[Dspace-general] [Dspace-tech] Week 5: Submission process

[Dorothea Salo]

> - It's configurable on a collection by collection basis, although the
> way different input forms get assigned to collections is abominable.

Expanding on this: When I create a collection, I usually forget to go
over to input-forms.xml and put the right form on it. I have (to my
shame be it spoken) confused users with thesis collections by demoing
them the form customized for theses... and then they don't see it when
they first try to deposit!

It'd be nice if the collection-creation UI read input-forms.xml and
let me assign an existing form to the collection (a single
radio-button control would seem to do the trick, yes?). No, that
doesn't solve the whole issue (still can't design a new form via UI,
which doesn't bother me much because creating UI for that is an *evil*
problem), but it's a nice 80/20 point.

> - I don't really understand why the metadata entry needs to be split
> into two screens. It should be organized into REQUIRED and OPTIONAL
> areas and allow users to easily see what they have to do. Perhaps I am
> able to do this and simply haven't dug in that deeply?

This could be done with input-forms.xml -- or it could if it weren't
for the published-before checkbox externalities, at least. To the best
of my knowledge, nobody's done the user testing to figure out what's
the most intuitive metadata-entering paradigm, though Marty and
Twidale's ASIST demo last year showed pretty conclusively that the
out-of-the-box DSpace one is substantially broken.

I do know of several efforts to strip down deposit to the absolute
bare minimum for later correction (usually by a third party): upload
plus citation plus license, end of story. This strikes me as a common
enough workflow to be worth baking in to DSpace proper.

> - The file uploaded successfully screen, while informative to IR
> managers, is just another step no one else really cares about and just
> has to hit another "Next >" button.

Oof. Agreed. Sorry I forgot to mention this!

Okay, closing out GMail now to reboot the test 1.5 instance with a new
dspace.cfg and xmlui.xconf. I expect much breakage to ensue, with
associated wailing and gnashing of teeth...

Dorothea

-- 
Dorothea Salo                dsalo at library.wisc.edu
Digital Repository Librarian      AIM: mindsatuw
University of Wisconsin
Rm 218, Memorial Library
(608) 262-5493