ia2

Import a Vocabulary

1. You must have Maintainer privileges to import a Vocabulary to ia2.
2. From the Main page, click ia2 under the Maintenance section.
3. The ia2 page displays a list of Genre Types and a toolbar section for importing Vocabularies to ia2.
4. The list of Importing types are:
   1. Import: Click on the Import button from the top toolbar. An Import Vocabulary box will appear on the same screen. Browse for the file you want to import and click Import.
   2. Import Third party Vocabulary: Click on the Import Third Party Vocabulary button from the top toolbar. The Import Vocabulary box will appear on the same screen. Browse for the file you want to import and click Import.
   3. Import Information Architect Vocabulary: Click on the Import Information Architect Vocabulary button from the top toolbar. The Import Architect Vocabulary box will appear on the same screen. Select the genre of the ia2 vocabulary from the Dropdown menu and assign a name for the vocabulary in the Vocabulary Name field. Browse for the file you want to import and click Import.

Creating a New Vocabulary

1. You must have Maintainer privileges to import a Vocabulary to ia2.
2. From the Main page, click ia2 under the Maintenance section.
3. The ia2 page displays a list of Genre Types and a toolbar section for importing Vocabularies to ia2.
4. Click on the Vocabulary genre you want to create.  The genre vocabulary screen will open. In this example we are using Authority file.
5. On the Main Tool bar click New. The New Vocabulary form will appear on the right side of the screen. The form entry fields are designed so you can capture enough useful information about a vocabulary to assist others to understand the vocabulary and its purpose.
6. Only Title is mandatory. You don't have to fill in the other various descriptive fields but it is highly recommended.
   1. Exchange Language: The default is English. Choose the exchange language (the base language) you want to use to create this vocabulary. For example you can make the base language Hindi, and if you wanted English translations you can use linguistic equivalents.
   2. Title:(Mandatory) Title is the only mandatory field. Title can be verbose and descriptive. Titles do not have to be unique except for user understanding. Title is editable, but must always be there.
   3. Creator:(Optional) Generally this will be your organization, or a person in your organization if you want to identify the vocabulary maintainer.
   4. Description:(Optional) Vocabularies are often abstract constructions. Give a verbose description of why the vocabulary exists, what it has been designed for, and possibly how and where it is to be used.
   5. Date:(Optional) You can set an appropriate date here depending on your requirements.
   6. Subject:(Optional) You can provide classification metadata if it is appropriate.
   7. Source:(Optional) If you are using an existing vocabulary you may want to put the source information for reference. This can be a URL.
   8. Identifier:(Optional) You may want to provide a formal unique identifier for your vocabularies. This can be useful if you are sharing or selling vocabularies to other organizations. 
   9. Sort by: Must be a selection. Select from sort by Code, Term Name or Sort Value. For simple vocabularies Term Name is the most common.
   10. Status:(Not in use) This is reserved for inclusion of a future workflow module.
   11. Approved:(Not in use) This is reserved for inclusion of a future workflow module.
7. When your form is filled to your satisfaction, click Save. Your vocabulary will be created and will appear in the Genre Vocabulary list. You can edit all properties at any time in the future.
8. Click Cancel to close the form without saving.
9. You can edit your Vocabulary form at any time and change any of the values. Because the connection APIs use UIDs (Unique ID's), no external interfaces will be affected by any form changes.
10. You are now ready to start entering terms into your vocabulary.

Selecting Term Sort Methods

When you create a vocabulary you may need it to present the terms in a specific order for the easiest possible use. There are many cases where the natural alpha-numeric sort of terms is not ideal. Sort by: provides three sort options.

1. Term name
2. Code
3. Sort Value

Sorting by term name

If you select sort by term, the Term string is used to present the list. This is the usual default for Authority files and Glossaries, but may not be suitable for taxonomies and thesauruses.

An IGP:Information Architect 2 term consists of three parts.

1. Term:(Mandatory) This is usually a word or phrase.
2. Code:(Optional) Where a term has a related code, this can be associated with the descriptive term.
3. Qualifier: Where terms are similar or synonomous the qualifier can be used to clarify ambiguity.

Sorting by Code

If a vocabulary term includes a code value, this is usually the preferred sorting method. This can be very common in subject classification schemes. A well known example is the Dewey Decimal system. Eg. 3. Social Sciences, 33. Economics, 339. Macro-economics and related topics.

Sorting by Sort Value

For some vocabularies you want explicit control over how terms are presented to the end user. You can choose Sort by: Sort Value. You will then have to include a sort value in each term as you enter the data. It is your responsiblity to define the sort value for any particular vocabulary.

For example days of the week alpha sorted is not a user friendly list:

• Friday  
• Monday   
• Saturday   
• Sunday   
• Tuesday  
• Thursday  
• Wednesday   

In the following list, the sort value is shown in parenthesis after each term. If you create the sort value and apply Sort by: Sort Values. The list will be presented in the ISO week sequence like this.

• Monday    (1)
• Tuesday    (2)
• Wednesday    (3)
• Thursday    (4)
• Friday    (5)
• Saturday    (6)
• Sunday    (7)

If your term lists have more than 10 items you must use leading zero's on the sort term. For example:

01, 02, 03..... 10, 11, 12..... 98, 99

001, 002, 003, ... 099, 100, ... 998, 999

Sort Values can be any value

Sort values can be any alpha-numeric combination. You are not restricted to numerical sequences.

Also sort values do not have to be sequential. You can use for example: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50; or, AB, BC, DE, DEF, EG; and the sort will still come out in order.

Sort Values work by Leaf

If you have a taxonomy or thesaurus sort values work at the leaf level, not over the entire vocabulary. Therefore, you can have one sort value for your category terms and another for the narrower terms.