Suggestion: Update the CVocConf configuration mechanism

[qqmyers]

Overview of the Suggestion Currently, external vocabulary scripts are configured through a single :CVocConf setting that takes an array of JSON objects that conform to the schema. This is cumbersome for at least a couple reasons:

• adding a new script/field means copying the existing setting and adding one more object to the array, and
• parts of the definition of an object are ~constant for a give script, e.g. how the filtering should be done in Dataverse, the URL for the service, etc. - while others depend on the field - the name of the termUri field and any managedFields, etc.

As use of external vocabulary scripts grows, and scripts are being applied to multiple fields (ORCID and ROR in particular), a nice update would be to refactor configuration such that scripts can be registered with Dataverse and, separately, a registered script can be configured for one or more fields. Such a reconfiguration might simplify creating an API for the for the SPA/UI creators and could make future features, such as allowing multiple scripts per field, to be implemented.

Implementing this would require:

• Analysis and design: decide which parts of the current schema apply per script and per field, address any overlaps (e.g. a script might by default allow free-text entries, with that setting overridable per field) (Size 10?)
• Analysis, design, scoping: Propose a specific set of tables and API calls to get/set scripts and fields, along with any overall listScripts/listFieldsAPI calls/changes to existing API calls (e.g. to the metadatablock api?) the SPA might need (could be a separate subtask/separate scope if needed) (Size 10? With corresponding SPA analysis task?)
• Development: Implement code, test code, docs, release note - standard dev issue. Includes adapting existing UI code to use the new configuration mechanism (which is hopefully mostly/all changes in the back-end, not JSF) (Size 80)

[cmbz]

2025/02/24

• Next steps
  • Create subissue for first two tasks (that require analysis and design work)