When loading multiple digital objects into the database, the challenge most organizations will face is how to match similar objects (combine them into one), to match metadata to the digital object, or to match the digital object to the metadata.
The standard approach is to use the filename to match. If a digital object resides in the filesystem, then it will have a filename. For Windows and
Unix, the name will have an extension (.jpg, .doc, .mov, .tif) indicating its type (file suffix). On a Mac, as already covered, the file type is stored in a separate file.
The file type is very important, as it determines how the operating system should treat the digital object. If an attempt is made to open it, the file type will match to an application in the computer, which then knows how to handle it. When using a web browser, the equivalent of the file type is mimetype, which is embedded in the header of the digital object as it's downloaded. The browser then has a...