DROID (Digital Record Object Identification)
Description[edit]
DROID (Digital Record Object Identification) is a software tool developed to perform automated batch identification of file formats. DROID is designed to meet the fundamental requirement of any digital repository to be able to identify the precise format of all stored digital objects, and to link that identification to a central registry of technical information about that format and its dependencies.
DROID uses the PRONOM signature files to perform format identification. Like PRONOM, it was developed by the National Archives of the UK. Written in Java, XML.
PRONOM[edit]
The format information held in PRONOM is what powers DROID (Digital Record Object Identification). Both are maintained by the UK's National Archives.
DROID downloads the latest signature files from PRONOM, and those are used to drive the identification process. See the PRONOM release notes.
A number of other tools and registries have been based around the PRONOM data. These include:
Although the information and website are made freely available under the Open Government License, the underlying software engine that powers PRONOM is proprietary.
The PRONOM Web API[edit]
The website is oriented towards manual browsing, but note that each PRONOM registry entry as a permalink, like this:
http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/fmt/579
and furthermore, by appending '.xml' to the URL for any entry, the data can be recovered as XML:
http://apps.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pronom/fmt/579.xml
User Experiences[edit]
- Tool demo with videos in the DPC Handbook
- Digital Asset Assessment Tool - Assessment of file format testing tools.
- Comparing how Apache Tika and DROID perform HTML identification: How much of the UK's HTML is valid?
- An Analysis Engine for the DROID CSV Export
- KOST-CECO: Used in KOST-Val for the file format identification. For performance and granularity reasons an own SignatureFile is used instead of the official PRONOM registry.
- FITS (File Information Tool Set): Used in FITS
Development Activity[edit]
All development activity is visible on GitHub: http://github.com/digital-preservation/droid/commits
Release Feed[edit]
Below the last 3 release feeds:
- 2020-05-01 11:04:35
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/4737996/droid-6.5 6.5 Release]
- by jcharlet
- 2020-03-27 17:04:19
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/4737996/droid-6.5-RC3 6.5 Release Candidate 3]
- by jcharlet
- 2020-03-18 11:52:36
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/4737996/droid-6.5-RC2 6.5 Release Candidate 2]
- by jcharlet
Activity Feed[edit]
Below the last 5 commits:
- 2021-06-12 21:35:51
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/60f1db646abf801dd43f6e18802b6a63dbbc270c Merge pull request #634 from adamretter/github-ci-java9]
- by adamretter https://github.com/adamretter
- 2021-06-12 21:26:58
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/964d43fd3b554394caad88acfa4caef8211d9bc6 Fix issue with CA Certs for Java 9 in GitHub CI]
- by adamretter https://github.com/adamretter
- 2021-06-12 20:53:30
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/54007824c362bd24815ef25369175d702f33445f Merge pull request #626 from digital-preservation/dependabot/maven/cx…]
- by adamretter https://github.com/adamretter
- 2021-06-12 20:53:15
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/facb4e643825b6b69ccba9ee7ba7886bcc74ceac Merge pull request #633 from digital-preservation/dependabot/maven/sp…]
- by adamretter https://github.com/adamretter
- 2021-06-12 20:08:57
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/c462d71a86ff1957f9113eb2055550c2d4175a68 Bump cxf.version from 3.4.3 to 3.4.4]
- by dependabot https://github.com/dependabot