Hi Thijs,
I can only give a theoretical answer to your question regarding ISO 19115 but
not to how GeoNetwork handles that implementation.
There are two characterSet elements:
The first is the characterSet for the metadata. This should be chosen from
the MD_CharacterSetCode of the ISO 19115/19139 codeLists
(http://www.isotc211.org/2005/resources/Codelist/gmxCodelists.xml) The
default value is "utf8".
The second is the characterSet for the resource itself. Similarly this
should be chosen from the MD_CharacterSetCode of the ISO 19115/19139 codeList
and the default is "utf8".
Both of these elements are conditional. The condition on the metadata
characterSet is "documented if ISO 10646-1 not used and not defined by the
encoding standard".
The condition on the resource characterSet is "documented if ISO 10646-1 not
used".
Note the "and not defined by the encoding standard" condition on the metadata
characterSet.
The ISO 19139 XML implementation allows the standard attributes for the XML
declaration. They are: "standalone", "encoding" and "version". If the
"encoding" attribute is completed then the metadata characterSet should *not*
be filled out.
It is often the case where the XML declaration is automatically created. EG:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
Note that the "encoding" attribute is set to "UTF-8". In this case the
metadata characterSet element should *not* be entered. This may be the case
for GeoNetwork.
If the encoding attribute is not set in the XML declaration. IE:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
Then the metadata characterSet should be entered if the value is not "utf8".
(Also note that W3C uses "UTF-8" and ISO 19115 uses "utf8". Another
difference that we don't really need.)
I would also like to be able to set the XML declaration encoding attribute
because much of our metadata is in Oracle RDBMS and it uses UTF-16. I would
like to be able to set the encoding attribute to that. IE:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" ?>
However, I don't think that GeoNetwork allows that.
OR
I would like to remove the XML declaration encoding attribute and set the
metadata characterSet to be "utf16".
Anyway, to answer your question, if GeoNetwork sets the XML declaration
"encoding" attribute then the metadata characterSet should *not* be editable.
However, the resource characterSet should be editable.
I hope that this helps.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Thijs Brentjens [mailto:lists@anonymised.com]
Sent: Monday, 20 October 2008 7:19 PM
To: geonetwork-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [GeoNetwork-devel] why is characterSet not editable?
Hi,
In metadata-iso19139.xsl (in web/geonetwork/xsl) there is a comment that
characterSet amongst others is not editable. What is the reason for this
element to be not editable? I'd like to change this, because it should be
editable as far as I know, but this comments makes me feel I shouldn't make
it editable for some reason... Hopefully someone can explain. Thanks!
Regards,
Thijs