object-formats

The DataONE Object Formats controlled vocabulary is a simple vocabulary listing key metadata for file and object formats used within the DataONE network (https://dataone.org). The goal of the list is to provide a unique identifier for each file format. The formatId is typically more specific than an associated Media Type, but sometimes they can be the same. For example, the formatId for PNG images is image/png and matches the media type image/png because the media type is specific to one file format. In contrast, the formatId for WaterML is http://www.loc.gov/METS/, which is more specific than the Media type which is text/xml and which is shared across many formats in the XML family.

Related work

There have been many format vocabularies created (and many abandoned), including UDFR, GDFR, ProNom, and others. The DataONE vocabulary is simpler, more highly structured, and maintained by the repositories that use it.

Contributing

We welcome the addition of new formats as needed for object types within DataONE and related repositories. To propose a new format identifier:

• Create an issue describing the proposed identifier using the new format template
• Discuss the format with the community
• Create a Pull Request that creates the format in the XML dialect used in the formats file. Name the branch for the pull request as feature_#_format where # is the issue number of the proposed format, and format is a short name for the proposed format (e.g., feature_3_shapefile).

Release process

Periodically, when new formats have been approved, we will merge the submitted PRs to the develop branch, and test that all changes work together. When the file is ready for relrelease, we will merge the develop branch to master, and tag it with the release tag of the form 1.22, representing the current format service data version. This will then be used to update the DataONE formats service.