UFDC XML Batch Updates: Common Errors and Solutions

XML issues are common and they were usually created by the system or the workflow.

Whenever Sobek rejects the XMLs, check to see if you can easily identify the cause; if not, save them to your personal error folder on the RDS drive and email Metadata Librarian about this.

They will check into the issues and then have a discussion with you. If after the discussion, the issues cannot be resolved and it will impact other department's practices, the Metadata Librarian will save a copy of the XMLs to "unresolved XML issue folder" on the RDS drive and then you need to note that the XMLs in question are out of the batch process in your work tracking sheet.

Metadata Librarian will follow up with the Library IT later to decide if any solutions can be applied. 

1. XMLs have no error and no error message from the Sobek builder either, but the updates not shown on UFDC. 

Many factors can cause the above. 

First check if updates actually include in the XMLs. If they do, very likely, it is Sobek cannot pick up the new updates. To resolve this, replace the current updates with the same content that hold more spaces between each element. To avoid this type of issue, when batch inserting XML chunks, let's format each element with three parts, they are:

first line for the beginning tag,

second line are more for the actual element content,

the last part is for the closing tag. 

For example: 

Replace

<mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> <mods:title>Berbice gazette</mods:title> </mods:titleInfo> <mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> <mods:title>Berbice royal gazette</mods:title> </mods:titleInfo> <mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> <mods:title>Royal gazette</mods:title> </mods:titleInfo> <mods:subject> <mods:topic>New Amsterdam (guyana)</mods:topic> </mods:subject> <mods:note>Semiweekly</mods:note> <mods:note>Began with number 1231 (March 13, 1822)</mods:note> <mods:note>The Berbice gazette, published in New Amsterdam, Berbice, began between 1804 (Berbice gazette, December 7, 1901, page 1) and 1806 (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, October 1918, page 285), depending on the source consulted, although there is reference to a newspaper located in New Amsterdam by this name in a letter dated May 7, 1805 (Kort historisch verhaal van den eersten aanleg, lotgevallen en voortgang der particuliere colonie Berbice, gelegen in het landschap Guiana in Zuid-America, 1807). </mods:note></mods:mods> 

to

<mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> 
<mods:title>Berbice gazette</mods:title> 
</mods:titleInfo> 
<mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> 
<mods:title>Berbice royal gazette</mods:title> 
</mods:titleInfo> <mods:titleInfo type="alternative"> 
<mods:title>Royal gazette</mods:title> 
</mods:titleInfo> 
<mods:subject> 
<mods:topic>New Amsterdam (guyana)</mods:topic> 
</mods:subject> 
<mods:note>Semiweekly</mods:note> 
<mods:note>Began with number 1231 (March 13, 1822)</mods:note> 
<mods:note>The Berbice gazette, published in New Amsterdam, Berbice, began between 1804 (Berbice gazette, December 7, 1901, page 1) and 1806 (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, October 1918, page 285), depending on the source consulted, although there is reference to a newspaper located in New Amsterdam by this name in a letter dated May 7, 1805 (Kort historisch verhaal van den eersten aanleg, lotgevallen en voortgang der particuliere colonie Berbice, gelegen in het landschap Guiana in Zuid-America, 1807). </mods:note>

 

2. After sending XMLs to the Sobek builder, we see the UFDC records in question have changed to Error page that requires us to contact IT for the fix. 

 

Ingest the same XMLs again to see if the error page still shows up. Very likely, the second round of ingestion could resolve the problem.  

3.  After sending XML to Sobek builder, received media file not included in the submission package error:

Check the METADATA_UPDATE in XML, and change the following Status terms 

NEW, PARTIAL, COMPLETE

to "METADATA_UPDATE"

4.  After sending XML to Sobek builder, received METS OBJID error:

3a.  Made the recommended correction to XMLs

 

3b.  Received the following error:

 

 

3c.  In different project received the same error as 3b.

 

4.  Unresolved but not reported.  Error when saving metadata changes. 

 

 

UPDATE 8/23/2023

When sending files to the builder there is no need to put them into a folder.  As long as the .xml is removed, the builder will put them in a folder that works. 

 

 

How to remove the .xml extension from files

Using Bulk Rename Utility app:

1. 

1.     Move down to the middle right side of the pages to the Extension area.   
        Using the dropdown arrow, choose Remove and put .xml in the box

 

2.    On the top left of the page, navigate to the directory and find your files.   
       Select the files you want to change.

 

3.    At the bottom right of the page, click Rename

 

4.    When all files have been renamed, click OK

 

5.    Files are renamed: click OK

 

6.     Extension files have been removed.  

 

5. In Oxygen, The element 'fileGrp' in namespace 'http://www.loc.gov/METS/' has invalid child element 'FLocat' in namespace..." 

When opening XML file in Oxygen, getting the following error:

 

There are two errors in the XML file here.

One is that there is no closing tag for the final instance of <METS:file> (this should come after line 339, a properly formatted example is in line 335)

The other error is that there is an incorrect closing tag (/>) at the end of the <METS:file> opening tag line (line 338 in the screenshot)

 

To fix these errors, place your mouse cursor immediately after the line with the error <METS:FLocat LOCTYPE.../> (line 339)

Right click and choose "Copy XPath" from the menu

Navigate to the tab at the top of the program "Tools"

Click "XML Refactoring"

Scroll down to "Fragments" and click "Insert XML Fragment"

In the XML Fragment Box, press enter and then type "ContentAdding"

In the XPath Box, paste the XPath you copied 

For position, select "After" (see screenshot below)

Click "Next"

Click "Preview" to ensure that ContentAdding is appearing on its own line after <METS:Flocat...> but before </METS:fileGrp>

Use "Find/Replace in Files" to replace "ContentAdding" with the correct XML Fragment (in this case, "</METS:file>")

Use "Find/Replace in Files" again to remove the incorrect closing tag from line 338 by searching for /pdf"/> and replacing it with /pdf">

Check to ensure that file validation is successful and there are no longer errors.

5. Builder error, "Item title is required but not supplied!"

This error can be caused by leaving an XML tag with no value in the XML file and uploading it to the Builder. Oxygen will not show a validation error but the Builder will fail to ingest the files. 

In the above screenshot, a genre term was removed using Oxygen, but this left no value in the mods:subject XML chunk(shown by the highlighting), causing the Builder to fail when it tries to parse the next chunk (the Title Info) correctly. 

To avoid this issue, check all edits in Oxygen and confirm that all XML lines are removed in cases where there would be an opening and closing tag left over, but no value. 

6. Web-based METS/MODS not updating 

Sometimes, the online METS/MODS does not update immediately when changes are made to XML files and passed through the Builder.

The online METS/MODS can be viewed by clicking on "Metadata" on a UFDC record and then "View Complete METS/MODS". 

In this case, you can directly view the XML file from the Resources folder under the Y: (uflib) drive, which should have the most up-to-date metadata with changes.