Update an existent iTools resource description (manually or automatically)

The figure to the right shows how you can update a resource manually, by double-clicking on any resource in the iTools interface (a leaf-node, not a composite/parent-node). This will display in the main viewing panel the complete description of the chosen resource. You can modify any field there, after your modification, You just click "Update" button.

• You can update automatically a resource (e.g., an entire center) by right-clicking the tree panel, and select "Update Resource". These auto-updates may be done by scraping existent web-pages (e.g., NCBC these pages), by reading a local file or via HTTP protocol (see below). The user can provide a specific URL, which is very helpful. For example, if we accidentally wipe out one of the centers' resources (by auto-updating from the NAMIC Wiki), we will be able to recover by providing a URL link (e.g., *file:///path/to/thefile/*). For examples on the format of the web-page scraping see All NCBC Wiki Scrape Pages or the CCB Scrape-Page HTML Format Example.

• You can also update a resource, or a collection of resources, by using a URL-accessible CSV (comma separated values) file. Use the "Update Resources" dialog to select a ".csv" file (use http://path/file.csv for html protocol or file:///path/to/file.csv for local file system file). You can transform a DB or XLS file to .csv file and then use it to update the resource/center description(s). Here is an example of the CCB CSV file (the headers are very important, although not all are required!)

• NCBC Center specific examples of iTools resource meta-data auto-update files:
  • Here is an example (NCIBI) for automatic updating of one NCBC center's listings in the iTools DB using an XML file according to the iTools XML schema.
  • CCB CSV template file (05/16/07)
  • I2B2 CSV template file (05/16/07)
  • NCBO CSV template file (05/01/07)
  • SimBios CSV template file (05/17/07)
  • MAGNet Wiki Scraping Example (05/05/07)
• Notes
  • The NCBC and IATR are two special clusters of resources, which don't have a global update mechanism or a URL site.
  • A global update request works for the entire center, not just single resource or a folder.
  • The NCBC cluster is sum of all resources part of the NCBC centers. Its content is not dynamically changeable/updatable. You can modify, add or remove individual resources; however, you cannot update the entire NCBC cluster (as this operation is not well-defined and other center's updates won't show up in a global NCBC update). However it may be a good idea that iTools has a feature that expert users can invoke to update the NCBC cluster by snapshoting the content of other centers (this will be a new feature).