I'm having difficulty with the HTML editor in the Edit Body Text box for individual records. I am able to type in what i need, properly formatted, but it does not save. I did modify the "item.metadata.php" file today, so that I would not see "DUBLIN CORE".
Any text that I randomly type in the Edit Body Text box works just great. It all falls apart when I use the HTML editor.
Hey guarda3060,
Good to hear from you! Yeah, the text-editing workflow for records bound to Omeka items could use some UI improvements to make it more clear what's going on. Basically, if a Neatline record is associated with an Omeka item, then the "Body" field in Neatline is always a one-to-one mirror of the Dublin Core metadata in Omeka. The field is updated every time either the Neatline record or the Omeka items is saved, meaning that the content in Neatline will always be in sync with the content in Omeka. The flip side of this is that you can't make changes to the item content inside of Neatline - the thought is that if you want to do that, it's best to do it in Omeka, so that the Neatline metadata can't diverge from what's in Omeka.
That said, I can imagine cases where you'd want to both (a) associate the record with an Omeka item and (b) add text description that's specific to an individual Neatline exhibit. It would actually be relatively easy for us to decouple this - when a Neatline record is linked to an Omeka item, always print out the Omeka metadata, but leave the regular Neatline "Body" field open for modification, and, if text is entered, display it above the Omeka metadata as a kind of introduction or preface.
Do you think that would make more sense? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts!
Best,
David
David,
Thank you so much and your explanation was so clear-cut! I appreciate it.
So, here are my thoughts on the issue. When in Neatline, you might be using an Omeka item in a very specific way-- to where seeing all of the metadata from "O," as related to said item, is not relevant to the Neatline Record. For example, if I want to show a photograph of a place that I've mapped in Neatline, the Dublin Core metadata from that photo is not important, whereas what I have to say about that photo is important.
I might want to remove the "extraneous" information in the OMEKA record, so that I can just see what I want to see in Neatline, but then I lose that valuable metadata, which might help me at some time in the future.
So it would make more sense to me, personally. As when describing what happened at a specific spot in Peru, along with the picture(in Spanish), is more important than the Dublin Core metadata about when I took the shot (in English).
But, in the meantime, would you recommend that I not link to Omeka items? Will text editor work for me then, if I just upload a photo through the text editor?
Thanks for your answer.
Todd
Hey garuda3060,
Awesome, thanks so much for this feedback. (And sorry for the slow response to this, we've had a really busy couple of weeks). Anyway, I actually had a really good conversation about this issue with Jeremy Boggs, one of the other developers on the project, and we brainstormed about a number of possible ways to improve the item-binding workflow and enable the kind of functionality that you're describing.
Anway, we're still honing in on the most sensible and lightweight solution - but stay tuned for more on this in the near future.
Best,
David