Mounting a BibClass Collection Online

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Revision as of 15:39, 14 September 2007

Main Page > Mounting Collections: Class-specific Steps > Mounting a Bib Class Collection > Mounting a BibClass Collection Online

Adding Entries to the Collection Manager

The metadata for BibClass and all other classes is managed through the collmgr program. The collmgr application mediates access to creating and updating the metadata, and has online, in-context documentation. This documentation notes fields that are "required," as well as the types of values that each field supports. In those cases where a field uses the reserved keyword "default," a system-supplied default value or function is used. For example, in BibClass, if "default" is used for short filter, records will be displayed according to the rules used in the default BibClass short filter.

For most of your BibClass collections, you will add the following fields. The instructions below assume a sample collection named "nyt". Please replace these sample names with your local filenames.

• collid = [The unique ID string used for the collection, e.g.,] nyt
• collname = [The collection name as it will appear on the cross-collection results lists, in the collection picker (sorted alphabetically), and on the home page for the collection, e.g.,] Historical Index to the New York Times (1863-1905)
• appmodule = [The module name (without .pm suffix) of the Application Object or subclass thereof supporting the basic application functionality for the BibClass middleware, e.g.,] BibApp
• homesite = [The URL for the host webserver hosting the middleware, e.g.,] http://www.hti.umich.edu/
• host = [The host name for the machine hosting the collection data and data indexes, e.g.,] www.hti.umich.edu
• map = [The location of the TerminologyMapper map file for the collection, e.g.,] nyt.map [or default]
• minmaxyearend = [The maximum valid year value to be used to check user input for date searches, e.g.,] 2002
• minmaxyearstart = [The minimum valid year value to be used to check user input for date searches, e.g.,] 1912
• objdir = [The directory where text/image objects are stored, e.g.,] /n/nyt
• port = [The access port for the XPAT daemon on the machine identified in "host" above. Only necessary for collections where data and indexes are on a different machine than the middleware, e.g.,] 620
• primarytitle = [The first title (or graphical banner) that appears at the top of the initial web page, e.g.,] text:Historical Index to the New York Times (1863-1905)
• subclassmodule = [The name of the subclass module (without the ".pm" suffix) that defines the subclass of the BibClass object for the collection, e.g.,] BibClass/NytBC
• webdir = [The directory path relative to DLXSROOT for the collection (usually in the form /c/collid), e.g.,] /n/nyt
• dd = [A list of one or more XPAT .dd files for the collection. Their location is specified by the dddir field, e.g.,] /idx/n/nyt/nyt.dd
• regionsearch = [The regions which are retrieved for Boolean searches (minimally, "entire record"), e.g.,]
  • entire record
  • author
  • title

Submit your changes and check them in.

Related Information

You must also create templates for the new collection. For more information on creating and altering templates, please see Creating and editing HTML/Template files.

You may also add new fields, not previously defined. For more information on adding new searchable fields, please see Adding new searchable fields.

You may also wish to create special filtering routines for the new collection. For more information on creating and editing filters, please see Creating and editing filtering routines.

Creating and Editing HTML/Template Files

BibClass relies on default templates for the "simple" and "advanced" search interfaces and builds these from variables in the collection database, as presented through [colldb.html collmgr]. An index.tpl is required for each collection and placed at /{DLXSROOT}/web/c/collid. Instructions on editing the index.tpl are provided below. It is also possible to build specialized web pages (e.g., a browse page for a relatively small collection) and link these from index.tpl.

Editing index.tpl for a Collection

A sample index.tpl is provided as a working example of an index.tpl. Items that should be added or changed are in curly braces (e.g., { }).

• Add the HEAD element with the following components:

  <head>
    <title> </title>
    <meta content="template generated html">
    <link rel="MADE" href="mailto:">
    <link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="$STYLE_SHEET_URL">
    <link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="$STYLE_SHEET_SPECIFIC_URL">
  </head>

Provide a title for the collection and add the "help" e-mail address in the LINK element, as in LINK rel="MADE" href="mailto:umdl-help@umich.edu".

• You may choose to add a banner or textual title for the collection within the body of the template.
• You may choose to provide one or more paragraphs of descriptive text about the collection within the body of the template.
• Provide links to the "simple" and "advanced" search pages using the template variables $SIMPLE_SEARCH_LINK and $BOOLEAN_SEARCH_LINK, e.g.:

  <p align="left">
     <a href="$SIMPLE_SEARCH_LINK">
        <font size="4">Simple Search</font> </a>
        Search for a word or phrase in a title, a main heading or anywhere in the entry.
  </p>

  <p align="left">
     <a href="$BOOLEAN_SEARCH_LINK">
        <font size="4">Advanced Search</font></a>
        Search for combinations of words or phrases in a title, main heading or anywhere in the entry.
  </p>

• You may also provide links to other web pages with embedded links to support activities such as browsing.
• Add a link to help pages about a particular collection using the $COLLECTION_HELP variable. The following is one form this might take:

  <center><p><a href="$COLLECTION_HELP">Help</a></center>

Creating Additional Web Pages

Information will be provided about creating supporting web pages for other types of access (e.g., browsing). For working examples of this, please see the Digital Library Federation's Digital Library Documents (http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=dlf) collection.

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