Morpho

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Morpho

• KNB Data Management Tools Workshop
• Samantha Romanello
• Long Term Ecological Research
• University of New Mexico

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Wednesday September 29th

• 830-900 Introduction to Morpho (S Romanello)
• 900-1000 Basic Morpho features (S Romanello)
• 1000-1030 Break
• 1030-1100 Tree Editor (Dan Higgins)
• 1100-1130 Saving to the network/access control
  (S Garg)
• 1130-1200 Searching for data (C Jones)
• 1200-130 Lunch
• 130-230 Hands on session (S Romanello)
• 230-300 Break
• 300-430 Con't hands-on session (S Romanello)
• 430-530 Facilitated group discussion (S
  Romanello)

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Introduction to Morpho

• KNB Data Management Tools Workshop
• Samantha Romanello
• Long Term Ecological Research
• University of New Mexico

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Introduction to Morpho

• What it is, What it does, and How it works

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Morpho

• Is a data management software tool for
  ecologists.

http//knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/morpho/
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http//knb.ecoinformatics.org/morphoportal.jsp
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Morpho

• is a cross-platform, desktop application that
  allows the ecologist to create and organize
  metadata and data and to store that information
  either locally or on a shared network server.

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http//knb.ecoinformatics.org/morphoportal.jsp
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Morpho

• Both the data and the metadata can then be
  searched and retrieved, either locally or from
  the network.
• was created through the KNB project

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Morpho

• provides a way for ecologists to share data by
  defining a common structure to document their
  data
• uses an XML format to create the common
  structure.

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So basically, Morpho is an xml editor

• But what is xml?

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Xml eXtensible Markup Language

• is a programming language that enables designers
  to create their own tags to indicate specific
  information.
• It provides format for structured documents and
  data via the web

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XML

• Like html, xml uses a system of coded tags
  ltxxxgt..lt/xxxgt
• Whereas html defines the look and feel of text,
  xml defines the content.

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XML vs. Eml

• xml can define any content
• Morpho is designed for ecologists
• this xml format has been structured for
  ecological data and is called EML or Ecological
  Metadata Language.

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Morpho allows you to create edit metadata

• without writing EML codes or remembering the
  structure of EML and the five classes of Metadata
  descriptors

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Editing metadata using Morpho

• Data set descriptors
• Research origin descriptors
• Data set status and accessibility
• Data structural descriptors
• Supplemental descriptors

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Additionally Morpho allows you to

• Search query metadata collections
• View data data collections
• Edit data
• Provide access control

Through the Metacat server
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Metacat

• is a XML database that allows storage, query, and
  retrieval documents

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So as you now have a basic understanding of Morpho

• What it is
• What it does
• How it works

You will now have an opportunity to explore some
of Morphos Basic Features