Thursday, November 09, 2006
DLF: JHOVE2
In a separate post, I've covered other events at the Digital Library Federation forum today. This is about the subject which I actually know something about: JHOVE. Since this was a public forum, it gives me a chance to talk about where we are without inadvertently saying anything that shouldn't be public yet. Stephen Abrams led the discussion. I wasn't officially on the panel, but jumped in a lot. You're allowed to do things like that when you wrote almost all the code.
JHOVE is being used quite a bit among digital libraries to identify and validate file formats. But having gotten this use, it's showing where it needs improvement. Once the project for the next version starts up -- it's still waiting for money -- there will be a lot of added features to make users happier. Here is a sampling:
- Making modules more consistent in design, and easier to subclass. This should make it much easier to create third-party modules.
- Plug-in support of non-JHOVE modules, and in particular, of the NLNZ Metadata Extraction Tool.
- Separation of identification from validation. Currently, if a TIFF file is defective, JHOVE throws up its hands and says it doesn't know what kind of file it is, even if the defect is minor.
- More persistent analysis. Most existing JHOVE modules give up at the first error.
- Greater customizability. It will be possible to make JHOVE disregard particular types of defects, and to control what gets reported as metadata.
- The ability to handle multiple formats within a file, and multiple files which form a single representation.
- A mechanism for open-source collaboration. JHOVE is currently open source, but there's no mechanism, other than sending us email, to submit code changes.
- Greater ease of integration into applications.
- Integration with the upcoming Global Digital Format Registry (which Stephen also discussed today).
- Use of Java 5, hopefully gaining efficiency by using the nio package.
It's mapped out as a two-year project. I hope it'll start up soon; I'd love to get back to being a "wizard of files and formats."
Labels: JHOVE
