Metadata Editor beta

[Jill_Saligoe-Simmel]

With the ArcGIS Online summer release, we've introduced the Metadata Editor beta. We're at the start of our journey and will post information and updates in this community place. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[AndrewHerbst]

Jill, this is greatly appreciated. This interface seems very intuitive! I have a couple questions/comments:

The first is in regard to the concept of "essential metadata". If organizations could be given control over which metadata fields are represented in this list, this could be a massive game changer for streamlined data governance and portal management. Our organization has a list of around 10 things we consider to be the minimum requirement and it would be awesome 🤘 if we could disseminate that standard through this interface. 

The second thing is API integration. As of now, we can read an item's full XML metadata via the REST API. One thing that would take that to the next level would be to edit metadata through the ArcGIS API for Python, for example. Are there any plans to extend the functionality of this editor to the Python API?

Big thanks to you and your team for advancing the functionality of metadata in ArcGIS Online!

Best, 

Andrew

[ErinNovakovich]

Ditto! I'd love to see both of these implemented. Our state is working towards uniting our combined data into a state hub site that consumed data from many different organizations and we are exploring ways to make metadata easier for these organizations. working together to develop a set of standards and tools to help them build and maintain their own metadata. This is a step closer to the dream!

[Jill_Saligoe-Simmel]

Hi Andrew and Erin,
Glad to hear you like the direction and find the UI intuitive. 
The initial releases are focused on feature parity to support the existing standards, with the longer-term roadmap enabling some customization by organization administrators.
We'll capture your voices in wanting to see support for customization.

Andrew, regarding editing through the REST API, I'd like to learn more about what you'd like to accomplish.

thanks,

Jill

[AndrewHerbst]

With regards to the API, what we're really after is the ability to edit various metadata components for multiple items at a time. Some of our users maintain over 100 items on our portal which may all contain metadata that needs updating (or they have no metadata at all). Graphical interfaces are great for one item at a time but can be daunting for someone who needs to edit several dozen items. With API functionality in something like python, a user could conceivably edit their metadata in batches. 

For example, say the contact information for your organization has changed and you need to edit the metadata across all of your AGOL items to reflect this. It would be convenient to be able to target the "overview>resource_infor>points_of_contact[0]" tag in an item's metadata, programmatically, and loop through the whole inventory to update every item. 

This is already possible for item properties like the description, tags, and credits. It would be a godsend if this extended to ISO or CSDGM metadata properties.