[SIS-420] Forward references in XML

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 0.7, 0.8, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5
• Component/s: Metadata
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Martin Desruisseaux
• Created: 26/May/18 08:43
• Updated: 19/Dec/23 14:13

Description

In a metadata XML document, an element may be replaced by a reference to another element. Example derived from catalog.data.gov (search Level_2 in that document):

<gmd:processStep>
  <gmi:LE_ProcessStep>
    <gmd:source xlink:href="#Level_2"/>
  </gmi:LE_ProcessStep>
</gmd:processStep>
<gmd:source>
  <gmd:LI_Source id="Level_2">
      <gmd:description>
          <gco:CharacterString>Source Contribution: The Level 2 data are used in processing Level 3 data.</gco:CharacterString>
      </gmd:description>
  <gmd:LI_Source>
</gmd:source>

Support of such reference has been implemented in SIS-173, but only in the cases where the content is defined before xlink:href. In above example, we have the opposite order. Such forward references should be implemented in SIS. One possible approach may be to to store the parent object and the property name in a java.util.Map until the definition is found, in which case we can use AbstractMetadata.asMap() for setting the final value.

Issue Links

• depends upon: SIS-173 Support references from xlink:href to gml:id
• is related to: SIS-387 Automatically resolve links in metadata document