'$RCSfile: eml-entity.xsd,v $' Copyright: 1997-2002 Regents of the University of California, University of New Mexico, and Arizona State University Sponsors: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, University of California Santa Barbara Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office, University of New Mexico Center for Environmental Studies, Arizona State University Other funding: National Science Foundation (see README for details) The David and Lucile Packard Foundation For Details: http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/ '$Author: jones $' '$Date: 2003-11-06 20:15:20 $' '$Revision: 1.81 $' This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA eml-entity

The eml-entity module defines the logical characteristics of each entity in the dataset. Entities are usually tables of data (eml-dataTable). Data tables may be ascii text files, relational database tables, spreadsheets or other type of tabular data with a fixed logical structure. Related to data tables are views (eml-view) and stored procedures (eml-storedProcedure). Views and stored procedures are produced by an RDBMS or related system. Other types of data such as: raster (eml-spatialRaster), vector (eml-spatialVector) or spatialReference image data are also data entities. An otherEntity element would be used to describe types of entities that are not decribed by any other entity type. The eml-entity module, like other modules, may be "referenced" via the <references> tag. This allows an entity document to be described once, and then used as a reference in other locations within the EML document via its ID.

This module is used to describe data entities. Only when 'otherEntity' is used. Other Entity Descriptor of single data entity in a dataset of a type not specifically described in eml. The other entity element is a descriptor of a not-otherwise-defined entity in the dataset, identified by its name. The element can contain information about the entity's basic identity, its temporal, geographic and taxonomic coverage, and its type. Photograph of rocky intertidal plot 12 from Santa Cruz Island Attribute List The list of attributes associated with this entity. The list of attributes associated with this entity. For more information see the eml-attribute module. Constraint Description of any relational constraints on ' this entity. For more information see the eml-constraint module. Entity type Contains the name of the type for this entity. The entityType field contains the name of the entity's type. The entity's type is typically the name of the type of data represented in the entity, such as "photograph". This field is used only if this is an 'other' entity and you want to specify the kind of "other" entity this is. Photograph Base Entity descriptors Basic information about an entity common to all entity types. The EntityGroup defines the common structure for descriptions of any type of entity, including the name and attributes of the entity. The term entity is used in the sense of an entity in a relational model. The most common entity is a table, something with columns and rows, but can also represent an image or other type of data. See 'eml-attribute' for descriptions of the required attribute fields. Alternate Identifier A secondary identifier for this entity An additional, secondary identifier for this entity. The primary identifier belongs in the "id" attribute, but additional identifiers that are used to label this entity, possibly from different data management systems, can be listed here. VCR3465 Identifier System The system in which this id is relevant The information management system within which this identifier has relevance. Generally, the identifier would be unique within the "system" and would be sufficient to retrieve the entity from the system. The system is often a URL or URI that identifies the main entry point for the information management system. http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/knb/ Entity name The name of the entity name The name identifies the entity in the dataset: file name, name of database table, etc. SpeciesAbundance1996 Entity description General description of the entity and its contents Text generally describing the entity, its type, and relevant information about the data in the entity. Species abundance data for 1996 at the VCR LTER site physical descriptors Description of the physical format of the entity Information on the physical format of this entity. Each logical entity can be serialized in one or more physical formats, which can be described here. For each physical format, provide a "physical" element that describes the format and how to obtain that version. Two physical elements MUST describe the same entity precisely (i.e., after obtaining and parsing the physical data stream described under each physical element, one MUST end with an identical logical entity). For more information see the eml-physical module. coverage descriptors Information on the geographic, spatial and temporal coverages used in this entity. Information on the geographic, spatial and temporal coverages used in this entity. Please see the eml-coverage module for more information. method descriptions Information on the specific methods used to collect information in this entity. Please see the eml-methods module for more information. Additional Information Any extra information pertitent to the entity. This field provides any information that is not characterized by the other entity metadata fields. Multiple sampling events represented