To ensure the future compatibility of the platform with other initiatives in the world, it was decided to integrate the existing tools into the cybertaxonomy platform by using a unique already-existing public standard exchange format for descriptive data: the TDWG-SDD XML schema. This choice was made in accordance with the late efforts of several existing tools (DiversityDescriptions, Xper², Lucid, FRIDA) to allow interoperability with SDD.
To allow the CDM to communicate with other descriptive systems through the TDWG-SDD XML schema, import functionalities into the CDM java libraries were implemented.
The SDD import was developed in keeping with the other import functionalities in the CDM library 'cdmlib-io'. Activators for test examples, SDD file sources and CDM database destinations, were implemented in the 'app-import' library.
For the first version of the import, the following descriptive data can be retrieved from SDD and stored into a CDM database: metadata about the SDD file: how it was generated and when, dataset information: name, author, editor, date of modification, copyright, taxon names, descriptive system with the definition of characters: categorical, quantitative and text characters, taxa descriptions using the descriptive system: associated with a taxon if the description refers to a taxon name, publications and their association with descriptions, images references.
The import of the following elements will be implemented in the next version: character dependencies and groups, single access keys, specimen descriptions.
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