MKWS demo client

`s with well-known identifiers in any HTML page, the various components of an application can be embedded: search-boxes, results areas, target information, etc. Simple Example ============== The following is a complete MKWS-based searching application: MKWS demo client

Go ahead, try it! You don't even need a web-server. Just copy and paste this HTML into a file on your computer -- `/tmp/magic.html`, say -- and point your web-browser at it: `file:///tmp/magic.html`. Just like that, you have working metasearching. How the example works --------------------- If you know any HTML, the structure of the file will be familar to you: the `` element at the top level contains a `` and a ``. In addition to whatever else you might want to put on your page, you can add MKWS elements. These fall into two categories. First, the prerequisites in the HTML header, which are loaded from the tool site mkws.indexdata.com: * `mkws-complete.js` contains all the JavaScript needed by the widget-set. * `mkws.css` provides the default CSS styling Second, within the HTML body, `

` elements with special IDs that begin `mkws` can be provided. These are filled in by the MKWS code, and provide the components of the searching UI. The very simple application above has only two such components: a search box and a results area. But more are supported. The main `

`s are: * `mkwsSearch` -- provides the search box and button. * `mkwsResults` -- provides the results area, including a list of brief records (which open out into full versions when clicked), paging for large results sets, facets for refining a search, sorting facilities, etc. * `mkwsLang` -- provides links to switch between one of several different UI languages. By default, English, Danish and German are provided. * `mkwsSwitch` -- provides links to switch between a view of the result records and of the targets that provide them. Only meaningful when `mkwsTargets` is also provided. * `mkwsTargets` -- the area where per-target information will appear when selected by the link in the `mkwsSwitch` area. Of interest mostly for fault diagnosis rather than for end-users. * `mkwsStat` --provides a status line summarising the statistics of the various targets. To see all of these working together, just put them all into the HTML `` like so:

Configuration ============= Many aspects of the behaviour of MKWS can be modified by setting parameters into the `mkws_config` object. **This must be done *before* including the MKWS JavaScript** so that when that code is executed it can refer to the configuration values. So the HTML header looks like this: This configuration sets the UI language to Danish (rather than the default of English), initially sorts search results by title rather than relevance (though as always this can be changed in the UI) and makes the search box a bit wider than the default. The full set of supported configuration items is described in the reference guide below. Control over HTML and CSS ========================= More sophisticated applications will not simply place the `

`s together, but position them carefully within an existing page framework -- such as a Drupal template, an OPAC or a SharePoint page. While it's convenient for simple applications to use a monolithic `mkwsResults` area which contains record, facets, sorting options, etc., customised layouts may wish to treat each of these components separately. In this case, `mkwsResults` can be omitted, and the following lower-level components provided instead: * `mkwsTermlists` -- provides the facets * `mkwsRanking` -- provides the options for how records are sorted and how many are included on each page of results. * `mkwsPager` -- provides the links for navigating back and forth through the pages of records. * `mkwsNavi` -- when a search result has been narrowed by one or more facets, this area shows the names of those facets, and allows the selected values to be clicked in order to remove them. * `mkwsRecords` -- lists the actual result records. Customisation of MKWS searching widgets can also be achieved by overriding the styles set in the toolkit's CSS stylesheet. The default styles can be inspected in `mkws.css` and overridden in any styles that appears later in the HTML than that file. At the simplest level, this might just mean changing fonts, sizes and colours, but more fundamental changes are also possible. To properly apply styles, it's necessary to understand how the HTML is structured, e.g. which elements are nested within which containers. The structures used by the widget-set are described in the reference guide below. Refinements =========== Message of the day ------------------ Some applications might like to open with content in the area that will subsequently be filled with result-records -- a message of the day, a welcome message or a help page. This can be done by placing an `mkwsMOTD` division anywhere on the page. It will be moved into the `mkwsResults` area and initially displayed, but will be hidden when a search is made. Customised display using Handlebars templates --------------------------------------------- Certain aspects of the widget-set's display can be customised by providing Handlebars templates with well-known classes that begin with the string `mkwsTemplate_`. At present, the supported templates are: * `mkwsTemplate_Summary` -- used for each summary record in a list of results. * `mkwsTemplate_Record` -- used when displaying a full record. For both of these the metadata record is passed in, and its fields can be referenced in the template. As well as the metadata fields (`md-*`), two special fields are provided to the `mkwsTemplate_Summary` template, for creating popup links for full records. These are `_id`, which must be provided as the `id` attribute of a link tag, and `_onclick`, which must be provided as the `onclick` attribute. For example, an application can install a simple author+title summary record in place of the usual one providing the following template: For details of Handlebars template syntax, see [the online documentation](http://handlebarsjs.com/). Responsive design ----------------- Metasearching applications may need to appear differently on small-screened mobile devices, or change their appearance when screen-width changes (as when a small device is rotated). To achieve this, MKWS supports responsive design which will move the termlists to the bottom on narrow screens and to the sidebar on wide screens. To turn on this behaviour, set the `responsive_design_width` to the desired threshhold width in pixels. For example: If individual result-related components are in use in place of the all-in-one mkwsResults, then the redesigned application needs to specify the locations where the termlists should appear in both cases. In this case, wrap the wide-screen `mkwsTermlists` element in a `mkwsTermlists-Container-wide` element; and provide an `mkwsTermlists-Container-narrow` element in the place where the narrow-screen termlists should appear. Popup results with jQuery UI ---------------------------- The [jQuery UI library](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery_UI) can be used to construct MKWS applications in which the only component generally visible on the page is a search box, and the results appear in a popup. The key part of such an application is this invocation of the MKWS jQuery plugin:

The necessary scaffolding can be seen in an example application, http://example.indexdata.com/index-popup.html Authentication and target configuration --------------------------------------- By default, MKWS configures itself to use a demonstration account on a service hosted by mkws.indexdata.com. This account (username `demo`, password `demo`) provides access to about a dozen free data sources. Authentication onto this service is via an authentication URL on the same MKWS server, so no explicit configuration is needed. In order to search in a customised set of targets, including subscription resources, it's necessary to create an account with Index Data's hosted service proxy, and protect that account with authentication tokens (to prevent unauthorised use of subscription resources). For information on how to do this, see the next section. MKWS Target Selection ===================== MKWS accesses targets using the Pazpar2 metasearching engine. Although Pazpar2 can be used directly, using a statically configured set of targets, this usage is unusual. More often, Pazpar2 is fronted by the Service Proxy (SP), which manages authentication, sessions, target selection, etc. This document assumes the SP is used, and explains how to go about making a set of targets (a "library") available, how to connect your MKWS application to that library, and how to choose which of the available targets to use. Maintaining the library ----------------------- The service proxy accesses sets of targets that are known as "libraries". In general, each customer will have their own library, though some standard libraries may be shared between many customers -- for example, a library containing all open-access academic journals. A library can also contain other configuration information, including the set of categories by which targets are classified for the library. Libraries are maintained using MKAdmin (MasterKey Admin). Specifically, those used by MKWS are generally maintained on the "MKX Admin" installation at In general, Index Data will create a library for each customer, then give the customer a username/password pair that they can use to enter MKAdmin and administrate that library. Once logged in, customers can select which targets to include (from the list of several thousand that MKAdmin knows about), and make customer-specific modifications -- e.g. overriding the titles of the targets. Most importantly, customers' administrators can add authentication credentials that the Service Proxy will used on their behalf when accessing subscription resources -- username/password pairs or proxies to use for IP-based authentication. Note that **it is then crucial to secure the library from use by unauthorised clients**, otherwise the customer's paid subscriptions will be exploited. Access to libraries is managed by creating one or more "User Access" records in MKAdmin, under the tab of that name. Each of these records provides a combination of credentials and other data that allow an incoming MKWS client to be identified as having legitimate access to the library. The authentication process, described below, works by searching for a matching User Access record. Authenticating your MWKS application onto the library ----------------------------------------------------- Some MKWS applications will be content to use the default library with its selection of targets. Most, though, will want to define their own library providing a different range of available targets. An important case is that of applications that authenticate onto subscription resources by means of back-end site credentials stored in MKAdmin: precautions must be taken so that such library accounts do not allow unauthorised access. Setting up such a library is a process of several stages. ### Create the User Access account Log in to MKAdmin to add a User Access account for your library: * Go to * Enter the adminstrative username/password * Go to the User Access tab * Create an end-user account * Depending on what authentication method it be used, set the User Access account's username and password, or referring URL, or Service Proxy hostname, or IP-address range. If your MWKS application runs at a well-known, permanent address -- , say -- you can set the User Access record so that this originating URL is recognised by setting it into the "Referring URL" field. If your application accesses the Service Proxy by a unique virtual hostname -- yourname.sp-mkws.indexdata.com, say -- you can tie the use of this hostname to your library by setting the User Access record's "Host Name" field to name of the host where the SP is accessed. **Note that this is not secure, as other applications can use this virtual hostname to gain access to your library.** Or if your application's users are coming from a well-known range of IP-address space, you can enter the range in the "IP Ranges" field. The format of this field is as follows: it can contain any number of ranges, separated by commas; each range is either a single IP address or two addresses separated by a hyphen; each IP address is four small integers separated by periods. For example, `80.229.143.255-80.229.143.255, 5.57.0.0-5.57.255.255, 127.0.0.1`. Alternatively, your application can authenticate by username and password credentials. This is a useful approach in several situations, including when you need to specify the use of a different library from usual one. To arrange for this, set the username and password as a single string separated by a slash -- e.g. "mike/swordfish" -- into the User Access record's Authentication field. You can set multiple fields into a single User Access record; or create multiple User Access records. For example, a single User Access record can specify both a Referring URL a username/password pair that can be used when running an application from a different URL. But if multiple Referring URLs are needed, then each must be specified in its own User Access record. ### Tell the application to use the library In the HTML of the application, tell MKWS to authenticate on to the Service Proxy. When referer-based or IP-based authentication is used, this is very simple: > TODO This should be the default setting: see **MKWS-251**. And ensure that access to the MWKS application is from the correct Referrer URL or IP-range. ### (Optional): access by a different virtual hostname When hostname-based authentication is in use, it's necessary to access the Service Proxy as the correctly named virtual host. This can be done by setting the `service_proxy_auth` configuration item to a URL containing that hostname, such as `//yourname.sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=perconfig` > TODO It should be possible to change just the hostname without > needing to repeat the rest of the URL (protocol, path, query): see > **MKWS-252**. > TODO When changing the SP authentication URL, the Pazpar2 URL should > in general change along with it: see **MKWS-253**. ### (Optional): embed credentials for access to the library When credential-based authentication is in use (username and password), it's necessary to pass these credentials into the Service Proxy when establishing the session. This can most simply be done just by setting the `service_proxy_auth` configuration item to a URL such as `//sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=perconfig&username=mike&password=swordfish` > TODO It should be possible to add the username and password to the > configuration without needing to repeat the rest of the URL: see > **MKWS-254**. ### (Optional): conceal credentials from HTML source Using a credential-based Service-Proxy authentication URL such as the one above reveals the the credentials to public view -- to anyone who does View Source on the MKWS application. This may be acceptable for some libraries, but is intolerable for those which provide authenticated access to subscription resources. In these circumstances, a more elaborate approach is necessary. The idea is to make a URL local to the customer that is used for authentication onto the Service Proxy, hiding the credentials in a local rewrite rule. Then local mechanisms can be used to limit access to that local authentication URL. Here is one way to do it when Apache2 is the application's web-server, which we will call yourname.com: Step 1: add a rewriting authentication alias to the configuration: RewriteEngine on RewriteRule /spauth/ http://sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/?command=auth&action=check,login&username=U&password=PW [P] Step 2: set the MKWS configuration item `service_proxy_auth` to Step 3: protect access to the local path (e.g. using a `.htaccess` file). Choosing targets from the library --------------------------------- MKWS applications can choose what subset of the library's targets to use, by means of several alternative settings on individual widgets or in the `mkws_config` structure: * `targets` -- contains a Pazpar2 targets string, typically of the form "pz:id=" or "pz:id~" followed by a pipe-separated list of low-level target IDs. At present, these IDs can take one of two forms, depending on the configuration of the Service Proxy being used: they may be based on ZURLs (so a typical value would be something like `pz:id=josiah.brown.edu:210/innopac|lui.indexdata.com:8080/solr4/select?fq=database:4902`) or they may be UDBs (so a typical value would be something like `pz:id=brown|artstor`) * `targetfilter` -- contains a CQL query which is used to find relevant targets from the relvant library. For example, `udb==Google_Images` or `categories=news` * `target` -- contains a single UDB, that of the sole target to be used. For example, `Google_Images`. This is merely syntactic sugar for "targetfilter" with the query `udb==NAME` For example, a `Records` widget can be limited to searching only in targets that have been categorised as news sources by providing an attribute as follows:

Reference Guide =============== Configuration object -------------------- The configuration object `mkws_config` may be created before including the MKWS JavaScript code to modify default behaviour. This structure is a key-value lookup table, whose entries are described in the table below. All entries are optional, but if specified must be given values of the specified type. If ommitted, each setting takes the indicated default value; long default values are in footnotes to keep the table reasonably narrow. ---- Element Type Default Description -------- ----- --------- ------------ debug_level int 1 Level of debugging output to emit. 0 = none, 1 = messages, 2 = messages with datestamps, 3 = messages with datestamps and stack-traces. facets array *Note 1* Ordered list of names of facets to display. Supported facet names are `xtargets`, `subject` and `author`. lang string en Code of the default language to display the UI in. Supported language codes are `en` = English, `de` = German, `da` = Danish, and whatever additional languages are configured using `language_*` entries (see below). lang_options array [] A list of the languages to offer as options. If empty (the default), then all configured languages are listed. language_* hash Support for any number of languages can be added by providing entries whose name is `language_` followed by the code of the language. See the separate section below for details. pazpar2_url string *Note 2* The URL used to access the metasearch middleware. This service must be configured to provide search results, facets, etc. It may be either unmediated or Pazpar2 the MasterKey Service Proxy, which mediates access to an underlying Pazpar2 instance. In the latter case, `service_proxy_auth` must be provided. perpage_default string 20 The initial value for the number of records to show on each page. perpage_options array *Note 3* A list of candidate page sizes. Users can choose between these to determine how many records are displayed on each page of results. query_width int 50 The width of the query box, in characters. responsive_design_width int If defined, then the facets display moves between two locations as the screen-width varies, as described above. The specified number is the threshhold width, in pixels, at which the facets move between their two locations. service_proxy_auth url *Note 4* A URL which, when `use_service_proxy` is true, is fetched once at the beginning of each session to authenticate the user and establish a session that encompasses a defined set of targets to search in. service_proxy_auth_domain domain Can be set to the domain for which `service_proxy_auth` proxies authentication, so that cookies are rewritten to appear to be from this domain. In general, this is not necessary, as this setting defaults to the domain of `pazpar2_url`. show_lang bool true Indicates whether or not to display the language menu. show_perpage bool true Indicates whether or not to display the perpage menu. show_sort bool true Indicates whether or not to display the sort menu. show_switch bool true Indicates whether or not to display the switch menu, for switching between showing retrieved records and target information. sort_default string relevance The label of the default sort criterion to use. Must be one of those in the `sort` array. sort_options array *Note 6* List of supported sort criteria. Each element of the list is itself a two-element list: the first element of each sublist is a pazpar2 sort-expression such as `data:0` and the second is a human-readable label such as `newest`. use_service_proxy bool true If true, then a Service Proxy is used to deliver searching services rather than raw Pazpar2. ---- Perhaps we should get rid of the `show_lang`, `show_perpage`, `show_sort` and `show_switch` configuration items, and simply display the relevant menus only when their containers are provided -- e.g. an `mkwsLang` element for the language menu. But for now we retain these, as an easier route to lightly customise the display than my changing providing a full HTML structure. ### Notes 1. ["sources", "subjects", "authors"] 2. /pazpar2/search.pz2 3. [10, 20, 30, 50] 4. http://sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy-auth 5. http://sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/ 6. [["relevance"], ["title:1", "title"], ["date:0", "newest"], ["date:1", "oldest"]] Language specification ---------------------- Support for another UI language can be added by providing an entry in the `mkws_config` object whose name is `language_` followed by the name of the language: for example, `language_French` to support French. Then value of this entry must be a key-value lookup table, mapping the English-language strings of the UI into their equivalents in the specified language. For example: var mkws_config = { language_French: { "Authors": "Auteurs", "Subjects": "Sujets", // ... and others ... } } The following strings occurring in the UI can be translated: `Displaying`, `Next`, `Prev`, `Records`, `Search`, `Sort by`, `Targets`, `Termlists`, `and show`, `found`, `of`, `per page` and `to`. In addition, facet names can be translated: `Authors`, `Sources` and `Subjects`. Finally, the names of fields in the full-record display can be translated. These include, but may not be limited to: `Author`, `Date`, `Location`, `Subject` and `Title`. jQuery UI popup invocation -------------------------- The MasterKey Widget Set can be invoked in a popup window on top of the page. Note that when using the `popup` layout, facilities from the jQuery UI toolkit are used, so it's necessary to include both CSS and JavaScript from that toolkit. The relevant lines are:

---- Element Type Default Description -------- ----- ------- ------------ popup_width string 880 Width of the popup window (if used), in pixels. popup_height string 760 Height of the popup window (if used), in pixels. popup_button string `input.mkwsButton` (Never change this.) popup_modal string 0 Modal confirmation mode. Valid values are 0 or 1 popup_autoOpen string 1 Open popup window on load. Valid values are 0 or 1 ---- The structure of the HTML generated by the MKWS widgets ------------------------------------------------------- In order to override the default CSS styles provided by the MasterKey Widget Set, it's necessary to understand that structure of the HTML elements that are generated within the components. This knowledge make it possible, for example, to style each `

` with class `term` but only when it occurs inside an element with ID `#mkwsTermlists`, so as to avoid inadvertently styling other elements using the same class in the non-MKWS parts of the page. The HTML structure is as follows. As in CSS, #ID indicates a unique identifier and .CLASS indicates an instance of a class. #mkwsSwitch a* #mkwsLang ( a | span )* #mkwsSearch form input#mkwsQuery type=text input#mkwsButton type=submit #mkwsBlanket (no contents -- used only for masking) #mkwsResults table tbody tr td #mkwsTermlists div.title div.facet* div.termtitle ( a span br )* td div#mkwsRanking form#mkwsSelect select#mkwsSort select#mkwsPerpage #mkwsPager #mkwsNavi #mkwsRecords div.record* span (for sequence number) a (for title) span (for other information such as author) div.details (sometimes) table tbody tr* th td #mkwsTargets #mkwsBytarget table thead tr* td* tbody tr* td* #mkwsStat span.head span.clients span.records - - - Copyright (C) 2013-2014 by IndexData ApS,