Overview
The EOSC Data Type Registry (DTR) allows the registration of many different data types. The goal is to achieve a high degree in machine actionability and interoperability in the management of structured research data. Each data type is assigned a persistent identifier for unambiguous identification, along with a set of provenance information and type specific fields. Different kinds of data types include for example:
- Metadata Schema elements of any complexity
- Measurement Units
- Taxonomy Nodes
Some data types can be used as properties of other types. For example, a schema element can be assigned a measurement unit and types can be hierarchically organized in a taxonomy. This leads to the possibility of a highly structured representation and organisation of data types. The DTR includes a GUI for users to visually create, explore and search datatypes. A REST API is also provided which allows common CRUD operations for interacting with types, including batch uploads. A user and group management system for individual types is included.
In addition to the registry itself, the DTR component includes an additional service called the TypeAPI, which adds functionalities to further work with the registered types. Using this tool, the JSON schemas for types describing metadata elements can be generated to allow the validation of objects that suppose to are of a certain type. Other functionalities include a federated search over different registries which allows the integration in other software components.
With the EOSC Data Type Registry we can achieve a machine-actionable standardisation of metadata schema elements for general purpose research data objects.
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