About

End-user documentation for B2FIND, the EUDAT metadata service.

Modified: 26 February 2018

Synopsis

Metadata are important whenever research data are intended for serious use. In addition to being essential for understanding an individual dataset, systematically structured metadata are also a key element of data infrastructures, such as searchable catalogs of data, or automated systems for mapping and analysis.

The EUDAT metadata service B2FIND addresses these requirements by providing a comprehensive joint metadata catalogue and a powerful discovery portal. Metadata stored through EUDAT services such as B2SHARE are harvested from various research communities overarching a wide scope of research disciplines.

The B2FIND portal and API provide the user with advanced search functionalities and allow access to the data resources behind the metadata found in the catalogue.

Please watch our brief B2FIND video, which explains the capabilities of the service.

Who benefits from the B2FIND service

The following two target groups are adressed by, and can benefit from the B2FIND service:

  1. Researchers or end users who want to search and access research data: Please read the section "How to find and access data using B2FIND" and/or the online Search Guide. You can use the B2FIND discovery portal available from http://b2find.eudat.eu.
  2. Communities and other providers of research data who are interested in publishing their metadata in EUDAT: Please read the section "How to publish metadata in B2FIND" and contact us via the webform.

How to find and access data using B2FIND

The B2FIND service can be utilised in two ways:

  • Via a graphical, web-based tool, available at http://b2find.eudat.eu, which is designed to be self-explanatory.
  • Using a command line tool based on the API interface to the portal.

These modes of use are described in detail in our B2FIND Usage page.

Figure 1. The EUDAT B2FIND service main screen. By entering text in the provided free text field "Search your data" you can perform a full text search over the whole catalogue directly from the home page.

How to publish metadata in B2FIND

The following two prerequisites must be fulfilled in order to publish and make your metadata visible in B2FIND:

  • A service for providing and transfering the metadata.
  • The definition of a community specific mapping.

The B2FIND entry page lists all communities that provide metadata under 'Communities'. In order to publish metadata, please follow the details under the B2FIND Integration page. The page lists the metadata formats supported by B2FIND and the metadata definition of the B2FIND schema.

Figure 2. The communities integrated with B2FIND.

How B2FIND works

Metadata that are made searchable in B2FIND are harvested from metadata providers using the standard OAI-PMH interface. The community itself decides which metadata are made available to EUDAT and how their metadata elements are mapped to EUDAT-specific facets. A sophisticated framework ensures that metadata from various providers are harvested regularly to display complete and up-to-date information. This framework also provides the translation from the community metadata schema to standard facets in the B2FIND metadata catalogue.

Support

You can find B2FIND training presentations on the EUDAT website.

You can also find hands-on training material on B2FIND on our github repository.

Support for B2FIND is available via the EUDAT ticketing system through the webform.

If you have comments on this page, please submit them though the EUDAT ticketing system.

Document Data

Version: 1.3.2

Authors:

Hannes Thiemann (DKRZ)

Heinrich Widmann (DKRZ)

Editors:

Hans van Piggelen (SURF)

Kostas Kavoussanakis (EPCC)

Sara Ramezani (SURF)