NASA’s Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Next Generation Website

Abstract: 

NASA’s Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) new web site offers advanced search refinement capabilities. Users can navigate the comprehensive GCMD keyword taxonomy through a "tree" structure and perform free text, spatial, and temporal searches within the same query. In response to each refinement, the interface displays the keywords in a dynamically updating window, where keyword are displayed as broader terms at the top with each subsequent level revealing a narrower term. As the user further refines the query, terms unrelated to the search drop out while the number of records matching the query (displayed to the right of each keyword) inform the user exactly how many records match that term. The user can browse the data set and data services titles that match the query in the right hand window and view the detailed metadata.

New Features:

  • Filter option to rapidly identify keywords that match the filter criteria and eliminate unrelated keywords in the keyword "tree"
  • Offers keyword suggestions in the free text refinement
  • Dynamically generated "hit counts" in response to each search refinement
  • Functionality to withdraw individual refinements from a query in order to broaden search
  • Integration of the GCMD’s Metadata Web Service (MWS) and Keyword Management Service (KMS) RESTful web services with all search interfaces and docBUILDER
  • Searchable ancillary metadata descriptions of Platforms, Instruments, Data Centers, and Projects
  • View more than one metadata record at the same time in inline popup windows
  • Enhanced Map/Date search interface
  • Improvements to the user interface based on feedback from the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) usability study and user input
  • Modifications to ensure compliance with U.S. Federal Government electronic and information technology accessibility laws
Collaboration Area: 
Images: 
Reference: 
http://gcmd.nasa.gov/
Author(s): 

Name: Tyler Stevens
Organization(s):
Email: [email protected]