.. only:: html .. index:: Catalog services, Metadata single: Plugins; MetaSearch .. _metasearch: MetaSearch Catalog Client ========================= .. only:: html .. contents:: :local: Introduction ------------ MetaSearch is a QGIS plugin to interact with metadata catalog services, supporting the OGC Catalog Service for the Web (CSW) standard. MetaSearch provides an easy and intuitive approach and user-friendly interface to searching metadata catalogs within QGIS. .. _figure_metasearch_results: .. figure:: img/metasearch-splash.png :align: center Search and results of Services in MetaSearch Installation ------------ MetaSearch is included by default with QGIS 2.0 and higher. All dependencies are included within MetaSearch. Install MetaSearch from the QGIS plugin manager, or manually from https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/MetaSearch. Working with Metadata Catalogs in QGIS -------------------------------------- CSW (Catalog Service for the Web) ................................... `CSW (Catalog Service for the Web)`_ is an `OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium)`_ specification that defines common interfaces to discover, browse and query metadata about data, services, and other potential resources. Startup ....... To start MetaSearch, click the |metasearch| icon or select :menuselection:`Web --> MetaSearch --> MetaSearch` via the QGIS main menu. The MetaSearch dialog will appear. The main GUI consists of three tabs: :guilabel:`Services`, :guilabel:`Search` and :guilabel:`Settings`. Managing Catalog Services ......................... .. _figure_metasearch_catalog: .. figure:: img/metasearch-services.png :align: center Managing Catalog Services The :guilabel:`Services` tab allows the user to manage all available catalog services. MetaSearch provides a default list of Catalog Services, which can be added by pressing :guilabel:`Add Default Services` button. To all listed Catalog Service entries, click the dropdown select box. To add a Catalog Service entry, click the :guilabel:`New` button, and enter a :guilabel:`Name` for the service, as well as the :guilabel:`URL` (endpoint). Note that only the base URL is required (not a full GetCapabilities URL). If the CSW requires authentication, enter the appropriate :guilabel:`User name` and :guilabel:`Password` credentials. Clicking :guilabel:`OK` will add the service to the list of entries. To edit an existing Catalog Service entry, select the entry you would like to edit and click the :guilabel:`Edit` button, and modify the :guilabel:`Name` or :guilabel:`URL` values, then click :guilabel:`OK`. To delete a Catalog Service entry, select the entry you would like to delete and click the :guilabel:`Delete` button. You will be asked to confirm deleting the entry. MetaSearch allows for loading and saving connections to an XML file. This is useful when you need to share settings between applications. Below is an example of the XML file format. .. code-block:: xml To load a list of entries, click the :guilabel:`Load` button. A new window will appear; click the :guilabel:`Browse` button and navigate to the XML file of entries you wish to load and click :guilabel:`Open`. The list of entries will be displayed. Select the entries you wish to add from the list and click :guilabel:`Load`. Click the :guilabel:`Service Info` button to displays information about the selected Catalog Service such as service identification, service provider and contact information. If you would like to view the raw XML response, click the :guilabel:`GetCapabilities Response` button. A separate window will open displaying Capabilities XML. Searching Catalog Services .......................... .. _figure_metasearch_search: .. figure:: img/metasearch-search.png :align: center Searching catalog services The :guilabel:`Search` tab allows the user to query Catalog Services for data and services, set various search parameters and view results. The following search parameters are available: * :guilabel:`Keywords`: free text search keywords; * :guilabel:`From`: the Catalog Service to perform the query against; * **Bounding box**: the spatial area of interest to filter on defined by :guilabel:`Xmax`, :guilabel:`Xmin`, :guilabel:`Ymax`, and :guilabel:`Ymin`. Click :guilabel:`Set Global` to do a global search, click :guilabel:`Map Extent` to do a search on the visible area only or manually enter custom values as desired. Clicking the :guilabel:`Search` button will search the selected Metadata Catalog. Search results are displayed in a list and are sortable by clicking on the column title. You can navigate through search results with the directional buttons below the search results. Clicking the :guilabel:`View Search Results as XML` button opens a window with the service response in raw XML format. Clicking a result will provide the following options: * if the metadata record has an associated bounding box, a footprint of the bounding box will be displayed on the map; * double-clicking the record displays the record metadata with any associated access links. Clicking the links opens the link in the user's web browser; * if the record is a supported web service (WMS/WMTS, WFS, WCS, ArcGIS MapServer, ArcGIS FeatureServer, etc.), the :guilabel:`Add Data` button will be enabled for the user to add to QGIS. When clicking this button, MetaSearch will verify if this is a valid OWS. The service will then be added to the appropriate QGIS connection list, and the appropriate connection dialog will then appear. .. _figure_metasearch_metadata: .. figure:: img/metasearch-record-metadata.png :align: center Metadata record display Settings ........ .. _figure_metasearch_setting: .. figure:: img/metasearch-settings.png :align: center MetaSearch settings You can fine tune MetaSearch with the following :guilabel:`settings`: * :guilabel:`Results paging`: when searching metadata catalogs, the number of results to show per page. Default value is 10; * :guilabel:`Timeout`: when searching metadata catalogs, the number of seconds for blocking connection attempt. Default value is 10. .. _`CSW (Catalog Service for the Web)`: https://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/cat .. _`OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium)`: https://www.opengeospatial.org .. Substitutions definitions - AVOID EDITING PAST THIS LINE This will be automatically updated by the find_set_subst.py script. If you need to create a new substitution manually, please add it also to the substitutions.txt file in the source folder. .. |metasearch| image:: /static/common/MetaSearch.png :width: 1.5em