-<!-- $Id: introduction.xml,v 1.2 2004-04-11 11:58:34 adam Exp $ -->
<chapter id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
<para>
- <ulink url="http://www.indexdata.dk/yazplusplus/">YAZ proxy</ulink>
- is a Z39.50/SRW/SRU proxy. The proxy accepts connections from
- protocol for information retrieval (client and server side).
- While YAZ itself can be used from both C and C++ it is limited by the
- common denominator C.
+ The <ulink url="&url.yazproxy;">YAZ Proxy</ulink> is
+ highly configurable and can be used in a number of different
+ applications, ranging from debugging Z39.50-based applications
+ and protecting overworked servers, to improving the performance of
+ stateless WWW/Z39.50 gateways. Among other features, it includes:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="&url.sru;">SRU GET/POST/SOAP</ulink>
+ server function, to allow any
+ <ulink url="&url.z39.50;">Z39.50</ulink>
+ server to also support the SRU protocols.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Load balancing across multiple backend servers
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Session-sharing and pre-initialization to improve performance
+ in servers with expensive session initialization
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Configurable request filtering, to keep bad requests from
+ reaching the server
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="&url.xml;">XML</ulink> support --
+ MARC records can be converted to
+ <ulink url="&url.marcxml;">MARCXML</ulink>, and
+ <ulink url="&url.xslt;">XSLT</ulink>-transformations
+ allow the proxy to support arbitrary retrieval schemas in XML
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Load governor function limits requests from aggressive
+ batch-mode clients
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Configurable logging
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Efficient multiplexing software enables small memory footprint
+ and very high performance
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Z39.50 character set negotiation support.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
</para>
<section>
<title>Licensing</title>
<para>
- The proxy application and the proxy library is covered by the
+ The proxy application and the proxy library is covered by the
<link linkend="gpl">GPL</link>.
</para>
</section>
+
+ <section id="support">
+ <title>Support</title>
+ <para>
+ Configuration and installation assistance and ongoing support is
+ available for the YAZ Proxy.
+ For further information about support or licensing options, please
+ contact David Dorman in the
+ US (dorman at indexdata.com, 860-346-1237 or toll free 866-489-1568)
+ or Sebastian Hammer in Denmark (quinn a indexdata.com, or +45 3341 0100)
+ </para>
+
+ </section>
</chapter>
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