I’ve added a script to the Darwin Core checker website that documents changes in individual data items. For an explanation, go to this page on the website, and for an example, see below.
In this example I modified a few data items in an events table. For each data item edit, the script records the unique ID of the record, the field containing the data item, the original data item and the edited data item.
The script also generates a date/time-stamped text file with the same output as in the command-line interface (terminal).
2 Likes
But no explanation of why the change? Nor who made it?
@Barkworth, I’m not sure I understand your questions, since the context here is the Darwin Core table checker, not a CMS.
In a CMS you would certainly (I hope) record why a change was made, when it was made and by whom. The website, in contrast, has a set of diagnostic tools for command-line checkers and editors of Darwin Core datasets, and the script linked here generates a time-stamped report of edits done. If needed, it was would be easy enough to add the “why” and “by whom” to the report, which is a simple TSV table.
In my own experience, this report has simply been an aide memoire when writing a much more detailed report to the data owner with lines like “Windows line endings were converted to plain line endings in 26217 records”.