Problem adding metadata to a seed

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11 comments

  • Official comment
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    Karl Blumenthal

    Hello, Elizabeth.

    Our apologies for the ambiguity here, but there is one further necessary step to adding metadata than you might be taking. Specifically, after typing text into any metadata field in the provided set, you must click on the "Add" button at the end of the row:

    This adds your metadata, which you will then see appear below the newly blank field. When you finish adding metadata to your desired fields in this manner, you may click the "Done" button to effect all of these changes. Again, our apologies if this was not intuitive, but the "Add" step will enable you to repeat as many fields as you may need (ie. multiple Subjects, Creators, etc.) in the course of cataloging.

    Let me know if the above raises any further questions though, or if you see anything to the contrary in your view of the web application.

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    Alice Hunt

    Hi, Archive-It Team,

    I am having the same problem as Elizabeth, and I have followed Mr. Blumenthal's instructions.

    My metadata used to show up just minutes after I typed it in. Now I've waited five days, and it still hasn't appeared.

    I clicked on both Add and Done buttons when I was entering the metadata for each seed. I can see that my metadata is still present inside the Archive-It software, but it is not showing up on my public page. Can you help me to figure out what I am doing wrong?

    Thank you so much,

    Alice

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    Karl Blumenthal

    Hm, that shouldn't be! Thanks for raising the issue, Alice. Are you seeing this happen to collection-level metadata, seed- or document-level metadata, or both? If your collection is public on our website (archive-it.org), feel free to point me/us to it right here in the thread, or alternatively to submit a ticket directly the web archivists at Archive-It so we can take a look under the hood.

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    Alice Hunt

    Hi, Mr. Blumenthal.

    I am entering metadata at the seed level.

    My archive is public at https://archive-it.org/collections/8006/?page=5&totalResultCount=1145. You can see the problem starting on the very bottom of page 5 (on the public site), where the metadata stops. I added that metadata on Friday, and I have continued to add metadata for the top of page 6 since then. Somehow, the metadata is not showing up on the public site.

    Thank you so much for your help!
    Alice

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    Karl Blumenthal (Edited )

    Ah ha! Thanks for the details, Alice. I see what you mean now. You can indeed see your most up-to-date metadata from within the web application though, is that right? Assuming so, it's absolutely safe to continue adding/editing metadata as you see fit there. That information is making it successfully into our database. In the meantime I can see to it that our web team squashes any bugs that may be halting your updates from making it onto the public site. Stay tuned for an update on that front!

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    Alice Hunt

    Yes, I can see the metadata that I have entered (that does not yet appear on the public site) from within the web application. This metadata has remained stable within the web application; it is not disappearing. Thank you for your reassurances, and thank you so much for looking into this.  --Alice

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    Karl Blumenthal

    Thanks for your patience, Alice (and everyone following along from home!). I think we're back in business. I can, that is, now see the metadata that you've assigned through the web app appear with the corresponding seeds on archive-it.org. I still see seeds in the above collection displaying no metadata publicly, but it appears that those are only the seeds that have not yet been catalogued at this point. Please do let me know here or directly if you see anything to the contrary though.

    We believe that we have also identified the bug in our web app's user interface that likely caused this bottle-necking of updated metadata. Our developers are squashing that as we speak, so please do also let us know (anyone!) if you see delays of this nature again.

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    Alice Hunt

    Hi, Mr. Blumenthal.

    The missing metadata is appearing on the public site exactly as I had hoped. Thank you so much for your help!

    And yes--you are correct. I haven't added metadata to all of the seeds in the first part of the list yet, so the absence of metadata on those seeds does not represent a software problem. There is no need for concern.

    Wishing you a wonderful day,

    Alice

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    Hazlett Henderson

    Hi Archive-It!

    I am also having a problem saving seed metadata. The last few days I've worked on metadata, I've returned to find that some seeds saved it and some didn't at all. (Not on the public-facing side, but on the side I input info into.) Without knowing more, it seems somewhat random -- in the last four seeds I did, the third seed has retained its metadata while the others didn't save or lost theirs. I redid some metadata from the previous day and it managed to save alright the second time around. And I make sure to hit "Add" and "Done" each time I finish, so I'm at a loss for where my metadata is going.

    For reference, these are the seeds whose metadata has most recently not saved/disappeared:

    https://partner.archive-it.org/1320/collections/11273/seeds/2029014/metadata

    https://partner.archive-it.org/1320/collections/11273/seeds/2029013/metadata

    https://partner.archive-it.org/1320/collections/11273/seeds/2029011/metadata

    Thank you for your help!

    Hazlett

     

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    Karl Blumenthal

    Hi, Hazlett. That's a weird one -- thanks for letting us know!

    Have you cleared your web browser's cache of old files and data lately? Sometimes those can confuse web forms like Archive-It's metadata editor. If not, my colleague Jillian provides quick directions for doing so here: https://support.archive-it.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/115018700423-Troubleshooting-browser-issues

    The above also includes some helpful hints about browser extensions or add-ons that could be toggled off in this situation if they like to autocomplete the entries on web forms.

    Contact us directly if that doesn't do the trick though, and we can definitely help further.

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    Hazlett Henderson

    Hi Karl, thanks for your help.

    Now that you say that, I have been having some issues with accessing captures in Firefox, actually, but everything loads fine when I switch to Chrome. I've cleared the cache in Firefox a time or two to try to address that problem, but not systematically so I hesitate to say anything about its effect here. I'll work on some metadata in Chrome and update this thread if it still disappears (/doesn't save) (and I'll contact you all directly).

    Thanks again! Archive-It's responsiveness is awesome.

    Hazlett

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