Deleting records
Using the Manage My Records screen
Data Source Administrators can use the Manage My Records screen in the ANDS production system to delete any records visible in that screen (any records except records published more than 7 days earlier). This functionality is available from September 2011.
For more information see the ORCA Assessment Workflow Technical Guide (PDF)
For published records not visible in the Manage My Records screen, use the methods below.
Manually entered records
If you entered the record into the Registry using the Register My Data manual interface, delete it by logging in to ANDS Online Services, navigating to the record using the 'Search' function, opening the record and using the Delete button at the bottom of the page. You will only have authorisation to delete records for which you are the Data Source Administrator.
Harvested records
If the record was harvested into the Registry, then you will first need to remove the record from the harvest point at your institution. If you just delete the record from the Registry, the next time ANDS harvests your records the record will appear in the Registry again.
OAI-PMH delete method
Previously if you needed to remove a record from the ANDS Registry it could only be deleted by logging in as a Data Source Administrator, finding the record and manually deleting it, or by manually clearing all the records for a data source and reharvesting.
Release 6 (30 June 2011) included an enhancement to the ANDS harvester that enables the processing of OAI-PMH deletes. This allows data providers exposing their records via an OAI-PMH repository to remove specific records from the ANDS registry by marking them as deleted.
To make use of this functionality, data providers with OAI-PMH repositories will need to ensure that deleted records are identified in their sets by including the attribute status="deleted" in the header element for each deleted record. These records will be removed from the ANDS registry next time a harvest for your data source is run.
Example of a deleted record using OAI-PMH delete (illustrative example):
<record>
<header status="deleted">
<identifier>AODN:11363e7f-7753-4aba-a0d1-d721558514eb</identifier>
<datestamp>2011-04-12T06:25:02Z</datestamp>
<setSpec>class:collection</setSpec>
<setSpec>group:Australian0x20Ocean0x20Data0x20Network</setSpec>
<setSpec>dataSource:aodn.org.au</setSpec>
</header>
...
</record>
Delete all and re-harvest method
This method is not recommended; please discuss with your Client Liaison Officer before using this method. Deleting all records and reharvesting may have the following adverse impacts:
- requiring complete reindexing of all records, with resulting load on ANDS systems
- altering timestamps that may be used to determine which records are new (resulting in large indigestible sets of records appearing in future 'what's new' lists or possible future RSS feeds)
- possibly breaking record linkages if the reharvested records don't use persistent keys
- preventing the collection of meaningful usage statistics for your Data Source
If it is essential to use this method, delete the unwanted records from your harvest point, then log in to ANDS Online Services, navigate to your Data Source record, use the Delete button to clear all the records from your Data Source from the Registry, then select the Import button to trigger a new harvest.
| Date | Change history |
| 26 October 2010 | First web publication |
| 13 July 2011 | Added information about OAI-PMH delete |
| 27 Sept 2011 | Added information about using Manage My Records screen in production to delete records, adverse impacts of complete reharvests |
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