[LTER-im] unitDB, update and question to users

[Ken Ramsey]

Hi Margaret,

DEIMS uses the LTER Unit Registry services and does use unitType (length, mass, etc.) in its interfaces for selecting units when completing variables metadata. 

I am cc'ing Inigo as he is much more familiar with DEIMS use of the unit registry and would know how this change might, or might not, affect DEIMS.

Ken


>>> "Margaret O'Brien" <margaret.obrien at ucsb.edu> 3/6/2018 10:12 AM >>>
Hi all -
I thought you may be interested - I have started working on the units in
LTER UnitDB. This work is prep for building a more complete, cleaner list
for EML, and to outline a path forward for EDI.

So far, in the production database (http://unit.lternet.edu), this has been
limited to marking some units as 'deprecated', using the rules outlined by
the units-WG in 2011. Deprecated units are still available for export
(e.g., as a <customUnit> for your EML), but their display can be switched
off to avoid duplication or confusion.

My question:
Is anyone sync-ing a local system to unit.lternet.edu? and if you are, do
you depend on the "unitType" (called "quantity" in the DB), as it is
currently recorded in the database?

I ask because my next step is to normalize these unitTypes somewhat. So
far, I have done this only in a sandbox database (not production). But I
need to know the effect, if I move the changes to unitTypes (quantities)
into production. If you simply pull from the DB, or browse it for
inspiration, I suspect that updates to quantities will not affect you.
Changes might affect you if your system performs calculations or
conversions based on quantity expressions, or if you use the unitType for
grouping locally.

To see progress, there are two git repositories of interest:
1. EML git repository, for community comments (this issue-thread and
related issues):
https://github.com/NCEAS/eml/issues/289 

2. EDI's unit-registry repo, for my notes on the unitDB itself and
occasional db-dumps:
https://github.com/EDIorg/unit-registry 

thanks -
Margaret


Margaret O'Brien
ORCID: 0000-0002-1693-8322
Information Management
Marine Science Institute, UCSB
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
805-893-2071 <(805)%20893-2071> (voice)
http://environmentaldatainitiative.org 
http://sbc.marinebon.org 
http://sbc.lternet.edu