Development notes

Major changes

• 2002 August
  • enhanced help notes about XML processing issues as new ones are discovered by the many varied source documents that are processed by our users
• 2002 March
  • many new facilities for some of the silent authors
• 2001 October
  • revision of the basemaps for locality mapping
• 2001 September
  • revision of some help documentation
• 2001 August
  • using the GEN Register at AUSLIG for the pick-lists of Geographic Extent Names - these are used to facilitate the easy description of the location of your dataset description, and for some of the mapping facilities
• 2001 April
  • now using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) webserver to maximise security of client metadata management
• 2001 March
  • using the new ANZMETA DTD v1.3
  • tweaked metadata processing to use new content lengths specified in ANZLIC Metadata Guidelines version 2
  • the Geographic Extent names (GENs) are automatically built depending on which XML DTD is in use (old versions descibe it differently)
• 2001 January
  • moved all metadata management services to new powerful server machine
• 2000 November
  • dataset description on-line entry forms can now utilise personal and group templates to facilitate default values
• 2000 September
  • generated HTML dataset descriptions can now utilise an author's own Stylesheet
  • look-and-feel can now be configured for a group of authors, as well as for individual grade-3 authors
  • if author has JavaScript configured in their browser, then use that for some pop-up notes and help windows
• 2000 June
  • Added simple pop-up map interface to Advanced Search
  • More content checks in processing of dataset descriptions, e.g. detect bounding rectangle with zero values for all coordinates
  • Service to validate any metadata XML file and DTD (useful if you are developing your own custodian extended metadata)
  • Member facility to package selected dataset descriptions into a compressed archive
  • Member facility to jump directly to favourite services
• 2000 February
  • Refined all facilities for processing dataset descriptions.
  • Various publishing options can now be configured - add top and tail banners to your HTML dataset descriptions, add a backgound colour, give an agency look-and-feel. Members can send feedback to the editors to have a special configuration added for you.
• 1999 August
  • Dynamic "explain" facilities for management of geospatial dataset descriptions. The online metadata entry system links directly to the relevant explain sections.
  • Direct links to explanations of parser error messages
• 1999 April
  • Many capabilities added to batch metadata processing facilities (e.g. summaries of errors, batch report to summarise errors from a number of batches, direct links to explanations of common errors).
• 1998 August
  • Batch processing facilities for Grade 3 members to retrieve and validate a list of geospatial metadata documents.
• 1998 June
  • Editors choices - links to specific relevant Australasian WWW sites.
• 1998 April
  • Locality map images are now automatically produced for dataset descriptions.
• 1998 March
  • Members can now enter a dataset description using a set of HTML forms which lead you through the procedure.
  • You can return as often as you like to edit each section - there is no need to complete the dataset all in one sitting.
  • When all sections are suitably complete, then you will be offered the option to process your new dataset description using the ANZMP metadata parser. This will validate the content and generate presentation documents.
• 1998 February
  • ANZLIC has now released the ANZMETA DTD Version 1.1 Document Type Definition for describing geospatial datasets in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Our ANZMP member service for processing dataset descriptions now uses that DTD.
• 1998 January
  • Higher grade members (2+) now get personal usage statistics which show the patterns of visitors to their pages.
• 1997 December
  • Submitted the URL of Eco Companion to the search engines.
• 1997 November
  • General release of the service.
• 1997 October
  • Pre-release to a mostly technical group.

Known limitations

We take special care to create web pages that are browser-friendly. There are no special coding tricks or browser-dependent hacks. We use a basic level of Javascript.

• There is only one known browser problem (only with old Internet Explorer v3).

URL:http://www.indexgeo.com.au/ec/help/devnotes.html
Last Modified: 30 August 2002