use_schema: Create a 'schema' for a Darwin Core Archive

In galaxias: Describe, Package, and Share Biodiversity Data

Create a schema for a Darwin Core Archive

Description

A schema is an xml document that maps the files and field names in a DwCA. This map makes it easier to reconstruct one or more related datasets so that information is matched correctly. It works by detecting column names on csv files in a specified directory; these should all be Darwin Core terms for this function to produce reliable results. This function assumes that the publishing directory is named "data-publish". This function is primarily internal and is called by build_archive(), but is exported for clarity and debugging purposes.

Usage

use_schema(overwrite = FALSE, quiet = FALSE)

Arguments

overwrite	By default, use_schema() will not overwrite existing files. If you really want to do so, set this to TRUE.
quiet	(logical) Should progress messages be suppressed? Default is set to FALSE; i.e. messages are shown.

Details

To be compliant with the Darwin Core Standard, the schema file must be called meta.xml, and this function enforces that.

Value

Does not return an object to the workspace; called for the side effect of building a schema file in the publication directory.

See Also

build_archive() which calls this function.

Examples

# First build some data to add to our archive
df <- tibble::tibble(
  occurrenceID = c("a1", "a2"),
  species = c("Eolophus roseicapilla", "Galaxias truttaceus"))
  
use_data_occurrences(df, quiet = TRUE)

# Now we can build a schema document to describe that dataset
use_schema(quiet = TRUE)

# Check that specified files have been created
list.files("data-publish") 

# The publish directory now contains:
#  - "occurrences.csv" which contains data
#  - "meta.xml" which is the schema document

galaxias documentation built on Aug. 8, 2025, 7:50 p.m.