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17. Migrating IPTC 7901 to NewsML-G2

17.1. Introduction

The text transmission standard IPTC 7901 (and ANPA1312, with which it is closely associated) were a mainstay of the exchange of text for 30 years. The following tables map IPTC 7901 fields to their equivalent in either NewsML-G2 News Item or News Message.

In some cases there is a choice of field mappings. For example there is only one timestamp field in IPTC 7901, but several in NewsML-G2.

When providers convert to NewsML-G2, they should determine the source of the metadata used to populate the IPTC 7901 field. For example, if from an editorial system, the field label or usage may indicate the NewsML-G2 property to which the 7901 timestamp should be mapped.

Customers converting IPTC 7901 fields to NewsML-G2 properties should consult their providers’ documentation, or make inquiries about the mapping of IPTC 7901 fields in the provider’s systems.

17.2. Message Header

Field Name	Example	NewsML-G2 Property and Example
Source Identification	FRS	The 7901 definition is “to identify the news service of the originator and the message.” An equivalent NewsML-G2 property would be the <destination> property of News Message: <destination>FRS</destination> An alternative property would be <channel> <channel>FRS</channel> Within a News Item, there is a <service> property that may also be used, however, the IPTC recommends that Source Identification expressed a distribution intention, not merely a service description. Therefore its natural home is in News Message.
Message Number	9999	In IPTC 7901, this may be up to four digits and therefore cannot be guaranteed to be unique. Some providers reset the counter to zero every 24 hours. The intention is to be able to identify a message within a sequence of messages. The equivalent NewsML-G2 field would be <transmitId> of News Message IPTC 7901 specifies a single digit of value 1 to 6 inclusive.
Priority of Story	3	NewsML-G2 has two equivalents: <urgency> in the Administrative Metadata group of <contentMeta> <urgency>3</urgency> <priority> in the <header> of News Message. <priority>3</priority> If the 7901 field is mapped from an editorial system and is under the control of journalists, then <urgency> would seem to be appropriate, since this expresses a journalistic intention.
Category of Story	POL	In IPTC7901, this could be up to three characters. A provider converting its categories for NewsML-G2 would create a Controlled Vocabulary mapping the legacy codes to a Knowledge Item – thus allowing the receiver to get more information about the code, or to download all of the codes in order to populate a GUI menu. The CV would be expressed using <subject> in Content Metadata <subject type=“cpnat:abstract” qcode=“cat:POL”> <name>Politics</name> </subject>
Word Count	195	The maximum value allowed in IPTC 7901 is 9999. Word Count is one of the properties of News Content Characteristics group of properties. (The NewsML-G2 Specification can be downloaded by visiting www.newsml-g2.org/spec.) The plain text of IPTC 7901 is an attribute of the Inline Data component <inlineData> <inlineData wordcount=“195”> Text text text </inlineData> There is no limit to the number of words that can be conveyed in NewsML-G2
Optional Information	(optional)	These two fields are sometimes used by providers in their own specific format or syntax, so it is not possible to give a definitive mapping from IPTC 7901 to NewsML-G2. Providers converting from IPTC 7901 to NewsML-G2 should determine the source of the information that is being put into the 7901 fields, and map to the appropriate NewsML-G2 property. Customers converting an IPTC 5901 service into NewsML-G2 and who are unsure about which of NewsML-G2’s properties to populate with the 7901 information should consult the provider’s documentation, or inquire of the provider. Part of the content of the Keyword/Catch-Line field may be equivalent to the NewsML-G2 <slugline> property in the Descriptive Metadata group of <contentMeta>.
Keyword/Catch-Line		<slugline separator=“-”>US-POLITICS/BUSH</slugline>

Field Name

Example

NewsML-G2 Property and Example

Source Identification

FRS

The 7901 definition is “to identify the news service of the originator and the message.” An equivalent NewsML-G2 property would be the <destination> property of News Message: <destination>FRS</destination> An alternative property would be <channel> <channel>FRS</channel> Within a News Item, there is a <service> property that may also be used, however, the IPTC recommends that Source Identification expressed a distribution intention, not merely a service description. Therefore its natural home is in News Message.

Message Number

9999

In IPTC 7901, this may be up to four digits and therefore cannot be guaranteed to be unique. Some providers reset the counter to zero every 24 hours. The intention is to be able to identify a message within a sequence of messages. The equivalent NewsML-G2 field would be <transmitId> of News Message IPTC 7901 specifies a single digit of value 1 to 6 inclusive.

Priority of Story

NewsML-G2 has two equivalents: <urgency> in the Administrative Metadata group of <contentMeta> <urgency>3</urgency> <priority> in the <header> of News Message. <priority>3</priority> If the 7901 field is mapped from an editorial system and is under the control of journalists, then <urgency> would seem to be appropriate, since this expresses a journalistic intention.

Category of Story

POL

In IPTC7901, this could be up to three characters. A provider converting its categories for NewsML-G2 would create a Controlled Vocabulary mapping the legacy codes to a Knowledge Item – thus allowing the receiver to get more information about the code, or to download all of the codes in order to populate a GUI menu. The CV would be expressed using <subject> in Content Metadata <subject type=“cpnat:abstract” qcode=“cat:POL”> <name>Politics</name> </subject>

Word Count

195

The maximum value allowed in IPTC 7901 is 9999. Word Count is one of the properties of News Content Characteristics group of properties. (The NewsML-G2 Specification can be downloaded by visiting www.newsml-g2.org/spec.) The plain text of IPTC 7901 is an attribute of the Inline Data component <inlineData> <inlineData wordcount=“195”> Text text text </inlineData> There is no limit to the number of words that can be conveyed in NewsML-G2

Optional Information

(optional)

These two fields are sometimes used by providers in their own specific format or syntax, so it is not possible to give a definitive mapping from IPTC 7901 to NewsML-G2. Providers converting from IPTC 7901 to NewsML-G2 should determine the source of the information that is being put into the 7901 fields, and map to the appropriate NewsML-G2 property. Customers converting an IPTC 5901 service into NewsML-G2 and who are unsure about which of NewsML-G2’s properties to populate with the 7901 information should consult the provider’s documentation, or inquire of the provider. Part of the content of the Keyword/Catch-Line field may be equivalent to the NewsML-G2 <slugline> property in the Descriptive Metadata group of <contentMeta>.

Keyword/Catch-Line

<slugline separator=“-”>US-POLITICS/BUSH</slugline>

17.3. Message Text

If the message text is to be conveyed as plain text, then the <inlineData> wrapper would be used. If the migration to NewsML-G2 also involves migration of the text to some mark-up such as NITF or XHTML, this would be conveyed in the <inlineXML> wrapper.

17.4. Post-Text Information

The IPTC7901 post-text fields all relate to date-time. As previously recommended, providers should examine the origin of the information being used to fill the IPTC 7901 day and time field, and use the appropriate NewsML-G2 field for that information. The following are possibilities:

If Day and Time is populated by the transmission system, the <sent> property of News Message would be an appropriate mapping.
If the IPTC 7901 field represents the only timestamp information available from the provider’s system, then the provider MUST put this information in the <versionCreated> timestamp property of <itemMeta> since its use is a mandatory requirement of NewsML-G2,
If versioning of Items is being implemented, then the original timestamp may be preserved in <firstCreated>

These properties are of XML date time type so must express the FULL date and a time with time zone:

<versionCreated>2009-02-09T12:30:00Z</versionCreated>

If the provider believes that the IPTC 7901 day and time is being populated from the timestamp on the story itself, then subject to the rule of <versionCreated> being followed, the appropriate properties would be <contentCreated> or <contentModified>.in the Management Metadata group of <contentMeta>.

If versioning is being implemented, the original day and time may be preserved in <contentCreated>, If <contentModified> is used, then <contentCreated> SHOULD also be present

Both properties use TruncatedDateTime property type, allowing the value to be truncated from the right.

<contentCreated>2009-02-09</contentCreated>

Field Name	Example	NewsML-G2 Property and Example
Day and Time	91230	Six digits are be used to express the day and time in IPTC 7901, in practice this means a format of DDHHMM, where DD is the day of the month, HH is the hour, MM minutes. In NewsML-G2, there are more timestamp fields available,
Time Zone	GMT	Three-alpha character field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)
Month of Transmission	Feb	Three-alpha character field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)
Year of Transmission	9	Two-digit field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)

Field Name

Example

NewsML-G2 Property and Example

Day and Time

91230

Six digits are be used to express the day and time in IPTC 7901, in practice this means a format of DDHHMM, where DD is the day of the month, HH is the hour, MM minutes. In NewsML-G2, there are more timestamp fields available,

Time Zone

GMT

Three-alpha character field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)

Month of Transmission

Feb

Three-alpha character field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)

Year of Transmission

Two-digit field. Optional in IPTC 7901. No separate equivalent in NewsML-G2 (none needed)