Metadata in ILIAS

"Metadata or meta information is the general term for data that contains information about other data. [...] Typical metadata for a book include the author's name, the edition, the year of publication, the publisher and the ISBN. The metadata of a computer file includes the file name, the access rights and the date of the last change." (from: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadaten, Stand: 15.12.2009) Metadata is used in particular to search for content and to instruct the reuse of content. In ILIAS, objects can be provided with metadata from the LOM (Learning Objects Metadata) standard. LOM metadata is an extensive catalog of additional information on the content of the object (see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_Objects_Metadata for details).

There is a Metadata dialog in the administration, in which the handling of metadata can be partially adjusted.


Settings

Set separators for metadata entries

If several terms with equal rights are entered in a metadata field in the metadata quick edit, such as keywords or authors, then a separator is required to separate them from each other.The default character is ','.However, a different separator can also be entered in the settings of the Metadata dialog.

The ready-made copyright packages of the "Creative Commons License" are a special case of metadata: "Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that publishes various standard license agreements on the Internet, by means of which authors can grant the public rights of use to their works, such as texts, images, pieces of music, etc.". However, these licenses [are] not tailored to a single type of work, but can be applied to any work whose protection can be derived from copyright law. Furthermore, there is a strong gradation of degrees of freedom: from licenses that hardly differ from the complete reservation of rights to licenses that place the work in the public domain, i.e. where copyright is waived as far as possible." (from: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_License, date 11/17/2009)

Click on Administration in the main header bar and select the option Metadata To make Creative Commons copyright specifications available in ILIAS, call up the Copyright tab.

Six copyright specifications are listed there, the appearance and wording of which are displayed in the "Copyright (Preview)" column and can also be customized via the Edit link By selecting and saving the Enable copyright selection option, you make all the models listed there available to authors of learning objects.

Note: The exact content of the individual specifications can be accessed via a link from the Creative Commons homepage.

Note: If one or more of the copyright specifications do not match the legal situation in your organization, they can also be deleted from the selection using a checkbox and the delete button.


User-defined metadata

User-defined metadata in ILIAS

The available metadata records can be extended for different objects; the added metadata fields then appear in different places in the object's edit mode depending on the object type, but not in the Metadata tab, which only contains the LOM-compliant fields. A metadata record can in turn contain various metadata fields. For example, you could create a "Plug-ins" metadata record in which course authors can specify whether plug-ins such as Flash or the Java RTE are required to use their course (or parts of it). The latter then represent the individual fields

Create data record

You would like to provide user-defined metadata fields. To do this, you must first create a data record (these instructions) and then create data fields. 

  1. Open the Administration menu in the main navigation bar.
  2. ILIAS displays a selection menu.
  3. Select the Metadata entry.
  4. ILIAS shows you the Settings tab. 
  5. Open the Custom metadata tab.
  6. Click Add above the Custom metadata records table. 
  7. ILIAS displays a form where you can add a title and a description to the new record. 
  8.  Check the Active checkbox to make the data record available to ILIAS users; however, this only takes effect if you have also created specific fields in it.
  9. Specify the object types for which you want to make this metadata record available. Select
    • Do not offer data record hides the data record in the corresponding object type. 
    • Always offer for completion ensures that the data record is always displayed in this object type. However, the data record is not a required entry, it is only displayed. 
    • Data record must be activated does not ensure that the data record is offered for completion. Users must first activate the data record in the corresponding object type and then fill it in. Such a data set is therefore quite hidden. 
  10. Click on Add.
  11. ILIAS displays the Custom metadata records list, which now also contains your new record.

You can also change the activation and assigned object types in this list at a later date. Once you have made changes, click on "Save". Instead of creating a metadata record manually, you can also import it. The data set must be in .xml format and correspond to the ILIAS DTD, i.e. the XML used in it must use the same markups as the ILIAS XML.

Create data fields

You want to create user-defined metadata fields.
Prerequisite: You have already created a data record.

  1. Open the Administration menu in the main navigation bar.
  2. ILIAS displays a selection menu.
  3. Select the Metadata entry.
  4. ILIAS shows you the Settings tab. 
  5. Open the Custom metadata tab.
  6. Click above the Custom metadata records table. 
  7. Now click on the Edit fields action associated with the data record in the rightmost column of the table.
  8. ILIAS displays the Edit fields table. In the selection menu, select which data your new field should harvest
    • Text (simple text field) 
    • Date or date and time
    • Selection list from which only one or several entries can be selected
    • Whole numbers or decimal fractions
    • Geodata 
    • internal or external links 
  9. Click Add.
  10. ILIAS displays the Add new field form. 
  11. Give the field a title and activate the Searchable checkbox, otherwise the search will not find this information. 
  12. Click Create. 
  13. ILIAS shows you the list of fields in the data record, which now also contains your new field.

Presentation of the data records

You want to configure the display of metadata in the repository. You can specify across all fields whether the title and description of fields should be displayed at all. 

  1. Open the Administration menu in the main navigation bar.
  2. ILIAS displays a selection menu.
  3. Select the Metadata entry.
  4. ILIAS shows you the Settings tab. 
  5. Open the Custom metadata tab.
  6. Open the Display sub-tab. 
  7. ILIAS shows for the individual object types how the data records are displayed to those authorized to edit the objects in question.
    • You can differentiate between displaying the field name, the description or both.
    • in which position of the list it appears.
    • whether to emphasize by bolding.
    • whether it may contain a line break.
  8. Click Save. 

Exporting metadata records

Metadata records can be exported in order to import them into another platform, for example. 

  1. Open dministration > Metadata > Custom metadata. 
  2. Select the checkboxes in front of one or more data records.
  3. Select the Export action in the menu above or below the table.
  4. Click on Execute. 
  5. ILIAS creates the export file and displays the created export file in the Export files sub-tab. 
  6. Download export files here.