template_other_entity_attributes()

[clnsmth]

A function to auto-detect file type and content of non-tabular data then populate the corresponding attribute list to the fullest extent possible.

Has arguments:

• path - path to data objects and templates
• data.path - optional argument if data objects are not located at path
• other.entity - object names
• other.entity.description - object descriptions

Outputs a tab delimited attributes_.txt template, where is the data object name, with relevant attribute fields

[clnsmth]

Working on this at branch fix_45.

[clnsmth]

Note, there will be two templates supporting otherEntity attributes. These will have the same naming conventions, fields, and rulesets as is currently implemented for dataTable entities. See the attributes_[filename].txt and catvars_[filename].txt templates for details.

[clnsmth]

To do:

• [x] template_other_entity_attributes() - The initial implementation will simply return a blank attributes template to be completed by the user. Support for automatically extracting attributes of various data types, can be added later.
• [x] template_categorical_variables() - Ensure this function recognizes other entity attribute templates and prompts the user to manually define categorical code/definition pairs for any categorical variables reported in the attributes template. Auto-extraction of categorical codes is not straight forward, due to the myraiad of data types that other entities can be, and will be deferred to the future.
• [ ] template_entity_metadata() - This is the template described in #128.
• [ ] make_eml() - Convert the attributes and entities templates to otherEntity elements in an EML document.
• [ ] Template validation - Reuse the existing validation checks on attributes and categorical variables templates. Note, some checks using data reads, may not work due to the diversity of formats mentioned above.
• [ ] Annotation - List otherEntity attributes in the return from template_annotations(), and convert template values to EML metadata in annotate_eml().
• [ ] eml2eal() - Other entity metadata in an EML record will need to be converted back to EMLassemblyline attributes, catvars, and entities templates.