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Metadata Management

Owned by Allison Nederveld
Last updated: Aug 15, 2024 by Zoe Wingate
14 min read

The Metadata Management module allows users with appropriate permissions to add new baseline data, or view, modify, and delete existing baseline data within the system. In addition, users can search and filter baseline data or export and download baseline data in various formats including CSV, XLS, XLSX, TSV, ODS, JSON, YAML and HTML.

Module organization

Within the Metadata management module, metadata is organized across the following pages:

  • Audited: An administrative system to view and track user actions and for the purposes of auditing user actions within the system.

  • Auth Token: Management of tokens assigned to allow sign in to FDW without a username and password. This is especially useful for connecting to refreshable Excel workbooks, particularly for older Excel versions.

  • Common: A metadata grouping that applies to all domains across the database. This high-level menu contains the commands that enable users to add, edit, delete, or bulk import the baseline records that are commonly used by all data domains in the database.

  • IPC: Management of the various scenarios for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC).

  • News Articles: Management of the list of news sources from which the system automatically saves and translates news articles.

  • Notifications: Management of the list of subscriptions for automated email notifications about changes in specified system data.

  • Publications: Contains metadata for scientific publications that have been produced by FEWS NET funded projects.

  • Response: Management of the list of Operators that provide humanitarian assistance (Responses) in various parts of the world.

  • Spatial: Allows the management of the baseline data that pertain to, or have geographic components. This includes the management of various levels of administrative boundaries, market locations, seasons, etc.

  • Survey: The management of baseline data pertaining to Surveys, including data source documents for surveys, and the list of Localities along with their dominant livelihood zone and population group.

  • Warehouse: Provides the management of the core baseline records that are essential for the proper functioning of the Data warehouse system. These include the data usage policies, document types, indicator types, indicators, license types, source organizations, data source documents, and web services.

Audited metadata

Audited > Logged actions

Allows users with administrative privileges to view the database transaction audits along with the actions that have been performed by users against various database objects (tables). This information is categorized on a monthly basis with an individual tab for each month, and includes the following fields:

  • Table name

  • Row Identifier

  • Action (against the table)

  • Username

  • Timestamp - user action date and time

  • Controller

  • Action (performed by the user, eg. login)

A free-text search box allows users to search for specific records from the log records in the database.

User can filter the data by table name, action, or username.

Auth Token

Auth Token > Tokens

Provides administrators with the ability to add, edit, and delete a token providing access to FDW for a given user.

Common metadata

Common > Narrative metadata

Enables users to add, edit and delete metadata in the form of narrative text. This type of metadata is stored for use in reports such as the Price Bulletin and Acute Food Insecurity Classification visualizations.

For example, when adding narrative metadata for a country or region’s Price Bulletin Report, select common | country for the Content Type and Price Bulletin Report for Narrative Metadata Type.

Narrative metadata fields include:

  • Start: Enter the first date this metadata is relevant.

  • End: If the text for a report is being revised, enter the end date on the current narrative metadata and create a new narrative metadata for the revision. This allows for preservation of previous versions.

  • Content type: Common | country should be used for country reports. Common | country group should be used for regional reports.

  • Object ID: Enter the code of the country or country group.

  • Narrative metadata type: Choose the type of narrative metadata.

  • Text fields: The Text field supports rich text and has a toolbar with formatting options. Users can view and edit HTML by clicking the Source button. The Text field should be used for English narrative. The other text fields should be used for their corresponding translations.

Common > Narrative metadata types

Displays the narrative metadata types that are available in the drop-down list when adding and editing narrative metadata.

From this page, administrators can:

  • Add a new narrative metadata type

  • Edit or delete an existing narrative metadata type

Common > Classified products

Shows a hierarchical view of the individual product data that have been entered into the system. It displays the more than 5,600 classified products that are currently available in the system, along with their corresponding higher-level categories that contain one or more products within them. To view a description, various naming conventions and aliases for each individual classified product within the database, select it from the CPC V2 column.

The classified products page allows users to perform the following actions:

  • Add a new product

  • Edit the attributes of an existing product

  • Delete one or more products from the list of available products

  • Export one or more products data into the following standard file formats: .XLS, XLSX, .TSV, .ODS, .JSON, .YAML, and .HTML

Standard free-text search functionality is also available from this page.

Common > Countries

Displays the current list of countries available in the system and allows users to:

  • Add a new country

  • Edit an existing country information/attributes

  • Delete one or more country records

  • Import country records from a file in various formats, including .XLS, .CSV, .TSV, .JSON, and YAML

  • Search country data using free-text search

  • Filter by country group

Common > Country groups

Displays the country groups used to categorize countries based on their geographic locations or non-geographic attributes. Geographically based country groups (labeled as Geographic groups) are continents and sub-continental regions. Non-geographic country groups may be based on the level of economic development or on whether the country is landlocked or not.

Administrators can create country groups to which one or more countries can later be added. Country groups can be nested inside one another to form a hierarchy. For example, the country group East Africa is contained within the group Africa, which in turn is contained within the top-level group World.

The grouping of countries into such hierarchical levels is used within the Geographic filters to simplify the process of selecting multiple countries at once by users within the FEWS NET Data Explorer application.

From the country groups page, administrators can perform the following actions:

  • Add a new country group.

  • Edit an existing country group record.

  • Delete one or more existing group records.

  • Export all the country group records in the database.

  • Search and display the list of matching country group records using the open-text search functionality.

Common > Currencies

From this page, administrators can:

  • Add a new currency

  • Edit or delete an existing currency

  • Search existing currencies by a free text-style search

Common > Unit of measure conversions

Provides administrators with the ability to set the equivalency between the various units of measures of the same category, so that one unit can be converted into the other using a specified conversion factor. This allows data from various sources that use different units of measure to be displayed in a common unit of measure selected by the user.

From this page, administrators can:

  • Add a record with a conversion factor between two units of measurements

  • Edit or delete an existing conversion factor data

  • Import a list of unit of measure conversions from a file

  • Search existing unit of measure conversion factors by a free text style search

  • Filter the conversion factor records by the unit type (e.g., weight or volume), or by the urom unit and to unit measures.

Common > Units of measure

Manage all standard and non-standard units of measure used in the system to record all the detailed data available for all domains. Administrators can specify a quantity for various items tracked in the system, including units of measures for weights, volumes, packaging of items, area, and more.

From this page, administrators can:

  • Add a new unit of measure

  • Edit or delete an existing unit of measure record

  • Import a list of unit of measures from a file

  • Search existing units of measures by a free text style search

  • Filter the records by the unit type (e.g., weight or volume)

IPC

IPC > Scenarios

Enter new data, edit existing data, or delete existing IPC scenarios that are applicable either for Acute Food Insecurity Classification (FIC), Acutely Food Insecure Population Estimates (FIPE) or Humanitarian Food Assistance domains. The domain to which the scenario applies is specified in the Purpose column when adding a new scenario.

The possible actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new scenario

  • Edit an existing scenario

  • Delete an existing scenario

  • Search scenarios using a free text search

  • Filter scenarios by the purpose they are used (FIC or FIPE domain)

News articles

News articles > Sources

Add, edit, and delete news sources from which the system automatically saves and translates news articles.

The possible actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new news source by selecting the Add source button.

  • Edit an existing news source by selecting the name of the news source.

  • Delete an existing news source. To delete multiple sources at once, select the sources then select Action > Delete selected sources.

  • Search news sources using a free text search.

Add/Edit a News Source

When adding or editing a news source, the following fields are available:

  • Name: name of the news source.

  • URL: URL of the news source.

  • Translated: when this box is selected, the system will automatically produce an English translation of the article text and an English summary for the article. This box should be checked if the news source does not publish all articles in English.

  • Active: this box indicates if the news source is actively being combed for new articles. If this box is not checked, the system will not check the source.

  • Country: the country of origin for the news source. Leave blank for multi-country or international news sources.

  • Tags: comma separated tags to associate with the news source.

Notification

Notification > Subscriptions

Add, edit, and delete subscriptions for automated email notifications about changes in specified system data.

The possible actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new email subscription.

  • Edit an existing email subscription.

  • Delete an existing email subscription.

  • Search the list of email subscriptions using a free text search.

Publications

Publications > Authors

Manage the list of authors for scientific publications that have been produced by FEWS NET-funded projects.

Publications > Journal articles

Manage the list of journal articles produced by FEWS NET-funded projects.

The possible actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new journal article.

  • Edit an existing journal article.

  • Delete an existing journal article.

  • Search operators using a free text search.

  • Filter by journal, author, and publication date.

Publications > Journals

Manage the list of journals where articles produced by FEWS NET-funded projects are published.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new journal.

  • Edit an existing journal.

  • Delete an existing journal.

  • Filter by subject focus, publication frequency, and whether the journal is public.

Response

Response > Operators

Manage the list of FEWS-monitored organizations/operators that provide humanitarian assistance.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new operator.

  • Edit an existing operator.

  • Delete an existing operator.

  • Search operators using a free text search.

Spatial

Spatial > Administrative units

Manage the multi-level administrative units existing in a specific country.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new administrative unit in a country under a specified Layer.

  • Edit one of more existing administrative units.

  • Delete one of more existing administrative units.

  • Import administrative units from a file containing administrative unit data.

  • Export the current list of administrative units into a file.

  • Search the current list of administrative units by using a free text search criteria.

  • Filter by unit type (unit level) and country

  • View a map of selected administrative units.

Spatial > Features

Manage Geographic features within a Layer. A feature is defined as a single entry among several records available within a Layer of a Geographic unit. For example, among a Water Bodies Layer, a single Feature can be a record for the Nile river. Features are hosted within a Layer, and Geographic Units can contain one or more Layers.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new feature record.

  • Edit or Delete existing geographic features.

  • Import features from a file.

  • Export features into a file.

  • Search features using the free text search feature.

  • Filter by unit type and country.

Spatial > Geographic unit relationship types

Manage Geographic unit relationship types, including the relationships that define hierarchy or direction of aggregation.

For example, Admin 2 is contained within Admin 1 and Admin 0, or an Admin 1 geographic unit can be aggregated into Admin 0.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new Geographic unit relationship type.

  • Edit existing Geographic unit relationship types.

  • Delete existing Geographic unit relationship types.

  • Search existing Geographic unit relationship types using a free-text search criteria

Spatial > Geographic unit relationships

Manage the relationship between Geographic units. For example, geographic units often experience name changes (e.g., Horo Guduru, Ethiopia is updated to Horo Gudru Wallega, Ethiopia). In such a case, the relationship type of the two units would be Successor.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new Geographic unit relationship.

  • Edit an existing Geographic unit relationship.

  • Delete an existing Geographic unit relationship

  • Import geographic unit relationships from a file.

  • Export geographic unit relationships into a file.

  • Search geographic unit relationships using free text criteria.

  • Filter the geographic unit relationship records by relationship type, unit type, or country.

Spatial > Geographic unit sets

Manage collections of geographic units for a specific country that have been obtained from a particular data source. For example, Ethiopia FEWS NET Admin Boundaries are a geographic unit set containing admin boundaries for Ethiopia, sourced from FEWS NET.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new geographic unit set.

  • Modify an existing geographic unit set.

  • Delete an existing geographic unit set.

  • Filter and view existing geographic unit set data by Country.

Spatial > Geographic unit set versions

Manage geographic unit set versions. A version of a geographic unit set used in the past can be different from the one used at present. As admin boundaries continue to change/evolve, new versions continuously become available. Geographic unit set versions have a start and end date to indicate their validity period. The most recent geographic unit sets have an empty end date, indicating that they are the most current.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new geographic unit set version.

  • Edit an existing geographic unit set version.

  • Delete an existing geographic unit set version.

  • View and manage layer details of the geographic unit set version.

  • Search geographic unit set version records using free text search.

  • Filter geographic unit set version records by country or unit type.

Spatial > Geographic unit types

Geographic unit types specify the categories for geographic units into different types such as the administrative level (Admin 0, Admin 1, …), border point, or market.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new geographic unit type

  • Edit or delete existing geographic unit type records

  • Search geographic unit type records using free text search

Spatial > Geographic units

Manage geographic units in the system. A geographic unit contains information about a geographic location such as a country or an admin unit along with its geographic feature that enables it to be presented on a map.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new geographic unit to the system

  • Edit or delete existing geographic units in the system

  • Import one or more geographic units into the system from file

  • Export the existing geographic units into a file

  • Search and view geographic units existing in the system using free text search

  • Filter and view geographic units by country or unit type

Spatial > Livelihood zones

Manage livelihood zones in the system. Livelihood zones are geographic units in a country that are characterized by a single dominant livelihood activity.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new livelihood zone

  • Edit or delete existing livelihood data

  • Import one or more livelihood zones into the system from a file

  • Export the existing livelihood zones into a file

  • Search and view existing livelihood zones using free text search criteria

  • Filter and view livelihood zones by country or by zone type

Spatial > Livelihood zone types

Management of livelihood zone types in the system. The livelihood zone types list contains the values used to specify the dominant livelihood activity in a Livelihood zone. This is the page where administrators can add, edit, delete, search and display existing livelihood zone types data in the system.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new livelihood zone type

  • Edit or delete existing livelihood zone types

  • Search and view existing livelihood zone types using free text search criteria

Spatial > Markets

Manage the list of Markets that are available in the system along with related market attributes. The market record also contains a geographic reference that allows the market location to be shown on a map.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new market in a country

  • Edit or delete existing market data in the system

  • Import market records from a file

  • Export market records into a file

  • Search and view market data in the system by using a free text search criteria

  • Filter and view existing market data in the system by specifying a country

Spatial > Seasonal crop activities

Management of seasonal crop activity dates (e.g., harvest start day and harvest end day) for a given season, data source document, and product.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add new seasonal crop activities

  • Edit or delete existing seasonal crop activities in the system

  • Search and view seasonal crop activities by using a free text search criteria

  • Filter and view existing seasonal crop activities by product or country

Spatial > Seasons

Management of the list of seasons that exist in the system for each country.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new season

  • Edit or delete existing seasons in the system

  • Import seasons from a file

  • Export season records into a file

  • Search and view seasons by using a free text search criteria

  • Filter and view existing seasons by purpose or country

Survey

Survey > Localities

Manage the list of localities data in the system. A locality is a geographic location with additional information on the population group, dominant livelihood zone, and a description.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new locality

  • Edit or delete existing localities in the system

  • Search and view localities by using a free text search criteria

  • Filter and view existing localities by country

Survey > Surveys

Displays the list and allows for management of survey records in countries that are the original sources for the various data source organizations that provide data to FEWS NET.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add new survey data into the system

  • Edit or delete existing survey data in the system

  • Import surveys from a file

  • Export surveys in the system into a file

  • Search and view survey records using a free text search criteria

  • Filter and view survey records by data domain

Warehouse

Warehouse > Data maintainers

Provides the ability to specify a data maintainer, such as an external organization or individual without an FDW account, that can be associated with a data source document.

Warehouse > Data usage policies

Manage the data usage policies in the system. Data usage policies are attached to data source documents and are used to specify the data access permission for the data obtained from the data source.

There are three data usage policies in the system. Others may have to be added in the future as needed.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • View existing data usage policies in the system

  • Add a new data usage policy

  • Modify the descriptions of an existing data usage policy

  • Delete one or more data usage policy in the system

  • Search data usage policies in the system

Warehouse > Data usage policy reasons

Manage the list of data usage policy reasons in the system. Data usage policy reasons are attached to data source documents as an explanation about why a specific data usage policy has been assigned to the data source document.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new data usage policy reason

  • Edit existing data usage policy reason description

  • Delete one or more data usage policy reason description

  • Search data policy reason records using a free text search criteria

Warehouse > Document types

In addition to the data domain, the system further classifies the data in the database by using document types. The document type indicates the last detail the system needs when data is imported into the database. For instance, under the population domain, the data is further divided into either a census data or a population estimate data.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new document type under the desired data domain

  • Edit and delete document type data

  • Search existing data using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing document type data by the following attributes: data domain, contains forecasts, or calculate facts.

Warehouse > Indicator groups

Indicator groups provide a way of categorizing one or more indicators into a single category and indicator groups are used in reporting or summarizing information in the system. Indicator groups are specified under a data domain and indicators are classified into belonging to an indicator group.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new indicator group to a data domain

  • Edit or delete existing indicator group

  • Search existing indicator group data using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing indicator group data by data domain

Warehouse > Indicators

Indicators are the most important attributes of the numeric data stored in the system. For example, for data in the crop domain, several indicators accompany the imported data: the area planted, area harvested, quantity produced, and yield.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new indicator in a data domain, by specifying the indicator group and other attributes.

  • Edit or delete an existing indicator data in the system

  • Search existing indicator data using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing indicator data using the following indicator attributes: data domain, has confidence interval, has high value, or default indicator.

Warehouse > Licenses

A data source document license specifies what rights the FEWS NET project, and other users if applicable, have to use the data in the source document.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new license

  • Edit or delete an existing license

  • Search existing licenses using a free-text search criteria

Warehouse > Source documents

Manage the current list of data source documents in the system. One or more data source documents with a specified data usage policy and document type are created for each data source organization that provides data to FEWS NET.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new data source document to the system

  • Import new records of data source document from a file

  • Edit or delete an existing data source document

  • Export the current list of data source document into a file

  • Search existing data source document using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing data source organization by data usage polity, data domain, country, or web service.

Warehouse > Source organizations

Manage the current list of data source organizations in the system. Data source organizations are organizations in different countries that provide data for a specific document type in a domain for a country.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new data source organization to the system

  • Import new records of data source organizations from a file

  • Edit or delete an existing data source organization record

  • Export the current list of data source organizations into a file

  • Search existing data source organization using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing data source organization by country

Warehouse > Web services

Manage the list of web services used to import data into FDW.

The actions that can be performed from this page are:

  • Add a new web service

  • Edit or delete an existing web service record

  • Search existing web services using a free-text search criteria

  • Filter existing web services by name