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Syntax is the manner of expressing the metadata. The two means of expressing metadata are HTML and XML/RDF.
HTML is the standard way for embedding metadata, utilising the <META> tag in the <HEAD> of a document. It can be viewed by looking at the document source.
The <META> tag has two main attributes: NAME and CONTENT. The values for both attributes are enclosed in straight double quotes.
Each metadata element has a prefix indicating the metadata schema from which the element is drawn. DC indicates that the element is drawn from the Dublin Core metadata scheme.
A DC metadata entry looks like this;
<meta name="DC.Title" content="Title of document">
Element refinements are not supported directly in HTML <meta> elements, so a syntax convention relying on the use of characters within these text strings is used.
To accommodate element refinements, dots (.) are used to append qualifiers to DC element names.
A qualified element should look like this;
<meta name="DC.Date.created" content="2001-08-23">
<meta name="DC.Relation.isVersionOf" content="hard copy 6th edition, ISBN 0346289042">
HTML 4.0 allows use of two particular attributes of the <meta> elements, scheme and lang (language). These attributes allow you to indicate an encoding scheme or controlled vocabulary where so used.
The scheme and lang attributes should be indicated as follows:
<meta name="DC.Type" scheme="IPSDT" content="press release">
<meta name="DC.Title.alternative" lang="ga" content="Tuarascáil Bhliantúil an Choimisinéara Faisnéise 2000">
Note the use of case in the above examples.
The W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a developing standard for resource description and discovery using XML and offers the promise of reducing syntax problems. RDF has the status of a W3C recommendation and it may soon become the syntax of choice for expressing IPSMS metadata.
Developments in, and recommendations on, the encoding of metadata using XML/RDF will follow pursuant on developments in the use and application of XML across the public sector. This website will keep you informed of such developments.
More information about XML/RDF
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