EATSML: Importing and Exporting

EATS uses an XML format called EATSML for serialisation of its data. Existing data can be exported from EATS, and new data imported into EATS using it.

Export

There are several different exports available, depending on what data is wanted:

  • Base export, that exports the infrastructural data (authorities, languages, name types, etc) but no entities. Typically the infrastructural data exported is limited to that relating to the authorities the user is an editor for.

    This is available at /export/eatsml/base/.

  • Entity export, that exports the entities, along with the infrastructural data that is referenced by those entities.

    This is available at /export/eatsml/entities/.

  • Full export, that exports all infrastructure data and all entities.

    This is available at /export/eatsml/full/.

The EATSML of an export specifies the identifier of a piece of data in the EATS database, in the eats_id attribute. This is needed when performing an import that adds new data that reference existing information, such as the authority for a new existence property assertion.

Import

The import of an EATSML document is available at /import/.

When importing EATSML that has been exported from a different EATS system, the eats_id attributes must be either removed (if the identified data does not exist in the new system), or changed to match the identifiers used in the new system. Otherwise the import will fail because it cannot find the referenced data - or worse, succeed but associate the imported information with the wrong data that just happens to share the same id!

After making an import, the imported EATSML can be viewed either in the form it was imported, or with the appropriate eats_id attributes added.

The import process automatically prunes the EATSML of any material that is neither to be added, nor referenced by data that is to be added. Therefore, the EATSML that is displayed for an import may not exactly match the EATSML that was actually sent to the server. This is done to make it easier to see what is added in an import.