If you attended the recent webinar for this phase of the project, or read the report on the webinar, you will know that we have launched the beta version of the Discovery Service and will be providing regular updates on the progress of the project.
We are now re-harvesting metadata from participants involved in phase 2 of the project, before harvesting from new participants who volunteered in phase 3. Following the re-harvesting, the focus will be on reviewing the prioritisation of existing and new requirements. The work is being done in two week sprints on our test server with fortnightly updates to the beta system. When there’s an update to the beta, an email is sent to the project’s mailing list to inform participants on what’s changed or new in this version.
From now on we’ll be posting the updates via the blog, as well as the mailing list. If you want to get more involved in the project you can subscribe to the mailing list (JISC-UKRDDS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK) or check this blog for regular updates.
Here’s the first of our updates from our developer Mark Winterbottom.
Technical Update (5 May, 2017)
The focus so far has been about making the system stable, reliable and scalable as well as harvesting data on the new beta site.
Key Improvements
- The beta site is now online and running as docker containers on AWS (the site should now be noticeably faster and more responsive).
- CKAN has been upgraded from 2.5 to the latest stable release 2.6.2.
- I have initiated harvest jobs for the following institutions and asked for feedback from the respective contacts:
- The database has been moved to AWS RDS to improve speed and reliability.
- All harvest endpoint details have been consolidated to the RDDS HEI-DC Harvest Endpoints document. This is now the single point of reference for all harvest endpoints and details.
Other Noticeable Changes
The following features have been disabled in order to fix bugs and update them to work with the new version of CKAN:
- CSW Spatial Data Harvester.
- Map search widget.
- Reporting extensions.
- Automated Resource scanner.
Focusing on Next
Here are the items I will focus on next:
- Fix a bug in the OAI-PMH harvest where it fails to process the MODS metadata format (this is why data from the University of Hull has not been harvested yet).
- Harvest data from Oxford Brookes University (I’m currently waiting for confirmation of endpoint details).
- Fix any metadata mapping issues based on the feedback I get for the Phase #2 HEI’s.
- Start adding Phase #2 Data Centres to the new system.
- Re-enable spatial data harvesting.
That’s the end of this update. If you would like any further information about the project, or contact details, check the project page on the Jisc website.
