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- DSpace's "Batch Metadata Editing" tool allows you to export sets of DSpace Item Metadata (all Items or just those in specific Communities/Collections) into a CSV file. The metadata values/fields in the CSV file can then be edited using Microsoft Excel (or OpenOffice Calc). Once editing is complete, you can re-import the modified CSV to apply the metadata changes into DSpace.
- Step-by-step Tutorials:
- Detailed "Batch Metadata Editing" Tutorial (Maureen Walsh from Ohio State University). (Note that DSpaceDirect uses the XMLUI, so those are the instructions to follow in the tutorial)
- Recorded "Batch Metadata Editing" tutorial (Leonie Hayes and Stuart Lewis from the University of Auckland). (Note that the recording is an interactive tutorial and it is hard to see the screen)
- Detailed "Batch Metadata Editing" Tutorial (Maureen Walsh from Ohio State University). (Note that DSpaceDirect uses the XMLUI, so those are the instructions to follow in the tutorial)
- How-To: Batch Metadata Editing basics
- Batch Metadata Editing can be performed at a Community or Collection level
- Browse to a specific Community or Collection. The "Context" menu will display an option for "Export Metadata".
- Click "Export Metadata". This will generate a CSV file that contains all the metadata for every Item within that Community or Collection hierarchy.
- WARNING: For extremely large communities or collections the export (and import) processes may take a long time (or cause your site to significantly slow down). Therefore, DSpaceDirect currently only allows you to modify 500 Items (i.e. lines in CSV) at a single time. This 500 item limitation can be increased as needed, but it is not recommended (as it can cause performance issues with your site when using these tools).
- Edit the CSV using either Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc
- EXCEL WARNING: By default, Excel will not open a CSV in Unicode/UTF-8 encoding. This means that special characters may be improperly displayed and also can be "corrupted" during re-import of the CSV.
- You need to tell Excel this CSV is Unicode, by importing it as follows:
- Open Excel (with an empty sheet open)
- Select "Data" tab
- Click "From Text" button (in the "External Data" section)
- Select your CSV file
- Wizard Step 1
- Choose "Delimited" option
- In the "File origin" selectbox, select "65001 : Unicode (UTF-8)"
- Click Next
- Wizard Step 2
- Select "Comma" as the only delimiter
- Click Next
- Wizard Step 3
- Select "Text" as the "Column data format"
- Click Finish
- You need to tell Excel this CSV is Unicode, by importing it as follows:
- EXCEL WARNING: By default, Excel will not open a CSV in Unicode/UTF-8 encoding. This means that special characters may be improperly displayed and also can be "corrupted" during re-import of the CSV.
- Perform your edits. Once finished, re-upload the changes to DSpace.
- You can remove entire columns from the spreadsheet to make it easier to concentrate on editing just a few metadata fields. But, the 'id' (first) column MUST be kept.
- Removing an entire column with not delete that metadata (rather DSpace will just ignore it). However, please be careful to remove the ENTIRE column (including the column header). Metadata values are only deleted if you leave the column header in place but clear out one or more values (rows in a column)
- Many more editing tips are available via the tutorials linked above.
- You can remove entire columns from the spreadsheet to make it easier to concentrate on editing just a few metadata fields. But, the 'id' (first) column MUST be kept.
- Click "Import Metadata" (under "Administrative" menu)
- Select the CSV
- Review the changes and save the changes.
- WARNING: Please make certain that the changes displayed on the Review screen look correct. Once you save, you will be unable to "undo" the changes without either re-editing to metadata (or if you deleted something entirely it may need to
- NOTE: A more detailed walkthrough with screenshots of this entire process (and additional hints) is available in the Batch Metadata Editing tutorials linked above
Bulk/Batch Permissions Changes (Advanced)
- DSpace provides an "Advanced Policy Manager" (also known as the "item wildcard policy admin tool"), which allows an Administrative user to perform bulk permissions changes to all of the Items or Files (bitstreams) within a specified Collection.
- WARNING: This Advanced Policy Manager is a bit of a "beta-level" tool. It works, but it's not the most user friendly page in DSpace. It's also not the smartest tool, so you need to sometimes take several steps to make the changes you want to make.
- How-To: Batch Permissions Changes basics
- Sample Use Case: The easiest way to explain how this tool works is via a common use-case. Suppose that you have a Collection of open access (viewable/readable to anyone in the world) Items which you now want to restrict to only be viewable to a group of users called "On Campus Users". Here's the steps you would take to perform that change:
Login to your site as an Administrator
Under the "Administrative" side menu, click on "Authorizations" (under Access Control submenu)
Just under the box at the top of the page, click the link that says "Click here to go to the item wildcard policy admin tool"
First, to meet the sample use-case, you'd want to REMOVE any existing READ-access rights from all the Items within that collection. So, fill out the form as follows:
Description: (optional, usually is left blank as it's only really useful for bulk changes to embargo)
Group: (leave blank in this case as you will remove any existing permissions)
Action: READ (you want to remove "READ" access)
Content Type: Item (you want to remove READ access on Items)
Collection: [select the collection]
Start Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
End Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
CLICK the "Clear Policies" button
- (NOTE: Even though you get no confirmation screen, the changes will be immediately applied)
- At this point, all Items in that Collection will only be READable by Administrators. However, the Files within those Items are unfortunately still accessible (if someone had bookmarked the URL)
Second, to meet the sample use-case, you'd want to REMOVE any existing READ-access rights from all the Files within Items in that collection. So, fill out the form as follows:
Description: (optional, usually is left blank as it's only really useful for bulk changes to embargo)
Group: (leave blank in this case as you will remove any existing permissions)
Action: READ (you want to remove "READ" access)
Content Type: bitstream (you want to remove READ access on the files, or bitstreams)
Collection: [select the collection]
Start Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
End Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
CLICK the "Clear Policies" button
- (NOTE: Even though you get no confirmation screen, the changes will be immediately applied)
- At this point, all Items & Files in that Collection will only be READable by Administrators. So, now we just need to assign NEW permissions which will make them accessible to our "On Campus Users" group.
Third, to meet the sample use-case, you'd want to ADD the READ-access right for the "On Campus Users" group to all the Items within that collection. So, fill out the form as follows:
Description: (optional, usually is left blank as it's only really useful for bulk changes to embargo)
Group: Select the "On Campus Users" group
Action: READ (you want to add "READ" access to the selected group)
Content Type: item (you want to add READ access on Items)
Collection: [select the collection]
Start Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
End Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
CLICK the "Add Policies" button
- (NOTE: Even though you get no confirmation screen, the changes will be immediately applied)
- At this point, all Items in that Collection are now READable to the "On Campus Users" group. Unfortunately though, the Files within those Items are still restricted to Administrators. So, now we just need to assign NEW permissions which will make the Files accessible to our "On Campus Users" group.
FINALLY, to meet the sample use-case, you'd want to ADD the READ-access right for the "On Campus Users" group to all the Files within Items in that collection. So, fill out the form as follows:
Description: (optional, usually is left blank as it's only really useful for bulk changes to embargo)
Group: Select the "On Campus Users" group
Action: READ (you want to add "READ" access to the selected group)
Content Type: bitstream (you want to add READ access on all files, or bitstreams)
Collection: [select the collection]
Start Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
End Date: (leave blank - this is only useful for bulk-changes to embargo dates)
CLICK the "Add Policies" button
- (NOTE: Even though you get no confirmation screen, the changes will be immediately applied)
- At the end of this process, all the Items (and their Files) in the selected Collection will now only be accessible (READable) to users who belong to your "On Campus Users" group.
- Sample Use Case: The easiest way to explain how this tool works is via a common use-case. Suppose that you have a Collection of open access (viewable/readable to anyone in the world) Items which you now want to restrict to only be viewable to a group of users called "On Campus Users". Here's the steps you would take to perform that change:
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