DataLad Tabby

This DataLad extension package provides tooling for working with a particular metadata format: tabby.

Another format?!

Yes... No! tabby is JSON(-LD) in disguise.

In a nutshell, tabby aims to be an approach to assemble complex metadata structures from simple building blocks: tables. Tables are easy to understand with a clear structure, just rows and columns. tabby specifies a few syntax elements to connect tables to form more complex structures. At the same time, tabby is implemented with the mindset that metadata without defined vocabularies has limited utility. Therefore, tabby aims to translate into JSON-LD to provide semantic precision without imposing its complexity on every aspect of metadata handling. This makes it possible to let curators enrich metadata without alienating these metadata from their original providers or sources.

• The tabby format
  • File naming
  • Sheet types
  • Metadata record entry point (root)
  • Connecting sheets
  • Defining context
  • Metadata enrichment (overrides)
• Usage examples
  • Metadata enrichment (overrides)
• Best practices
  • Context declaration: precision vs. boilerplate
  • Declare the type of a metadata entity
  • Declare an ordered list of entities (e.g., author list)
  • Declare an entity to be the controller of a dataset (GDPR)
• Conventions for sheet formats and semantics
  • Collection-of-files dataset (v1, tby-ds1)
  • Scientific dataset (v1, tby-sd1)
  • Adding new/Updating built-in conventions

Command line reference

• Command line reference
  • datalad tabby-load

Extension API

High-level API commands

• High-level API commands
  • datalad.api.tabby_load

Python tooling

io	Input/output and conversion routines for tabby-format metadata records
io.xlsx	Conversion of tabby TSV files to and from XLSX multi-sheet spreadsheets

Acknowledgements

This DataLad extension was developed with support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under grant SFB 1451 (431549029, INF project).

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page