Note: As part of the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) responsibilities to implement the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the FGDC Office of the Secretariat (FGDC OS), located in USGS, working in collaboration with the FGDC’s Metadata Working Group (MWG), executed this project. The focus was to provide a mechanism for vendors that provide International Organization of Standards (ISO) compliant metadata tools and software to voluntarily provide information on their tools and software related to their ability to produce ISO 191** series standards compliant metadata records. The MWG, that includes non-Federal members, was then able to provide implementation notes for tools they utilized in order to assist other potential implementors. While the Federal agencies are still implementing the ISO 191** series of metadata standards, the MWG has finished collecting vendor summaries and MWG feedback. The capability to register and provide new information was removed from the FGDC website on September 30, 2020. The data collected on the tools and the implementation notes are made available here for MWG information purposes and will be archived when no longer of value to the MWG.
| Description | QSphere is an extension for QGIS for creating metadata records compliant with ISO 19139 also includes wizards for metadata capture, various interfaces including an XML editor, an embedded web browser. It implements the CSWT services and LusTRE (Linked Thesaurus fRamework for Environment) to query for keywords. |
| Company / Organization | Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable development and Energy |
| URL/Web address of the Editor | https://qgis.projets.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/projects/qsphere |
Geospatial Metadata Content Standards Supported
| ISO 19115:2003 – Metadata | partial |
| ISO 19115-2 – Gridded Imagery Extension | none |
| ISO 19110 – Feature Catalog | none |
| ISO 19119 – Services | none |
| ISO 19115-1 - Metadata Fundamentals | partial |
| Other Related Metadata Standards | QSphere implements most of the standard information except spatialRepresentationType and some other secondary elements. isotc211 compliant. |
User Interface
| GUI | Yes |
| Edit XML Directly | Yes |
| Other / Comments | rich friendly interface. |
Operating Platform
| Desktop | Yes |
| Distributed/Enterprise | No |
| Online Application | No |
| Other / Comments |
Proprietary Nature
| Open Source (publicly available) | Yes |
| Source Code Available (customers only) | Yes |
| Free or Shareware | Yes |
| Other / Comments |
XML Capabilities
| Supports use of XML attributes (href, nilreason, etc.) | No |
| Xpath version | 1.0 |
| Other / Comments |
Auto-populate Metadata
| From geospatial data types (GIS, imagery, GPS, etc.) | Yes |
| From non-geospatial data types (spreadsheet, dbase, etc.) | No |
| From services | Yes |
| Other / Comments |
Validation Operations
| Compliance to ISO 19139 | Yes |
| Compliance to User-defined Schema | No |
| Compliance to Other Standard | Yes |
| Batch Validate | Yes |
| Validate Incomplete Record | Yes |
| Error Report Includes Warnings / Guidance | Yes |
| URL Validity Testing | Yes |
| Other / Comments | INSPIRE, COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1205/2008 of 3 December 2008 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards metadata |
Metadata Record Import Operations
| Import FGDC CSGDM | No |
| Import FGDC CSGDM – Biological Profile | No |
| Import FGDC CSDGM – Remote Sensing Extension | No |
| Import ISO 19115:2003 | No |
| Import ISO 19115-2 | No |
| Batch Import | No |
| Import Incomplete Record | Yes |
| Import Other Metadata Standards/Formats | No |
| Other / Comments | With QSphere, it's possible to download metadata files directly in main GUI. |
Metadata Record Export Operations
| Export FGDC CSGDM | No |
| Export FGDC CSGDM – Biological Profile | No |
| Export FGDC CSDGM – Remote Sensing Extension | No |
| Batch Export | No |
| Export Incomplete Record | Yes |
| Export Other Metadata Standards/Formats | No |
| Other / Comments |
Descriptive Questions
| Operating Environment Describe the general operating environment specifying operating system(s), data storage format, programming languages, 3rd party software requirements and whether the editor is embedded within or a component of another software application |
support all environnement support by QGIS ; extension for QGIS ; directly XML format to store metadata and QSP (QSphere Project) ; programming language : Python 2.7 ; QSphere implements interface with GeoNetWork for CSW Transactions (add, update, delete and get informations from GeoNetWork server). |
| Support Features Describe the user support features provided within the application including drop-down pick-lists, links to metadata element definitions, embedded thesauri, spell check, conditionality/compliance indicators, interactive content guidance, geographic extent maps/calculation, indicate workflow status (draft, validated, published, etc.), user manual, online tutorials, etc. |
support CSWT ; implements LusTRE's web service (GetSuggestion ) ; implements OpenStreetMap to define geographic extents ; multiple assistants (Gui) and controlled entry areas ; user manual in six languages : English, Finnish, French, German, Italian and Spanish. |
| Edit Operations Describe the metadata editing operations within the application including edit language(s), ability to build/apply templates, duplicate records, reuse portions/snippets of existing metadata, construct parent/child metadata, save incomplete record, batch edit, embed attachments, etc. |
User can download models or existing metadata files from web servers. All common operations are available: save, save as, print, view (HTML view), edit (integrated XML editor) ... The extension also offers the possibility to manage files of responsible parties (contacts). With CSWT services, the user can send its metadata records to a server (tested with Geonetwork 2.7 and 2.10). |
| Customization Describe the ability to customize the application including the ability to change the interface, set conditionality, create new elements, expand/constrict domains, integrate custom thesauri and templates, etc. |
The extension offers multiple possibilities of configuration and customization. Refer to the user manual "4.2 Personalize QSphere" |
| Metadata Management Describe the metadata management capabilities including ability to search metadata record elements or full text, find/replace info, delete records, batch delete, set access restrictions, require administrative record approval, etc. |
The extension does not handle metadata catalogs. The present file search interface in the Web browser can be primitive catalogs metadata records. |
| Metadata Output Format Describe the metadata output formats generated including ISO 19139 XML, non-19139 XML, HTML, PDF, text, RSS, User-defined style sheets, etc. |
Output format : ISO 19139 XML ; HTML ; PDF ; QSP (QSphere Project). |
| Metadata Publication Describe any metadata publication capabilities provided |
CSWT or directly upload to a plateform. |