About AIMS
The AIMS software allows users to create metadata profiles with the help of a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by a web service. The GUI allows searching for suitable terms from existing terminologies and adding them to a profile along with restrictions on the permitted value nodes, allowing setting expected datatypes, classes or nodetypes as well as the cardinality of attributes. A screenshot of the GUI is shown in figure 1.
Metadata profiles are first created as a draft that can be edited collaboratively by sharing a link, but that is not publicly visible. Once a profile is published, it can no longer be edited, but is visible to everyone and receives a persistent ID. Visible profiles can be searched and are indexed according to a metadata schema providing information like, e.g., title, description, author, creation date, as well as the scientific domain.
Existing profiles can also be used to derive new profiles, either by creating more specific child profiles or by creating an improved version.
Profiles can also be submitted for approval by a scientific community that is realised by triggering a merge request to a GitLab group containing appointed reviewers of the community. If a profile is approved, it receives a corresponding metadata entry, making it possible for users to find peer-reviewed profiles recommended by their community.
Users can also upload metadata corresponding to a metadata profile to the AIMS platform, either via API or by manually entering the data in a form. The metadata will be validated and published on the platform. The stored metadata can be searched by selecting a metadata profile that the platform translates to a GUI that provides a form in which users can search for specific attribute values. A SPARQL endpoint exists for integration to other infrastructure. Validation of metadata is also possible via API without subsequent publication, allowing users to validate their local data according to a metadata profile.
To store metadata profiles and the compliant data graphs, we employ two instances of the Virtuoso RDF triple store. The Virtuoso repository ensures reliable, long-term storage of metadata standards and includes regular backups for disaster recovery. Both the API and Virtuoso instance for storing metadata profiles are hosted on a virtual infrastructure managed by ULB Darmstadt, the Virtuoso instance for the metadata graph and the software for the platform's frontend are hosted on a virtual infrastructure managed by RWTH Aachen university's IT Center.
AIMS is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Project-ID 432233186.
NFDI4Ing is supported by DFG under project number 442146713.