XMEG System Documentation: User Manual

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The following sections describe how to use the XMEG system.

Starting XMEG

Two files run-xmeg.sh (*nix) and run-xmeg.bat (Windows) are contained in the top directory (See Directory Structure) of the software. Initially the admin user account login is set to username admin, password super.

Opening new/saved resources

Opening new media files: To open a new multimedia file first login into the system. Then from the 'File' menu select 'Open New Media'. Two choices are then displayed: to open 'By File' which will open a dialog box to browse for a file on your computer; or open 'By URL' which allows you to specify a URL to a file that may be located on another computer or on the Internet.

Opening saved metadata files: XMEG saves the metadata you defined for a multimedia file in a single .xml file. The XML metadata file will contain a reference to the media file so that when you open the metadata file the XMEG program can find the media file associated. To open a metadata file select 'Open Metadata File' from the 'File' menu. Select the .xml file you would like to open.

In both the above cases, after selecting a file a new 'Editor' and 'Viewer' window will be displayed. The Viewer window will display the media file, if it is a audio or video file then the Viewer will contain an audio/video player. The Editor window will contain a number of fields for entering metadata into the system. The Editor and Viewer are explained in detail in the next sections.

Viewer: viewing multimedia files

The Viewer window displays the multimedia file that either you have opened or associated with a XML metadata file you have opened. If the media file is a text or image file then the Viewer will display the file in a scrollable window (Fig 1a). If the media file is either a audio or video file then the Viewer will contain a audio (Fig 1b) or video player allowing you to play, stop, fast forward, rewind and adjust volume of the media file.

Fig 1a: Viewer displaying a image media file

Fig 1b: Viewer displaying a audio media file

Editor: describing resources

Descriptive metadata

The 'type' field records the type of media file: text, image, audio or video. The 'identifier' field contains a URL to the media file so that it may be located and displayed by the Viewer. These two fields are required and cannot be left blank or removed using the SchemaManager.

Fig 2: Editor: entering descriptive metadata

Adding/viewing annotations

All users may add annotations to further describe a resource:

• If the 'Written Annotation' tab is selected you can enter a textual comment in the field provided.
• Alternatively if you selected the 'Spoken Annotation' tab you can use your microphone to record a spoken annotation to the resource.
• The annotation is only added to the resource once you click the 'Save' button of the Editor.

Fig 3a: Editor: adding a spoken annotation

You may also add annotation to a particular region or area of an image. To do this click and drag an area of the image in the Viewer. The "Add annotation to defined region" option button will then be unlock, select this option and add the annotation in the normal way. Figure 3b show an example of this:

Fig 3b: Editor: adding a regional written annotation

The "Annotation List" tab (Figure below) is displayed when you open a resource that has annotations attached to it.

• The annotation list is implemented in a 'threaded message' style so that you may add annotations to the resource or respond to other peoples annotations.
• To add an annotation to the resource itself click the root 'Annotations' node of the tree and then add your annotation in the normal way. To add an annotation to a another user's annotation select the annotation in the tree and then add your annotation.
• If you right click on a particular annotation a popup menu appears with three options:
  • To delete the selected annotation. The annotation is removed from the tree but you must click 'Save' before the annotation is deleted completely.
  • To edit the selected annotation. If the annotation is a written annotation selecting this option allows you to alter the text of the annotation. Changed are only reflected when you click the 'Save' button.
  • To restrict access to the annotation. This option brings up the small rights window shown in the figure below and allows you to set access restrictions for the annotation. The annotation will then only appear in the tree if users have sufficient permission to view it.
  • Note: the above three options are only available to admin and owner users.

Fig 4: Editor: threaded annotations and annotation rights

Rights metadata

The 'Rights' tab of the Editor contains restrictions regarding access to the particular resource. The example figure 5a below shows a resource that is restricted to only female users, who are either elders or initiated and belonging to the Nunukal tribe. Figure 5b shows that the resource is also restricted to members of the Oodgeroo family who are either artists, musicians or dancers. When this resource is opened by any user these requirements will be checked against the user's profile and the system will determine if they have sufficient permission to access the resource.

Fig 5a: Editor: entering rights metadata

Fig 5b: Editor: entering rights metadata

Tribal Care metadata

The 'Tribal Care' tab of the Editor contains information specified by traditional owners about how to respectfully deal with the resource. This typically pertains to resources that are digital surrogates of physical objects.

The figure below shows three types of tribal care information: orientation, storage and preservation. These are the defaults that are initially set in the default schema. You may add or remove to suit your individual needs using the SchemaManager described in the final section of this manual.

Fig 6: Editor: entering tribal care metadata

ConfigManager: a graphical interface to config.xml

The ConfigManager provides a simple graphical tool that allows users to edit the configuration file from within the XMEG system. See the Configuration section for more information on the different configuration options. The ConfigManager is invoked by selecting 'ConfigManager' from the 'Admin' submenu of the 'Tools' menu. The ConfigManager can only be run by admin users.

Fig 7: ConfigManager

UserManager: adding / removing / describing user profiles

The UserManager allows admin users to add new users to the systems, define user profiles and remove users from the system.

• The UserManager is invoked by selecting 'UserManager' from the 'Admin' submenu of the 'Tools' menu. The UserManager can only be run by admin users.
• Current users are shown by the list of names on the left hand side of the UserManager. When a particular name is click using the left mouse button the users details are displayed in the form on the right.
• Right clicking the user list brings up a popup menu allowing the adding of new users and the removal of users
• See the Roles section for more information on the roles that different users may perform.
• The fields of the user profile may be customised to suit your particular needs by running the SchemaManager described in the next section.

Fig. 8: UserManager

SchemaManager: loading and editing the rights schema

Schemas are used to define both the Resource and User Profiles. They allow users to customise the structure of the Resource metadata and User Profiles. By altering the schema users can specify which metadata fields should appear and what their semantics should be. The SchemaManager provides users with a graphical interface that allows them to do this. The SchemaManager is invoked by selecting 'SchemaManager' from the 'Admin' submenu of the 'Tools' menu. The SchemaManager can only be run by admin users.

When the SchemaManager is run a graphical tree representing the current schema file is created. The 'Load Schema' and 'Export Schema' allow you to export the current schema to an XML file and load other schemas that you may have defined. The currently loaded schema file is displayed as a URL at the top of the SchemaManager window. All schemas will have four main nodes that appear under the 'xmeg' root node:

• user-profile: represents the attributes used to describe user profiles. The children of this node will be translated into the form for entering user details into the UserManager.
• descriptive: each child of this node will be translated into a entry in the 'Descriptive' tab of the Editor.
• rights: each child of this node will be translated into a entry in the 'Rights' tab of the Editor as illustrated in the figure below.
• tribal-care: each child of this node will be translated into a tab of the 'Tribal Care' tab of the Editor.

Fig. 9: SchemaManager and equivalent Editor rights tab

Nodes may be added and deleted by right clicking on them and selecting the relevant option from the popup menu. The 'Type' option allows you to set some specific options about the selected node:

• If the node is a leaf node (i.e. it has no children under it) then you may set it to be either a 'value' or 'hidden_value' node. 'Value' nodes are translated into simple text fields as shown by 'tribe' in the figure above. Nodes set to be a 'hidden_value' are translated into text fields that are only visible to admin users.
• If the node is not a leaf node (i.e. it has children under it) then can you set it be either an 'and' or 'or' node. 'And' nodes are translated into check boxes as shown by 'status' in the figure above. 'Or' nodes are translated into drop-down boxes as shown by 'gender' above - you can be either male 'OR' female.

Changes to the schema are only committed when you click the 'Save' button. You should close all open resources before running the SchemaManager.

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