Old Release
This documentation relates to an old version of DSpace, version 4.x. Looking for another version? See all documentation.
This DSpace release is end-of-life and is no longer supported.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Introduction
With DSpace you can describe digital objects such as text files, audio, video or data to facility easy retrieval and high quality search results. These descriptions are organized into metadata fields that each have a specific designation, for example dc.title stores the title of an object, while dc.subject is reserved for subject keywords.
For many of these fields, including title and abstract, free text entry is the de facto choice as the values are likely to be unique. Other fields are likely to be associated with values that can occur across different items. Such fields include unique names, subject keywords, document types and other classifications. For those kinds of fields the overall quality of the repository metadata increases if values with the same meaning are normalized across all items. Additional benefits can be gained if unique identifiers are associated as well in addition to canonical text values associated with a particular metadata field.
This page covers features included in the DSpace submission forms that allow repository managers to enforce the usage of normalized terms for those fields where this is required in their institutional use cases. DSpace offers simple and straightforward features, such as definitions of simple text values for dropdowns, as well as more elaborate integrations with external vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Naming Authority.
Simple choice management for DSpace submission forms
This is a template page for a new DSpace contribution. If you are unsure about the appropriate format or content, just look at this example. This page can be copied and used to fill out your new documentation.
Make sure you do NOT use Heading level 1, and stick to level 2 as the highest level in your document. Level one is reserved for the top level headings in the PDF version of the documentation.
How to use info boxes
Info boxes are important highlights of information that are not really warnings. Often they are used to highlight users to differences in functionality between different versions of DSpace.
"DSpace Discovery has become the default search and browse solution as of DSpace 4.0" is an example.
Checklist: this is when you're done
Use case and high level benefits
Describe which need the contribution is fulfilling and why it was originally created. Screenshots are always nice and will make people enthusiastic about your contribution.
Installation
If it takes any work to enable the contribution, please elaborate in detail. It is recommended that you provide a good default configuration so that your configuration can run straight out of the box.
Technical Implementation Details
If there are any possibilities to customize the contribution, it is good to provide some details on your implementation, or which design decisions have been taken.
How to use warnings
If your contribution is known to be untested or incompatible with certain parts of DSpace, for example JSPUI/XMLUI, Oracle, ... highlight it in a warning like this. Warnings can be found under Insert > Other Macros
Sub headings are generally fine
Recommended so that people can easily navigate using the Table of Contents at the top.
but don't
drive it too far
Heading 5 is generally not used and has no visual difference with heading 4. When in doubt, don't use Heading lvl 5.
Configuration
Explain which configuration parameters are available, in which files they can be found and which procedure is required for updating. Does it require a rebuild or is a tomcat restart enough, etc?
Where should I put my page? (DELETE this section from template when finished)
Here is a very short introduction to the hierarchy of the documentation. when in doubt, put your page straight under Using DSpace.
- Installing DSpace
- Upgrading DSpace
- Using DSpace: documentation that applies to a working, functional DSpace
- Ingesting Content and Metadata: relevant section if your feature is related to the creation of content in DSpace
- Exporting Content and Metadata: relevant section for getting content out of DSpace
- System Administration: activities and diagnostic to restore your DSpace to a full working state, or to maintain it that it stays that way.
- Command Line Operations: important page that you can edit if your new contribution introduces any new command line operations.
- DSpace reference: glossary, overviews, often linking out to other parts of the documentation for more detail