Installing MetacatUI locally to use with a remote DataONE Coordinating Node

Step 1. Clone MetacatUI

• Clone the MetacatUI git repository:

git clone https://github.com/NCEAS/metacatui.git

Step 2. Configure MetacatUI

For MetacatUI v2.12.0 and later

MetacatUI will work out-of-box without a configuration file, but if you have customized any part of the Metacat installation process, you may need to configure MetacatUI.

Create a configuration Javascript file, config.js, and define a MetacatUI.AppConfig JS object that contains all of your custom AppConfig values. See the AppConfig documentation to see all available config options.

A quick-start config.js could look like:

MetacatUI.AppConfig = {
  //The path to the root location of MetacatUI, i.e. where index.html is
  root: "/",
  //Your Google Maps API key, for map features
  mapKey: "YOUR-GOOGLE-MAPS-KEY",
  //Choose the dataone theme, which is already set up with all the CN values
  theme: "dataone",
};

Change the appConfigPath in index.html to the location where you will be deploying your config.js file.

...
<script type="text/javascript">
  // The path to your configuration file for MetacatUI. This can be any web-accessible location.
  var appConfigPath = "https://my-repo.org/config.js";
</script>
...

For MetacatUI v2.11.5 and earlier

See the config documentation for MetacatUI 2.11.5 and earlier but make the following adjustments to Step 1 (index.html):

• Set the data-theme to dataone.
• Remove the value of data-metacat-context since DataONE CN URLs do not have a metacat directory

MetacatUI 2.12.0+ can still be configured via index.html like it used to, but that will be deprecated in future releases. It’s recommended that MetacatUI be configured via an external config.js file in v 2.12.0 and later.

Step 3. Set up a web server

Follow Step 2 from the “Installing MetacatUI locally for development” instructions to configure a web server on your local machine, or follow the Apache configuration instructions if you already have Apache installed.

Step 4. DONE!

Go to the installed web location in your web browser (e.g. if you used the Express server above, your install location is http://localhost:3000) and you’re ready to use MetacatUI!

Troubleshooting

See the installation troubleshooting page.