<!ENTITY % common SYSTEM "common/common.ent">
%common;
]>
-<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.9 2007-04-10 08:59:35 adam Exp $ -->
+<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.12 2007-04-23 07:03:06 adam Exp $ -->
<book id="book">
<bookinfo>
<title>Pazpar2 - User's Guide and Reference</title>
<author>
<firstname>Sebastian</firstname><surname>Hammer</surname>
</author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Adam</firstname><surname>Dickmeiss</surname>
+ </author>
<releaseinfo>&version;</releaseinfo>
<copyright>
<year>©right-year;</year>
</section>
<section id="client">
- <title>Client development</title>
+ <title>Client development overview</title>
<para>
You can use pazpar2 from any environment that allows you to use
webservices. The initial goal of the software was to support
can be fetched using the 'record' command.
</para>
</section>
+
+ <section id="nonstandard">
+ <title>Connecting to non-standard resources</title>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 uses Z39.50 as its switchboard language -- i.e. as far as it
+ is concerned, all resources speak Z39.50. It is, however, equipped
+ to handle a broad range of different server behavior, through
+ configurable query mapping and record normalization. If you develop
+ configuration, stylesheets, etc., for a new type of resources, we
+ encourage you to share your work. But you can also use pazpar2 to
+ connect to hundreds of resources that do not support standard
+ protocols.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ For a growing number of resources, Z39.50 is all you need. Over the
+ last few years, a number of commercial, full-text resources have
+ implemented Z39.50. These can be used through pazpar2 with little or
+ no effort. Resources that use non-standard record formats will
+ require a bit of XSLT work, but that's all.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ But what about resources that don't support Z39.50 at all? The NISO
+ SRU (MXG) protocol is slowly gathering steam. Other resources might
+ support OpenSearch, private, XML/HTTP-based protocols, or something
+ else entirely. Some databases exist only as web user interfaces and
+ will require screen-scraping. Still others exist only as static
+ files, or perhaps as databases supporting the OAI-PMH protocol.
+ There is hope! Read on.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Index Data continues to advocate the support of open standards. We
+ work with database vendors to support standards, so you don't have
+ to worry about programming against non-standard services. We also
+ provide tools (see <ulink
+ url="http://www.indexdata.com/simpleserver">SimpleServer</ulink>)
+ which make it comparatively easy to build gateways against servers
+ with non-standard behavior. Again, we encourage you to share any
+ work you do in this direction.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ But the bottom line is that working with non-standard resources in
+ metasearching is really, really hard. If you want to build a
+ project with pazpar2, and you need access to resources with
+ non-standard interfaces, we can help. We run gateways to more than
+ 2,000 popular, commercial databases and other resources, making it simple
+ to plug them directly into pazpar2. For a small annual fee per
+ database, we can help you establish connections to your licensed
+ resources. Meanwhile, you can help! If you build your own
+ standards-compliant gateways, host them for others, or share the
+ code! And tell your vendors that they can save everybody money and
+ increase the appeal of their resources by supporting standards.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There are those who will ask us why we are using Z39.50 as our
+ switchboard langyage rather than a different protocol. Basically,
+ we believe that Z39.50 is presently the most widely implemented
+ information retrieval protocol that has the level of functionality
+ required to support a good metasearching experience (structured
+ searching, structured, well-defined results). It is also compact and
+ efficient, and there is a very broad range of tools available to
+ implement it.
+ </para>
+ </section>
</chapter> <!-- Using pazpar2 -->
<reference id="reference">
<title>Reference</title>
- <partintro>
+ <partintro id="reference-introduction">
<para>
The material in this chapter is drawn directly from the individual
manual entries.