-
-
- <section id="introduction-support">
- <title>Support</title>
- <para>
- You can get support for Zebra from at least three sources.
- </para>
- <para>
- First, there's the Zebra web site at
- <ulink url="http://indexdata.dk/zebra/"/>,
- which always has the most recent version available for download.
- If you have a problem with Zebra, the first thing to do is see
- whether it's fixed in the current release.
- </para>
- <para>
- Second, there's the Zebra mailing list. Its home page at
- <ulink url="http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zebralist"/>
- includes a complete archive of all messages that have ever been
- posted on the list. The Zebra mailing list is used both for
- announcements from the authors (new
- releases, bug fixes, etc.) and general discussion. You are welcome
- to seek support there. Join by filling the form on the list home page.
- </para>
- <para>
- Third, it's possible to buy a commercial support contract, with
- well defined service levels and response times, from Index Data.
- See
- <ulink url="http://indexdata.dk/support/"/>
- for details.
- </para>
- </section>
-
-
- <section id="future">
- <title>Future Directions</title>
-
- <para>
- 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.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- <itemizedlist>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- 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.
- </para>
- <para>
- There is also the experimental <literal>ALVIS XSLT</literal>
- 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
- <ulink url="http://www.alvis.info/alvis/"/>. We expect this filter to
- mature soon, as it is planned to be included in the version 1.4
- release of Zebra.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Access to the search engine through SOAP/RPC API to allow the
- construction of applications without requiring Z39.50 tools.
- <!--
- This will shortly be available by means of Index Data's
- <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/">SRW</ulink>-to-Z39.50 gateway, currently in beta test.
- -->
- Experimental support of the
- Search/Retrieve Via URL ( <ulink url="&url.sru;">SRU</ulink>)
- <ulink url="&url.sru;"/>
- REST webservice, and the
- Search/Retrieve Web Service ( <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/">SRW</ulink>)
- <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/"/>
- SOAP Web Service have recently been added to the YAZ/Zebra
- combo - including server side Common Query Language (<ulink url="&url.cql;">CQL</ulink>)
- <ulink url="&url.cql;"/> parsing
- and configuration. It remains to find a sponsor for further testing,
- documentation and packaging of this exiting component.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Finalisation and documentation of Zebra's C programming
- API, allowing updates, database management and other functions
- not readily expressed in Z39.50. We will also consider
- exposing the API through SOAP.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Support for the use of Perl both for access to the Zebra API
- and for building extension ``plug-ins'' such as input filters.
- The code for this has been contributed to the source tree by
- Peter Popovics
- <email>pop@technomat.hu</email>,
- and is in the process of being integrated and tested.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- 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>
-
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>