Issue with tagging files

[Mara van der Ploeg]

Hi all,

I’m currently looking into using file tags for a big dataset we should receive in DataverseNO soon. The researchers want to be able to tag their data so that it’s easier to download specific sections of the dataset since it will be rather big. I’ve tried out some things and although I’m quite happy with the options it provides, there is one issue I hope you can help me with. 

When I give files different tags (like EEG, rs or vhdr in the examples below), it doesn’t seem possible to add a tag later (in this case the participant number, e.g. 1001) that applies to all the files. Instead, all the tags that have been used on the different files, are applied to all the files. I’d want my tags to look like example 1 below, but instead, it turns into example 2.

Example 1. Here the tags are correct: participant number for both files but the specifics of the file are tagged per file.

Example 2. Here I added the file specific tags and then added the participant number (1002). All the tags were then applied to all the files instead of EEG and Flanker for the first one and Flanker and vhdr for the second one.

I understand you could avoid this by building up the tagging of the files by doing it hierarchically, but my question is if there is a way to add an overarching tag later? I’m thinking about the researchers who will have to use this, and not demotivating them to upload their data.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Have a great Monday,

Mara van der Ploeg (UiT, DataverseNO)

[Philip Durbin]

Hi Mara,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if I completely understand the problem but it sure sounds like a bug to me. Assuming it is a bug, I'm wondering if it exists only in the old UI you're using (JSF) or if it also exists in the new UI (React). To test the new UI, would you be willing to check if the bug still exists in this "SPA" version of Dataverse? This: https://beta.dataverse.org/spa/

(The trick to logging into this server is to first create an account with the old JSF UI by going to "Sign Up" at https://beta.dataverse.org and then going to https://beta.dataverse.org/spa/ and logging in with that account.)

Thanks!

Phil

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

[Mara van der Ploeg]

Hi Phil,

Thank you for your quick answer! I tried the new UI, but it’s not possible to add tags to multiple files. Image 1 below is SPA, whereas Image 2 is JSF.

Image 1. SPA.

Image 2. JSF.

And I’m sorry I didn’t formulate my problem clearly enough, let me try again. I added tags that were specific to the files first (like the file extension for example). Later, I wanted to add an overarching tag to several files that already had these file-specific tags. In my example, this was the participant number that I wanted to add to six files. In JSF I’m able to do that, however, all of those six files then ‘got’ all the tags used for all of those six files. Hence, they also received the file extensions for the other types and ended up with a bunch of tags that they shouldn’t have. It seems like it’s impossible to add an overarching tag to multiple files that already have tags without all of those files inheriting all the other files’ tags. 

I understand that you could bypass this by first giving those six files the participant number tag and then adding the file specific tags later, but I was wondering if there is any other way since researchers might get demotivated by this workaround. However, if this batch tagging feature is something that will not come back in SPA, then my question/problem might be obsolete. 

Best,

Mara

Op maandag 2 februari 2026 om 22:09:45 UTC+1 schreef pdu...@g.harvard.edu:

[Philip Durbin]

Hi Mara,

Thanks, I think I'm closer to understanding.

You're right, in the SPA, if you try to edit multiple files at once, you get a popup that says, "This feature is not implemented yet in SPA." Please feel free to open a feature request for this at https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse-frontend/issues if you like.

In JSF I tried replicating the bug but I must be doing it wrong. I'm attaching some screenshots. Please feel free to open a bug at https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues about it.

Thanks!

Phil

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/dataverse-community/a7bbddfb-2f28-4b08-8acd-9fa137ed78a5n%40googlegroups.com.