This keywords is used to identify the type of current component of this dataset. The type can be one of DIMAP, ENCAPSULATED.

If type is DIMAP then the Component is a DIMAP Component (Dimap/xml document), the user can procede and load the Component metatdata to discover more about the component, following the hyperlink provided by COMPONENT_PATH.

If type is ENCAPSULATED the component is stored using a self-contained proprietary format. The COMPONENT_CONTENT is then used to give some more clues. This possibility is supposed to be used only when an agreement between the data producer and customer has been previously taken. It is expected that the client software will have the possibility to directly load the attached component using a native format.

When a dataset has a complex content, it is composed of several "components". This keyword provides the type of the components attached to the current dataset. It can be used to load an iconic view of a component in a catalog fashion.

Typical such components are :

• layers (image, vectors, DEM) of a single map
• products of a volume delivery

Components (from a given dataset point of view) look like hyper-links to some embedded data.