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NCEAS
Streamlining Metadata Entry with Autofill and Duplication Options
Summary
Users have expressed frustration with the repetitive task of entering the same metadata for each dataset. This issue particularly affects fields such as:
- People (most challenging due to multiple elements requiring individual copy-paste actions)
- Locations
- Keywords
- Methods
Suggested Approaches
To alleviate this pain point, the following features could be considered:
- Autofill Functionality: Especially beneficial for the "People" field, an autofill feature could reduce the need for manual copy-pasting.
- Duplication of Selected Metadata Fields: Allow users to duplicate all or specific metadata fields from one dataset to another.
Benefits
- Improves user efficiency and reduces frustration.
- Enhances data consistency by minimizing entry errors.
- Streamlines the workflow for users managing multiple datasets.
Questions for the Community
- Have there been any prior discussions or thoughts on implementing similar features?
- Are there technical or design constraints we should consider?
Additional Context
This feature request is based on user feedback that highlights this issue as a common frustration in the current workflow.
Agreed, these would all be great. Robyn just introduced a streamlined way to copy entity and attribute lists in #688 in release 2.33.0.
- For people, we have an issue for that in #175
- For locations, we have #303
- For keywords:
- issue #222
- use the lookahead in semantic annotations with issue #1323
- For methods, I am not sure. Are you thinking we would use protocols.io or a similar source of registered protocols/methods?
Agreed, these would all be great. Robyn just introduced a streamlined way to copy entity and attribute lists in #688 in release 2.33.0.
For people, we have an issue for that in improve efficiency of entering people and organizations #175
For locations, we have Add more ways to specify geographic locations #303
For keywords:
- issue Use the GCMD API to do lookahead matching for GCMD keywords #222
- use the lookahead in semantic annotations with issue Linking keywordset / thesauri to eml-semantics ? #1323
For methods, I am not sure. Are you thinking we would use protocols.io or a similar source of registered protocols/methods?
Hey @dschristianson Can you give details what we were thinking for methods. I was think maybe the ability to copy methods from an existing dataset...
Another possible solution: https://github.com/NCEAS/metacatui/issues/1933
[allow] lab groups to upload common metadata snippets, such as shared field site locations, common methods, contact information for group members, and other critical information that is reused across datasets.
