User's Guide
CED2AR is a metadata repository to document datasets in the social science domain.
- Searching and Browsing
- Viewing Titlepage Information
- Editing
- Searching by Study
- Manage codebooks
- Videos
The search box allows for variable level search
The browse variable drop down allows you to view all variables, view variables starting with a certain letter, and sort variables by group.
Checking the checkboxes will filter your results to certain codebooks
Since some datasets have multiple versions, some codebooks may be grouped together, as shown here:
Variables matching your search or browse query will be shown in a table
Clicking on a variable name shows that variable's details
Study and document level details, or Titlepage information can be viewed by clicking any codebook name that is a hyperlink, or by clicking browse by codebook.
The titlepage view gives in depth information on the data and metadata such as an abstract, citation, and URL's for data download. More details can be viewed by expanding the hidden sections marked by arrows.
When viewing a titlepage or variable details page, editing mode can be enabled by clicking the pencil icon:
Depending on the configuration of an instance, CED2AR will ask you to login with some form of authentication.
After authenticating, individual fields will have the pencil icon next to them. Click the icon to edit that field.
Some fields only support plain text
Other more detailed fields support hyperlinks, lists and more
Another browse option displays a list of study titles. The same codebook data is displayed, but the layout is slightly different.
Browse by Study displays a list of Study Titles (stdyDscr/citation/titlStmt/titl). Clicking on a study title displays the codebook in a tabbed horizontal layout. The tabs are the DDI codebook complex types (Doc, Study, File, Data and Other Material). The Study tab is displayed first. A user can click on any of the subtabs and display that section of the codebook.
The Study page sub tabs are:
- Doc – Displays the exposed elements in the /docDscr section of the codebook.
- Study – Displays the exposed elements in the /stdyDscr section of the codebook. The Study tab is displayed first.
- File – Displays the exposed elements in the /fileDscr section of the codebook.
- Data – Displays the View Variables link to the Search Variables page. Same behavior as Browse by Codebook.
- Other Material – The tab is in place, but turned off by default. (Currently, CED2AR does not expose any /otherMat elements.) Content could be added by following instructions in the “Adding content via XSL” below.
Note: A site administrator can enable one or both Browse by tabs. The site admin can also change the name of the browse tabs to suite the site’s needs. The Browse by Study subtabs can also be turned on/off and the tab names can be changed.
If the Browse by Study tab is enabled for the site, it will be displayed on the main tab.
Clicking on the "View Variables" link displays the Variables page.
Some site specific customization can also be done to the data displayed in the Study subtabs. An experienced developer could add additional codebook content by using XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) on an existing XSL style sheet. The style sheets used on the tabbed study page (/study) are:
- doc.xsl
- study.xsl
- file.xsl
- otherMat.xsl
It is highly recommended that you keep a backup copy of your changes to any modified files. A future release may replace these stylesheets.
Clicking on the gear icon, in the Browse by Codebook page, displays the Manage codebooks page. Depending on the configuration of the instance, CED2AR will ask you to login with some form of authentication.
The Manage codebooks page provides multiple management functions. Each function is on a separate tab. The tabs are:
- Upload - Upload a DDI-C codebook.
- Update - Update an existing codebook.
- Delete - Delete an existing codebook.
- Settings - Set the default version for a codebook.
- git Versions - Version Control Functions: Status page, Merge Crowdsourced Edits
- Create - Create a DDI-C codebook from an existing dataset (Stata or SPSS) and automatically load it into the CED2AR database.
The following screenshot shows the Manage codebooks page and the six tabs. The new +Create tab is displayed.
CED2AR has the ability to combine crowdsourced edits with official edits. Here's a brief demo. Note that it requires a particular setup for at least two servers, not described in this video.
Coming soon!