NCEAS
Provide navigation for earlier and later object versions
We currently let users know that a data package or science metadata document 'has a newer version' in the UI when someone navigates to an object mid-stream in the obsolescence chain. However, being able to choose specific version earlier or later in the version history would be useful.
Mock up a versioning navigation component that would be part of the MetadataView and discuss pros, cons, and implementation details. This request came from Rachael Blake, and was seconded by Matt.
We are just starting to think about this type of feature. I think this would be interesting to discuss as it ties to the concept of versions that data contributors would like. There could be minimal support for this using some kind of "next" and "previous" links in the dataset landing page.
Long term it would be interesting to discuss EML metadata for describing changes to versions. I work with two projects WFSI Data Portal (wfsi-data.org) and ESS-DIVE (data.ess-dive.lbl.gov) where users have expressed interest in accessing previous versions of datasets.
I see in the EML schema documentation that there is a maintenance element and I remember it being mentioned that this may be the way to document changes.
Anyway, I am interested in hearing others thoughts on this.
I would love to get this implemented! It would really highlight the strong versioning history that's available, but not clearly accessible via the UI.
There's more discussion on this feature in this (nearly duplicate?) ticket: https://github.com/NCEAS/metacatui/issues/644
Also related: https://github.com/NCEAS/metacatui/issues/1549 and https://github.com/NCEAS/metacatui/issues/1960
Also see https://github.com/NCEAS/metacat/issues/1429#issuecomment-3212560520 for background and a solution on how to create the list of versions in Metacat.
