2025-05-15 Metadata Management Meeting notes

Announcements

No announcements.

Reporting App demo

@Sharon Markus

@Scott Perry (regrets)

Felix: Back in March, the MM SIG discussed reporting over two meetings. The conclusion was that the MM SIG has a lot of reporting needs, and Jennifer created a reporting spreadsheet for use cases.

Sharon Markus co-convener for the Reporting SIG presented on the FOLIO Reporting app.

• Mike Taylor from Index Data is the main developer of the Reporting app, and he has put together a lot information.

• What is FOLIO Reporting?Preview – this page is work in progress. Sharon Markus and Scott Perry are working on a presentation for WOLFcon that will cover information found on this page. They are also working on training sessions.

Metadb

• The Reporting app is using MetaDB behind the scenes. It is the source for the reports you can run in the Reporting app. The synchronization between data in Metadb and Report app is continuous.

• Metadb sits on a PostgreSQL database. Besides the Reporting app, you can use Metadb to run SQL queries, and you can run it against other reporting applications, such as Tableau and PowerBi.

• Metadb groups FOLIO data into schemas and tables. Most data from FOLIO is extracted as columns. DBeaver is the most common application used by libraries to develop queries and deliver reports. However, any reporting application that can use a PostgreSQL database works with Metadb.

Examples of what Metadb can do:

• MetaDB can do reports on MARC fields using a SQL statement.

• It can also do cross-app queries, e.g. connecting Inventory data with Orders data.

• Data can be imported into Excel.

• Cornell stores their previous ILS’s data in Metadb, which can be queried.

Reporting App

• When your run the Reporting app, you are running queries against the Metadb database.

Tools available

• Build a query: Build, save, and export results using Metadb. It contains schemas in your Metadb database.

• Load query: Run and export results from saved queries using Metadb. It contains queries created in Build a query that were saved.

• Run report: Run a SQL query from a GitHub Repository and export results. To create a report for the Reporting app, you need to create a SQL file and a JSON file. The JSON file creates the parameters for the report. SQL queries in the SQL file must be set up as functions.

Settings in FOLIO

• Under “Reporting”, you can set record display limits, set up the Metadb connection, and connect to GitHub repositories. You can also restrict which tables are available in the Reporting app.

Cornell recommends rolling out the app slowly and to be sure to do a lot of testing.

Questions

• Q: Is the Reporting app running against FOLIO data or Metadb? A: It is running against Metadb data.

• Q: Can the FOLIO reporting app hook into any other data source? A: Not sure, but if it uses Postgres it might be possible. Sharon will ask Index Data about it.

• Q: How do you determine which table to select in the Build query tool in the Reporting app? A: You are able to see the columns for the schema selected in this tool.

• Q: Are there plans to enhance reporting capabilities inside of FOLIO? A lot of people don’t have access to MetaDB or LDLite. Also people might not be familiar with the table names and attributes, but more with the labels that are displayed in the UI. A: The Reporting app is part of platform-complete and therefore a FOLIO app that is part of the Flower releases.

  • For libraries who are not self-hosting they have to license MetaDB as well, which can be a cost issue and blocker.

  • Writing SQL queries can also be a barrier for using reporting.

• Q: Are there lab sessions like the Data Import SIG has? A: The Reporting SIG often discuss, demo, and troubleshoot queries. Reporting SIG is focused on query development, and you can reach out on Slack for help with queries.

• Here is the link to the onboarding videos: https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/RPT/pages/4490908/Joining+the+Reporting+SIG

Further information provided by Sharon after the meeting:

Here are links related to the Reporting App, Metadb training, Reporting SIG, etc. along with information about connecting it to other data sources. Feel free to reach out if there are additional questions.

Can the FOLIO reporting app hook into any other data source?

The FOLIO Reporting App can only hook into a Metadb reporting database or an LDP reporting database. Mike Taylor, Reporting App developer at Index Data, explains that "mod-reporting [the Reporting App software] depends on specific properties of the reporting database, for queries that determine (for example) whether it’s MetaDB or LDP Classic. And more fundamental queries like how to interpret the SQL reports. And indeed how to determine what tables exist."

Reporting App

General Information on Reporting App:

https://ramsons.docs.folio.org/docs/reporting/reporting-app/

Reporting App development:

https://github.com/folio-org/mod-ldp

There is a cookbook in the folio-analytics wiki that provides the basics for writing reports for the Reporting App:

https://github.com/folio-org/folio-analytics/wiki/Cookbook:-User-Defined-Function 

Metadb

General Information on Metadb

https://ramsons.docs.folio.org/docs/reporting/

Introduction to Metadb Training

• Part 1: Moving to Metadb  (skip ahead to 42 minutes)

• Part 2: Moving to Metadb  (skip ahead to 42 minutes)

Metadb Documentation from Index Data

https://metadb.dev/doc/#_user_guide

Metadb Report Samples from Reporting SIG

https://github.com/folio-org/folio-analytics/tree/main/sql_metadb/report_queries

Metadb Report Samples from Cornell

https://github.com/cul-it/cul-folio-analytics

Library Data Platform Governance

https://librarydataplatform.org/governance/

Reporting SIG

The Reporting SIG meets the first 4 Mondays of every month at 11am ET. All are welcome!

Slack Channels to Join for More information/Questions

• folio-reporting-general on OLF slack

• folio-metadb-general on OLF slack

• All the channels on the Metadb slack

Product Council updates

Charlotte Whitt

2025-05-15 Tri-Council Meeting notesPreview

This was a tri-council meeting (CC, PC, and TC).

1. FY26 Budget draft presented. Discussed the AWS cost.

2. CC updates. PC updates. TC updates.

3. In person meeting for Council chairs in Washington in March 2025

4. Elections for the councils are coming up. Members who will be OLF members as of 2026 are eligible for elections. Election nomination is now open. See the #general channel and the councils channel. Nomination will be running until 6/6/2025. Election will begin 6/9/2025 and run until 6/27/2025.

5. Main topic: Extended support of the Ramsons release beyond Trillium release. The CC and PC have approved the Eureka timeline document with the caviat that the Early Adopters of Eureka were comfortable. And that’s not the case (yet). Jeremy Huff (TAMU) and member of the Early Adopters of Eureka group. What TAMU, Index Data, and GBV has set up, is not yet ready to be running libraries in production. Probably not until Q1 2026. Ramsons support will run out when Trillium is released (11/10/2025). Jeremy presented a proposal of the Community Driven Development team, which could continue the support of Ramsons beyond the 11/10/2025. The conversation to be continued.

Here is link to the meeting recording.

BELA (Bulk Edit and Lists App)

Jennifer Eustis

No meeting this week.

Data Import Working Group

Jennifer Eustis

2025-05-14 Data Import Subgroup Meeting NotesPreview

The Convenors will be presenting at the Product Council meeting on May 29th. A new space for Data Import SIG is ready. We’re waiting on final approval from PC before moving documentation.
We are in the process of scheduling a time for a cross SIG meeting with the Acquisitions group to go over MARC orders including demos, what works, and what has been challenging. We are also thinking of dedicating a session on edifact files with this group.

Our priorities will be based on votes in JIRA. You can use the DI SIG Dashboard to help see those issues.