Deprecation of the ExtLink Element in DDI 2.6 and Possible Alternatives

[Han, Xiaoyao]

Dear DDI Community and Experts,

We have been using DDI 2.5 for our metadata documentation. In our current implementation, we use the <ExtLink> element to provide external links for datasets and variables, offering additional information beyond what is directly stored in the metadata, such as statistics, visualisations, and links to related datasets and variables. An example of DDI section is shown below:

We recently noticed that the <ExtLink> element has been deprecated in DDI 2.6 and are currently looking for an alternative approach to represent external links in our metadata. The recommendation in the DDI 2.6 documentation states:

"The use of this element has been deprecated and the use of various other Material types is recommended. A parent element can frequently use sdatrefs, methrefs, or pubrefs to refer to the appropriate other material type, which can hold the title, description, and URI for the external source."

However, we are not entirely sure how to apply these alternatives in practice or which element would be most appropriate for our use case. In particular, we would appreciate guidance on how to represent external links for datasets and variables, and whether sdatrefs, methrefs, pubrefs, or other material types would be considered the recommended practice. We would greatly appreciate your advice.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Kind regards,

Xiaoyao Han

[Wendy Thomas]

I have added an issue to ddi-c_2 GitHub issue tracker to consider the need for new external URI element, its possible role, and location for usage. 

https://github.com/ddialliance/ddi-c_2/issues/78

You can add comments if you'd like and it will be addressed by the new DDI-Codebook Working Group.

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Wendy L. Thomas                            

ISRDI [retired]

email: w...@umn.edu