Automatic ingestion

The goal of this programmed task is to be able to create and start ingestion jobs automatically, not needing to access the control web interface to create the associated ingestion job or to press the Start button, once the information has been copied into the ingestion folder.

Automatic ingestion has a directory as a starting point. The directory path is configured initially during the installation process and, later on, the systems administrator will be able to change the path.

Within this directory, the automatic process will generate one directory per each existing preservation area (that is active). Inside every preservation area directory, we have to create the ingestion job folders, keeping in mind that:

• The creation of an ingestion job folder in a preservation area directory will be sufficient condition (initially) for the creation of an ingestion job in said preservation area.

• The folder created inside the area directory will be taken as an ingestion folder (by means of the web interface, we can create a folder with a name type ‘INGXXXXXXX”, where we can deposit the objects). The name given is not important, since the process will end up renaming the folder, web interface-style. The objects that we wish to ingest will have to be deposited in this folder.

• In order to avoid ingestion job problems created without all the objects needed, we must add a blocking suffix to the ingestion job folder. The automatic process will recognize the blocking suffix and will ignore the folder.

To create an automatic ingestion job:

• Access the configured base directory and, once inside, access the preservation area directory where we want to create an ingestion job.

• Create a folder where we can deposit the ingestion job objects. For the automatic process to ignore the ingestion job folder until the copying of all the objects is over, the name of the folder has to end with the blocking suffix, as follows: ‘ingestion folder.blocking suffix’.

• Copy the objects we want to add to the ingestion job.

• Once the objects are copied, rename the ingestion folder, eliminating “.blocking suffix” from the name of the folder.

• Close the folder. The automatic ingestion folder will start within a period of time that will depend on how said process was configured.

Note: both the path to the base directory and to the blocking suffix are configurable. It is the systems administrator responsibility to manage said variables. Contact him/her if you need information about that, or contact the LIBNOVA consultants, who may also be able to advise you.

The automatic ingestion process carries out a series of basic checks on the ingestion folder, prior to the start of the creation of an automatic ingestion job. If the process does not pass these validations correctly, its default behavior will be as follows:

• If the folder happened to be empty, the process will delete the folder (in order to clean up the directory)

• If the folder contains files, the process will rename the folder with the blocking suffix (in order to avoid having to process the folder again).