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Data custodians can directly manage their organisation's metadata records in the Australian Government Data Catalogue (the Catalogue), via the Dataplace platform. To access these functions, the user must be signed into Dataplace and have the Organisation Administrator role. Details of the metadata attributes, including which attributes are considered core and non-core, can be found in the Guide on Metadata Attributes. Records are added to the Catalogue on Dataplace either through manual input or by importing a .csv file.
Functionality is also available for custodians to manage their records in the Catalogue via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), rather than manually uploading via Dataplace. This will enable your organisation to manage data assets in your source systems and reduce the administrative overhead of manually uploading in multiple locations. If your organisation would like to explore this option, please contact us.
Records are managed in the Data assets view, which can only be accessed by organisation administrators.
Log into Dataplace using your preferred authentication method. Select the Manage Organisation tile from the home page or Manage organisation from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side.
In the Manage Organisation page, select Data assets from the sidebar menu.
A .csv file can be used to import multiple records into the Catalogue. Within the .csv file, each row represents a unique data asset. The top row of the file is used for column headings, with each column relating to one of the standard metadata attributes.
Files can be imported on the Import tab of the Data assets view. There are two ways in which you can import your file. You can use the click and select method or drag and drop your selected files.
Click the ‘Import’ button once you have checked that the file will not generate an error (see information on Validation for potential causes of an import failure).
The import process will start automatically and depending upon the size of the file this process could take a few minutes. It can take up to 15 minutes for imported records to appear in the live Catalogue.
There is also an option to delete any existing records which are not included in your current import file. This box needs to be manually selected to use the function. This function assists organisations to keep their Catalogue records up-to-date by removing existing records before importing a current data inventory.
WARNING: The delete existing records action cannot be undone.
Some validation checks are performed on the imported .csv file to ensure it meets formatting and metadata requirements. Files must not contain any header rows above the column headings, or any blank rows separating completed rows of data. Using the data inventory template will minimise potential errors. If your file contains errors, you may see either a red or yellow message box when you attempt import.
The imported .csv must contain the 10 core metadata attribute columns. If any of these columns are missing, the data inventory will not be imported. In this case, the system will prompt a red error message describing which column is missing. This check is not case sensitive. Non-core metadata attributes must also follow standard naming conventions, otherwise they will be ignored in the import.
If the .csv file contains invalid rows, they will be ignored, and the rest of the dataset will be imported. In this case, the system will prompt a yellow error message explaining the errors with the invalid rows. This warning gives you an opportunity to review the file and fix any errors before importing.
Rows can be invalidated for the following reasons:
An alarm bell will also appear below the import area where you can hover for further information.
A green tick and completed message indicate that the import has completed successfully.
A status area is visible on the right-hand side which will show the number of records loaded to the catalogue along with an alarm bell showing the number of errors.
Custodians can download an excel spreadsheet containing information about the status of the import and detailed information of each record imported.
By default, when you import records which match existing records in the Catalogue, any existing records are overwritten with the metadata included in the current import file. This allows records to be easily updated without creating duplicate records. Matching is performed on the Identifier attribute, so it is important to ensure Identifier values are unique within your organisation.
Note: Identifiers are also associated with an organisation (based on the organisation that the user is logged in with - not the Data custodian attribute in the record itself). Consequently, different organisations could use the same identifier, and they will not interfere with each other.
To delete specified records using file import, complete the following three-step process.
WARNING: The delete records action cannot be undone. Any records accidentally deleted will need to be re-uploaded to the Catalogue.
Individual records can be added to the Catalogue using the Manage tab located within the Data assets view. Click the ‘plus’ icon to open a form for entering metadata attributes. When entering keyword(s) for the record each word or phrase needs to be separated with a comma.
Once the record is complete, click on ‘Ok’ in the bottom right-hand corner to add the record to the Catalogue. New records may take up to 15 minutes to flow through to the live environment of the Catalogue.
Individual records can be modified using the Manage tab located within the Data assets view. The search bar and sorting toggle can be used to find the desired record to modify. Click on the record to modify any metadata attributes.
Individual records can be deleted using the three dots located on the right-hand side of each record.
WARNING: This action cannot be undone.
It may take up to 15 minutes for record modifications or deletions to flow through to the live environment of the Catalogue.
Deleted records can be viewed using the toggle function on the right-hand side of the Manage tab.