Hi Janet!
I'll try to answer some of your questions below:
- I have tried the demo dataset, but can't save my edits. Where is the metadata saved to?
Only Admins/Dataset Admins can access the DCT for a deposited tabular datafile. The variable metadata is stored in the DV database and is versioned (in line with versioning in DV). This is a point of confusion in the workflow right now, every new edit & save in DCT creates a new version of the dataset in Dataverse. To view the latest edits in DCT, navigate back to the DV dataset, publish the latest version, and then view the changes in DCT or in Data Explorer using the updated published version. If you are still experiencing issues, let me know. Sometimes a refresh of the DV page before navigating back to the DCT tool again does the trick! (note: something to improve)
- Can the variable-level metadata also b exported using the 'export metadata' button on published datasets?
Yes, all of the variable-level metadata is exposed in the export metadata 'DDI HTML Codebook' or 'DDI' metadata options for a published dataset.
You can see that the DDI variable level metadata including edits made using DCT are included (search for and find: <qstn><qstnLit>What is your age?</qstnLit>)
All variable-level metadata is made public there is no way to restrict it to my knowledge once it has been published in DV (even if the files themselves are restricted access).
- How is the extra metadata able to be viewed in a published dataset? Does it also require the installation of the Data Explorer Tool?
Yes, Data Explorer is currently the way to view the variable metadata in the DV UI without viewing the DDI HTML Codebook or DDI metadata export from the Export Metadata options. Eventually, we'd like to build a discovery interface onto Dataverse that would allow researchers to search and interact with variables and variable metadata in a more detailed way but that is a future goal at this point.
https://odesi.ca is currently connected to our Dataverse through the 'Canadian Dataverses' collection search option. We allow variable-level searching in this tool and can develop this further to be more closely tied to our Dataverse instance. We currently harvest and store all the DDI XML nightly in a MarkLogic database for indexing and on-demand search.
- Can someone link me to a dataset I can look at to see how the variable-level metadata is rendered?
You can view this in Data Explorer or via the export metadata options mentioned above.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions!!