Chapter 6 - Islandora and Ingest Forms

Each Islandora Solution Pack comes pre-packaged with an ingest form. This is the form that users with appropriate permissions will see when they are adding (ingesting) new items into a collection. This section will describe how Islandora uses content models, and introduce the functions of the XML Form Builder modules. For additional information, including how to install the XML Form Builder modules, please see Chapter 10: Enabling Form Creation with the XML Forms Modules.

This section assumes that you are either using the Virtual Machine image or http://sandbox.islandora.ca OR that you have followed instructions for installing and activating the XML Form Builder modules. Note that use of the Form Builder, particularly advanced use of the builder, will require a knowledge of XPath, and the schema that you are using (and the XSD that defines that schema). Additional information is presented later in this guide.

About Ingest Forms in Islandora

Ingest forms are affiliated with content models. This means that a collection object that subscribes to a given model will make available to users, on ingest, the form that is associated with the content model. Forms are associated with content models, not collections. A collection will make available all of the forms associated with a content model to which it subscribes.

When you use Islandora solution packs, the association to a content model (and its default form) are made for you:

Note: To learn more about objects in Islandora, please review the introduction.

There may be times when you would like to edit a form to make it suitable for your collection. Typically, you would clone the existing form, and then affiliate it with the content model (so that this form becomes available to users when they are ingesting into your collection). Information for how to do this is provided below.

Note that all the forms you create and affiliate with a content model will be available in any collection that subscribes to that content model. This is not ideal in all situations; for example, if you have made a collection-specific form, it will be available on ingest in other collections. The only way to circumvent this is to clone the content model, and make it specific to a particular collection.

By cloning a content model and making it specific to a collection, you can ensure that only the relevant ingest form is presented to a user on ingest. However, any changes you wish to make to forms or content models will then have to be edited individually. Furthermore, the latest iteration of Islandora comes with no interface ability to clone content model. Therefore, cloning the content model must occur through other Fedora tools.