January 28, 2015
Release 3.0 represents a major update of InPort -- a year-long effort where every
component of InPort was affected in some way. Some of these changes are drastic and
obvious, but others are more hidden and affect what's underneath the hood.
This information is intended to help introduce the InPort community to some of the
more notable changes, and help transition users to the new system.
Changes for All Users
User accounts are now tied to your NOAA account. Use your NOAA
email/username and password to
login to the InPort web application. Note that you must still be authorized to access
InPort in order to login, so if you
did not have an existing InPort account prior to this release, you must be authorized
for InPort by your organization's
Librarian. If you previously had an InPort account, but are not able to login with
your NOAA credentials, please
contact InPort Support.
Note: Librarians and Sys Admins must still use their previous InPort
accounts to login to
the Forms applications (Library Manager, Sys Admin Tools, etc.). Please see the Notes
for Librarians section for more details.
If your registered email address in InPort is not a NOAA email
address, you should have
received a notification with a password for you to login with. If you did not receive
any notification,
please contact InPort Support. This
only applies to users with
non-NOAA email addresses.
Users can now browse metadata libraries within the web application.
Visit the Organizations page to view
all
available libraries. Guest users are able to browse through all externally published
libraries,
while logged-in users can also browse internally-published libraries, as well as any
unpublished
libraries or portions of libraries that they have been granted access to.
The My InPort page (logged-in
users only)
displays all the libraries or catalog items that you have been given a special
authorization for.
Notes for Metadata Authors
The Catalog Editor module, previously an Oracle Forms application, has been
migrated and integrated directly
into the web application. This represents a major change to how metadata is
now edited in InPort, as
well as a new foundation for making InPort more user-friendly and up-to-date with
modern web technologies. We welcome
any and all feedback on the new interface, as this release represents a start, and not
an end, to usability improvements
in InPort.
There is no longer a separate application/module for editing
metadata. Instead, you can browse or search
for catalog items within the web application, and then edit them directly on the
View Catalog Item page.
Note that you must have been granted an Author or higher role to edit Catalog Items.
In addition, Catalog Items must be in
an appropriate workflow state to be edited (i.e. Draft, Review / Revise).
InPort now supports a Lineage section for Data Sets. This means that
lineage-related
metadata can be inputted directly in InPort, and this information will be reflected in
all metadata exports.
Note: the new lineage information in InPort is not yet integrated
with the lineage processing
for FGDC file uploads. If you create records in InPort with FGDC file uploads, it is
recommended for now that you do not
modify InPort's lineage fields, as it will interfere with the preservation of the FGDC
lineage data.
A future release will more tightly integrate FGDC lineage processing with InPort's
native lineage implementation, so that
this is no longer a concern.
Entities that are directly under Data Sets can now be bulk approved and
published
when the parent Data Set is approved/published. Previously, all items had to be
individually approved.
This is a convenience feature for metadata authors who need to make frequent changes
to data sets, but
don't need to modify child entities often.
Browser-based spell-check has been integrated. As metadata editing is
now integrated
in the web application, built-in web browser spell-checking features are now utilized,
if they are available.
Note that spell-checkers work somewhat differently across the various browsers
(Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc.), and are not available in
older versions of some browsers.
For users who upload Oracle table / column metadata with an extract (.lis)
file, the process
in release 3.0 is almost the same as before. Extract files must be uploaded to a
Project -- when viewing a Project
as a logged-in user, click on the More Actions menu to upload a file.
The uploaded file
must then be processed in the Table / Column Loader, which is still on Oracle Forms.
This module will eventually be
migrated into the web application, but users will need to continue to use Oracle Forms
for now.
If you need to use the Table / Column Loader and are an InPort Librarian or System
Administrator, you can use your
previous InPort account credentials (not your NOAA username and
password) to access the Table / Column Loader.
If you are not a Librarian
or System Administrator, your account must be specifically enabled to use this module
under the 3.0 system.
Please contact InPort Support to set your account
up for access.
Notes for Librarians
The Library Manager module for library, organization, and user management, will
eventually be migrated
into the web application, similar to the Catalog Editor. In the meantime,
Librarians must still perform
library and user management within Oracle Forms. To access the Library
Manager, login to InPort
with your NOAA credentials. Then, under the Admin menu, click on Library Manager.
To use the Library Manager module, Librarians must use their previous
InPort account credentials to login to
Forms, NOT their NOAA account credentials. We realize it is inconvenient to have two
logins
for different areas of the application. However, this is a temporary, but necessary
measure until the Library Manager
has been migrated off of Oracle Forms. We apologize for the inconvenience in the
meantime.
In addition, the user creation process is slightly different in this
release. As before, new users
can and should be created in the Library Manager, and then granted whatever roles are
appropriate for their needs.
However, an InPort username can no longer be created for them at this point. Instead,
you must contact InPort Support
to have a new user's account enabled and hooked up to his/her NOAA credentials. The
InPort team is
currently working on a way to simplify this process, so that Librarians can eventually
enable these
accounts on their own without any intervention from InPort Support.
Note: If you only need to create a new person so that they can be
referenced in a Catalog Item
(e.g. Support Roles), but that person does not need to actually login to InPort, then
their NOAA
account does not need to be linked. You can simply create them in your Library, and
they will be
available immediately with no further action required.
As of InPort 3.0, Catalog Items that were at any time previously published can
now be deleted. This
action is only allowed for InPort users with a Librarian role. It is still highly
recommended to Withdraw, and not
delete obsolete items that were previously published. However, the new deletion
capability can be used to
remove items that were created in error, or truly should not be made available to
anyone.
Also as of this release, due to increased security measures, access to reports
will require
logging in again. On the first time accessing any report from Forms in a
single session,
there will be a login prompt. Your Oracle username and password should be used for
this (not your
NOAA account). This should only need to be done once for the session.
A new Support Roles Report has been added which displays all the
catalog items that
an InPort user has been assigned to as a Support Role (e.g. Point of Contact, Metadata
Contact, Distributor, etc.).
To access this report, click on a user in the Library Manager tree, and select the
Support Roles Report from the
Reports menu (or right-click on the user and select the report from the menu).
Where Did It Go?
Here is a quick rundown of InPort features that have moved in InPort 3.0, and where
to find them:
Change Workflow/Publish Status - On the Catalog Item View page, click
on the Change
button next to the workflow status display at the top of the page. Note that you must
be logged-in and
have the appropriate role to change the workflow status. You can also change workflow
status from the
View Catalog Hierarchy page.
Metadata Export Formats - Metadata export formats (FGDC, ISO 19115,
etc.) are still
available on the Catalog Item View page, but on the left side, under the View Item As
menu.
FGDC Upload / FGDC Update - For FGDC uploads, go directly to the
Project that the
new Data Set will be under. Under the More Actions menu, click on Upload FGDC. For
FGDC updates, go
directly to the Data Set that will be updated. Under the More Actions menu, click on
Update from FGDC.
Entity Extract Upload - Go directly to the Project that contains the
Data Set for which
the Entity Extract will apply to. Under the More Actions menu, click on Upload Entity
Extract.
Add / Delete / Move Catalog Items - These actions are available when
selecting items
in the View Catalog Hierarchy page. They are also available under the More Actions
menu when viewing
a Catalog Item.
Edit Catalog Items - Individual sections of a catalog item can be
edited by clicking
on the Edit button for each section when viewing a Catalog Item. Note that these
buttons are only
available when logged-in, for users with authorization to edit metadata records. The
Catalog Item must
also be in an editable workflow state to be edited.
Hierarchy with Details Report - This report has been removed from
InPort until further notice, as it
was causing critical performance and stability issues.
User History Report - For logged-in users, click on History in the
main navigation menu
under My InPort.
Catalog Item History Report - When viewing a Catalog Item, click on
Catalog Item History
in the page header. You must be logged-in to view this report.
User Roles Report - When viewing a Catalog Item, click on User Roles
in the page header. You must be logged-in to view this report.
Catalog Hierarchy Report - This report has been replaced by the
Catalog Hierarchy
functionality in the web application. In addition, when viewing any Catalog Item, you
can see its
location in the Catalog Hierarchy by clicking on View in Hierarchy in the page header.
For more information and details, please consult the InPort Release Notes page.
