This page outlines some of the basic functionalities of Islandora sites for managing content. A basic overview of adding items, some metadata information, sharing publishing and deleting content, and managing the way content is displayed is in here. Several of the sections link out to other pages of the manual for more detailed instructions.
This page contains step by step instructions for managing content in all sorts of ways on your Islandora 2.0 site. Please see below for a list of sections with direct links to each section for ease of navigation.
1. Logged in, navigate to the collection or area that an item is to be added. Click the Children button.
2. Click the Add Child button.
3. Click Repository Item.
4. Select Image from the Model drop-down menu. Click into the Title box to add the title.
5. Scroll down to Contributors and click on it. There are 2 parts to adding a contributor. If a name is just typed in and the Save button at the bottom is clicked an error message will appear at the top.
6. To add a Contributor first click “person” in blue font in the paragraph just under the Contributors boxes.
7. Clicking on the person link or the other 2 links, will bring you to a Add term page for either person, family or corporate body. For this example, Add term for Person is used. Click into the Name box and type in the name. The Source default Canadian Subject Headings can be kept as long as no URL or Alternate link text is added. If a URL is added select an item from the Source drop down menu. Add any other info scrolling down to the bottom. Click the Save button when done.
8. Close the Add term tab.
9. Back at the Contributors boxes, select an item from the Relationship Type drop-down menu. In the second box, start to type in the name that was added and then select it.
10. Click on Publication Details and Dates to add a date if desired.
11. Click on Type and Extent. Select a Type from the Type drop-down menu.
12. Click on any other items scrolling down the page. Click on the Save button when done.
13. Click on Media to add the item.
14. Click on the Add Media button.
15. Click on Image.
16. Click on the Browse button to add the file. Click in box next to Original File to select it. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the Save button.
17. Click on Back to site to go the item.
18. Now the item has been added. The Contributor that was added earlier, can now be seen.
Relevant Youtube Tutorial: Islandora Quick Lesson: Adding Content
A Basic Page is a content type that can create a static page for your site. The page can be linked in the menu bar of your site, set as a homepage, or used to host a View as well as many more functions. The Basic Page content type is similar to any static webpage in that it can be configured to host links, videos, and other basic functions with simple html coding.
Basic pages are a content type for static pages as above. You can use them for things like homepages, or for collection pages or about pages. If you want to add a collection or group of objects to a Basic Page, you must use a View. For instructions on how to add a View to a page, visit the Advanced View Management page.
1. Logged in, go to Administration > Content and click on the blue Add Content button.
2. Click on Basic Page
3. On the page fill out the title and body of the page. If you would like to add a link to your main menu for your new page, on the right side of the body box is a menu. Click on Menu Settings, then select "Provide a Menu Link". If you have multiple menu blocks you can select which menu it should go in. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save. These pages can be edited at any time from your content menu.
NOTE: Batch loading via the GUI is only meant for small size batches. For small Batch loading PDFs. For small Batch loading Book pages. For large size batches use Workbench.
1. Once logged in, navigate to the collection that you want to batch-load images to and click on Children.
2. Click on the Batch Upload Children button.
3. Under Content type select the type. (Most likely it will be Repository Item.) Under Model select the model type. Under Media Type select the type of media, for JPEGS use Image and for TIFFs use File. To keep it easy, batch upload the same media types at the same time. Under Usage select Original File. Click on the Next button when done.
4. Click the Browse button to add a file. After selecting the file, type in an Alternative text. Click the Browse button for each addition file. When done click the Finish button.
5. An initialize bar shows up with the progress. After it finishes it will bring you back to Children page. You should see the items that you uploaded. Click on one and it will show the image.
6. After the image that was clicked above appears, click on the name of the collection that the batch of images was loaded to in the breadcrumbs to go to the collection.
7. Now all the images that were batch loaded are now in the collection.
An item's metadata can be previewed before ingesting it.
1. Logged in, navigate to the collection or area that an item is to be added. Click the Children button.
2. Click the Add Child button.
3. Click Repository Item.
4. Select an appropriate Model from the Model drop-down menu. For this example, Image. Click into the Title box to add the title.
5. Scroll down to add any other items. Click on Type and Extent. Select an appropriate Type from the Type drop-down menu.
6. Click on any other items scrolling down the page. Click on the Preview button when done.
7. Now the item’s metadata can be viewed to see how it looks. Click the Back to Content editing at top left when done viewing.
8. Make any edits if necessary and click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
For a full explanation of the metadata fields that Islandora 2.0 allows, visit the Metadata page. This guide focuses on the fields to be used for the 11 Statewide Metadata Standards listed above.
Many of the fields requiring names of entities will require that you first add them to your site's taxonomy. You can do this by going to Admin > Structure > Taxonomy
On that page, scroll to the name of the type of entity (e.g. Person or Geographic Location) and click on "List Terms" on the right side. This will take you to a page where you can Add a term, as well as information about that entity. Recommended to use controlled vocabularies to generate these terms.
The metadata form starts off with 2 required items. The first is a Title. The other is a Model. A Model has values that when selected tell Islandora how to display the item. The different Model values to choose from our: Audio, Binary, Collection, Compound Object, Digital Document, Image, Newspaper, Page, Paged Content, Publication Issue, and Video.
Title is going to be the display title for the object, and should be formatted in a consistent way with the rest of the collection. Avoid unnecessary punctuation.
The Title Details area allows you type in the Full Title box the Full Title if the Title box, under Required, is longer than 255 characters. Also, an Alternative Title box can be used for another title of the item that is different from the main title. The Remove and Add another item buttons work to add and remove more additional titles boxes. These will be expressed in Dublin Core format in your harvested data.
Contributors is where a Contributor to the item is added. It has a Relationship Type boxes. The first box has a drop-down box that has multiple items to choose for what the Contributor(s) might be. The second box only has a list of names that were added for person, family or corporate body. Just start typing in the name and list appears to choose from. It is best practice to use controlled vocabularies such as the Library of Congress Name Authority File. These will be equivalent to the DC "creator" term or "contributor" term. You can use the "Add another Item" box below the field to add as many contributors as needed.
Next is the Publication details and dates. First is the Publisher field. This should be the entity responsible for making the resource available, but not for the institution digitizing it. You can enter multiple publishers in multiple boxes here, and they should be entered in the order in which they appear on the resource.
Next is Date Issued. The date is the form of: YYYY-MM-DD. This is where the date of item is placed. The date of formal issuance of the resource. This includes publications dates. You cannot enter approximate dates here but you can enter a range of dates by using the Add another item button. You can add year only as YYYY, or year and month only as YYYY-MM. All dates should pertain to the original object here. For serials, use the date of coverage of the specific edition.
Next is the Date Created. This is where the Date of creation of the resource would be placed. It is also in the form of YYYY-MM-DD.
Next is the Additional Date Types. This is where less-frequently needed specific types of dates are placed. Date (Unspecified) can be used for other date types, including date of creation of the digital object if desired.
Next is the Edition Statement. This is where field 250 information is place.
Next is Language. This is where the language of the content is placed. Use multiple boxes to provide multiple languages if more than one is employed in the resource. Recommended to use the standard English name of the language, as can be found in the LOC Language Table.
Next is the Description and notes section. This is where the description and abstract should go. The description should describe the physical object, while the Abstract should be a summary of the resource. The Abstract field should only be used for abstracts provided in or with the resource, not cataloger provided descriptions.
Next is Form, in the Type and Extent menu. This is where the physical format of the item is described. Place multiple format terms in separate boxes. There are many controlled vocabularies that can be used here, suggest picking the appropriate one to add here, such as the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms or the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus.
Next is Subject. This is where general subjects which may include topical, geographic, etc are placed. Geographic subject is where you would place the "Geo/Spatial" metadata for the object. If there are multiple values, use the Add Another Item button to add a line. For hierarchical names however (city, county, state, country) put it all in one box. Controlled vocabularies such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names are recommended. There is a box below this to add latitude and longitude if desired.
Next is Rights. This is where Rights Statements would go. These can be textual rights statements or include a URL to a rights organization such as Creative Commons or Rightsstatement.org. Recommended if using a textual rights statement that you use the common language found in these resources.
1. Logged in, navigate to the item you need to edit, and click the Edit button in the menu above the item.
2. Scroll through the form to the field you wish to edit and edit or add the desired data.
3. Scroll to the bottom, and click "Save". If you wish to preview the new metadata before publishing it, you can also press the "Preview" button first, then hit "Save".
4. This will take you back to the item view, where you should be able to see your updated metadata. Note: Some fields do not automatically display on the item page, but are still available for searching or manipulating via metadata.
1. Logged in, and navigate to the item that you want to share. After clicking on the item, click the Edit button.
2. Scroll down to System and click on it. In the second Member of just below the first Member of that has the name of the collection the item is in. Type in the blank line, the name of the collection that you want to share the item with. Just start typing a few letters and list of items appears. Select the other collection. Click the Save button when done.
3. Navigate to the collection that you share the item with, and you will see it. Also navigate to the existing collection and you will also see the item.
1. Logged in, navigate to the item that you want to move. After clicking on the item, click the Edit button.
2. Scroll down to System and click on it. In the second Member of just below the first Member of that has the name of the collection the item is in. Type in the blank line, the name of the collection that you want to move the item to. Just start typing a few letters and list of items appears. Select the other collection that the item is moving to. Click the Remove button next to the top Member of box with the current name of the collection. This will remove it so that the Item will just be in the new collection. Click the Save button when done.
3. Now the item shows in the Member of the new collection only.
In Islandora 2.0, the content management system named Drupal stores your institution’s metadata in fields associated with nodes or media (entities). When you add a repository item, you first create a content-type node containing the descriptive metadata of your item (image, collection, etc.). This node will group together all the files related to your item.
Note when you create this initial record, you can choose for it to remain unpublished by unchecking the Published box. This will prevent the item from showing in a public search.
1. Log into Islandora and navigate to the item that you would like to delete.
2. Once you clicked on the item that you want to delete, click Delete in the menu just above the item.
3. Click the box next to Delete all associated medias and nodes Just below This action cannot be undone message to select it. Also you will see a list of the files associated with the items. Usually, you will see the name of the item (the original file), the service file and an xml. It seems that that Islandora renames the file name that you uploaded. Next click the Delete button.
1. Logged in, navigate to the item that is to be hidden. Click on the item.
2. Click Edit in the menu above the title of the item.
3. Scroll down the page to System. Click on System. Click Published to deselect it.
4. Click the Save button.
5. Click on Home in the upper right corner just above Content. Navigate to where the item that was just hidden resided.
6. Now the item is hidden.
Some items in your collection may need to be embargoed for a certain period of time, perhaps until after the contributor's death, or some other special reason. You can add embargoes to items with the DGI Embargoes extension module where the item will be invisible to anyone except admins and any logged in users or IP addresses you set as exempt. With this module you can set those embargoes to expire at a certain time so that when the embargoed period for the item is over it will automatically be visible to everybody again. This can be set up at any time after an item is created, and can be applied to any node in Islandora, so it can be applied at the collection level as well as the individual item level. For full instructions on how to set up embargoes, visit the Embargoes and Access Restrictions page.
Access to items can be set by user roles. Admins will always have access to all content, but other lower roles can be configured to only allow access to certain items. See the Roles and Responsibilities page for more information on the various Roles in Islandora. For specifics on how to limit access to a specific item by role, see the Embargoes and Access Restrictions page.
With the IP Range Access module, you can block specific IP addresses from accessing your site. This can be useful for limiting bad actors from accessing your site. For instructions on how to manage this, visit the Embargoes and Access Restrictions page. IP ranges can also be blocked on the developer side, which requires emailing help@flvc.org to request developer help. Be sure to include the IP address you wish to block and the URL of your site in your ticket.
With the Permissions by Term module it is possible to restrict access by taxonomy term. So, in the case that you want all items with a particular author, or all items on a particular subject, to be hidden from public view, you can restrict this access. It is recommended that you always allow all access to admin and FedoraAdmin roles. To find out how to use this module, visit the Embargoes and Access Restrictions page.
1. Logged in, navigate to the item that needs the media updated. Click the Media button. The process for changing a book page is different. The process is on the How to Add a books page.
2. Click in the boxes to the left of the names of the Original File, Service File, and Thumbnail Image. Select Delete from the bottom Action drop-down menu. Click Apply to selected Items blue button to the right.
3. In the next screen, it is just making sure the files listed are to be deleted. Click the Delete button.
4. A Status message stated the items have been deleted. Click the Add Media button.
5. Click on the type of media item that needs to be added. For this example, Image.
6. Click the Browse button to select the new image. Select Original File. Scroll down and click the Save button.
7. Click the Back to site button to go back to the item.
8. Now the item has an updated image.
If you would like to change how the content displays such as changing the order of the metadata or adding an extra blurb for an item, you might want to check out How to Add and Use Layout Builder.
(NOTE: these steps will change the display of all images within your site.)
1. Once logged in, navigate to an image. Note the current display arrangement.
2. Click on Structure, Media types, Image, and Manage display.
3. On the next screen, drag and drop to the top any fields you want to include in the image display. (Likewise, drag and drop unwanted fields down to Disabled. Click Save when finished.)
4. Click on Back to site to view the display change.
5. Note the two fields moved to slots above Image in Step 3 now appear in the display.
You can easily change the content type of an item without deleting the media. However, if you want to change the type of media, you will have to delete the existing media and upload a new file type. To change the content type however, follow these steps.
1. Go to the collection with the item you want to change content type and select the item. On the item page, select Edit.
2. Change the model to the appropriate new type.
3. Scroll down to "Type and Extent" and change the type, to the appropriate new type.
4. Scroll down and hit "Save". It will redirect you back to the item with a message that the item has been updated, and when you look at the item data you will see that it now has the new content type.
For an overview of how bulk management of content is managed through the collections lense, see the Bulk Management of Items section on the Collections page of the Islandora Git Documentation.
1. View the content you want to move. There are two ways to do this. You can view all content on your site by going to Admin > Content or you can view only the content of a particular collection by going to that collection, and clicking on the Children Tab as below.
2. Use the check boxes beside the name of each item to select the items you want to edit
3. At the bottom of the content list, there is an "Action" drop down. Expand it and select Edit Content. Then select the blue "Apply to selected items" button.
4. A List of all the possible fields to edit will appear. Choose any check box. If you are just moving items between collections, click the "Member of" check box.
5. Once you have selected your fields to edit, scroll down and the fields will appear to allow you to edit them. Just like when editing or creating a single item, many of the fields allow multiple entries. If they do, below the field entries there will be two options. The first "replace the current value" will DELETE all values in that field except the ones you enter on this page. The second, "Add a new value to the multivalue field" will KEEP the old field values and merely add the ones entered on this page in addition. For moving items between collections, choose the first one, or if you want items to be shared in multiple collections you can select the second.
6. Scroll down and click the blue confirm button. This will return you to the Manage Members page and you will be able to see whatever changes you made.
1. Having the word Image above a thumbnail for a PDF, Book etc., is confusing. To hide follow the below steps.
2. Hover your mouse on Structure and Media Types. Select Image.
3. Click on Manage display.
4. Click on Thumbnail.
5. For Image, click on the Dropdown menu right under Label. Choose Visually Hidden.
6. Scroll down to the Save button and click it.
7. Click the Back to Site button.
8. Click the Browse All Collections button.
9. Click into a collection and now the word Image is not showing above a Thumbnail.
