csv-nuds

csv-nuds is a proof-of-concept for a workflow to convert from numismatic data in spreadsheets to NUDS, a specification from Nomisma.org. (Pronunced "N.U.D.S.").

Once the data is in NUDS format it can be loaded into Numishare or other software that handles the NUDS format.

A lot of numismatic data is stored in relational databases or spreadsheets. Many of these formats make it easy to export to flat CSV files. Those files are easy to manipulate manually or with scripts.

The idea behind csv-nuds is to export all the data currently in flat files and databases and produce XML that is valid to the NUDS schema. NUDS data can be loaded into Numishare or as an interchange format between different systems.

Tutorial / Regenerating NUDS from tutorial sample data

Install Go

Execute go run csv2nuds.go zeno data/zeno.csv data/every-zeno.csv to convert 20 records from an ad-hoc CSV file into 20 NUDS XML files.

Note: This data was manually scraped from https://zeno.ru/. It's just 20 random Khusru II drachms. If anyone has public-domain or Creative Commons numismatic data in CSV format please let me know.

Applying NUDS to a Numishare server

Generated NUDS can be be sent to Numishare with a script like this:

EXIST_HOST=localhost:8888
COLLECTION=collection1
EXIST_USER=admin
EXIST_PASSWORD=
for filename in zeno/*.xml; do
   curl -v --user "$EXIST_USER":"$EXIST_PASSWORD" http://"$EXIST_HOST"/exist/rest/db/"$COLLECTION"/objects/ --upload-file "$filename"
done

Limitations of the convert / questions about how to represent

In addition to writing the data the tool currently outputs

no handler for field 1 ("url"); ignoring
no handler for field 3 ("date"); ignoring
no handler for field 11 ("reporterUrl"); ignoring
unimplemented metal: "silver washed AE"
unimplemented metal: "Tin-zinc alloy"

I'll like make the Zeno reporterUrl into an <acknowledgement>. (I originally considered <copyrightHolder> (even though it might not be), or perhaps <owner>). None of these appear in Numishare (at this time.)
I am not sure what to make the Zeno url into. Zeno itself might be a <collection> (but of images, not coins). There should be some kind of way to refer/link to another representation of the same object, but I don't know it.
The Zeno category (not currently in the CSV) will become a <department>. There will be thousands of them.
Numishare has <material xlink:href="http://nomisma.org/id/sn" xlink:type="simple">Tin</material> but nothing for a Tin-zinc alloy.
I don't know how to represent "silver washed AE"

For comparison between this tool's output and "real NUDS", an example Sasanian drachm in the ANS collection can be fetched from their server.

curl http://numismatics.org/collection/1922.999.73.xml > data/1922.999.73.xml

My goal is for this tool to produce XML with a similar level of complexity.

Implementation

I was unable to generate language bindings from http://nomisma.org/nuds.xsd so I have created a simple subset of NUDS by hand.

I have custom code to move data from named columns in CSV files into NUDS.

Testing

We test the code with go test -v ./...