metacat (Bug 3241)
287
*Verify existing token changes to skins (Bug 3176)
288
*The edit feature in the NCEAS Data Repoistory does not work (Bug 2644)
289
*Expose permission options for registry uploads (Bug 3014)
290
*ESA registry doesn't have LTER in login dropdown menu (Bug 2647)
291
*Data Catalog Map is slow when selecting (Bug2732)
292
*Only one attribute per element returned with pathquery results(Bug 2999)
293
*The field "skinconfigs" in the MetacatUtil class is public (Bug 3057)
294
*Generalize the reading of skin.configs in DBTransform (Bug3058)
295
*The query example in metacatquery.html document need to be changed (Bug3137)
296
*Add upload method into Metacat tour (Bug 3139)
297
*Query resultset doesn't show component name in kepler skin (Bug 3178)
298
*Add fields used in Morpho search to the default indexPaths property (Bug 3259)
299
*Private data cannot be downloaded from metadata display page (xsl) (Bug 3263)
300
*An error message happen during the metacat start up (Bug 3279)
301
*Replication: Timed replication failures occur twice instead of once (Bug 3304)
302
*Inline Data does not work correctly without the <pre> tag (Bug 3088)
303
*Include FGDC metadata in KNB and NCEAS skin search results (Bug 3146)
304

    
305
Release Notes for 1.8.0:
306
------------------------
307
This release focuses on improving query performance.  Both the selection 
308
and access control queries were rewritten to execute efficiently.
309
To improve search performance, a query caching mechanism was introduced. 
310
Cached queries are currently supported only for public users.
311

    
312
New Features:
313
* Data registries now support uploading of data objects along with data 
314
  packages (Bug 1982)
315
  
316
Bug Fixes:
317
* Metacat Performace: Rewrite the xml_nodes queries (Bug 2155)
318
* Metacat Performace: Rewrite the xml_access part of the query (Bug 2557)
319
* Query cache mechanism (Bug 2905)
320
* Metacat Performance: updates from Morpho of data packages are taking 
321
   longer than five minutes (Bug 2805)
322
* Metacat Performance: Optimize Postgres and Tomcat (Bug 2157)
323
* Metacat Performace: Upgrading hardware setup (Bug 2175)
324
* Metacat Performace: Add/drop indices on key columns (Bug 2153)
325
* Display of metadata documents reorganized, including a new citation format,
326
  obvious download options, and a redesigned data table layout (Bugs 2981, 2832)
327
* I.E. display fixes on default skin (Bug 2579)
328
* Web Address links fixed (Bug 2147)
329
* NCEAS skin redesigned to use IFRAME-less layout, match new website.
330
* Spatial query:  data packages must be fully contained by the selection 
331
  bounding box in order to appear in the search results (Bugs 2972, 2732).
332
* FGDC support: upload, delete, update, access control, and download
333
  (Bugs 2807, 2925, 2926, 2929, 2030).
334
Compatibility Notices:
335
* Tomcat 3 and 4 are no longer tested or supported. Users are 
336
  highly encouraged to upgrade to Tomcat 5.5
337

    
338
Release Notes for 1.7.0:
339
------------------------
340
This release features only a few minor changes to the core Metacat engine. 
341
The major focus of this release is the addition of the spatial functionality.
342
The geographic coverage of metadata documents can now be cached in a GIS-
343
accessible format and published via web mapping services and an online
344
interactive map. 
345

    
346
New Features:
347
* Three new open source libraries have been integrated with Metacat:
348
  - Geoserver:  A standards-compliant web map server to publish
349
                geographic data to the web.
350
               (http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Home)
351
  - GeoTools:   A java-based GIS toolkit to programatically
352
                manipulate spatial datasets.
353
                (http://geotools.codehaus.org/)
354
  - Mapbuilder: A javascript application to provide an interactive
355
                web map front-end to Geoserver.
356
                (http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAP/Home)
357
* Spatial Caching/Indexing mechanism; documents with geographic
358
  coverages will be added to the spatial cache.
359
* Spatial Query action in metacat servlet. 
360
* Interactive Web map to visualize and query the spatial 
361
  distribution of metadata documents.
362
* Experimental python, ruby and php client libraries to interface with metacat.
363
* Preliminary process in place for web based configuration of metacat.
364

    
365
Compatibility Notices:
366
* Tomcat 3 and 4 are no longer tested or supported. Users are 
367
  highly encouraged to upgrade to Tomcat 5.5
368

    
369
Bug Fixes:
370
* Metacat administrators are able to modify and delete documents 
371
  created by other users.
372
* Fixed problems with indexing XML attributes, see bug 2469
373

    
374

    
375
Release Notes for 1.6.0:
376
------------------------
377

    
378
This release comes with more performance improvements, initial support for 
379
LSIDs (Life Sciences Identifiers) and FGDC standard, more controls for 
380
Metacat administrators and bug fixes. Below is the list of bug fixes and
381
performance improvements.
382

    
383
Bug Fixes: 
384
* Improved the indexing algorithm. Earlier indexing failed for some documents 
385
  randomly and used to take a lot of time to complete for others. The 
386
  code for indexing was changed to take care of both these problems.
387
* Earlier, xmlns prefix was used to determine the namespace of the document. 
388
  Now schemaLocation is used instead xmlns prefix to determine the namespace 
389
  of the document as that is a better indicator of document type. 
390
* INSTR was used in some SQL statements and it is not supported by Postgres. 
391
  So SQL statements were modified so that INSTR is not used.
392
* Replication was changed to include replication of deleted documents also.
393
* Fixed bug in squery which didnt allow use of not-contains 
394

    
395
New Features:
396
* Added FGDC schema and XSLT so that Metacat can handle FGDC standard
397
* Added support for LSID. This includes modifying the stylesheets to 
398
  display the LSIDs, modifying the build to include a new target 
399
  'install-ldap'.
400
* Added following access control levels to Metacat:
401
    1. Administrators - users who can do the following:
402
       a. Run replication
403
       b. Delete any document
404
       c. Modify any document
405
       d. run indexing for any document
406
       e. check the logs
407
    2. allowedUsers - User who are allowed to submit
408
    3. deniedUsers - Users not allowed to submit
409
* Added a new skin for Ecological Society of America. 
410
* Created an Advanced search servlet which can be used from the web. 
411
* Various connections have been modified to be secure. e.g. connection between 
412
ldaps is made secure now, replication is done over secure channels.  
413

    
414
Performance:
415
* Reduced size of xml_nodes by creating a new table for holding nodes from 
416
  deleted documents and old revisions of the documents. 
417
* Provided a new variable in metacat.properties where more frequently searched 
418
  for paths can be specified. Seperate indexes are created for these paths 
419
  - so that search is faster.
420
* Included log4j for logging and debuging to prevent wasting of time in printing log statements. 
421

    
422
Release Notes for 1.5.0:
423
------------------------
424

    
425
This release comes with performace improvement, user interface enhancements,
426
and bug fixes. Below is the list of bug fixes and performance improvements. 
427

    
428
Bug Fixes:
429
* Modify property values of harvester registration servlets to match the
430
  servlet-mapping URL values in web.xml. The old values used the servlet
431
  class names. This worked in Tomcat 4 but seems to break in Tomcat 5 on
432
  Windows. The new values use the servlet-mapping URL values. This should
433
  work in both Tomcat 4 and Tomcat 5. (Bug 162)
434
* Re-implement logic to prune old log entries from the HARVEST_LOG and
435
  HARVEST_DETAIL_LOG tables. The old logic caused integrity constraint
436
  violations in the database because it tried to delete parent records from
437
  HARVEST_LOG prior to deleting child records from
438
  HARVEST_DETAIL_LOG. (Bug 162)
439
* In data registry, minor bugs fixed like the error page shows the link back
440
  to the form when error page was generated because of a document read
441
  request from search results page,  the successful delete button leading
442
  to a blank screen and the old ACL overwritten by the registry.
443
  (Bugs 1307, 1310, 1322, 1344, 1551)
444
* Changed the code to support insertion of following characters: ', `,
445
  charcters in the Numeric Character Reference format (&#xyz;) and
446
  characters like µ. Characters like µ will be converted to and stored in
447
  Numeric Character Reference format(&#xyz;). They will also be returned
448
  in Numeric Character Reference and it is upto the client to convert them
449
  and display them accordingly in the application. Partial fix provided by
450
  Johnoel Ancheta. (Bug 1538,1711)
451
* Spatial search failed on Oracle because of invalid entries made by
452
  some documents in the nodedata column of xml_nodes for paths involving
453
  'eastBoundingCoordinate', 'westBoundingCoordinate',
454
  'northBoundingCoordinate', 'southBoundingCoordinate'. A new column
455
  nodedatanumerical was added to xml_nodes table such that all the numerical
456
  nodedata is stored in this column and this column is now used for spatial
457
  search. (Bug 1703, 1718)
458
* In the default skin, clicking on the keywords on the home page did not
459
  result is a search being done. Fix provided by Owen Jones. (Bug 1768)
460
* Metacat generated a success message even when a document which didnt
461
  exsist was requested for deletion. This has been fixed. (Bug 1850)
462
* "packagetype" in xml-relation table was entered as eml200 namespace when
463
  an eml201 document was inserted. This is fixed now so that "packagetype"
464
  in xml-relation table points to eml201 namespace. (Bug 1979)
465
* System_id in xml_catalog pointed to http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/knb/
466
  earlier. Fixed such that it points to the locally installed metacat url. 
467
  (Bug 1986)
468
* Changes to the Query subsystem fix bugs that prevented attributes from 
469
  being expressed solely in the xpath query statement and the returnfield 
470
  values. For instance, a query URL may now include search strings like 
471
  '@packageId=sbclter%25' and return strings like 'returnfield=@packageId'.
472
  Previously, the attribute had to be appended to an element: 
473
  '/eml/@packageId=sbclter%25'. These fixes change DBQuery.java, 
474
  QuerySpecification.java, and QueryTerm.java (Bug 2052)
475
* Search query failed in case of Oracle if number of documents in the result
476
  were more than 1000. This has been fixed. (Bug 2000)
477
* Removed any occurence of enum which is now a keyword in Java 1.5
478

    
479

    
480
Enhancements:
481
* Major improvements done in user interface for the data registeries and
482
  various other skins. Improvements done based on suggestions from Mark
483
  Stromberg, Laura Downey and others. Improvements also done in resultset.xsl,
484
  the default skin and ldap templates. (Bug 1948)
485
* Coded added such that administrator can delete documents irrespective of
486
  who the document belongs to.
487
* Performance impovement done in searching of datasets. A part of the search
488
  time was taken up because of generation of resultset after the search had be
489
  done. So this was the sequence of events in earlier metacat
490
  1) Search for the given text
491
  2) A list of docids generated
492
  3) For each of the docids
493
     3a) Use xml_index and xml_nodes table to generate the string descibing
494
         the document including the returnfields requested in the search
495
  4) Add all the strings from step 3a to send back the resultant
496
     document. Here a decent amount of time was being taken by step 3a. 
497
  The algorithm is now modified by addition of two tables xml_queryresult and
498
  xml_returnfields and a user defined parameter xml_returnfield_count. The
499
  new algorithm works as follows:
500
  1) Search for the given text
501
  2) A list of docids is generated
502
  3) For the given set of return fields generate a unique string and check
503
     if that string exists in xml_returnfields
504
     3a) If string does not exist in xml_returnfield, then enter a new
505
         record usage_count as 1 and returnfield_string as the unique string
506
         generated above.
507
     3b) Else if the string exists, increment usage_count
508
  4) Given the docids from step 2 and the id of the returnfield record from
509
     step 3, query for any docids that already exist in xml_queryresult.
510
     For the docids that do exist, get the queryresult_string.
511
  5) For rest of the docids from step2 which were not found in step 4, do
512
     the following for each of the documents:
513
     5a) Use xml_index and xml_nodes table to generate the string descibing
514
         the document including the returnfields requested in the search
515
     5b) If usage_count of the record from step is more than
516
         xml_returnfield_count set in metacat.properties, then store the
517
         string in xml_queryresult as a record which has the returnfield_id
518
         representing the set of returnfields, docid representing the
519
         document and the string as queryresult_string.
520
  6) Add all the strings from step 4 and step 5a to send back the resultant
521
     document
522
  So the results from step 3a in previous algorithm are effectively cached
523
  and hence same computation is not done again and again for each search.
524
  When a document is deleted, all the entries for that document in
525
  xml_queryresult table are also deleted. When a document is updated, all
526
  the entries for that document in xml_queryresult table are deleted. This
527
  works fine because those entries will be generated and cached again the
528
  next time the document is part of a search is requested.
529
* Performance impovement done for % search.
530
* Following new functions added to metacat client API: a method to set access
531
  on an xml document and a method to get newest version for a given document.
532
* Implement a new HarvesterServlet for running Harvester as a servlet. This
533
  eliminates the need to run Harvester in a terminal window. By default, the
534
  HarvesterServlet is commented out in lib/web.xml.tomcat(3,4,5). The user
535
  documentation will be modified to instruct Harvester administrators to
536
  uncomment the HarvesterServlet entry.
537
* Minor enhancement to support multiple email addresses for harvester
538
  administrator and site contact. Each address is separated by a comma or
539
  semicolon.
540
* Increase number of rows in Harvest List Editor from 300 to 1200.
541
* Changed default maxHarvests value to 0. Added logic to ignore maxHarvests
542
  value when it is set to 0 or a negative number. This allows Harvester to
543
  run indefinitely without shutting down after reaching a maximum number of
544
  harvests. The previous default value of 30 would cause Harvester to
545
  terminate after 30 harvests.
546

    
547
Details of all changes can be found in the bug database here:
548
http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/buglist.cgi?product=Metacat&target_milestone=1.5
549

    
550

    
551
Release Notes for 1.4.0:
552
------------------------
553

    
554
This is a major release, and is the first to introduce many new features to
555
Metacat.  Some of the major new features in this version of Metacat include:
556

    
557
* Added a new 'Harvester' that allows documents to be periodically pulled
558
  from distributed sources into metacat, useful for interfacing with other
559
  system types. See the Metacat Tour for details.
560
* Added new 'skins' capability to allow the GUI for the metacat web interface
561
  to be more easily customized to fit into site needs.  The skin is based on
562
  a flexible mix of XSLT, CSS, and Javascript.
563
* Added a web-based metadata entry form for submitting limited EML documents
564
  as part of a data registry.  The GUI for the registry is customizable and 
565
  is integrated with the 'skins' system for the main metacat interface.  The
566
  registry subsystem is written in Perl, and can simultaneously be used to 
567
  present multiple 'registry' interfaces.
568
* A new 'client API' has been developed and implemented in Java and in Perl 
569
  so that metacat functions can be accessed from any program in those
570
  languages.  The client API supports the major metacat servlet actions,
571
  including login(), logout(), query(), insert(), update(), delete(), and 
572
  upload(). See the Metacat Tour for details.
573
* Added a new 'getlog' action that produces a usage history for all major
574
  events.  So now an XML report can be generated for document reads, inserts,
575
  deletes, etc.  See the new section in the Metacat Tour.
576
* Added a new 'buildindex' action that can rebuild the index entries for any
577
  document in the database.
578
* The configuration file for metacat (metacat.properties) has been moved out
579
  of the jar file and into the WEB-INF directory, allowing far easier changes
580
  to the configuration parameters.
581
* Results in default web interface are sorted by title in the XSLT 
582
  (configurable)
583
* Many bugs were fixed.
584

    
585
Details of all changes can be found in the bug database here:
586
http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/buglist.cgi?product=Metacat&target_milestone=1.4
587

    
588
Release Notes for 1.3.1:
589
------------------------
590

    
591
This is a simple interim bug fix. No major functionality changes. Bugs fixed 
592
include:
593
 1) Metacat 1.3.0 doesn't work in Java 1.3 because a subtle API differnce in 
594
    Java 1.3 and Java 1.4. Currently, Metacat 1.3.1 will work in both Java 1.3 
595
    and Java 1.4.
596
 2) Distribution package size was reduced.
597

    
598

    
599
Release Notes for 1.3.0
600
------------------------
601

    
602
In 1.3.0 release, the structure of the xml_access table was changed and a new
603
table, xml_accesssubtree was added. If you try to update a previously 
604
installed Metacat, you should run a script file to updated the table structure 
605
before installation.
606
For Oracle user: At the SQLPLUS prompt type the following -
607
@src/reviseformetacat13.sql
608
For Postgresql user: At install directory prompt type the following -
609
psql exp < src/reviseformetacat13_postgres.sql
610
(where 'exp' is the database name).
611

    
612
After installation, user should run "ant schemasql" command to register EML2
613
schema in xml_catalog table.
614

    
615
If you are a new Metacat user, this step is unneeded.
616

    
617
Note: 1) We recommend to use Tomcat 4 and JAVA 1.4 to run Metacat. Otherwise, 
618
         it will cause potential replication issues.
619
      2) Delete the xercesImpl.jar and xmlParserAPIs.jar files 
620
         which are in $CATALINA_HOME/common/endorsed. They are old version and
621
         don't support XML schema validation.
622

    
623
New Features in 1.3.0
624
  1) Partialy support EML2 document. User can store, query, read and write
625
     EML2 documents. However, Metacat only support access control in resource
626
     level. The subtree level access control will be ignored.
627
  2) Support other xml document base on namespace/schema.
628
  3) Support query for attribute value
629
  4) Assign MIME type to data file base on metadata when user try to read it.
630
  5) Owner can assign access rules to a document which does not have access 
631
     document to apply it.
632
  6) Support exporting single file, not only whole package
633
  7) Resupport Microsoft SQL Server.
634

    
635
Fixes in 1.3.0:
636
  1) Couldn't finish delta T replication for large set of documents.
637
  2) Couldn't create access control during delta T replication.
638
  3) Eorr will be written to a seperated log file if some documents
639
     were failed in replication.
640
  4) Decrease the time to create access rules during insert or update 
641
     a package.
642
     
643
Documentation
644
-------------
645
See the docs directory for detailed documentation and installation
646
instructions.
647

    
648
Details of the Metacat architecture can be found on the website for
649
the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB):
650

    
651
  http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/metacat/
652

    
653
Contributions to this work are welcome.  Please see the above web site
654
for details on how to contribute.
655

    
656
Major Known Bugs or Feature Requests (see http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org)
657
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
658
If you discover a bug please report it, either by email (above) or by using
659
our bug tracking system (http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org). There is a
660
list of currently unimplemented features in Bugzilla that we are working on
661
for the next release.
662

    
663
Legalese
664
--------
665
This software is copyrighted by The Regents of the University of California
666
and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
667
and licensed under the GNU GPL; see the 'LICENSE' file for
668
details.
669

    
670
This material is based upon work supported by the
671
National Science Foundation under Grant No. DEB99-80154, DBI99-04777, and
672
0225676 for SEEK.  Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations 
673
expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily 
674
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
675

    
676
This software is partially supported by a grant from the Andrew W. 
677
Mellon Foundation.
678

    
679
This product includes software developed by the Apache Software
680
Foundation (http://www.apache.org/). See the LICENSE file in lib/apache
681
for details.
682

    
683
The source code, object code, and documentation in the com.oreilly.servlet
684
package is copyright and owned by Jason Hunter. See the cos-license.html file
685
for details of the license.  Licensor retains title to and ownership of the
686
Software and all enhancements, modifications, and updates to the Software.
687

    
688
This software includes the JDBC driver for PostgreSQL.  See the 
689
postgresql-license.txt file for details.
(2-2/7)