[Archon-L] Box list import issue
Leah Broaddus
lbroaddu at lib.siu.edu
Tue Jun 5 11:46:54 MDT 2007
We had the same issue with this when we were trying to upload some
finding aids that Emory University had encoded for us originally using
XMetal I think, where they probably also did some tagging adjustments by
hand to jazz up the web display. Here is what we encountered and
considered as options:
1. Archon will not take any special formatting tagging-- no bold tags,
no italics tags, no tags that indicate bibliographic data or citations.
We used a Perl script to remove all special formatting tags, leaving the
text unharmed.
2. Archon will not take any special characters, including curly
apostrophes, long dashes, and curly quotation marks. We wrote a Perl
script to remove these.
3. Archon does not accept long titles-- if you put a long box
description in where Archon is looking for a title of a box, for
example, it will fail because of the character limits on titles. We
changed the character limits on the title field.
4. Archon does not accept all the possible EAD nestings and hierarchies
of elements that posting an EAD doc direct to the Web would normally
allow. You cannot stick in a description or a title name just anywhere
inside of a <c01> tag. There seems to be only one format that Archon
allows and if you want to know what that format looks like for what you
want to accomplish:
Create a mock-finding aid skeleton in Archon that uses the hierarchy you
want, for example, a series with a short title and a short description,
and a three boxes with titles and descriptions and dates, and 3 folders
in each of those boxes, and 3 items in those folders, etc.--fill it all
out in every way that you might want, then go to Archon's EAD view of
your mock finding aid and take a look at the EAD that was generated from
your mock finding aid in Archon. Observe how it is marked up in Archon
Now decide which would be faster:
1. entering the box list by hand into Archon
2. reformatting the coding of your existing EAD by hand according to the
format Archon seems to want it in: using the EAD output that Archon
gave you for your skeleton as a guide.
3. reformatting the coding of your existing EAD using a Perl script to
change it to the format Archon wants, if that can be done. *Note that
this will involve a lot of trial and error testing...
-----Original Message-----
From: archon-bounces at archon.org [mailto:archon-bounces at archon.org] On
Behalf Of Wayne Graham
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 8:32 AM
To: kacoombs at uh.edu
Cc: Archon at archon.org
Subject: Re: [Archon-L] Box list import issue
Still working on it...
There are a few issues that we're working through. The first was
actually getting all the Level/Container content sorted out in the
Level/Container Manager. We're still having a bit of an issue that I
suspect is a result of the EAD DTD we're using.
For the most part, Archon will grab something like
<c01 level="item">
<did>
<unittitle>"Family Record"
<unitdate type="inclusive">1800's</unitdate></unittitle>
<container type="Folder" label="Folder">1</container>
<physdesc>
<extent>4 pages.</extent>Ms.</physdesc>
</did>
<scopecontent>
<p>This item includes a listing of births, deaths, and
marriages during the period of, 1786-1855, of the
Holland family. Family relationships with the Sumner and
Bussey families are also shown.</p>
</scopecontent>
</c01>
And process it. What actually comes out of this in the Content Manager
is Folder 1 (and nothing else).
The error messages on the import aren't very helpful ("Error storing
content . Error Message: Could not store Content: LevelContainerID not
defined"). However, I've dutifully gone into the Level/Container Manager
to add these elements.
If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd sure appreciate it!
Wayne
Karen Coombs wrote:
> We have this problem too. None of our box list information imports. I
can't
> tell if this is because the import isn't designed to import this piece
of
> the EAD or if our EADs just are not formatted in a way that the import
can
> read the box list information.
>
> Did you every find a solution?
>
> Karen
>
>
> On 5/10/07 7:19 AM, "Amy C. Schindler" <acschi at wm.edu> wrote:
>
>> Which reminds me...we are having a problem importing our EAD finding
aids
>> into Archon. Everything is going along fine until it gets to the
items in
>> box and folder lists, which it basically throws up (to use a
technical
>> term). Has anyone else been confronted with this and care to share?
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>>
>> Amy C. Schindler
>> University Archivist
>> Special Collections Research Center
>> Earl Gregg Swem Library
>> The College of William and Mary
>> 757-221-3094
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: archon-bounces at archon.org [mailto:archon-bounces at archon.org] On
Behalf
>> Of Lyles, John
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 4:08 PM
>> To: archon at archon.org
>> Subject: [Archon-L] box list display problem
>>
>> This was a thread back in March:
>> ***When I have a collection that consists of only 1 folder and
"Folder" is >
>> the top container level, the information from the description field
is > not
>> showing up in the Box List, either Formatted ***or Printer-Friendly.
> It's
>> also not pulling that info into the EAD/XML file. Is this > something
that
>> needs to be changed in the Level/Container manager? If > not, how do
I get
>> that descriptive ***information to transfer over?
>> .....any resolution to this? I cannot get folder level or any level
>> descriptions to display.
>>
>> thanks
>> John
>>
>> John Lyles
>> Archivist
>> Columbus Public Library
>> 3000 Macon Road
>> Columbus, GA 31906
>> 706-243-2681
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://archon.org/mailman/listinfo/archon_archon.org
>>
>>
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>
--
/**
* Wayne Graham
* Earl Gregg Swem Library
* PO Box 8794
* Williamsburg, VA 23188
* 757.221.3112
* http://swem.wm.edu/blogs/waynegraham/
*/
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