Metadata fields¶

The editor manages only the following top-level CWL keys. All other top-level entries remain outside the form's model.

Root properties¶

Form section	CWL key	Shape	Notes
Namespace	`$namespaces`	mapping	The form emits `s: https://schema.org/`.
Type	`@type`	string	The form emits `s:SoftwareApplication`.
Name	`s:name`	string	Marked required in the form.
Description	`s:description`	string	Marked required; multiline text is supported.
Creation date	`s:dateCreated`	date string	Marked required; entered as `YYYY-MM-DD`.
Licenses	`s:license`	object or list	One item is represented as an object; multiple items as a list.
Unique identifier	`s:identifier`	string	Optional.
Alternative identifier URLs	`s:sameAs`	string or list	Enter one value per line.
Keywords	`s:keywords`	list	Contains strings and/or `s:DefinedTerm` objects.
Operating systems	`s:operatingSystem`	list	Selected from the bundled list.
Software requirements	`s:softwareRequirements`	list	Enter one runtime, dependency, or URL per line.
Software version	`s:softwareVersion`	string	Marked required; the input expects Semantic Versioning 2.0.0.
Software help	`s:softwareHelp`	list	`s:CreativeWork` objects.
Publisher	`s:publisher`	object	An `s:Organization`.
Authors	`s:author`	list	`s:Person` or role-wrapped person objects.
Contributors	`s:contributor`	list	`s:Person` or role-wrapped person objects.

Required markers are form guidance. Because the document is updated incrementally, an in-progress edit can temporarily contain incomplete metadata. Validate the finished document as part of your normal development checks.

Reusable objects¶

License and software help¶

Both use s:CreativeWork:

'@type': s:CreativeWork
s:identifier: Apache-2.0
s:name: Apache License 2.0
s:url: https://spdx.org/licenses/Apache-2.0.html

License name and URL are filled from the chosen SPDX identifier. A help entry uses s:name and s:url; it normally has no identifier.

Organization¶

Publishers and affiliations use:

'@type': s:Organization
s:name: Example Research Institute
s:email: contact@example.org
s:identifier: https://ror.org/012345678

Only the name is marked required for the publisher and affiliation. Email and identifier are optional.

Person¶

Authors and contributors use:

'@type': s:Person
s:givenName: Ada
s:familyName: Lovelace
s:email: ada@example.org
s:identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000
s:affiliation:
  '@type': s:Organization
  s:name: Example Research Institute

Given name, family name, email, and affiliation name are marked required.

Role-wrapped person¶

When role data is supplied, a person is nested below an s:Role. For an author:

'@type': s:Role
s:roleName: Software
s:startDate: '2025-01-01'
s:author:
  '@type': s:Person
  s:givenName: Ada
  s:familyName: Lovelace
  s:email: ada@example.org

A contributor uses s:contributor inside the role. Role name choices follow the bundled CRediT taxonomy; start date, end date, and additional type are optional.

Defined term¶

Structured GCMD Science keywords use:

'@type': s:DefinedTerm
s:name: ATMOSPHERIC TEMPERATURE
s:description: A controlled science keyword.
s:termCode: example-concept-id
s:inDefinedTermSet: https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concepts/concept_scheme/sciencekeywords

The hierarchical picker fills the term values. They share the s:keywords list with plain keyword strings.

Serialization rules¶

Empty optional values and empty objects are omitted.
s:license and s:sameAs use a scalar/object when there is one value and a list when there are several.
s:operatingSystem, s:softwareRequirements, s:softwareHelp, s:author, and s:contributor are emitted as lists when present.
Duplicate text and Earth Observation keywords are removed case-insensitively after trimming.
Metadata keys are written in the order shown in the root-properties table.