where to save additional dataverse descriptive field

[Valentina Pasquale]

Hi Dataverse Users,

I have a question regarding the integration of Dataverse with our internal information system.

We are trying to configure Dataverse as an institutional research data repository that could support researchers also in storing active (or almost finalized) datasets.

We have programmed a script that uses APIs to automatically create dataverses for each research lab in our institution and grant permissions to users' group in the corresponding dataverses based on their affiliation to the labs. Research labs in our information system have a persistent alphanumeric code that allow us to track them also when the name, description, or PI name change (this is the key in our internal DB). We would like to save this key in the Dataverse database as well, to associate the created dataverses to the corresponding labs in an unambiguous way, in order to avoid duplication errors in our script. At the same time, we don't want users to see this field or accidentally modify it (e.g., we don't want to use it as dataverse-alias, because it would be shown in the dataverse url, or as dataverse-description), so we ideally need to use a hidden field, that could be modified and be searchable via APIs.

Is there any way to do this without custom modification of the Dataverse application code? Is there any custom descriptive field for dataverses we could use?

Best regards,

Valentina Pasquale

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Genova, Italy

[Danny Brooke]

Hi Valentina, I don't think there's anything at the Dataverse level for this, but I'll wait to hear from others if there's some solution or information that I'm missing. There's been some discussion about adding something at Dataset/File level (https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/6455), but not the Dataverse level. 

- Danny

[Philip Durbin]

Hi Valentina,

I agree with Danny. I just poked around the "dataverse" table* and related tables and I don't see a good place to put hidden codes.

I would suggest creating an issue at https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues with details about your requirements. Perhaps others have a similar need.

Thanks,

Phil

* http://phoenix.dataverse.org/schemaspy/latest/tables/dataverse.html

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