Feature Request: Simplify dataset metadata JSON files for dataset creation or import

[DS-INRAE]

Overview of the Feature Request
Remove elements from the dataset creation json file that are superfluous

What kind of user is the feature intended for?
API User

What inspired the request?
JSON files are long, complex and intimidating for new users.

What existing behavior do you want changed?
Remove the need of the following attributes in the dataset JSON files :

• typeClass for metadata fields
• multiple for metadata fields
• displayName for metadatablocks

JSON files comparison
Current Darwin Finches JSON for the fields title, author, datasetContact, dsDescription, subject :

{
  "datasetVersion": {
    "license": {
      "name": "CC0 1.0",
      "uri": "http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0"
    },
    "metadataBlocks": {
      "citation": {
        "fields": [
          {
            "value": "Darwin's Finches",
            "typeClass": "primitive",
            "multiple": false,
            "typeName": "title"
          },
          {
            "value": [
              {
                "authorName": {
                  "value": "Finch, Fiona",
                  "typeClass": "primitive",
                  "multiple": false,
                  "typeName": "authorName"
                },
                "authorAffiliation": {
                  "value": "Birds Inc.",
                  "typeClass": "primitive",
                  "multiple": false,
                  "typeName": "authorAffiliation"
                }
              }
            ],
            "typeClass": "compound",
            "multiple": true,
            "typeName": "author"
          },
          {
            "value": [ 
                { "datasetContactEmail" : {
                    "typeClass": "primitive",
                    "multiple": false,
                    "typeName": "datasetContactEmail",
                    "value" : "[email protected]"
                },
                "datasetContactName" : {
                    "typeClass": "primitive",
                    "multiple": false,
                    "typeName": "datasetContactName",
                    "value": "Finch, Fiona"
                }
            }],
            "typeClass": "compound",
            "multiple": true,
            "typeName": "datasetContact"
          },
          {
            "value": [ {
               "dsDescriptionValue":{
                "value":   "Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds.",
                "multiple":false,
               "typeClass": "primitive",
               "typeName": "dsDescriptionValue"
            }}],
            "typeClass": "compound",
            "multiple": true,
            "typeName": "dsDescription"
          },
          {
            "value": [
              "Medicine, Health and Life Sciences"
            ],
            "typeClass": "controlledVocabulary",
            "multiple": true,
            "typeName": "subject"
          }
        ],
        "displayName": "Citation Metadata"
      }
    }
  }
}

Simplified JSON file :

{
  "datasetVersion": {
    "license": {
      "name": "CC0 1.0",
      "uri": "http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0"
    },
    "metadataBlocks": {
      "citation": {
        "fields": [
          {
            "value": "Darwin's Finches",
            "typeName": "title"
          },
          {
            "value": [
              {
                "authorName": {
                  "value": "Finch, Fiona",
                  "typeName": "authorName"
                },
                "authorAffiliation": {
                  "value": "Birds Inc.",
                  "typeName": "authorAffiliation"
                }
              }
            ],
            "typeName": "author"
          },
          {
            "value": [ 
                { "datasetContactEmail" : {
                    "typeName": "datasetContactEmail",
                    "value" : "[email protected]"
                },
                "datasetContactName" : {
                    "typeName": "datasetContactName",
                    "value": "Finch, Fiona"
                }
            }],
            "typeName": "datasetContact"
          },
          {
            "value": [ {
               "dsDescriptionValue":{
                "value":   "Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds.",
               "typeName": "dsDescriptionValue"
            }}],
            "typeName": "dsDescription"
          },
          {
            "value": [
              "Medicine, Health and Life Sciences"
            ],
            "typeName": "subject"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Are you thinking about creating a pull request for this feature?
Even if this would help increase APIs adoption, we have other priorities at the moment.

[DS-INRAE]

Note: a more radical simplification would be very interesting, but hopefully this would be an easier quick win.

[qqmyers]

Note that the metadata input for the semantic API would look like (using a (~standard) @context for readability):

{
  "title":"Darwin's Finches",
  "author": {
    "citation:authorName": "Finch, Fiona",
    "citation:authorAffiliation": "Bird's Inc."
  },   
  "citation:datasetContact": {
    "citation:datasetContactName": "Finch, Fiona",
    "citation:datasetContactEmail": "[email protected]"
  },
  "citation:dsDescription": {
    "citation:dsDescriptionValue": "Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds."
  },
  "subject": "Medicine, Health and Life Sciences",
  "@context": {
    "author": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator",
    "citation": "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/",
    "subject": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject",
    "termName": "https://schema.org/name",
    "title": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/title"
  }
}

or, even shorter,

{
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/title":"Darwin's Finches",
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator": {
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/authorName": "Finch, Fiona",
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/authorAffiliation": "Bird's Inc."
  },   
  "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/datasetContact": {
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/datasetContactName": "Finch, Fiona",
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/datasetContactEmail": "[email protected]"
  },
  "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/dsDescription": {
    "https://dataverse.org/schema/citation/dsDescriptionValue": "Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about fifteen species of passerine birds."
  },
  "http://purl.org/dc/terms/subject": "Medicine, Health and Life Sciences",
}

[pdurbin]

This is what I've suggested to @JR-1991 who has slides ready about the gnarly complicated native format, to try the semantic API. 😄

See also discussion here:

• "Compact"/Make complete the native API output #3068

[JR-1991]

@pdurbin, it is on my bucket list 😁 Can this also be passed to the dataset creation/edit endpoint?

[pdurbin]

@JR-1991 well, you have to pass 'Content-Type: application/ld+json'. Please see the guides: https://guides.dataverse.org/en/6.4/developers/dataset-semantic-metadata-api.html