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Since the Editor is working with Cookies, it is advised to use a browser with the option of an incognito mode, or otherwise the saved cookies could start to cause problems. Once the PATRIMONIVM-Editor has been set up in accordance to the needs of your project (please see "Customizing the PATRIMONIVUM-Editor" on SSHOM) , you go to the “eStudium” frontpage and select “eStudium. A virtual research environment for Historians” (picture 1), where you press “Log in” in the upper right corner. After having logged in you will see that on the spot the “Log in” button has been, there now is the name of your user-profile (picture 2). Click on the name and then select “Places manager” if you want to set up a new corpus (you can create as many corpora as needed), or on “Corpus” if you already have set one up. After clicking on “Corpus” you will see a list of all available corpora on the left side. Enter the corpus you want to work on by clicking on it. The content of the selected one will then be shown in the middle of the screen (picture 3). To fill the corpus with entries, you have to create them by clicking on the blue bordered “+New document” icon, which opens a small window, where you first select a template, meaning you set to which corpus the newly created entry is attributed to, and also give it a title (you can correct and even change the title later from within the entry) and then create the document. Once you have created the first document, it will be added to the list in the center. Each document has an intern ID linked to the corpus it belongs to, but the title is what will be visible in the online publication. Beside “Titel” and “ID” the information of the entries displayed in the corpus overview is customizable too. To edit an entry, you have to click on the small blue icon of a pen writing on a block, which appears at the end of the given title, which will open the document in a new browser tab.

Since the PATRIMONIVM-Editor is modular based and customizable, the exact structure of the editor you are going to work with will be varying between projects. Generally speaking, there are four types of input fields: which are distributed over the different content blocks: 

I. data fields II. regular text fields III.  input-limited fields IV. dropdown fields

The text fields I. and II. are straight forward. Write into them the information according to the category they are attributed to. There are however two important differences in working with them and entering the information.

Fields of the first category need to be enabled for input by clicking on the pencil-on-a-block-icon on the right side first. Once the input is done, save it by clicking on the green icon with the hook. Clicking the red icon with the X will discard all made changes. Please note, that there can´t be any less-than and greater-than brackets (“<”, “>”) in the text field, or saving won´t work. Should you require those, you can use the following work-around: Instead of typing less-than brackets (“<”) use the coding “& lt;” (without sapce between "&" and "l") and for greater-than brackets (“>”) the coding “& gt;” (without sapce between "&" and "g"). If you have to edit the text field again, you will have to enter these codes once more, since upon activation of the text field for new input, the code will be automatically turned into the brackets “<” and “>”. If your online publication is also equipped with a searchable index, you will need to set up as many fields of category I. as you have categories in your index. It can happen, that a single category needs to contain several lemmas. In this case you have to mark in the text field where one lemma ends and the other one begins, which is done by placing a semicolon “;” between them. In some cases, it can be necessary to have the ability to add new text fields, or group of fields consisting of this category, to fill in more information to a content block. For those cases you have to create an “Add”-button when setting up the PATROMONIVM-Editor, which then will have the form of a white cross in a blue oval, situated at the right end of the content block (picture 4). In our case we use this for “Apparatus criticus”, “Editions”, “weitere elektronische Ressourcen” (further digital resources), “Abbildungen” (images ) and “Buchstabenhöhe” (hight of letters).

If you need to add new data fields you first click on the "Add"-button, then there will appear new but shorter text fields at the end of the content block. First you enter the information, then you have to save so the fields will be added (picture 5). If, after several seconds, the fields are still in their shorter form, you have to refresh the page and start the adding process from the beginning. If you want to add a new text field containing the code of any less-than and greater-than brackets, it can happen that the text fireld isn´t saved, we advise to add the new field wihtout the code and then entert he code in the field. Superfluous fields in content blocks with the "Add"-button can be deleted by the orange bin-icon on the right side (pictures 4-6).

The peculiarities of the fields of the second category are, that you don´t need to enable them first in order to write in them. They still require saving though, for which the button is in the lower left corner. They are also saving automatically when you click outside of the text field. It is important, that you can´t save if there are double "spaces" or if a "space" is at the end of a line-break. The easiest way to hunt down the double-spaces in the text field is to enable "CodeView" (the symbol \< / \>) and search for "& nbsp;" (without space between "&" and "n"). Delete this code wherever it appears and the double-spaces are dealt with. In our case we used fields of this type wherever we expected to write down information which needed structuring in paragraphs, as well as for editorial comments we wanted to store close to the published information, but which are set up to not be posted.

The fields of the third category are functionally the same as category I. but are pre-set in the type of information that is to be entered and therefore strictly limited in how to be formatted. Attempting to enter the information in a different format will hinder saving. In our case these are the fields related to dating, measurements, the sequence in "Apparatus criticus" and "Editions" and the MIME-Type of the images.
Finally, the fourth category is dropdown menus. You can set up the available lemmas for each dropdown field and also, if only one or several lemmas can be assigned, case by case. If several lemmas are attributable, then new dropwdowns are added with the "Add"-button, in a similar process as with the text fields of category I. For us this case applies to the dropdowns of "Material" and "Classification".

An important aspect of every epigraphical edition is the application of the Leiden Conventions. In our workflow of the Germania Inferior, the majuscule and minuscule had to be written in "LeedsUniExt" and certain signs of the Leiden Conventions had to be written by use of the "Combining Diacritical Marks" of the "Unicode block". With the text annotation however, the user is enabeled to write not only the majuscule and minuscule, but also the Leiden Conventions directly in XML-format.

But first things first. Once you clicked on "Text annotation", the menu will change and you will see the two categories "diplomatic" and "normalised", both of them containing a toolbar called "Epigraphic annotations" and a text field named "XML Editor 1" and "XML Editor 2". "diplomatic" is where you put in the majuscule, and "normalized" is where you put in the minuscule. If there already exists a majuscule or minuscule in a digital format, you can simply copy it, then click on the blue framed button "Text converter" on the right side of each category. There you can select the language of the inscription, the epigraphic format, and finally paste the text into the first text field and press "OK" (picture 7). You will see to the left the XML coded text you pasted, and to the right the "Preview" of how it will be displayed. Now, even if there is nothing you want to change or to correct in the text itself, you will have to set the lines at least once manually and the second category will then automatically take it over.

To set the line, you first position your cursor in the text field where you want the line to be, then select the "(1)" at the left end of the toolbar, which opens a dropdown menu with "Line beginning" and "Column beginning", each with an additional dropdown menu with numbers beginning with "1" and below the number "- in word". Selecting the "1" will create the code < lb n = "1" / > (with space only between "b" and "n"), selecting the number "2" < lb n = "2" / > (with space only between "b" and "n"). Everything after the code for line 1 and between the code for 2 will be displayed as the first line. Should the last word of line 1 continue in line 2, you select the "- in word" below the "2" and the code will be < lb n = "2" break = "no"/ > (with space only between "b" and "n" as well as "2"" and "b") instead. You repeat this till you have designated all the lines you need. Should the inscription be in columns, you select "Column beginning" instead. Please note, that although the dropdown menus end with "10" for the lines and "5" for the columns, you can set a higher number, simply by copying and pasting the code and correcting the number (pictures 8 and 9).

If the inscription is not in a format allowing for copy and paste, you simply type the majuscule and minuscule in the respective editors and set all needed Leiden Conventions manually by first highlighting the letters you want to be affected and then selecting the according sign in the toolbar above the editor.

While the toolbar consists of the most important Leiden Conventions, the underline for 'text lost but seen by earlier editors' is missing and has to be coded manually by the user. The required code is < supplied reason = "undefined" evidence = "previouseditor" instant = "false" >XX < lb n = "2" / > (with space only between "d" and "r"; “d”” and “e”; “r”” and “I”).  In this case the "XX" is a stand in for where the letters in question are to be positioned. In the "Preview" such underlined passages are not shown underlined but represented by a left open square bracket "\]" after the last underlined letter.

Once you finished, you need to save both categories "diplomatic" and "normalised" individually by clicking on the blue button with a white disk above "Text Converter", otherwise your work will be lost. As soon as you do any modification, there will appear a red bar above the category you have modified with the message "Text has been modified", which will disappear again after you have saved (picture 9). Furthermore, upon saving, the combined preview of majuscule and minuscule will also be displayed in the "Document overview". For our purposes we put it on the right side and pinned it, so it always stays on the monitor, even when scrolling down in the document, but this is customizable to your preferences and needs (picture 6). Please note, that the "Preview" is only displayed in the document and the "Text annotation" if you have set an action in the XML editor. While being in the "Text annotation", the action must be set in the XML editors individually, for the document preview however, it is enough to have interacted with any of the two XML editors. We advise, to place the cursor at the end of a line, simply press the spacebar once and then delete it again, then press save.

The interface of the Patrimonium Editor also offers an XML file view, exposing the TEI-compliant document structure. This feature enables direct manipulation of the underlying markup, allowing researchers to address unique encoding challenges and implement specialized requirements beyond the scope of standard data fields. By providing access to the raw XML, the editor accommodates complex epigraphic phenomena and project-specific data structures that may not fit within predefined input options.

The postprocessing of data captured by editors involves exporting the information from the editor's database in a predefined TEI/XML format, adhering to a subset of the EpiDoc community standard. This exported dataset undergoes further processing for quality control, enrichment, and alignment with the requirements of the trusted digital repository where it will be published. The postprocessing workflow, executed via XSL transformation, is adaptable to various project settings and application scenarios.

The process encompasses several critical steps aligned with data management best practices. Initially, data undergoes verification and validation to ensure completeness and accuracy, with any detected errors requiring correction and reevaluation. Subsequently, the content is enriched with metadata, annotations, and descriptions, following established field-specific metadata standards. Standardization and normalization procedures are then applied to conform the data to common formats and naming conventions, facilitating interoperability and integration with other datasets.

Throughout the postprocessing, adherence to FAIR principles is prioritized. This entails assigning unique identifiers, providing rich metadata for discoverability, ensuring accessibility through standard communication protocols, using community-agreed standards for interoperability, and associating clear usage licenses and comprehensive provenance information to enable reuse.
Long-term preservation is addressed by transferring the data to a trusted digital repository. This repository assumes responsibility for maintaining data integrity and accessibility over time, implementing regular backups, format migrations, persistent linking systems, and undergoing periodic audits and certifications.

The implementation of these practices necessitates consideration of several factors. Community-driven standards and protocols are adopted to ensure seamless data ingestion by the repository. Open, non-proprietary formats are used for data storage to guarantee long-term access. Detailed documentation of data processing steps and decisions is maintained to ensure transparency and replicability. A robust data management plan is implemented and regularly reviewed to adapt to new challenges and technological advancements.

In the current project, these best practices are applied through the use of standardized metadata schemas such as TEI/XML in the EpiDoc standard, with metadata mapping to other standards like Dublin Core, EDM, and OpenAIRE. Collaboration with a certified digital repository ensures adherence to international standards such as the OAIS model. Detailed metadata on reused image files is recorded, and the project output is provided in a citable and reusable format, including delivery to aggregation services like Europeana and interlinking with other epigraphic resources.

This comprehensive approach to data postprocessing not only ensures long-term preservation but also enhances the accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of the project output, thereby contributing significantly to ongoing and future research endeavors in the field.

Wolfgang Spickermann

Winfried Kumpitsch

Verena Reiter

Elisabeth Steiner

Christopher Pollin

The PATRIMONIVM-Editor has been created by Alberto Dalla Rosa and Vincent Razanajao (https://patrimonium.huma-num.fr/atlas/editor/) to be a modular, customizable and integrated web application for the management of epigraphic corpora, based on the eXist-db platform. It creates TEI XML on the basis of EpiDoc, allowing the data to be used in digital editions. Based on our experiences with a customized version of the “eStudium. A virtual research environment for Historians” for the epigraphic project “Celtic Divine Names in Latin Inscriptions of the Military Zone in Germania Superior on the Left Bank of the River Rhine. Religious Phenomena in a Cultural Contact Zone“ (FWF funded project P 34422-G), this workflow will document the process both for the scientific, and probably non-tech savvy user, who is filling the editor with information, as well as for the user tasked with postprocessing the information available in the editor for the online publication.

For our first project “Celtic Divine Names in the Inscriptions of the Roman Province Germania Inferior. A Case Study on Religion in the Context of Cultural Contacts and Cultural Transfer” (FWF funded project P 29274-G25) we used single MC Word documents for every entry, which then were consolidated into a single MC Excel document for the conversion to XML by our partners at ZIM (Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung – Centre for Information Modelling) and the following online publication on GAMS (Geisteswissenschaftliches Asset Management System – Humanities’ Asset Management System; https://gams.uni-graz.at/context:fercan ; see picture 10). This method was redundant, cumbersome and prone to errors, especially with regard to required changes. With the PATRIMONIVM-Editor, these redundancies are removed and problems occurring during the postprocessing are easily identified, communicated and solved. (For the process of adapting the PATRIMONIVM-Editor, see either the GitHub documentation https://github.com/DigitalHumanitiesCraft/PatrimoniumEditorFercan/, or "Customizing the Patrimonium-Editor" on SSHOM)


Workflow to work with the PATRIMONIVM-Editor

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Patrimonium-Editor

Workflow steps(6)

1 Creating a corpus

2 Filling the documents - 1

3 Filling the documents - 2

4 Working with the Text annotation -1

5 Working with the text annotation - 2

6 Postprocessing the data

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WorkflowCustomizing the Patrimonium-Editor

Tool or servicePatrimonium-Editor

Workflow steps(6)

Customizing the Patrimonium-Editor

Patrimonium-Editor