<chapter id="introduction">
- <!-- $Id: introduction.xml,v 1.6 2002-08-02 19:26:55 adam Exp $ -->
+ <!-- $Id: introduction.xml,v 1.8 2002-08-27 07:49:23 mike Exp $ -->
<title>Introduction</title>
<sect1>
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
- The
<ulink url="http://www.indexdata.dk/zebra/">
Zebra</ulink>
- system is a fielded free-text indexing and retrieval engine with a
- Z39.50 front-end. You can use our various toolkits or any commercial
- or free-ware Z39.50 client to access data stored in Zebra.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- FIXME - not a "first step" but a part of a complete system! -H
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The Zebra server is our first step towards the development of a fully
- configurable, open information system. Eventually, it will be paired
- off with a powerful Z39.50 client to support complex information
- management tasks within almost any application domain. We're making
- the server available now because it's no fun to be in the open
- information retrieval business all by yourself. We want to allow
- people with interesting data to make their things
- available in interesting ways, without having to start out
- by implementing yet another protocol stack from scratch.
- </para>
-
+ is a high-performance, general-purpose structured text
+ indexing and retrieval engine. It reads structured records in a
+ variety of input formats (eg. email, XML, MARC) and allows access
+ to them through exact boolean search expressions and
+ relevance-ranked free-text queries.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Zebra supports large databases (more than ten gigabytes of data,
+ tens of millions of records). It supports safe, incremental
+ database updates on live systems. You can access data stored in
+ Zebra using a variety of Index Data tools (eg. YAZ and PHP/YAZ) as
+ well as commercial and freeware Z39.50 clients and toolkits.
+ </para>
+
<para>
This document is an introduction to the Zebra system. It will tell you
how to compile the software, and how to prepare your first database.
<title>Features</title>
<para>
- This is a list of some of the most important features of the
+ This is an overview of some of the most important features of the
system.
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
Can import the data into Zebras own storage, or just refer to
- external files (html pages).
+ external files (good for building indexes of "live"
+ collections).
</para>
</listitem>
</para>
<para>
- Protocol support:
+ Z39.50 protocol support:
</para>
<para>
</sect1>
+ <sect1 id="apps">
+ <title>Applications</title>
+ <para>
+ Zebra has been deployed in numerous applications, in both the
+ academic and commercial worlds, in application domains as diverse
+ as bibliographic information, geospatial, ### (Help, guys!)
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Notable applications include the following:
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>DADS - the DTV Article Database Service</title>
+ <para>
+ DADS is a huge database of ### records, allowing students and
+ researchers at DTU (###) to search and order articles from several
+ different databases at once. The database contains
+ literature on all engineering subjects. It's available on-line
+ through a web gateway at
+ http://www.dtv.dk/search/index_e.htm
+ though only to members of the university.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ ### Much more information needed.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
<sect1 id="future">
<title>Future Work</title>
<para>
These are some of the plans that we have for the software in the near
and far future, approximately ordered after their relative importance.
- Items marked with an
- asterisk will be implemented before the
- last beta release.
- FIXME - What are the current plans?
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
- *Finalize the data element <emphasis>include</emphasis> facility
- to support multimedia data elements in records.
+ Improved support for XML in search and retrieval. Eventually,
+ the goal is for Zebra to pull double duty as a flexible
+ information retrieval engine and high-performance XML
+ repository.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add more sophisticated relevance ranking mechanisms.
- Add support for soundex and stemming.
- Add relevance <emphasis>feedback</emphasis> support.
+ Access to search engine through SOAP/RPC API to allow the
+ construction of applications without requiring Z39.50 tools.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Complete EXPLAIN support.
+ Finalisation, documentation of the Zebra API. Consider
+ exposing the API through SOAP as well (allowing updates,
+ database management).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Add support for very large records by implementing segmentation and/or
- variant pieces.
+ Improved free-text searching. We're first and foremost octet jockeys and
+ we're actively looking for organisations or people who'd like
+ to contribute experience in relevance ranking and text
+ searching.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Support the Item Update extended service of the protocol.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- We want to add a management system that allows you to
- control your databases and configuration tables from a graphical
- interface.
- </para>
- </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
projects / idzebra-moved-to-github.git / blobdiff