Contribute to the DSpace Development Fund

The newly established DSpace Development Fund supports the development of new features prioritized by DSpace Governance. For a list of planned features see the fund wiki page.

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Candidate Features for DSpace

Feature Categories

 Features have been grouped into rough "categories" as follows:

  • Structure: Features that relate to the architecture/structure of content within DSpace
  • Administrative: Features which are mostly administrative functions/activities
  • End User: Features relating to how end users interact with the system (deposit, download, search)
  • Integrations: Features which are either used by external systems (or programs) or interact themselves with an external system
  • Stats/Metrics: Features relating to metrics or statistics around content and its usage
Candidate FeatureCategoryExists?
(in some form) 
CoreNon-coreSurvey Average Score*
(10 = high, 1 = low) 

Use Cases

Create / manage files and metadata (as an Item)Structure(tick)x 10.00Create / manage files and metadata (as an Item) 
Community and Collection hierarchy (or generic containers)Structure(tick)  7.37Community and Collection hierarchy (or generic containers)

Create new versions of existing Items

Structure(tick) (disabled by default)  5.92Create new versions of existing Items
Support for derivative objects (e.g. thumbnails, coversheets)Structure(tick) (thumbnails)  6.52Support for derivative objects
Metadata for all levels of object hierarchy (e.g. for Communities and Collections)Structure(error)  6.99Metadata for all levels of object hierarchy
Relationships between objects (e.g. Author items as Authors of an Item rather than textual metadata)Structure(error)  8.17Relationships between objects
Support for hierarchical metadata formats (e.g. METS / MODS)Structure(error)  7.10Support for hierarchical metadata formats (e.g. METS / MODS)
Item approval workflowsAdministrative(tick)  7.88Approval workflows
Item embargo facilityEnd User / Administrative(tick)  8.64Embargo functionality (admin)
Support for flexible licensing, including Creative CommonsEnd User(tick)  8.44 
CRIS functionality
(Current Research Information System: researcher pages and automated publication feeds from external data providers)
End User(add-on available)  5.51 
Search and browse for ItemsEnd User(tick)  9.41 

Easy and intuitive deposit mechanism for users

End User(tick) (arguable)  8.86 

Batch deposit (multiple item deposit via the user interface)

End User(error)  8.59 

Batch download (multiple item download as a single file)

End User(error)  6.91 

Authentication with common single-sign-on systems (e.g. LDAP, Shibboleth)

Integrations(tick)  8.52 

Most configuration takes place via the administrative user interface

Administrative(error)  7.61

Config via Admin UI - Edits to dspace.cfg

Admin UI - Change community/collection parent/child relationship

Admin UI - Run batch load

Admin UI - Run media filters

Template-driven user interface for easy branding

Administrative(error)  7.53Admin UI - Theme templates

User interface and theme management takes place via user interface

Administrative(error)  6.47

Admin UI - Manage input forms

Admin UI - Manage home page

Admin UI - Theme management

Admin UI - Theme templates

Search Engine crawler-friendly user interface

Integrations(tick)  8.91 

Specialised content delivery mechanisms (media players, page turners, document viewers)

End User(error)  6.83 
Content streaming (video player)End User(error)  6.92

 

Basic preservation (fixity checks)Administrative(tick)  8.33

Basic Preservation - Fixity Checking

Basic Preservation - Format identification

Format identification and reportingAdministrative(tick) (simplistic)  7.00

Admin UI - Format reporting

Basic Preservation - Format identification

Advanced preservation services (e.g. format migration)Administrative(error)  6.61Advanced Preservation - Format Migration
Persistent identifiers: handlesIntegrations(tick)  8.32 
Additional external persistent identifiers: DOIs, DataCiteIntegrations(tick)  7.56 
Other external identifiers: ORCIDIntegrations(error)  7.22 
Basic statistics (item access counts, file downloads)Stats/Metrics(tick)  9.03 
Advanced statistics (search terms, geographical locations)Stats/Metrics(tick)  8.13 
AltmetricsStats/Metrics(error)  7.30 
Open Access status tracking and compliance checkingStats/Metrics /
Integrations 
(error)  7.27 
Standard repository machine interfaces (e.g. OAI-PMH, SWORDv2, ResourceSync)Integrations(tick)  8.11 
REST API for building external applicationsIntegrations(tick) (beta)  7.56 

 

Formula for "Survey Average Score"

The "Survey Average Score" represents average score of all respondents for a single feature from the 2013-14 DSpace Vision Survey (Survey results linked off of: DSpace 2013 Vision Discussions)

  • Very Important = 10 points
  • Moderately important = 5 points
  • Not important = 0 points

So, for example, "Community and Collection Hierarchy" had 50 respondents rank it "Very important" (10 points each), 37 rank it "Moderately important" (5 points each), and 6 rank it "Not important" (0 points).

This is an average score of ((10 x 50) + (5 x 37)) / (50 + 37 + 6) = 7.37 average.

A spreadsheet was used to calculate all average scores. See the attached DSpace_Vision_Survey_Feature_Rankings.xls

 

Non-Functional Goals for DSpace

Non-functional GoalUse Cases / Details
Easy to install / deploy
Easy to upgrade
  • "auto-upgrader" option? (script to upgrade, or it auto-upgrades data/configs when you load the new WAR, similar to Atlassian tools)
Scalability / Performance(needs better definition)
Attractive to new developers
  • Opportunities to learn / contribute
  • Good dev/tech documentation
  • Supportive community
Attractive to new Repository/Content Managers
  • Good user documentation
  • Supportive community
  • Usage best practices / guidelines?
Avoid centrally maintaining duplicative codebases/functions
  • Standardize on a single out-of-the-box UI? (other third-party UIs may be offered, but would not be centrally maintained)
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