IQSS / IQSS/dataverse-frontend

Display original deposited (rather than ingested) version of tabular files

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Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
31
Forks
26
Avg merge
4d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
4

Description

This feature request is linked to previous discussion going back to 2021 https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/7956 and I am copying text from there.

Overview of the Feature Request
When an ingestable tabular file is deposited (.xlsx, .sav, .dta), the default download format (and the displayed file extension) is the ingested .tab version of the file. The original file format is only available from the File access menu.

I suggest that the deposited file format is better suited as the default download format, with .tab being available through the file access menu.

Also I would suggest changing the drop down menu text to somehow note that the Tab-Delimited and RData formats are automatic conversions so that there is some awareness by users that these files might be missing some formatting that is present in the original file.

And finally I suggest that Dataverse should use .tsv instead of .tab as a more commonly recognized extension for tab-delimited files - see https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/6330

What kind of user is the feature intended for?
(Example users roles: API User, Curator, Depositor, Guest, Superuser, Sysadmin)

What inspired the request?

https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/issues/7956 provided several good reasons deposited file formats are preferable:

  1. The default display of the ingested file is confusing for depositors and users
  2. Frequently, deposit format are richer than the extracted .tab. E.g., Excel files may have additional rich text formatting like colour which makes them easier to ready than their plain text counterparts
  3. In some cases, ingest can cause data loss (e.g. for Excel files with multiple tabs, undesirable as those may be).

Defaulting to the deposited format somewhat mitigates this, even though it is still problematic.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the linked discussions in issues 7956 and 6330, then trace the frontend behavior for tabular-file downloads and displayed extensions. Done means the deposited format is the default, converted Tab-Delimited and RData options are clearly identified, and the requested .tsv extension is used where applicable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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