Metadata Collection ToolHow to load the metadata.avx extension A list of potential database (.dbf) files
How to load the metadata.avx extension The following are instructions for loading the metadata.avx extension into ArcView 3.0. Copy the file metadata.avx from the zipped file into the ext32 directory under your ArcView 3.0® program directory. Typically, this will be: c:\esri\av_gis30\arcview\ext32. In a UNIX environment, copy the file into the ext directory under your $AVHOME directory. When you start ArcView, you will have an extension called Metadata Collection Tool. This will add three buttons to the View graphical user interface (GUI). The M button starts the metadata collection dialog, the H button brings a help page, and the Frame Text button displays the metadata text file, after it has been created.
(1) In your view, add the dataset which metadata will be collected for. (2) This tool will work on any data set that can be added to an ArcView View document, including: shapefiles, Arc/INFO® coverages, and supported image formats. (3) Set the working directory for the project to a directory in which dBase files can be created. To set the working directory, choose the Properties option under the Project menu on the project document. These dBase files will be used to store information, so that it can be referenced in the future.
(1) Two types of files will be created, an ASCII text file, and a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) file (optional). If any problems are found, these files can be edited. (2) The metadata record is written to the directory where the source data is stored. (3) If the data source is a shapefile, the output metadata will be the base name of the data set, with a .met extension. For example, if the data set is roads.shp, the metadata record will be roads.met. (4) If the data source is an Arc/INFO coverage, the output metadata record will be the coverage name with p appended if the input is a polygon, an l if the coverage is a line type, and a pt if the coverage is a point type. This naming convention was chosen to handle metadata that is written for a coverage that might include both lines and polygons, for example. A .met extension is then added to the file name.
(1) The first time that the program is run the user will be prompted to enter data. In many cases the information that is entered will be stored in dBase files that are created in the project working directory (see below for a listing of the files that are created). If any data entry problems are discovered, these dBase files can be edited, using ArcView's table editing tools. (2) The user will be asked to provide an ID for the information that is being entered. This ID can be used to retrieve information on future iterations of the program. For example, the user may have created three contacts to choose from when collecting Contact_Information. 3) The next time that the program is run, if an entry already exists for a certain metadata section, the user will be presented with a list of ID to choose from. If the user chooses an ID from the list the information is written to the metadata record. If the user does not select an ID from the list, they will be prompted to enter the information and that new information will be written to the metadata record and to the dBase file, so that it can be accessed in the future. (4) After all of the metadata information has been collected, the user will be asked if they want to save an HTML version of the file. (5) After the metadata record has been collected, the user can click on the Frame Text icon next to M icon or choose Display Metadata from the Metadata pulldown menu to display the text version of the metadata record for all active themes that have metadata records. From NOAA at http://www.csc.noaa.gov/products/sf/html/mettool.htm |
