X-Git-Url: http://git.indexdata.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fintroduction.xml;h=6a66f77f26e758d00e9e46ac89cde2f950584764;hb=7d2e837262bb9d7b393cf01a6c5f8b079add3d11;hp=f133ea290cbf0e9c34d72cee060010266ae1e8d3;hpb=fdad2b849ba30355fbb50a599af70639e691ae3a;p=idzebra-moved-to-github.git diff --git a/doc/introduction.xml b/doc/introduction.xml index f133ea2..6a66f77 100644 --- a/doc/introduction.xml +++ b/doc/introduction.xml @@ -1,5 +1,4 @@ - Introduction
@@ -7,10 +6,10 @@ &zebra; is a free, fast, friendly information management system. It can - index records in &xml;/&sgml;, &marc;, e-mail archives and many other + index records in &acro.xml;/&acro.sgml;, &acro.marc;, e-mail archives and many other formats, and quickly find them using a combination of boolean searching and relevance ranking. Search-and-retrieve applications can - be written using &api;s in a wide variety of languages, communicating + be written using &acro.api;s in a wide variety of languages, communicating with the &zebra; server using industry-standard information-retrieval protocols or web services. @@ -21,11 +20,11 @@ &zebra; is a networked component which acts as a - reliable &z3950; server + reliable &acro.z3950; server for both record/document search, presentation, insert, update and - delete operations. In addition, it understands the &sru; family of - webservices, which exist in &rest; &get;/&post; and truly - &soap; flavors. + delete operations. In addition, it understands the &acro.sru; family of + webservices, which exist in &acro.rest; &acro.get;/&acro.post; and truly + &acro.soap; flavors. &zebra; is available as MS Windows 2003 Server (32 bit) self-extracting @@ -44,7 +43,7 @@ &zebra; is a high-performance, general-purpose structured text indexing and retrieval engine. It reads records in a - variety of input formats (eg. email, &xml;, &marc;) and provides access + variety of input formats (eg. email, &acro.xml;, &acro.marc;) and provides access to them through a powerful combination of boolean search expressions and relevance-ranked free-text queries. @@ -53,13 +52,13 @@ &zebra; supports large databases (tens of millions of records, tens of gigabytes of data). It allows safe, incremental database updates on live systems. Because &zebra; supports - the industry-standard information retrieval protocol, &z3950;, + the industry-standard information retrieval protocol, &acro.z3950;, you can search &zebra; databases using an enormous variety of programs and toolkits, both commercial and free, which understand this protocol. Application libraries are available to allow bespoke clients to be written in Perl, C, C++, Java, Tcl, Visual - Basic, Python, &php; and more - see the - &zoom; web site + Basic, Python, &acro.php; and more - see the + &acro.zoom; web site for more information on some of these client toolkits. @@ -118,20 +117,20 @@ Complex semi-structured Documents - &xml; and &grs1; Documents - Both &xml; and &grs1; documents exhibit a &dom; like internal + &acro.xml; and &acro.grs1; Documents + Both &acro.xml; and &acro.grs1; documents exhibit a &acro.dom; like internal representation allowing for complex indexing and display rules and Input document formats - &xml;, &sgml;, Text, ISO2709 (&marc;) + &acro.xml;, &acro.sgml;, Text, ISO2709 (&acro.marc;) A system of input filters driven by regular expressions allows most ASCII-based data formats to be easily processed. - &sgml;, &xml;, ISO2709 (&marc;), and raw text are also + &acro.sgml;, &acro.xml;, ISO2709 (&acro.marc;), and raw text are also supported. @@ -171,25 +170,25 @@ Query languages - &cql; and &rpn;/&pqf; - The type-1 Reverse Polish Notation (&rpn;) - and it's textual representation Prefix Query Format (&pqf;) are - supported. The Common Query Language (&cql;) can be configured as - a mapping from &cql; to &rpn;/&pqf; + &acro.cql; and &acro.rpn;/&acro.pqf; + The type-1 Reverse Polish Notation (&acro.rpn;) + and its textual representation Prefix Query Format (&acro.pqf;) are + supported. The Common Query Language (&acro.cql;) can be configured as + a mapping from &acro.cql; to &acro.rpn;/&acro.pqf; and Complex boolean query tree - &cql; and &rpn;/&pqf; - Both &cql; and &rpn;/&pqf; allow atomic query parts (&apt;) to + &acro.cql; and &acro.rpn;/&acro.pqf; + Both &acro.cql; and &acro.rpn;/&acro.pqf; allow atomic query parts (&acro.apt;) to be combined into complex boolean query trees Field search user defined - Atomic query parts (&apt;) are either general, or + Atomic query parts (&acro.apt;) are either general, or directed at user-specified document fields , @@ -274,12 +273,10 @@ Facetted browsing - partial - &zebra; supports scan inside a hit - set from a previous search, thus reducing the listed - terms to the - subset of terms found in the documents/records of the hit - set. + available + Zebra 2.1 and allows retrieval of facets for + a result set. + @@ -335,21 +332,21 @@ - &xml; document transformations - &xslt; based + &acro.xml; document transformations + &acro.xslt; based Record presentation can be performed in many - pre-defined &xml; data - formats, where the original &xml; records are on-the-fly transformed - through any preconfigured &xslt; transformation. It is therefore - trivial to present records in short/full &xml; views, transforming to - RSS, Dublin Core, or other &xml; based data formats, or transform + pre-defined &acro.xml; data + formats, where the original &acro.xml; records are on-the-fly transformed + through any preconfigured &acro.xslt; transformation. It is therefore + trivial to present records in short/full &acro.xml; views, transforming to + RSS, Dublin Core, or other &acro.xml; based data formats, or transform records to XHTML snippets ready for inserting in XHTML pages. Binary record transformations - &marc;, &usmarc;, &marc21; and &marcxml; + &acro.marc;, &acro.usmarc;, &acro.marc21; and &acro.marcxml; post-filter record transformations @@ -357,8 +354,8 @@ Record Syntaxes Multiple record syntaxes - for data retrieval: &grs1;, &sutrs;, - &xml;, ISO2709 (&marc;), etc. Records can be mapped between + for data retrieval: &acro.grs1;, &acro.sutrs;, + &acro.xml;, ISO2709 (&acro.marc;), etc. Records can be mapped between record syntaxes and schemas on the fly. @@ -366,7 +363,7 @@ &zebra; internal metadata yes &zebra; internal document metadata can be fetched in - &sutrs; and &xml; record syntaxes. Those are useful in client + &acro.sutrs; and &acro.xml; record syntaxes. Those are useful in client applications. @@ -374,7 +371,7 @@ &zebra; internal raw record data yes &zebra; internal raw, binary record data can be fetched in - &sutrs; and &xml; record syntaxes, leveraging %zebra; to a + &acro.sutrs; and &acro.xml; record syntaxes, leveraging %zebra; to a binary storage system @@ -382,7 +379,7 @@ &zebra; internal record field data yes &zebra; internal record field data can be fetched in - &sutrs; and &xml; record syntaxes. This makes very fast minimal + &acro.sutrs; and &acro.xml; record syntaxes. This makes very fast minimal record data displays possible. @@ -479,9 +476,9 @@ Remote updates - &z3950; extended services + &acro.z3950; extended services Updates can be performed from remote locations using the - &z3950; extended services. Access to extended services can be + &acro.z3950; extended services. Access to extended services can be login-password protected. and @@ -523,14 +520,14 @@ Fundamental operations - &z3950;/&sru; explain, + &acro.z3950;/&acro.sru; explain, search, scan, and update - &z3950; protocol support + &acro.z3950; protocol support yes Protocol facilities supported are: init, search, @@ -539,18 +536,18 @@ delete, scan (index browsing), sort, close and support for the update - Extended Service to add or replace an existing &xml; + Extended Service to add or replace an existing &acro.xml; record. Piggy-backed presents are honored in the search request. Named result sets are supported. Web Service support - &sru_gps; + &acro.sru; The protocol operations explain, searchRetrieve and scan - are supported. &cql; to internal - query model &rpn; + are supported. &acro.cql; to internal + query model &acro.rpn; conversion is supported. Extended RPN queries for search/retrieve and scan are supported. @@ -716,7 +713,7 @@ In early 2005, the Koha project development team began looking at - ways to improve &marc; support and overcome scalability limitations + ways to improve &acro.marc; support and overcome scalability limitations in the Koha 2.x series. After extensive evaluations of the best of the Open Source textual database engines - including MySQL full-text searching, PostgreSQL, Lucene and Plucene - the team @@ -735,7 +732,7 @@ and relevance-ranked free-text queries, both of which the Koha 2.x series lack. &zebra; also supports incremental and safe database updates, which allow on-the-fly record - management. Finally, since &zebra; has at its heart the &z3950; + management. Finally, since &zebra; has at its heart the &acro.z3950; protocol, it greatly improves Koha's support for that critical library standard." @@ -755,6 +752,39 @@
+ +
+ Kete Open Source Digital Library and Archiving software + + Kete is a digital object + management repository, initially developed in + New Zealand. Initial development has + been a partnership between the Horowhenua Library Trust and + Katipo Communications Ltd. funded as part of the Community + Partnership Fund in 2006. + Kete is purpose built + software to enable communities to build their own digital + libraries, archives and repositories. + + + It is based on Ruby-on-Rails and MySQL, and integrates the &zebra; server + and the &yaz; toolkit for indexing and retrieval of it's content. + Zebra is run as separate computer process from the Kete + application. + See + how Kete manages + Zebra. + + + Why does Kete wants to use Zebra?? Speed, Scalability and easy + integration with Koha. Read their + detailled + reasoning here. + +
+
Emilda open source ILS @@ -765,12 +795,12 @@ from virtually any computer with an Internet connection, has template based layout allowing anyone to alter the visual appearance of Emilda, and is - &xml; based language for fast and easy portability to virtually any + &acro.xml; based language for fast and easy portability to virtually any language. Currently, Emilda is used at three schools in Espoo, Finland. - As a surplus, 100% &marc; compatibility has been achieved using the + As a surplus, 100% &acro.marc; compatibility has been achieved using the &zebra; Server from Index Data as backend server.
@@ -782,18 +812,18 @@ is a netbased library service offering all traditional functions on a very high level plus many new services. Reindex.net is a comprehensive and powerful WEB system - based on standards such as &xml; and &z3950;. - updates. Reindex supports &marc21;, dan&marc; eller Dublin Core with + based on standards such as &acro.xml; and &acro.z3950;. + updates. Reindex supports &acro.marc21;, dan&acro.marc; eller Dublin Core with UTF8-encoding. Reindex.net runs on GNU/Debian Linux with &zebra; and Simpleserver from Index Data for bibliographic data. The relational database system - Sybase 9 &xml; is used for + Sybase 9 &acro.xml; is used for administrative data. - Internally &marcxml; is used for bibliographical records. Update - utilizes &z3950; extended services. + Internally &acro.marcxml; is used for bibliographical records. Update + utilizes &acro.z3950; extended services. @@ -858,8 +888,8 @@ The &zebra; information retrieval indexing machine is used inside the Alvis framework to manage huge collections of natural language processed and - enhanced &xml; data, coming from a topic relevant web crawl. - In this application, &zebra; swallows and manages 37GB of &xml; data + enhanced &acro.xml; data, coming from a topic relevant web crawl. + In this application, &zebra; swallows and manages 37GB of &acro.xml; data in about 4 hours, resulting in search times of fractions of seconds. @@ -881,9 +911,9 @@ The member libraries send in data files representing their periodicals, including both brief bibliographic data and summary - holdings. Then 21 individual &z3950; targets are created, each + holdings. Then 21 individual &acro.z3950; targets are created, each using &zebra;, and all mounted on the single hardware server. - The live service provides a web gateway allowing &z3950; searching + The live service provides a web gateway allowing &acro.z3950; searching of all of the targets or a selection of them. &zebra;'s small footprint allows a relatively modest system to comfortably host the 21 servers. @@ -895,7 +925,7 @@
- NLI-&z3950; - a Natural Language Interface for Libraries + NLI-&acro.z3950; - a Natural Language Interface for Libraries Fernuniversität Hagen in Germany have developed a natural language interface for access to library databases. @@ -904,8 +934,8 @@ In order to evaluate this interface for recall and precision, they chose &zebra; as the basis for retrieval effectiveness. The &zebra; server contains a copy of the GIRT database, consisting of more - than 76000 records in &sgml; format (bibliographic records from - social science), which are mapped to &marc; for presentation. + than 76000 records in &acro.sgml; format (bibliographic records from + social science), which are mapped to &acro.marc; for presentation. (GIRT is the German Indexing and Retrieval Testdatabase. It is a @@ -1012,73 +1042,6 @@ for details.
- - -
- Future Directions - - - These are some of the plans that we have for the software in the near - and far future, ordered approximately as we expect to work on them. - - - - - - - - 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. The recent addition of XPath searching is one - example of the kind of enhancement we're working on. - - - There is also the experimental ALVIS &xslt; - &xml; input filter, which unleashes the full power of &dom; based - &xslt; transformations during indexing and record retrieval. Work - on this filter has been sponsored by the ALVIS EU project - . We expect this filter to - mature soon, as it is planned to be included in the version 2.0 - release of &zebra;. - - - - - - Finalisation and documentation of &zebra;'s C programming - &api;, allowing updates, database management and other functions - not readily expressed in &z3950;. We will also consider - exposing the &api; through &soap;. - - - - - - 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. - - - - - - - - Programmers thrive on user feedback. If you are interested in a - facility that you don't see mentioned here, or if there's something - you think we could do better, please drop us a mail. Better still, - implement it and send us the patches. - - - If you think it's all really neat, you're welcome to drop us a line - saying that, too. You can email us on - info@indexdata.dk - or check the contact info at the end of this manual. - - -