Guidance on DSpace 9.x Customization: Submission Forms, Discovery & UI

[AFA]

Dear DSpace Community,

I am in the process of customizing a DSpace 9.x repository and would greatly appreciate your collective expertise on several configuration points. I have a list of goals and questions, ranging from foundational metadata setup to more advanced UI adjustments.

My primary goals are to:

1. Extend the Submission Form:

   • Add a new type (e.g., "Course Material") to the dc.type dropdown.

   • Create new metadata fields (e.g., "Course Name", "Course Code").

   • (Stretch Goal) Implement conditional logic to show these new fields only when "Course Material" is selected from dc.type.

2. Configure Discovery Filters (Facets):

   • Expose the new custom metadata fields as facets.

   • Ensure Communities, Sub-communities, and Collections are present as facets on the homepage and other relevant pages.

   • Modify the behavior of the "Date" facet to explore options beyond the default range slider.

3. Adjust Homepage Elements:

   • Investigate moving the "Recent Submissions" list to a new navigation menu item.

My Specific Questions:

A. Metadata & Submission Form:

1. What is the current best practice for adding new values to an existing controlled vocabulary like dc.type? Is this still managed via the Admin UI's Metadata Registry, or is there a new recommended method?

2. For creating new fields (e.g., local.course.name), is it still preferred to use a custom schema like local over qualifying a core schema like dc?

3. Could you confirm that /dspace/config/submission-forms.xml (backend) remains the correct configuration file for adding these new fields to the submission form in 9.x?

B. Discovery Configuration:
4. After creating the metadata fields, what is the process for adding them as clickable facets? Is this still done exclusively through the admin interface, or are there backend configurations (/dspace/config/modules/discovery.cfg
) OR any different files to consider?

5. Communities and Collections are a core hierarchy, but they don't always appear as facets by default. How can I ensure they are enabled and configured as filters across all relevant pages (homepage, community, and collection pages)?
6. The default "Date" facet uses a range slider. How can I modify this to display as a list of years (e.g., "2024", "2023") or offer a hybrid approach? Is this a configuration change or does it require UI development?

C. UI Customization:
7. The "Recent Submissions" section is a key feature. What would be the high-level approach for relocating this content to a dedicated page under a new menu item in the navigation? Does this require a custom Angular component or is it achievable through configuration?

Stretch Goal:
8. Regarding conditional field visibility in the submission form, has there been any development or community plugin for this in the Angular UI? If not, would this require a custom submission component, and are there any known examples to use as a starting point?

Any guidance, links to updated documentation, or pointers to relevant code sections for DSpace 9.x would be immensely helpful. I am particularly eager to get the foundational metadata and discovery facets correctly configured.

Thank you for your time and continued support of this fantastic platform.

Best regards,

Abid Fakhre Alam

[DSpace Technical Support]

Hi Abid,

There's a lot of questions here!  But, here's some quick answers with links to docs (where easily finable). My answers are in green text below.  Good luck!

Tim

A. Metadata & Submission Form:

1. What is the current best practice for adding new values to an existing controlled vocabulary like dc.type? Is this still managed via the Admin UI's Metadata Registry, or is there a new recommended method?   Yes, use the metadata registry.

2. For creating new fields (e.g., local.course.name), is it still preferred to use a custom schema like local over qualifying a core schema like dc?  Yes, we still recommend "local" for local changes. But, honestly it's up to you.

3. Could you confirm that /dspace/config/submission-forms.xml (backend) remains the correct configuration file for adding these new fields to the submission form in 9.x? Yes, that's the submission config file.  More docs at https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC9x/Submission+User+Interface

B. Discovery Configuration:
4. After creating the metadata fields, what is the process for adding them as clickable facets? Is this still done exclusively through the admin interface, or are there backend configurations (/dspace/config/modules/discovery.cfg

) OR any different files to consider?  You would have to follow the Discovery Documentation for adding facets. See https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC9x/Discovery#Discovery-Searchfilters&sidebarfacetsCustomization Existing facets are always good examples to look at and base your facet off of one of them.

5. Communities and Collections are a core hierarchy, but they don't always appear as facets by default. How can I ensure they are enabled and configured as filters across all relevant pages (homepage, community, and collection pages)?  I'm not aware of a way to facet by Communities/Collections other then the existing option to search within an existing Community or Collection. This can be done from the "All of DSpace" button on the search page (e.g. https://demo.dspace.org/search?query=) next to the search box, or from individual Community/Collection pages on the search tab.
6. The default "Date" facet uses a range slider. How can I modify this to display as a list of years (e.g., "2024", "2023") or offer a hybrid approach? Is this a configuration change or does it require UI development?  That would require custom UI development. There's no configuration available for this range slider.

C. UI Customization:
7. The "Recent Submissions" section is a key feature. What would be the high-level approach for relocating this content to a dedicated page under a new menu item in the navigation? Does this require a custom Angular component or is it achievable through configuration?  That would require custom UI development. There's no option to move this to a different page.

Stretch Goal:
8. Regarding conditional field visibility in the submission form, has there been any development or community plugin for this in the Angular UI? If not, would this require a custom submission component, and are there any known examples to use as a starting point?  This is available in configuration using the "<type-bind>" tag.  See the docs at https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC9x/Submission+User+Interface#SubmissionUserInterface-ItemtypeBasedMetadataCollection