Advice on Uploading Versions of XML Files

We are using TAPAS in this project (and future projects) as our primary way of publishing TEI data. Because we’re not sure how TEI data will transform in TAPAS, this means we have to create an XML file, upload it and related files, and then make edits that will take full advantage of the standard transformation you have created in TAPAS. This will be an iterative process. We envision multiple uploads along the way in order to get to our ideal display. We are trying now to decide the best way forward. Should we create multiple records within our collection (essentially retaining until the final moment all of the early drafts)? Or, would it be better to delete/replace the XML files within a collection as we make edits? We are tracking all changes in our github for the project, so we don’t need TAPAS to help us with versioning, but it also seems like we might be inviting bugs when trying to overwrite already uploaded and transformed files. Here’s what we’ve done so far: We had the initial version (with the TEI header issue) then substituted (removed files uploaded new file) that with a version that had a TEI header and the transformation worked after one refresh of the page. We then began to make some encoding changes like the pointer on the tag (to try to make images display) and tried to just substitute the newer version for the older version within the same record. When we did this the associated XML file shows the changes, but the XML view version shows no change. We then tried to make a new record with the updated XML version and a few auxiliary files to see if this would solve the problem. Currently we are seeing the error “Could not find a TAPAS Generic representation of this object.Please retry in a few minutes.” in the TAPAS generic view. When we toggle over to the XML view it gives the error “Could not find TEI associated with this file. Please retry in a few minutes and contact an administrator if the problem persists.” This is the same error that showed when the XML file was missing its TEI header, but this new file is not missing a TEI header. Knowing all this, would you recommend that we proceed by replacing files, uploading new records when we make changes to files, or some other option that we haven’t thought of?
ben_admin's picture

Hi, Anna,

I'll do my best to answer questions raised here:

TAPAS for Version Control: TAPAS doesn't facilitate versioning, so using Git is smart in this regard. While we would love to support such a process, it's a significant build and we don't have plans to develop version control in the near future.

Updating Your TAPAS Record: Your TAPAS Records are intended to support the use case you describe here, i.e., the ability to create and maintain a record over time, changing out its associated xml and support files as they are updated by the user/project. You can of course create new records to model or record versioning of a TEI file if you choose, say if you wanted to show frontend researchers your encoding process over time, but each record would reflect that process (e.g., via file description, publishing timestamps, contributors, etc.)

"Could not find a TAPAS Generic representation of this object.Please retry in a few minutes": this is a generic system notification to frontend user on record display. In almost all cases this notification occurs when a record is first created and/or updated. The short explanation here is that the TAPAS system takes some time to process, store, and transform you TEI file upon upload. We are working on improved, more intelligible / descriptive system notifications.

In almost all cases, if the user refreshes browser after about a minute, the system will have finished processing the file. If you continue to see this message, be sure you have cleared your browser cache. If that doesn't work, it may be that the system has stalled, which occasionally happens and I believe is what is happening in this particular case.

I have contacted our support team about your record to see if it is in fact stalled. Will update you as soon as it is available.