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Managing enclosures

Release 9.2
Last modified April 3, 2008
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About managing enclosures

Documentation, such as a report describing how values were collected, may already exist for an item. You can enclose a copy of a file within an item's metadata. In most cases, this should be a preliminary measure until you have time to create detailed metadata using the editor; information in the enclosure isn't available when you do a search. If the original file is later modified, the copy stored within the metadata won't change. Enclosing files in an item's metadata works the same way as enclosing files in an e-mail message.

Because the enclosure is stored within the metadata, a copy of the original data source will get a copy of the enclosure when it gets a copy of the original metadata. Because enclosures and thumbnails are stored within ESRI-defined metadata elements, they will not be included if you export metadata using the FGDC CSDGM TXT, FGDC CSDGM XML, and FGDC CSDGM SGML exporters, or if you export metadata to ISO 19139 format using the ESRI Metadata Translator geoprocessing tool. These exporters rely on the FGDC's metadata parser utility, mp, which is not maintained by ESRI.

For a data source, you might enclose a layer file that can be added to a map document. You might also enclose an image in a folder's metadata to describe the general area in which its data is located. When enclosing an image, check Image in the Add New Enclosure dialog box. Enclosed files are listed in the "FGDC ESRI", "FGDC", and "ISO" stylesheets. For enclosed images, these stylesheets will also show thumbnails describing their contents. If metadata doesn't already exist when you add an enclosure, metadata will be created.

After publishing metadata to an ArcIMS Metadata Service the thumbnail, if one exists, will appear as an enclosure in the Metadata Properties dialog box. Do not delete this enclosure; otherwise, the thumbnail will be removed.


How to manage enclosures

Enclosing documentation files

  1. In the Catalog tree, click the item to which you want to attach a file.
  2. Click the Metadata tab.
  3. Click the Metadata Properties button Metadata Properties button on the Metadata toolbar.
  4. Click the Enclosures tab.
  5. Click the Add button.
  6. Click the Browse button.
  7. Navigate to and click the file you want to attach, then click Open.
  8. Type a description of the file.
  9. If the enclosed file is an image, such as a Windows Bitmap file, check Image.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Click OK.
  12. Enclosed files are listed in the appropriate stylesheets.

Tips

  • You can't view an enclosed file until it has been saved as part of the metadata. Before viewing the contents of a new enclosure, you must click OK and reopen the Metadata Properties dialog box.
  • After creating metadata that describes an item's contents, you should remove enclosed files that contain duplicate information. To do so, click the enclosure in the Metadata Properties dialog box and click Delete.


Viewing an enclosed file

  1. Click the Metadata Properties button Metadata Properties button on the Metadata toolbar.
  2. Click the Enclosures tab.
  3. Double-click the enclosed file whose contents you want to see.
  4. The file opens in the appropriate application.

Tips

  • You can't view an enclosed file until it has been saved as part of the metadata. Before viewing the contents of a new enclosure, you must click OK and reopen the Metadata Properties dialog box.
  • After creating metadata that describes an item's contents, you should remove enclosed files that contain duplicate information. To do so, click the enclosure in the Metadata Properties dialog box and click Delete.


Saving an enclosure as a separate file

  1. Click the Metadata Properties button Metadata Properties button on the Metadata toolbar.
  2. Click the Enclosures tab.
  3. Click the enclosure that you want to save as a separate file.
  4. Click Save As.
  5. Navigate to the folder in which you want to save the file.
  6. Type a new name for the file, if appropriate.
  7. Click Save.

Tip

  • After creating metadata that describes an item's contents, you should remove enclosed files that contain duplicate information. To do so, click the enclosure in the Metadata Properties dialog box and click Delete.

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