This is a Python example script for importing GeoNetwork Metadata Exchange Format 1.1 (MEF) archives to GeoNetwork 2.4.2's mef.import service. The mef.import service requires a multipart/form-data POST through a modified MultipartPostHandler.py library which now supports Unicode (urllib2). It has been tested in Windows XP and Python 2.6.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# this is gn_mef2mef.import_example.py

"""
Example script to load Metadata Exchange Format (MEF) 1.1 files into GeoNetwork through a multipart/form-data POST
Tested with GN 2.4.2

External MultipartPostHandler.py Library:
http://peerit.blogspot.com/2007/07/multipartposthandler-doesnt-work-for.html
based on http://pipe.scs.fsu.edu/PostHandler/MultipartPostHandler.py

MEF files are ZIP archives with the following structure:
+-<uuid>.mef        zip archive with the metadata's UUID (must be valid) as the file name
 | -info.xml        GeoNetwork specific metadata such as privileges, related data & thumbnail image files, etc.
 | -metadata.xml    ISO 19139 metadata record
 | +public          directory with public thumbnail and data files - can be empty
 | +private         directory with private (GN authentication required) data files such as shape files etc. - can be empty

Usage:

Python 2.6
Wolfgang Grunberg
Arizona Geological Survey
11/06/2009
"""

# Library Imports (not all may be needed)
import os
import sys
import httplib
import urllib
import urllib2
import logging
import cProfile
import cookielib
import shutil
import zipfile
import mimetypes
import MultipartPostHandler     # External MultipartPostHandler.py library 
from xml.dom import minidom
from xml.dom import Node
from time import strftime


# module globals and constants
#  globals
__author__ = "Wolfgang Grunberg"
__copyright__ = "Copyright 2009, Arizona Geological Survey"
__credits__ = ["Wolfgang Grunberg", "the Internets"]
__license__ = "GPL"
__version__ = "1.0.0"
__maintainer__ = "Wolfgang Grunberg"
__email__ = "wgrunberg@azgs.az.gov"
__status__ = "Prototype"                  # "Prototype", "Development", or "Production"


# some settings

# MEF metadata folder path
mef_path = "C:\\tmp\\gn_mef\\"

# temporary work location
tmp_path = "C:\\tmp\\"          # Temporary workspace to place MEF content before zipping up
mef_dir_name = "temp_mef\\"     # Temporary directory that is created and deleted

# GeoNetwork
gn_servlet_url = "http://localhost:8080/geonetwork"
gn_username = "admin"
gn_password = "admin"
gn_csw = "/geonetwork/srv/en/csw"
gn_xml_login = "/srv/en/xml.user.login"
gn_xml_logout = "/srv/en/xml.user.logout"
gn_mef_import = "/srv/en/mef.import"

# log in URL
gn_login_url = gn_servlet_url+gn_xml_login
# log out URL
gn_logout_url = gn_servlet_url+gn_xml_logout


def mefImport():
    """
    Import MEF file into GeoNetwork via a multipart/form-data POST to the mef.import service
    """
    
    print "***** START Import MEF "+strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")+" *****"
    
    # HTTP header for authentication 
    header_urlencode = {"Content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", "Accept": "text/plain"}
    # authentication Post parameters
    post_parameters = urllib.urlencode({"username": gn_username, "password": gn_password})
    
    # first, always log out 
    request = urllib2.Request(gn_servlet_url+gn_xml_logout)
    response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
    print "    First, log out: "
    print response.read()
    
    # send authentication request
    request = urllib2.Request(gn_servlet_url+gn_xml_login, post_parameters, header_urlencode)
    response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
    print "    Login as "+gn_username+" to GeoNetwork: "
    print response.read()
    # a basic memory-only cookie jar instance
    cookies = cookielib.CookieJar()
    cookies.extract_cookies(response,request)
    cookie_handler= urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor( cookies )
    # a redirect handler
    redirect_handler= urllib2.HTTPRedirectHandler()
    # save cookie and redirect handler for future HTTP multipart/form-data POSTs
    opener = urllib2.build_opener(redirect_handler,MultipartPostHandler.MultipartPostHandler,cookie_handler)
    
    # get list of file names from MEF directory
    try:
        dir = os.listdir(mef_path)
        #print dir    #debug
    except os.error:
        print "    EXCEPTION: MEF metadata directory does not exits - %s" % mef_path
        return
    
    # go through each MEF file
    for file_name in dir:
        print "    Working on "+ file_name
        
        # open MEF file
        try:
            mef_file = open(mef_path+file_name, 'rb').read()
        except:
            print "    EXCEPTION: Error: could not open file %s for reading" % file_name
            return
        
        # Build the POST request
        #params = {'mefFile':mef_file}   # I do not know why this does not work for me
        params = {'mefFile':open(mef_path+file_name, 'rb')}     # This does work
        # have to use an authenticated opener for session handling
        #opener = urllib2.build_opener(MultipartPostHandler.MultipartPostHandler)   # creates new session
        urllib2.install_opener(opener)      # uses existing session
        request = urllib2.Request(gn_servlet_url+gn_mef_import, params)
        try:
            response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
            print "    Submit MEF file "+response.read().strip()
        except urllib2.URLError, e:
            print "    EXCEPTION: File upload failed - "
            print e
    
    
    # Last, always log out
    request = urllib2.Request(gn_servlet_url+gn_xml_logout)
    response = opener.open(request)
    print "    Last, log out: "
    print response.read()
    
    print "***** END Import MEF "+strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")+" *****"


if __name__=="__main__":
    mefImport()

    #cProfile.run('etl()')      # execution performance information

Files: 

gn_mef2mef.import_example.py_.txt

Files: 

MultipartPostHandler.py_.txt