Metadata Tools - MP FAQ

Overview

Different versions of USGS Peter Schweitzer's metadata parser (MP) have slightly different behavior some of which behave better with the NPS Metadata Tools' Parse with MP tool. Below are the issues that have been encountered with each version of MP.

For most users, we recommend using version 2.8.14 of the MP parser, the version included with NPS Metadata Tools (version 1.5).

Versions

2.7.3

This version of MP ships with ArcGIS 8.2, 8.3, and 9.0. No known problems.

2.8.8

This version of MP retains all unknown tags in output and, therefore, doesn't not generate FGDC compliant metadata. Not recommended for use with Parse with MP or for creating FGDC compliant metadata. Explicitly, Strip ESRI tags option does not work, i.e. ESRI tags are retained and parsed in output.

2.8.10

Reports a "syntax error" and no output when trying to parse stand-alone SGML files. Otherwise no known problems.

2.8.11

Reports a "syntax error" and no output when trying to parse stand-alone SGML files. Otherwise no known problems.

2.8.14

No know problems. Version included with NPS Metadata Tools extension (version 1.5).

Other versions have not been tested (by us) with the Parse with MP  tool.

MP output questions

Why do I get a "Time_of_Day is not permitted in Process_Step" or "Process_Date is required in Process Step" errors?

ESRI adds processing steps to a dataset after several operations including importing metadata and copying. These processing steps include the erroneous tags <date> and <time> which should be <procdate> and <proctime> according to the standard. Either remove the processing step using ArcCatalog's FGDC editor or change the tags in a text editor.

Why didn't MP produce an output file?

In some cases, MP will not produce an output file when it encountered particular errors in the source XML file. Sources for these errors:

• XML ill-formed: an element's start or end tag is missing or in the wrong place. Usually requires manual editing of the XML file to fix.
• Special characters: Not all characters or ASCII codes are allowed in XML files (for example, pasting text from another application such as Microsoft Word). In these cases, MP cannot parse the XML file correctly. Again, these errors have to be fixed by manually editing the XML metadata file.