NASA Earth Science Data Systems Web Unification
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is this project occurring?
The purpose of the project is driven by the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) that was signed into law in 2018. The Act requires all agencies in the executive branch to make sure their websites are compliant with Section 508, have a consistent look and feel, are searchable, secure, mobile-friendly, and without duplicative information. This motivation was followed up with a mandate from the ESDS Program Executive to unify all ESDS-funded public facing web properties into the Earthdata domain.
. - What is the timeline for migration?
All ESDS-funded web properties will be migrated into the Earthdata domain by approximately December 2026.
. - Who does this project apply to?
This project applies to all ESDS-funded web properties. A web property is a point of presence on the web that is an asset of an entity. For example, a website or blog.
. - Where can we submit concerns?
Please submit your concerns to the Earthdata Contact Form.
. - How is this project different from Earthdata Search?
Earthdata Search is one application within ESDS; it provides a search interface to the collections of EOSDIS data holdings. The Earthdata website provides program information, ways to engage with NASA Earth science data, informative material (e.g., Data Pathfinders, Backgrounders, Data User Profiles), and other resources designed to support the use of Earth science data.
. - How connected is this effort with the SMD Web Modernization? My understanding is they were similar, but the data side was a separate effort for the modernization of all the science pages.
The ESDS Web Unification Project can be thought of as web modernization for all ESDS-funded web properties. Web Modernization will consolidate many of the top performing sites in SMD under science.nasa.gov by 2023. Importantly, Web modernization does not include data or mission sites in their scope. To find out more about the specifics of the Web Modernization effort, visit their SharePoint site: https://nasa.sharepoint.com/sites/nwmt
. - What is the difference between the Horizon Design System (HDS) and the United States Web Design System (USWDS)?
HDS is built using USWDS and is essentially the NASA version of USWDS. That is how we comply with USWDS.
. - Is there a template for software or API documentation?
There is no template for software or API documentation as part of this process at this time.
. - How does this consolidation affect raw data from the archives?
Raw data are untouched by the Earthdata development team and will continue to reside on their respective archives.
. - How does this affect specialized websites that subset data for a given data project?
Any sites that manage and/or process data outside of display for access are out of scope and will continue to operate on their own with only potential changes to the domain and some look and feel updates for consistency.
. - Will map-based data search apps like FIRMS eventually merge into Earthdata Search?
Earthdata Search is an ESDIS-managed application, and integration with FIRMS will be their prerogative.
. - Will dataset landing pages be unified? Each domain's community has different expectations and comfort zones. A common look and feel would be fine, but each DAAC needs control over its displayed metadata (with the exception of metadata required by DOI, ESIP, etc.)
Yes, dataset landing pages will migrate into Earthdata, and we will work with the community to unify the dataset landing pages as much as possible while still supporting additional fields needed for specific user communities.
. - What is the definition of the "Data Product Page"? Is that a dataset DOI landing page?
A data product/dataset landing page/ data collection page is a DOI landing page.
. - Could there be a direct pre-filtered link to a data search for only the collections of that DAAC from the DAAC-specific home page, so that as much as possible the search experience for a DAAC user would be similar to what it was before?
We intend to link to the DAAC-specific data product pages from the DAAC hubs on the Earthdata site as one way of discovery.
. - How are internal links being handled on migrated content if the URLs are changing?
The internal links will need to be updated or redirected.
. - Are we sure the search engines can crawl all the content in the many tabbed modules and carousels into the new design system?
All public content is crawl-able. We can use our site map, robots file, and other methods to direct crawlers to all content.
. - How will we enforce the consistent look and feel of migrated content to adhere to the HDS modules and templates?
We will be recreating pages with the new Horizon Design System templates.
. - What keeps other content developers from accidentally changing or removing a page you want to keep?
The site editor and taxonomist are the only publishers of the site. We will also establish quality assurance workflows and governance to ensure that such a use case does not occur.
. - Who will be responsible for creating, modifying, managing, and ultimately responsible for content of the topic pages when they cross multiple DAACs?
We will work together to update the topic pages. The Web Strategy and Communications Team is ultimately responsible for the site, but we will work with site owners to determine the contents of those pages.
. - Will there still only be one person publishing the web content once we migrate?
We are finalizing our site governance policy.
. - One thing that seems to be missing in the slides is the association between data and external content, specifically publications. This is one of the biggest associations our users (at GES DISC) have asked for during discovery (and we have been providing it). Is this part of the web unification model?
Yes, we will represent associated external publications on the site when needed.
. - Could you please elaborate on what is considered "low value" content and how that is defined, or what criteria are used to determine this?
Low-value content is anything you've written, posted, or shared that isn't helping—and may even hurt—your search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings. Low value content may be old, lack pageviews, or may be legacy content.
. - A DAAC website has integration of "content" and data services. Will such integration be supported? They might map to the "Data" section in the presentation so far.
Yes, there will be cross-linking of content and links to services.
. - How will applications fit into this new site?
Standalone applications will fall into the category of DNS migration, and we will provide a look and feel toolkit to be applied. Examples of a standalone application include: Vertex, Giovanni, and AppEARS.
. - How are DAAC-specific data browse / extraction/ subscription tools going to be handled?
These would fall into the DNS migration side of the project and will live in the same place but point to a new domain.
. - Does the new accessibility tool check for specific compliance such as 508, similar to SortSite?
Yes.
. - Is it the job of the DAACs to try to get their users to start using the consolidated site once it's available? Aside from interdisciplinary research users (who will gravitate towards the unified site naturally), what tools/ideas will we get from the Unification Project to convince reluctant users to switch?
We will work with you to rollout the new site with the user community. Keep in mind that the old sites will no longer exist, and the unified site will be the location to find NASA Earth science data.
. - What is the driver for URL consolidation? In the era of search, URLs are almost irrelevant.
The driver for reducing domain space is the federal IDEA Act. It is also better from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective to have unified domains.
. - DAAC services accounts already have their own cloud URL for applications/services (i.e., DAAC.earthdata.nasa.gov/service). Will this change as part of this effort?
We are only focused on public facing domains. If the service account is public, it will be a part of the DNS migration and part of the strategy we come up with in the DNS Working Sessions.
. - Will there still be the allowance of multiple hosts per the domain (i.e., daac1.earthdata.nasa.gov, daac2.earthdata.nasa.gov, etc.) or will they have to be paths off of the base earthdata.nasa.gov URL?
All content will live in a subdirectory of Earthdata while standalone applications may live in a subdomain. This is something we are working out in the DNS Working Sessions.
. - A lot of our users bookmarked specific webpage URLs for their common use. Will this web unification cause an impact on them?
This depends on the page that has been bookmarked. Most of the pages will be found with a redirect for a period of time (potentially up to a year).
. - How is an "in-scope URL" being defined/determined?
An in-scope URL is one that is ESDS-funded and public facing.