%local;
<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "entities.ent">
%entities;
- <!ENTITY % common SYSTEM "common/common.ent">
- %common;
+ <!ENTITY % idcommon SYSTEM "common/common.ent">
+ %idcommon;
]>
-<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.8 2007-04-10 08:48:55 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>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Marc</firstname><surname>Cromme</surname>
+ </author>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Jakub</firstname><surname>Skoczen</surname>
+ </author>
<releaseinfo>&version;</releaseinfo>
<copyright>
<year>©right-year;</year>
<simpara>
Pazpar2 is a high-performance, user interface-independent, data
model-independent metasearching
- middleware featuring merging, relevance ranking, record sorting,
+ middle-ware featuring merging, relevance ranking, record sorting,
and faceted results.
</simpara>
<simpara>
- This document is a guide and reference to Pazpar version &version;.
+ This document is a guide and reference to Pazpar2 version &version;.
</simpara>
<simpara>
<inlinemediaobject>
</inlinemediaobject>
</simpara>
</abstract>
- </bookinfo>
+ </bookinfo>
- <chapter id="introduction">
- <title>Introduction</title>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is a stand-alone metasearch client with a webservice API, designed
- to be used either from a browser-based client (JavaScript, Flash, Java,
- etc.), from from server-side code, or any combination of the two.
- Pazpar2 is a highly optimized client designed to
- search many resources in parallel. It implements record merging,
- relevance-ranking and sorting by arbitrary data content, and facet
- analysis for browsing purposes. It is designed to be data model
- independent, and is capable of working with MARC, DublinCore, or any
- other XML-structured response format -- XSLT is used to normalize and extract
- data from retrieval records for display and analysis. It can be used
- against any server which supports the Z39.50 protocol. Proprietary
- backend modules can be used to support a large number of other protocols
- (please contact Index Data for further information about this).
- </para>
- <para>
- Additional functionality such as
- user management, attractive displays are expected to be implemented by
- applications that use pazpar2. Pazpar2 is user interface independent.
- Its functionality is exposed through a simple REST-style webservice API,
- designed to be simple to use from an Ajax-enbled browser, Flash
- animation, Java applet, etc., or from a higher-level server-side language
- like PHP or Java. Because session information can be shared between
- browser-based logic and your server-side scripting, there is tremendous
- flexibility in how you implement your business logic on top of pazpar2.
- </para>
- <para>
- Once you launch a search in pazpar2, the operation continues behind the
- scenes. Pazpar2 connects to servers, carries out searches, and
- retrieves, deduplicates, and stores results internally. Your application
- code may periodically inquire about the status of an ongoing operation,
- and ask to see records or other result set facets. Result become
- available immediately, and it is easy to build end-user interfaces which
- feel extremely responsive, even when searching more than 100 servers
- concurrently.
- </para>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is designed to be highly configurable. Incoming records are
- normalized to XML/UTF-8, and then further normalized using XSLT to a
- simple internal representation that is suitable for analysis. By
- providing XSLT stylesheets for different kinds of result records, you
- can tune pazpar2 to work against different kinds of information
- retrieval servers. Finally, metadata is extracted, in a configurable
- way, from this internal record, to support display, merging, ranking,
- result set facets, and sorting. Pazpar2 is not bound to a specific model
- of metadata, such as DublinCore or MARC -- by providing the right
- configuration, it can work with a number of different kinds of data in
- support of many different applications.
- </para>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is designed to be efficient and scalable. You can set it up to
- search several hundred targets in parallel, or you can use it to support
- hundreds of concurrent users. It is implemented with the same attention
- to performance and economy that we use in our indexing engines, so that
- you can focus on building your application, without worrying about the
- details of metasearch logic. You can devote all of your attention to
- usability and let pazpar2 do what it does best -- metasearch.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you wish to connect to commercial or other databases which do not
- support open standards, please contact Index Data. We have a licensing
- agreement with a third party vendor which will enable pazpar2 to access
- thousands of online databases, in addition the vast number of catalogs
- and online services that support the Z39.50 protocol.
- </para>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is our attempt to re-think the traditional paradigms for
- implementing and deploying metasearch logic, with an uncompromising
- approach to performance, and attempting to make maximum use of the
- capabilities of modern browsers. The demo user interface that
- accompanies the distribution is but one example. If you think of new
- ways of using pazpar2, we hope you'll share them with us, and if we
- can provide assistance with regards to training, design, programming,
- integration with different backends, hosting, or support, please don't
- hesitate to contact us. If you'd like to see functionality in pazpar2
- that is not there today, please don't hesitate to contact us. It may
- already be in our development pipeline, or there might be a
- possibility for you to help out by sponsoring development time or
- code. Either way, get in touch and we will give you straight answers.
- </para>
- <para>
- Enjoy!
- </para>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is covered by the GNU license version 2.
- See <xref linkend="license"/> for further information.
- </para>
- </chapter>
+ <chapter id="introduction">
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is a stand-alone metasearch client with a web-service API, designed
+ to be used either from a browser-based client (JavaScript, Flash, Java,
+ etc.), from server-side code, or any combination of the two.
+ Pazpar2 is a highly optimized client designed to
+ search many resources in parallel. It implements record merging,
+ relevance-ranking and sorting by arbitrary data content, and facet
+ analysis for browsing purposes. It is designed to be data model
+ independent, and is capable of working with MARC, DublinCore, or any
+ other <ulink url="&url.xml;">XML</ulink>-structured response format
+ -- <ulink url="&url.xslt;">XSLT</ulink> is used to normalize and extract
+ data from retrieval records for display and analysis. It can be used
+ against any server which supports the
+ <ulink url="&url.z39.50;">Z39.50</ulink> protocol. Proprietary
+ backend modules can be used to support a large number of other protocols
+ (please contact Index Data for further information about this).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Additional functionality such as
+ user management, attractive displays are expected to be implemented by
+ applications that use Pazpar2. Pazpar2 is user interface independent.
+ Its functionality is exposed through a simple REST-style web-service API,
+ designed to be simple to use from an Ajax-enabled browser, Flash
+ animation, Java applet, etc., or from a higher-level server-side language
+ like PHP or Java. Because session information can be shared between
+ browser-based logic and your server-side scripting, there is tremendous
+ flexibility in how you implement your business logic on top of Pazpar2.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Once you launch a search in Pazpar2, the operation continues behind the
+ scenes. Pazpar2 connects to servers, carries out searches, and
+ retrieves, deduplicates, and stores results internally. Your application
+ code may periodically inquire about the status of an ongoing operation,
+ and ask to see records or other result set facets. Result become
+ available immediately, and it is easy to build end-user interfaces which
+ feel extremely responsive, even when searching more than 100 servers
+ concurrently.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is designed to be highly configurable. Incoming records are
+ normalized to XML/UTF-8, and then further normalized using XSLT to a
+ simple internal representation that is suitable for analysis. By
+ providing XSLT stylesheets for different kinds of result records, you
+ can tune Pazpar2 to work against different kinds of information
+ retrieval servers. Finally, metadata is extracted, in a configurable
+ way, from this internal record, to support display, merging, ranking,
+ result set facets, and sorting. Pazpar2 is not bound to a specific model
+ of metadata, such as DublinCore or MARC -- by providing the right
+ configuration, it can work with a number of different kinds of data in
+ support of many different applications.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is designed to be efficient and scalable. You can set it up to
+ search several hundred targets in parallel, or you can use it to support
+ hundreds of concurrent users. It is implemented with the same attention
+ to performance and economy that we use in our indexing engines, so that
+ you can focus on building your application, without worrying about the
+ details of metasearch logic. You can devote all of your attention to
+ usability and let Pazpar2 do what it does best -- metasearch.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you wish to connect to commercial or other databases which do not
+ support open standards, please contact Index Data. We have a licensing
+ agreement with a third party vendor which will enable Pazpar2 to access
+ thousands of online databases, in addition the vast number of catalogs
+ and online services that support the Z39.50 protocol.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is our attempt to re-think the traditional paradigms for
+ implementing and deploying metasearch logic, with an uncompromising
+ approach to performance, and attempting to make maximum use of the
+ capabilities of modern browsers. The demo user interface that
+ accompanies the distribution is but one example. If you think of new
+ ways of using Pazpar2, we hope you'll share them with us, and if we
+ can provide assistance with regards to training, design, programming,
+ integration with different backends, hosting, or support, please don't
+ hesitate to contact us. If you'd like to see functionality in Pazpar2
+ that is not there today, please don't hesitate to contact us. It may
+ already be in our development pipeline, or there might be a
+ possibility for you to help out by sponsoring development time or
+ code. Either way, get in touch and we will give you straight answers.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Enjoy!
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is covered by the GNU license version 2.
+ See <xref linkend="license"/> for further information.
+ </para>
+ </chapter>
+
+ <chapter id="installation">
+ <title>Installation</title>
+ <para>
+ The Pazpar2 package very small. It includes documentation as well
+ as the Pazpar2 server. The package also includes a simple user
+ interface test1 which consists of a single HTML page and a single
+ JavaScript file to illustrate the use of Pazpar2.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 depends on the following tools/libraries:
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry><term><ulink url="&url.yaz;">YAZ</ulink></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The popular Z39.50 toolkit for the C language.
+ YAZ <emphasis>must</emphasis> be compiled with Libxml2/Libxslt support.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry><term><ulink url="&url.icu;">International
+ Components for Unicode (ICU)</ulink></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ ICU provides Unicode support for non-English languages with
+ character sets outside the range of 7bit ASCII, like
+ Greek, Russian, German and French. Pazpar2 uses the ICU
+ Unicode character conversions, Unicode normalization, case
+ folding and other fundamental operations needed in
+ tokenization, normalization and ranking of records.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Compiling, linking, and usage of the ICU libraries is optional,
+ but strongly recommended for usage in an international
+ environment.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In order to compile Pazpar2, a C compiler which supports C99 or later
+ is required.
+ </para>
+
+ <section id="installation.unix">
+ <title>Installation on Unix (from Source)</title>
+ <para>
+ The latest source code for Pazpar2 is available from
+ <ulink url="&url.pazpar2.download;"/>.
+ Only few systems have none of the required
+ tools binary packages.
+ If, for example, Libxml2/libXSLT libraries
+ are already installed as development packages use these.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Ensure that the development libraries + header files are
+ available on your system before compiling Pazpar2. For installation
+ of YAZ, refer to the YAZ installation chapter.
+ </para>
+ <screen>
+ gunzip -c pazpar2-version.tar.gz|tar xf -
+ cd pazpar2-version
+ ./configure
+ make
+ su
+ make install
+ </screen>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>make install</literal> will install manpages as well as the
+ Pazpar2 server, <literal>pazpar2</literal>,
+ in PREFIX<literal>/sbin</literal>.
+ By default, PREFIX is <literal>/usr/local/</literal> . This can be
+ changed with configure option <option>--prefix</option>.
+ </para>
+ </section>
- <chapter id="installation">
- <title>Installation</title>
+ <section id="installation.test1">
+ <title>Installation of test1 interface</title>
<para>
- Pazpar2 depends on the following tools/libraries:
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry><term><ulink url="&url.yaz;">YAZ</ulink></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The popular Z39.50 toolkit for the C language. YAZ must be
- compiled with Libxml2/Libxslt support.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
+ In this section we outline how to install a simple interface that
+ is part of the Pazpar2 source package. Note that Debian users can
+ save time by just installing package <literal>pazpar2-test1</literal>.
</para>
<para>
- In order to compile Pazpar2 an ANSI C compiler is
- required. The requirements should be the same as for YAZ.
+ A web server must be installed and running on the system, such as Apache.
</para>
- <section id="installation.unix">
- <title>Installation on Unix (from Source)</title>
- <para>
- Here is a quick step-by-step guide on how to compile the
- tools that Pazpar2 uses. Only few systems have none of the required
- tools binary packages. If, for example, Libxml2/libxslt are already
- installed as development packages use these.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Ensure that the development libraries + header files are
- available on your system before compiling Pazpar2. For installation
- of YAZ, refer to the YAZ installation chapter.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ Start the Pazpar2 daemon using the 'in-source' binary of the Pazpar2
+ daemon.
<screen>
- gunzip -c pazpar2-version.tar.gz|tar xf -
- cd pazpar2-version
- ./configure
- make
- su
- make install
+ cd etc
+ cp pazpar2.cfg.dist pazpar2.cfg
+ ../src/pazpar2 -f pazpar2.cfg -t edu.xml
</screen>
- </section>
+ This will start a Pazpar2 listener on port 8004. It will proxy
+ HTTP requests to localhost - port 80, which we assume will be the regular
+ HTTP server on the system. Inspect and modify pazpar2.cfg as needed
+ if this is to be changed. The -t option specifies the list of targets
+ to use for searches.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Make a new console and move to the other stuff.
+ For more information about pazpar2 options refer to the manpage.
+ </para>
- <section id="installation.debian">
- <title>Installation on Debian GNU/Linux</title>
- <para>
- All dependencies for Pazpar2 are available as
- <ulink url="&url.debian;">Debian</ulink>
- packages for the sarge (stable in 2005) and etch (testing in 2005)
- distributions.
- </para>
- <para>
- The procedures for Debian based systems, such as
- <ulink url="&url.ubuntu;">Ubuntu</ulink> is probably similar
- </para>
+ <para>
+ The test1 UI is located in <literal>www/test1</literal>. Ensure this
+ directory is available to the web server by either copying
+ <literal>test1</literal> to the document root, create a symlink or
+ use Apache's <literal>Alias</literal> directive.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The interface test1 interface should now be available on port 8004.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you don't see the test1 interface. See if test1 is really available
+ on the same URL but on port 80. If it's not, the Apache configuration
+ (or other) is not correct.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In order to use Apache as frontend for the interface on port 80
+ for public access etc., refer to
+ <xref linkend="installation.apache2proxy"/>.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="installation.debian">
+ <title>Installation on Debian GNU/Linux</title>
+ <para>
+ Index Data provides Debian packages for Pazpar2. These are prepared
+ for Debian versions Etch and Lenny (as of 2007).
+ These packages are available at
+ <ulink url="&url.pazpar2.download.debian;"/>.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="installation.apache2proxy">
+ <title>Apache 2 Proxy</title>
+ <para>
+ Apache 2 has a
+ <ulink url="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html">
+ proxy module
+ </ulink> which allows Pazpar2 to become a backend to an Apache 2
+ based web service. The Apache 2 proxy must operate in the
+ <emphasis>Reverse</emphasis> Proxy mode.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ On a Debian based Apache 2 system, the relevant modules can
+ be enabled with:
<screen>
- apt-get install libyaz-dev
+ sudo a2enmod proxy_http
</screen>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Traditionally Pazpar2 interprets URL paths with suffix
+ <literal>/search.pz2</literal>.
+ The
+ <ulink
+ url="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html#proxypass"
+ >ProxyPass</ulink> directive of Apache must be used to map a URL path
+ the the Pazpar2 server (listening port).
+ </para>
+
+ <note>
<para>
- With these packages installed, the usual configure + make
- procedure can be used for Pazpar2 as outlined in
- <xref linkend="installation.unix"/>.
+ The ProxyPass directive takes a prefix rather than
+ a suffix as URL path. It is important that the Java Script code
+ uses the prefix given for it.
</para>
- </section>
- </chapter>
+ </note>
- <chapter id="using">
- <title>Using pazpar2</title>
+ <example id="installation.apache2proxy.example">
+ <title>Apache 2 proxy configuration</title>
<para>
- This chapter provides a general introduction to the use and deployment of pazpar2.
+ If Pazpar2 is running on port 8004 and the portal is using
+ <filename>search.pz2</filename> inside portal in directory
+ <filename>/myportal/</filename> we could use the following
+ Apache 2 configuration:
+
+ <screen><![CDATA[
+ <IfModule mod_proxy.c>
+ ProxyRequests Off
+
+ <Proxy *>
+ AddDefaultCharset off
+ Order deny,allow
+ Allow from all
+ </Proxy>
+
+ ProxyPass /myportal/search.pz2 http://localhost:8004/search.pz2
+ ProxyVia Off
+ </IfModule>
+ ]]></screen>
</para>
+ </example>
+ </section>
- <section id="architecture">
- <title>Pazpar2 and your systems architecture</title>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 is designed to provide asynchronous, behind-the-scenes
- metasearching functionality to your application, exposing this
- functionality using a simple webservice API that can be accessed
- from any number of development environments. In particular, it is
- possible to combine pazpar2 either with your server-side dynamic
- website scripting, with scripting or code running in the browser, or
- with any combination of the two. Pazpar2 is an excellent tool for
- building advanced, Ajax-based user interfaces for metasearch
- functionality, but it isn't a requirement -- you can choose to use
- pazpar2 entirely as a backend to your regular server-side scripting.
- When you do use pazpar2 in conjunction
- with browser scripting (JavaScript/Ajax, Flash, applets, etc.), there are
- special considerations.
- </para>
+ </chapter>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 implements a simple but efficient HTTP server, and it is
- designed to interact directly with scripting running in the browser
- for the best possible performance, and to limit overhead when
- several browser clients generate numerous webservice requests.
- However, it is still desirable to use a conventional webserver,
- such as Apache, to serve up graphics, HTML documents, and
- server-side scripting. Because the security sandbox environment of
- most browser-side programming environments only allows communication
- with the server from which the enclosing HTML page or object
- originated, pazpar2 is designed so that it can act as a transparent
- proxy in front of an existing webserver (see <xref
- linkend="pazpar2_conf"/> for details). In this mode, all regular
- HTTP requests are transparently passed through to your webserver,
- while pazpar2 only intercepts search-related webservice requests.
- </para>
+ <chapter id="using">
+ <title>Using Pazpar2</title>
+ <para>
+ This chapter provides a general introduction to the use and
+ deployment of Pazpar2.
+ </para>
- <para>
- If you want to expose your combined service on port 80, you can
- either run your regular webserver on a different port, a different
- server, or a different IP address associated with the same server.
- </para>
+ <section id="architecture">
+ <title>Pazpar2 and your systems architecture</title>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is designed to provide asynchronous, behind-the-scenes
+ metasearching functionality to your application, exposing this
+ functionality using a simple webservice API that can be accessed
+ from any number of development environments. In particular, it is
+ possible to combine Pazpar2 either with your server-side dynamic
+ website scripting, with scripting or code running in the browser, or
+ with any combination of the two. Pazpar2 is an excellent tool for
+ building advanced, Ajax-based user interfaces for metasearch
+ functionality, but it isn't a requirement -- you can choose to use
+ Pazpar2 entirely as a backend to your regular server-side scripting.
+ When you do use Pazpar2 in conjunction
+ with browser scripting (JavaScript/Ajax, Flash, applets,
+ etc.), there are special considerations.
+ </para>
- <para>
- Sometimes, it may be necessary to implement functionality on your
- regular webserver that makes use of search results, for example to
- implement data import functionality, emailing results, history
- lists, personal citation lists, interlibrary loan functionality
- ,etc. Fortunately, it is simple to exchange information between
- pazpar2, your browser scripting, and backend server-side scripting.
- You can send a session ID and possibly a record ID from your browser
- code to your server code, and from there use pazpar2s webservice API
- to access result sets or individual records. You could even 'hide'
- all of pazpar2s functionality between your own API implemented on
- the server-side, and access that from the browser or elsewhere. The
- possibilities are just about endless.
- </para>
- </section>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 implements a simple but efficient HTTP server, and it is
+ designed to interact directly with scripting running in the browser
+ for the best possible performance, and to limit overhead when
+ several browser clients generate numerous webservice requests.
+ However, it is still desirable to use a conventional webserver,
+ such as Apache, to serve up graphics, HTML documents, and
+ server-side scripting. Because the security sandbox environment of
+ most browser-side programming environments only allows communication
+ with the server from which the enclosing HTML page or object
+ originated, Pazpar2 is designed so that it can act as a transparent
+ proxy in front of an existing webserver (see <xref
+ linkend="pazpar2_conf"/> for details).
+ In this mode, all regular
+ HTTP requests are transparently passed through to your webserver,
+ while Pazpar2 only intercepts search-related webservice requests.
+ </para>
- <section id="data_model">
- <title>Your data model</title>
- <para>
- Pazpar2 does not have a preconceived model of what makes up a data
- model. There are no assumption that records have specific fields or
- that they are organized in any particular way. The only assumption
- is that data comes packaged in a form that the software can work
- with (presently, that means XML or MARC), and that you can provide
- the necessary information to massage it into pazpar2's internal
- record abstraction.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ If you want to expose your combined service on port 80, you can
+ either run your regular webserver on a different port, a different
+ server, or a different IP address associated with the same server.
+ </para>
- <para>
- Handling retrieval records in pazpar2 is a two-step process. First,
- you decide which data elements of the source record you are
- interested in, and you specify any desired massaging or combining of
- elements using an XSLT stylesheet (MARC records are automatically
- normalized to MARCXML before this step). If desired, you can run
- multiple XSLT stylesheets in series to accomplish this, but the
- output of the last one should be a representation of the record in a
- schema that pazpar2 understands.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 can also work behind
+ a reverse Proxy. Refer to <xref linkend="installation.apache2proxy"/>)
+ for more information.
+ This allows your existing HTTP server to operate on port 80 as usual.
+ Pazpar2 can be started on another (internal) port.
+ </para>
- <para>
- The intermediate, internal representation of the record looks like
- this:
- <screen><![CDATA[
-<record xmlns="http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/1.0"
- mergekey="title The Shining author King, Stephen">
+ <para>
+ Sometimes, it may be necessary to implement functionality on your
+ regular webserver that makes use of search results, for example to
+ implement data import functionality, emailing results, history
+ lists, personal citation lists, interlibrary loan functionality
+ ,etc. Fortunately, it is simple to exchange information between
+ Pazpar2, your browser scripting, and backend server-side scripting.
+ You can send a session ID and possibly a record ID from your browser
+ code to your server code, and from there use Pazpar2s webservice API
+ to access result sets or individual records. You could even 'hide'
+ all of Pazpar2s functionality between your own API implemented on
+ the server-side, and access that from the browser or elsewhere. The
+ possibilities are just about endless.
+ </para>
+ </section>
- <metadata type="title">The Shining</metadata>
+ <section id="data_model">
+ <title>Your data model</title>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 does not have a preconceived model of what makes up a data
+ model. There are no assumption that records have specific fields or
+ that they are organized in any particular way. The only assumption
+ is that data comes packaged in a form that the software can work
+ with (presently, that means XML or MARC), and that you can provide
+ the necessary information to massage it into Pazpar2's internal
+ record abstraction.
+ </para>
- <metadata type="author">King, Stephen</metadata>
+ <para>
+ Handling retrieval records in Pazpar2 is a two-step process. First,
+ you decide which data elements of the source record you are
+ interested in, and you specify any desired massaging or combining of
+ elements using an XSLT stylesheet (MARC records are automatically
+ normalized to <ulink url="&url.marcxml;">MARCXML</ulink> before this step).
+ If desired, you can run multiple XSLT stylesheets in series to accomplish
+ this, but the output of the last one should be a representation of the
+ record in a schema that Pazpar2 understands.
+ </para>
- <metadata type="kind">ebook</metadata>
+ <para>
+ The intermediate, internal representation of the record looks like
+ this:
+ <screen><![CDATA[
+ <record xmlns="http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/1.0"
+ mergekey="title The Shining author King, Stephen">
- <!-- ... and so on -->
-</record>
-]]></screen>
+ <metadata type="title">The Shining</metadata>
- As you can see, there isn't much to it. There are really only a few
- important elements to this file.
- </para>
+ <metadata type="author">King, Stephen</metadata>
- <para>
- Elements should belong to the namespace
- http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/1.0. If the root node contains the
- attribute 'mergekey', then every record that generates the same
- merge key (normalized for case differences, white space, and
- truncation) will be joined into a cluster. In other words, you
- decide how records are merged. If you don't include a merge key,
- records are never merged. The 'metadata' elements provide the meat
- of the elements -- the content. the 'type' attribute is used to
- match each element against processing rules that determine what
- happens to the data element next.
- </para>
+ <metadata type="kind">ebook</metadata>
- <para>
- The next processing step is the extraction of metadata from the
- intermediate representation of the record. This is governed by the
- 'metadata' elements in the 'service' section of the configuration
- file. See <xref linkend="config-server"/> for details. The metadata
- in the retrieval record ultimately drives merging, sorting, ranking,
- the extraction of browse facets, and display, all configurable.
- </para>
- </section>
+ <!-- ... and so on -->
+ </record>
+ ]]></screen>
- <section id="client">
- <title>Client development</title>
- <para>
- You can use pazpar2 from any environment that allows you to use
- webservices. The initial goal of the software was to support
- Ajax-based applications, but there literally are no limits to what
- you can do. You can use pazpar2 from Javascript, Flash, Java, etc.,
- on the browser side, and from any development environment on the
- server side, and you can pass session tokens and record IDs freely
- around between these environments to build sophisticated applications.
- Use your imagination.
- </para>
+ As you can see, there isn't much to it. There are really only a few
+ important elements to this file.
+ </para>
- <para>
- The webservice API of pazpar2 is described in detail in <xref
- linkend="pazpar2_protocol"/>.
- </para>
+ <para>
+ Elements should belong to the namespace
+ <literal>http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/1.0</literal>.
+ If the root node contains the
+ attribute 'mergekey', then every record that generates the same
+ merge key (normalized for case differences, white space, and
+ truncation) will be joined into a cluster. In other words, you
+ decide how records are merged. If you don't include a merge key,
+ records are never merged. The 'metadata' elements provide the meat
+ of the elements -- the content. the 'type' attribute is used to
+ match each element against processing rules that determine what
+ happens to the data element next.
+ </para>
- <para>
- In brief, you use the 'init' command to create a session, a
- temporary workspace which carries information about the current
- search. You start a new search using the 'search' command. Once the
- search has been started, you can follow its progress using the
- 'stat', 'bytarget', 'termlist', or 'show' commands. Detailed records
- can be fetched using the 'record' command.
- </para>
- </section>
- </chapter> <!-- Using pazpar2 -->
+ <para>
+ The next processing step is the extraction of metadata from the
+ intermediate representation of the record. This is governed by the
+ 'metadata' elements in the 'service' section of the configuration
+ file. See <xref linkend="config-server"/> for details. The metadata
+ in the retrieval record ultimately drives merging, sorting, ranking,
+ the extraction of browse facets, and display, all configurable.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ <section id="client">
+ <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
+ Ajax-based applications, but there literally are no limits to what
+ you can do. You can use Pazpar2 from Javascript, Flash, Java, etc.,
+ on the browser side, and from any development environment on the
+ server side, and you can pass session tokens and record IDs freely
+ around between these environments to build sophisticated applications.
+ Use your imagination.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The webservice API of Pazpar2 is described in detail in <xref
+ linkend="pazpar2_protocol"/>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ In brief, you use the 'init' command to create a session, a
+ temporary workspace which carries information about the current
+ search. You start a new search using the 'search' command. Once the
+ search has been started, you can follow its progress using the
+ 'stat', 'bytarget', 'termlist', or 'show' commands. Detailed records
+ can be fetched using the 'record' command.
+ </para>
+ </section>
+
+ §-ajaxdev;
+
+ <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 language 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>
+
+ <section id="unicode">
+ <title>Unicode Compliance</title>
+ <para>
+ Pazpar2 is Unicode compliant and language and locale aware but relies
+ on character encoding for the targets to be specified correctly if
+ the targets themselves are not UTF-8 based (most aren't).
+ Just a few bad behaving targets can spoil the search experience
+ considerably if for example Greek, Russian or otherwise non 7-bit ASCII
+ search terms are entered. In these cases some targets return
+ records irrelevant to the query, and the result screens will be
+ cluttered with noise.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ While noise from misbehaving targets can not be removed, it can
+ be reduced using truly Unicode based ranking. This is an
+ option which is available to the system administrator if ICU
+ support is compiled into Pazpar2, see
+ <xref linkend="installation"/> for details.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ In addition, the ICU tokenization and normalization rules must
+ be defined in the master configuration file described in
+ <xref linkend="config-server"/>.
+ </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.
<para>
Pazpar2,
- Copyright © 2006-2007 Index Data.
+ Copyright © ©right-year; Index Data.
</para>
<para>
</screen>
</section>
</appendix>
-
+
</book>
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