EAD and Panorama

Here are some tips resulting from work with Panorama at Duke University Special Collections.

1. The following files should be included in the same directory as your SGML finding aid files (named .sgm or .sgml). Most are available at ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/ead/:

ead.dtd        15 Kb    Wed Nov 20 15:19:00 1996
eadsgml.dec
eadbase.ent    101 Kb   Wed Nov 20 15:20:00 1996 
eadchars.ent   8 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:20:00 1996 
eadnotat.ent   11 Kb    Wed Nov 20 15:20:00 1996 
eadtable.ent   12 Kb    Wed Nov 20 15:20:00 1996 
iso-cyr1.ent   4 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-cyr2.ent   1 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-dia.ent    1 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-grk1.ent   3 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-grk2.ent   1 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-grk3.ent   2 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-grk4.ent   2 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-lat1.ent   4 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-lat2.ent   7 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-num.ent    4 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-pub.ent    5 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996 
iso-tech.ent   4 Kb     Wed Nov 20 15:22:00 1996
catalog
entityrc
[stylesheet and navigator files] 

Thus if your EAD SGML files are in C:\findingaids\ (or in unix, ../findingaids/) all the .dtd and .ent files should go into that directory.

The most recent version of the EAD DTD and associated files is Wed Nov 20 1996.

The EAD DTD is composed of several component files: ead.dtd, eadbase.ent, eadchars.ent, eadnotat.ent, and eadtable.ent. The 12 iso-xxxx.ent files provide declarations of entities for diacritical marks, publisher's symbols, mathematics symbols, Greek letters, etc. See step 5 below for changes that will probably need to be made to these files.

 2. Panorama uses two additional files: "catalog" and "entityrc" (they are text files, but do not have filename extensions). The catalog file maps the SGML formal public identifiers to their associated filenames. The entityrc file contains an entry for the EAD formal public identifier which may be used to link the DTD to specific stylesheet and navigator files. These files should go into the same directory as your EAD SGML (.sgm or .sgml) files along with the .dtd and .ent files.

When working with the formal public identifiers, be sure that they match up exactly between files. Think of them as long filenames - a character is off (even a space) the program reading them will not be able to match them up.

Example copies of the catalog and entityrc file may be found at: (Note that some web browsers incorrectly delete tags from the text document - it is best to use Netscape to view):

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/findaids/ead/catalog
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/findaids/ead/entityrc

You don't need to worry about any of the directories which contain the panorama program itself - for example, c:\softquad\panopro. Panorama will pick up the files it needs from where the catalog file instructs it to. In the setup just discussed, this will be the same directory as the sgml files.

3. "stylesheet" and "navigator" files provide the necessary formatting and table of contents window for your files. These files are named .ssh and .nav and should be present in the same directory as your EAD SGML (.sgm or .sgml) files. The stylesheets and navigators may be edited from within Panorama - the program will automatically save changes to the files when updates are made. Please refer to the Panorama documentation for information on working with stylesheets and navigators.

 It is possible to "hardwire" a specific navigator and stylesheet to a document. EAD SGML files are simply text files, so they may be opened in any text editor (Notepad, Wordpad, MSWord, etc.). Within the document itself enter the following lines, replacing the dummy names in brackets, between the EAD FPI (<!DOCTYPE...) and the opening <EAD> tag:

 <!DOCTYPE EAD PUBLIC "-//Society of American Archivists//DTD ead.dtd (Encoded Archival Description (EAD))//EN" "eadtempl.sgm" [ ]>

<?STYLESPEC "[name of your stylesheet]" "[filename.ssh]">
<?NAVIGATOR "[name of your navigator]" "[filename.nav]">
<EAD>

4. In Panorama under options/browser be sure to select Netscape. (This can be a problem in Panorama Version 1.11 [chose help/about to see which version you have] and from reports is the same in Version 2.0)

5. The EAD DTD takes the form of 5 component files: ead.dtd, eadbase.ent, eadchars.ent, eadnotat.ent, and eadtable.ent When using the DTD, SGML software reads the file ead.dtd, which calls in the other files, making the full DTD. The ead.dtd file and associated files are simply text files which may be opened within any text browser. The meat of the EAD DTD (element and attribute definitions) is contained within these associated .ent files. The Panorama program seems to have trouble with the DOCTYPE declaration of the EAD DTD, and sometimes with the process of assembling the components of the DTD.

The following suggestions have come about as a result of much trial-and-error work with Panorama. Any changes made to the EAD DTD *do not* represent an official version of the DTD. It is recommended to create a folder to contain the official EAD DTD and component files as found at the Library of Congress (ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/ead/), and a separate folder to contain the EAD DTD to which modifications have been made. Because the ead.dtd and associated files are text files, they may be opened in any text editor. It is a good idea to place a comment at the top of the ead.dtd file stating the nature of the change, who made it, and the date (placed within comment tags <!-- ... -->).

A. It has been found that the <!DOCTYPE declaration in the file ead.dtd must be commented out. Open the file ead.dtd in a text editor and change the following:

 At the head of the document change:

<!DOCTYPE ead [
to
<!-- <!DOCTYPE ead [ -->

 At the bottom of the document change:

]>
to
<!-- ]> -->

This action effectively hides the DOCTYPE declaration of the document from the software.

If your sgml files contain a DOCTYPE declaration for the EAD DTD, as many do, not commenting out the DOCTYPE declaration in the ead.dtd file usually results in a "Duplicate Doctype" error.

B. If problems with finding the component entities of the EAD DTD (eadbase.ent, eadchars.ent, eadnotat.ent, and eadtable.ent) are still reported by Panorama, it is possible to revise the structure of the ead.dtd file. This involves removing the <!ENTITY declarations in the ead.dtd file which call the other files, copying the contents of the component files and placing them all into the file called ead.dtd. Although this is a major change from the original, the file must still be named "ead.dtd" because that file is what Panorama will search for when opening an EAD document, as instructed by the "catalog" file. As a result it is *very important* to make comments on the revision to differentiate between the official EAD DTD and the modified ead.dtd file. The CONTENTS of the EAD DTD have not been changed by these modifications, only the FORM of the .dtd files. Thus there is always only one EAD DTD. Again it should be noted that these changes are for the purpose of getting the Panorama program to work properly, and do not represent deficiencies with the EAD DTD itself. Please feel free to contact me for more details at sdmiller@acpub.duke.edu

6. Server Issues: In order to set up a directory on a web server for users to access EAD files using panorama, be sure to set the MIME type for files with extensions of .sgm or .sgml to "text/sgml" or "text/x-sgml". Contact your server administrator for help with this.


EAD at Duke