[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Importing EAD components with multiple sibling top containers

[Custer, Mark]

Hi, John!

Short answer: yes.  But you have to use @id attributes on the containers, otherwise I think that the ASpace importer will assume that the containers are nested (details are defined here for the importer logic, https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/blob/master/backend/app/converters/ead_converter.rb).

Also, if you use @parent attributes that link to the @id values, then you can create multiple container groups (e.g. Box 1, Folders 1-5; Box 2, Folders 1-8; etc.).  However, even though you can use container/@parent in EAD to reference a parent container anywhere else in the EAD file, with the ASpace importer, you can only do that within the same component (so, you need to explicitly repeat data in the EAD).

So in your example, this should do the trick, if I recall correctly:


<c02 level="file">

<did>
 <container id="c1"  label="Microform" type="reel">1</container>
<container id="c2" label="Microform" type="reel">2</container>
<unittitle>
<unitdate era="ce" calendar="gregorian">1862 -- 1875 Sept.</unitdate></unittitle>

</did>

</c02>


 And, if you needed something with subcontainers, that would look like this:


<c02 level="file">

<did>
 <container id="c1"  label="Microform" type="reel">1</container>
<container id="c2" label="Microform" type="reel">2</container>

<container id="c3" type="box">1</container>

<container id="c4" parent="c3" type="folder">2</container>
<unittitle>
<unitdate era="ce" calendar="gregorian">1862 -- 1875 Sept.</unitdate></unittitle>

</did>

</c02>

I've got a number of different updates I run on EAD files prior to ingesting them to ASpace, and here's an example of one that can be used to add those id and parent attributes for some use cases:   https://github.com/YaleArchivesSpace/xslt-files/blob/master/EAD_add_IDs_to_containers.xsl

Mark



________________________________
From: archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org <archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> on behalf of Rees, John (NIH/NLM) [E] <reesj at mail.nlm.nih.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 11:30 AM
To: archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org <archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
Subject: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Importing EAD components with multiple sibling top containers


Is it possible to import an EAD component that is comprised of multiple parent-level top containers and have ASpace create two sibling top container instances? Currently it seems ASpace will create a single instance with one top container for the <container> positioned first, then create children/grandchildren for each subsequently positioned <container> in that single instance.



Is there a container attribute/semantics I could add to define this parallel logical relationship that would force ASpace to create two instances each with a top container? Or does the EAD importer as a general use tool assume most content is of a type parent/child?



Example:

<c02 level="file">

<did>
 <container label="Microform" type="reel">1</container>
<container label="Microform" type="reel">2</container>
<unittitle>
<unitdate era="ce" calendar="gregorian">1862 -- 1875 Sept.</unitdate></unittitle>

</did>

</c02>



To get:

[cid:image002.jpg at 01D62919.F3141870]



Thanks,

John



John P. Rees

Archivist and Digital Resources Manager

History of Medicine Division

National Library of Medicine

301-827-4510

Teleworking M-F 8:00AM – 4:30PM until 5/31/2020




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/pipermail/archivesspace_users_group/attachments/20200513/eabdcdab/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 27832 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/pipermail/archivesspace_users_group/attachments/20200513/eabdcdab/attachment.jpg>