Manual entity creation is performed through a web based application implementing a wizard-like process that guides the user through the necessary steps for the creation of a new entity in the ENS. Below you can find a description of the all the step necessary to complete manual entity creation:
1. Edit entity description.
The user has first to select an entity type in the drop down menu on the top left of the window. This action loads the set of default attributes for the selected entity type. In the example, the type selected is "Organization". The user must then edit the attribute values that considers important and for which has information. The user can add an arbitrary number of attributes. When the description is complete, the user must click on "Next" button on the bottom right of the page.
2. Refine Attribute with Value ID (veid)
The user can refine the attribute used to describe the entity by assigning the identifier of the entity descrivbed by the value of the attribute. In the picture above, the user is trying to refine the attribute with value "USA" by assigning to the attribute value the entity identifier of the entity representing the United States of America. This is done to make less ambiguous the entity description. The user must click on the "okkamize" button, and select the entity corresponding to the refined attribute. When the process is complete, the user must click on the button "Next" on the bottom right of the page.
3. Edit Alternative Ids
In this part, the user can add Alternative Identifiers for the entity under creation. When the process is complete, the user must click on the button "Next" on the bottom right of the page.
4. Edit External References
In this part, the user can add external references in which the entity he wants to create is mentioned. An external reference must be a valid URL. When the process is complete, the user must click on the button "Next" on the bottom right of the page.
5. Validate Entity Description
Before creating an entity, the user must validate the entity description defined so far. The validation process includes a "duplication check" verification and "entity description quality analysis". In order to be valid an entity must be unique, namely not already existing in the repository, and must also satisfy certain quality costraints. The entity validation does not constrain the user to create the entity. After validation, the user can move back in the previous steps of the wizard and further edit the description. If the duplication check retrieved entities that are similar to the one under creation, but are not the same, then the user can repeat the validation process ignoring the duplication check part. If the entity is valid, the "Create entity" button on the bottom right of the page is enabled, and the user can complete the entity creation. If the user finds that the entity he wanted to create already exists in the repository, can simply select or chose to edit the entity.
6. Entity Creation Complete
If the entity creation is completed successfully, this the page visualized.
If the validation process duplication check found that the entity under creation was already existing in the repository, then the user can either select it and complete the process or decide to edit the entity description. Please notice that a normal user is allowed only to append new attributes to the new entity description, and not edit existing one.
The editing of the entity description follows the same steps as above. Also the editing of the entity can be completed only if passes the validation step.
At this point, if the validation procedure finds further duplicates of the edited entity, the user can choose of merge the two candidates.
The user must select the attributes that are going to compose the new merging entity, and the merge the entity description.
If the entity merge is completed successfully, the end of the process will be the following, and the oid of the merged entity is returned.
