-<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.13 2006-04-22 13:28:05 adam Exp $ -->
+<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.14 2006-04-23 19:08:56 adam Exp $ -->
<bookinfo>
<title>Metaproxy - User's Guide and Reference</title>
<author>
Metaproxy is a universal router, proxy and encapsulated
metasearcher for information retrieval protocols. It accepts,
processes, interprets and redirects requests from IR clients using
- standard protocols such as ANSI/NISO Z39.50 (and in the future SRU
- and SRW), as well as functioning as a limited
- HTTP server. Metaproxy is configured by an XML file which
+ standard protocols such as
+ <ulink url="&url.z39.50;">ANSI/NISO Z39.50</ulink>
+ (and in the future <ulink url="&url.sru;">SRU</ulink>
+ and <ulink url="&url.srw;">SRW</ulink>), as
+ well as functioning as a limited
+ <ulink url="&url.http;">HTTP</ulink> server.
+ Metaproxy is configured by an XML file which
specifies how the software should function in terms of routes that
the request packets can take through the proxy, each step on a
route being an instantiation of a filter. Filters come in many
should not at this stage redistribute the code without explicit
written permission from the copyright holders, Index Data ApS.
</simpara>
+ <simpara>
+ <inlinemediaobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="common/id.png" format="PNG"/>
+ </imageobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="common/id.eps" format="EPS"/>
+ </imageobject>
+ </inlinemediaobject>
+ </simpara>
</abstract>
</bookinfo>
<title>Introduction</title>
- <para>
- <ulink url="http://www.indexdata.com/metaproxy/">Metaproxy</ulink>
- is a standalone program that acts as a universal router, proxy and
- encapsulated metasearcher for information retrieval protocols such
- as Z39.50, and in the future SRU and SRW. To clients, it acts as a
- server of these
- protocols: it can be searched, records can be retrieved from it,
- etc. To servers, it acts as a client: it searches in them,
- retrieves records from them, etc. it satisfies its clients'
- requests by transforming them, multiplexing them, forwarding them
- on to zero or more servers, merging the results, transforming
- them, and delivering them back to the client. In addition, it
- acts as a simple HTTP server; support for further protocols can be
- added in a modular fashion, through the creation of new filters.
- </para>
- <screen>
- Anything goes in!
- Anything goes out!
- Cold bananas, fish, pyjamas,
- Mutton, beef and trout!
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="&url.metaproxy;">Metaproxy</ulink>
+ is a standalone program that acts as a universal router, proxy and
+ encapsulated metasearcher for information retrieval protocols such
+ as <ulink url="&url.z39.50;">Z39.50</ulink>, and in the future
+ <ulink url="&url.sru;">SRU</ulink> and <ulink url="&url.srw;">SRW</ulink>.
+ To clients, it acts as a server of these protocols: it can be searched,
+ records can be retrieved from it, etc.
+ To servers, it acts as a client: it searches in them,
+ retrieves records from them, etc. it satisfies its clients'
+ requests by transforming them, multiplexing them, forwarding them
+ on to zero or more servers, merging the results, transforming
+ them, and delivering them back to the client. In addition, it
+ acts as a simple <ulink url="&url.http;">HTTP</ulink> server; support
+ for further protocols can be added in a modular fashion, through the
+ creation of new filters.
+ </para>
+ <screen>
+ Anything goes in!
+ Anything goes out!
+ Cold bananas, fish, pyjamas,
+ Mutton, beef and trout!
- attributed to Cole Porter.
- </screen>
- <para>
- Metaproxy is a more capable alternative to
- <ulink url="http://www.indexdata.com/yazproxy/">YAZ Proxy</ulink>,
- being more powerful, flexible, configurable and extensible. Among
- its many advantages over the older, more pedestrian work are
- support for multiplexing (encapsulated metasearching), routing by
- database name, authentication and authorisation and serving local
- files via HTTP. Equally significant, its modular architecture
- facilitites the creation of pluggable modules implementing further
- functionality.
- </para>
- <para>
- This manual will briefly describe Metaproxy's licensing situation
- before giving an overview of its architecture, then discussing the
- key concept of a filter in some depth and giving an overview of
- the various filter types, then discussing the configuration file
- format. After this come several optional chapters which may be
- freely skipped: a detailed discussion of virtual databases and
- multi-database searching, some notes on writing extensions
- (additional filter types) and a high-level description of the
- source code. Finally comes the reference guide, which contains
- instructions for invoking the <command>metaproxy</command>
- program, and detailed information on each type of filter,
- including examples.
- </para>
+ </screen>
+ <para>
+ Metaproxy is a more capable alternative to
+ <ulink url="&url.yazproxy;">YAZ Proxy</ulink>,
+ being more powerful, flexible, configurable and extensible. Among
+ its many advantages over the older, more pedestrian work are
+ support for multiplexing (encapsulated metasearching), routing by
+ database name, authentication and authorisation and serving local
+ files via HTTP. Equally significant, its modular architecture
+ facilitites the creation of pluggable modules implementing further
+ functionality.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This manual will briefly describe Metaproxy's licensing situation
+ before giving an overview of its architecture, then discussing the
+ key concept of a filter in some depth and giving an overview of
+ the various filter types, then discussing the configuration file
+ format. After this come several optional chapters which may be
+ freely skipped: a detailed discussion of virtual databases and
+ multi-database searching, some notes on writing extensions
+ (additional filter types) and a high-level description of the
+ source code. Finally comes the reference guide, which contains
+ instructions for invoking the <command>metaproxy</command>
+ program, and detailed information on each type of filter,
+ including examples.
+ </para>
</chapter>
<title>The Metaproxy Licence</title>
<para>
<emphasis role="strong">
- No decision has yet been made on the terms under which
- Metaproxy will be distributed.
+ No decision has yet been made on the terms under which
+ Metaproxy will be distributed.
</emphasis>
It is possible that, unlike
other Index Data products, metaproxy may not be released under a
projects / metaproxy-moved-to-github.git / commitdiff