Main Functionalities

Summary

Functionality Description
Metadata Definition and management of multiple metadata sets and automation of metadata capture
Information Structure Define and manage the structure of the information
Workflow Define and manage workflow processes
Security Define and manage access rights

Metadata

Scope:

Keeping data associated to any entity of the archival fonds in compliance to any archival standard's metadata set or any custom metadata set defined by an institution.

These data are relative to:

  • The description of the entity
  • Description of the context in which the entity was created and modified
  • Action history on the entity
  • Access rights on the entity

Define Metadata Set

The DISSCO solution is fully configurable, this applies to:

  • The mandatory metadata defined by the nature of the entity
  • The optional metadata defined by the nature of the entity
  • The possibility for end users to define their own metadata
All metadata sets and their use can be defined by the records manager of the institution. A default configuration is proposed by the system; this configuration is based on the MoReq recommendation

Metadata Harvester

Automation of metadata capture.

DISSCO can automatically capture all or a predefined set of metadata present in any document from:

Application File extentions
Microsoft Office Suite .doc, .xsl, .ppt
Open Office Suite .swx
RTF .rtf
Adobe PDF .pdf
XML Editor .html, .htm and all xml content

Information Structure

With DISSCO, rules defining the relation between the entities (structure) within the archival fonds are fully configurable. This allows to create different structures that are compliant with different archival standards and/or institution policies.

These rules defined:

  • What are the allowed generic entity types (MoReq ex. Class, File, Volume, Record)
  • The hierarchical relations: what are the allowed children for a given entity type
  • What are the specific entity types, these specific entity types can be bound to a workflow process (ex. ProjectFile, EMailRecord, ReportRecord)
  • What are the metadata sets that must be associated to each entity type
The rules governing the information structure are defined by the records manager of the institution. However, the DISSCO system proposes a default configuration that is based on the MoReq recommendation.

For more information about how to structure an archival fonds see archival standards.

Information Object Types

By information object types we understand the possibility of defining the entities that can be present within the system. DISSCO is able to manage different types of information objects in order to:

  • allow compliance with standards (ISO 15489, MoReq, ISAD(G)), through the different aggregation levels they describe (MoReq: class, file, volume, record);
  • allow compliance with standards (ISO 15489, MoReq, ISAD(G)), through the constraints on structural relations that these entities have (Moreq: file is a sub-entity of a class);
  • allow compliance with standards (ISO 15489, MoReq, ISAD(G)), through the metadata sets they define;
  • support physical entities;
  • allow the specialization of information objects according to the binary documents they contain.

Workflow

Under writing.

see Overview of the currently supported processes.

Security

DISSCO embedded its own security system. However, authentication and user management can be handled by another system such as a LDAP repository or any compatible system. (DISSCO can also use a pre-existent database describing users and potentially user roles and groups)

The DISSCO security system is based on ACL (access control list)

The security system allows to define accesses (read, write, remove) at*:

  • Entity level
  • Entity revision level
  • Entity binary content level
  • Entity metadata set level
  • Entity permission level
  • Any particular entity metadata
  • Workflow
  • Workflow steps
  • Workflow actions
*access rights can be inherited by sub-entities