software-versions-processor-lib/docs/index.rst

This library has been initially designed to deposit software artifacts programmatically in Zenodo.

It is actually a general-purpose library capable of analyzing a list of software artifacts (represented by the metadata) and export them.

The library currently offers two exporters:

• ZenodoExporter: deposit the software artifact in Zenodo obtaining a DOI;
• BibLaTeXExporter: export the software artifact in a bib file using the BibLaTeX format.

Other exporters can be easily added in the future by extending the SoftwareVersionExporter class.

The core class of the library is Analyser, which must be initialized with:

• a configuration (JSON Object);
• a list of software artifacts described by their metadata (JSON Array).

The configuration must contain the list of exporters to be used and their configuration parameters. Exporter configuration requires the 'elaboration' property, which can assume the following values (see ElaborationType enumerated):

• ALL: The exporter analyses all the software artifacts;
• UPDATE_ONLY: The exporter analyes only the software artifact to be updated in the target.
• NEW: The exporter analyses only the software artifact that does not yet exist in the target.
• NONE: Does not export the software artifact in the target, but each software artifact is elaborated for the exporting without effectively doing it. It is a dry run.

The exporters are executed in the order they are defined. An exporter could produce metadata obtained by the exporting phase (e.g., the obtained Zenodo DOI). The input metadata + the metadata generated by an exporter are made available to the subsequent.

At the end of the exporting phase, the library produces the actual output of all the software artifact metadata.

Moreover, the configuration can optionally include an arbitrary set of metadata used as metadata default for all software artifacts defined in the list.

The list of software artifacts can contain an arbitrary set of metadata. It is the exporter logic that uses certain metadata, among others.

While analyzing each software artifact, the Analyser set the previous to the exporter. Relating the artifact with the previous one is helpful if an exporter needs to link them. It is in charge of the exporter's logic of eventually connecting them under specific metadata values used as conditions.

The library dynamically calculates the value of metadata to elaborate using the following essential features:

• A property can contain the value of another property indicated as a variable using the referred property name;
• The library merges the metadata of the software artifact with the metadata defined in the configuration;
• The library calculates the final metadata values, replacing the variables only after merging the properties.

The following example show an example of configuration

../src/test/resources/gcat-test-sandbox.json