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Issues repository for the Archivematica project
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Problem: Consider creating an option to enable users to preserve processingMCP.xml in the AIP #84

Open ross-spencer opened 6 years ago

ross-spencer commented 6 years ago

Please describe the problem you'd like to be solved.

As a developer working with multiple processing configuration options and ways of supplying those to Archivematica it is useful to be able to see the specific configuration used to create an AIP at any point in time. In some instances, the processing configuration can be borrowed from one system at one point in time, and used in another. A specific process can be replayed. This might be useful audit functionality for users as well. There may also be some positive implications for re-ingest, e.g. re-using a config that might no longer be maintained.

Describe the solution you'd like to see implemented.

I'd like to see a configurable option to include the processingMCP.xml file added to the logs directory of an AIP when it has completed processing. Semantically logs might not be the right place either, so a new folder might be created that describes the purpose of maintaining this better.

Describe alternatives you've considered.

At the time of writing if a user wants to maintain knowledge of a specific processing configuration used in Archivematica for any reason then they can document this externally which is often the case for other decisions that might be made around the processing of a transfer.

Further, the processingMCP.xml might not be descriptive enough to be useful to anyone but a developer of Archivematica. A regular user might require additional tooling to break one down and understand what it is doing, e.g. upload into AM to see how it looks in the Administration tab.

As such, an alternative might be to keep things as-is.

ross-spencer commented 4 years ago

Related to https://github.com/archivematica/Issues/issues/83

ross-spencer commented 4 years ago

Closed by accident.

From @sarah-mason:

I've done a bit of testing and thinking about the processingMCP.xml. First of all, the PREMIS Events in the METS file do represent many of the processing configuration selections as set out in the processingMCP.xml. For example, if you select file format identification, you will have a PREMIS event and outcome registered for that; normalization for preservation will also have a PREMIS Event for each object normalized and a relationship to the derivative; if extract package is set to Yes, then there will be a PREMIS Event for that too.

A suggestion to preserve the processing MCP would be to put a copy in the submissionDocumentation folder and it will be retained as submission documentation and not the original object. However, it's important to note that this won't override the default processing config in Archivematica, so you would still need to follow the documentation instructions and submit a copy of the processingMCP.xml in the right directory location as well. You also have to ensure that the processingMCP.xml submitted in the submission documentation matches the processing configuration for the ingest (whether that is by submitting a custom processing config or using the default pipeline in Archivematica).