Publish an item
A publication is one item inside a catalogue — a dataset, an open-government report, an API description, a software component, a service description. This tutorial walks through the create → fill → save → publish flow end-to-end.
Goal
By the end you will have one published item in a catalogue, visible to anyone who can read the catalogue, with at least one attached file.
Prerequisites
- A catalogue you can write to (the creator and members with the editor role can). Ask an admin to set up permissions and roles on the catalogue first if you can't.
- The publication's schema understood — the create form is generated from the schema, so the catalogue's attached schemas decide which fields show up.
Steps
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Open the catalogue, switch to the Publications tab, click Add publication. A schema picker opens if the catalogue has more than one publication schema attached — pick the right one (e.g. Document, Dataset, Service).
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The create dialog renders a form generated from the schema. Required fields are marked; helper text explains the format. Fill in the basics — title, summary, publisher (organisation), language, publication date. Save the draft.
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The item detail page opens, status draft. Switch to the Files tab and drop a file onto the upload zone — a PDF report, an Excel dataset, a CSV file. The file lands in the item's Nextcloud folder and shows in the list with name, type, size, uploader.
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Switch back to Properties and add any missing optional fields — themes, keywords, license, contact point. The schema-driven editor validates as you type; required fields glow red until they're filled in.
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Click Publish in the toolbar. The status flips from draft to published, the publishedAt timestamp is set, and the item now shows up in the catalogue's public list. Federated subscribers will pick it up on their next sync.
Verification
The item shows in the catalogue's Publications tab with status published, the Audit tab has create + publish entries, the attached file lives under the item's Nextcloud folder, and the item shows up in Search results within a few seconds.
Common issues
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| Add publication is disabled | The catalogue has no publication schema attached — ask the catalogue owner to attach one (see Configure a catalogue). |
| Publish is disabled | Validation is failing on at least one required field — open the Properties tab; the offending field carries a red border and an error message. |
| Publish succeeds but the item doesn't show in Search | The search index is rebuilding — wait 30 s; persistent absence means the indexer is stalled (admin runs occ openregister:reindex). |
Reference
- Link related items — connect this item to other publications.
- Export a publication — round-trip the item out of OpenCatalogi.
- Configure a catalogue — schemas, visibility, and roles per catalogue.