Accessing mandatory metadata fields through API

[Pablo Valério Polônia]

Hi all,

Is it possible to know, via API, which metadata fields are mandatory for a given Dataverse?

Context: In the plugin we developed for integration between OJS and Dataverse, we are considering only a minimum set of mandatory metadata (such as title, description, subject, etc.).

For instance, we had a case where the Related Publication Type field had been marked as mandatory, which prevented the plugin from completing the deposit of research data. This is just an example — in practice, any other customized mandatory field could generate the same issue.

Knowing which fields are mandatory would allow us to think of strategies to deal with them. 

Kind Regards,

Pablo

Lepidus

[Philip Durbin]

Hi Pablo,

Good question. A field can be marked as required (the term we use instead of mandatory) globally or at the collection level.

For example, if you go to https://demo.dataverse.org/api/metadatablocks/citation you can see that "title" is required globally. Docs on this API call are here: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.7.1/api/native-api.html#show-info-about-all-metadata-blocks

Probably someone made Related Publication required for a certain collection. To check, please use this API call: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.7.1/api/native-api.html#list-metadata-blocks-defined-on-a-dataverse-collection 

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks,

Phil

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Philip Durbin
Software Developer for http://dataverse.org
http://www.iq.harvard.edu/people/philip-durbin

[Pablo Valério Polônia]

Hi Phil,

Based on our tests, it seems we need to make the following requests to determine which metadata is required in a given collection:

1) Obtain the metadata blocks specific to that collection:
https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.7.1/api/native-api.html#show-info-about-all-metadata-blocks

2) Iterate over each metadata block and check which fields are required:
For example: https://demo.dataverse.org/api/metadatablocks/citation

3) Obtain the metadata required globally by the repository:

The resource to be queried seems to be (/api/dataverses/$ID/inputLevels).:
https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.7.1/api/native-api.html#id38

However, it only returns results if the collection does not inherit from the parent Dataverse.

For instance, here is a case where it returns an empty result:
https://demo.dataverse.org/api/dataverses/dataverseDeTestes/inputLevels

response:
{
  “status”: “OK”,
  “data”: []
}

Here is a case where it returns the complete metadata listing:
https://demo.dataverse.org/api/dataverses/reqFields/inputLevels

Excerpt from the response:
"
{
  “status”: “OK”,
  “data”: [{
    “datasetFieldTypeName”: “datasetContactAffiliation”,
    “required”: false,
    “include”: true
  }, {
...
"

How we can perform this query?

Would this approach work, or is there a simpler way?

Thanks,
Pablo

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[Philip Durbin]

Hi Pablo,

You're definitely more knowledable about how this works than I am!

When you ask "how we can perform this query?" are you asking how to know if a collection inherits metadata blocks from a parent or not? It sounds like you have a working method but it involves a call that might return empty result.

I hope this helps!

Phil

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dataverse-community/CAMCDo-LC0xvy13cbu-rzpEp4OrXFdWCvhqDV%3D52UzA27wC6QMQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Pablo Valério Polônia]

Hi, Phil.

We found this resource: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.7.1/api/native-api.html#view-a-dataverse-collection

That delivers the information we need.

The steps would be:
1) Make a request for the desired collection and check whether the isMetadataBlockRoot property has the value false or whether the inputLevels property exists.
2) If not, make a request for the parent collection indicated in the isPartOf->identifier property.

Thanks!

Pablo

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