1 % The MKWS manual: embedded metasearching with the MasterKey Widget Set
9 There are lots of practical problems in building resource discovery
10 solutions. One of the biggest, and most ubiquitous is incorporating
11 metasearching functionality into existing web-sites -- for example,
12 content-management systems, library catalogues or intranets. In
13 general, even when access to core metasearching functionality is
14 provided by simple web-services such as
15 [Pazpar2](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2), integration work is seen
16 as a major part of most projects.
18 Index Data provides several different toolkits for communicating with
19 its metasearching middleware, trading off varying degrees of
20 flexibility against convenience:
22 * [pz2.js](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/doc/ajaxdev.html) --
23 a low-level JavaScript library for interrogating the
24 [Service Proxy](http://www.indexdata.com/service-proxy/)
26 [Pazpar2](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/).
27 It allows the HTML/JavaScript programmer
28 to create JavaScript applications to display facets, records,
29 etc. that are fetched from the metasearching middleware.
31 * masterkey-ui-core -- a higher-level, complex JavaScript library that
32 uses pz2.js to provide the pieces needed for building a
33 full-featured JavaScript application.
35 * MasterKey Demo UI -- an example of a searching application built on
36 top of masterkey-ui-core. Available as a public demo at
37 <http://mk2.indexdata.com/>
39 * [MKDru](http://www.indexdata.com/masterkey-drupal) --
40 a toolkit for embedding MasterKey-like searching into
41 [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/)
44 All of these approaches require programming to a greater or lesser
45 extent. Against this backdrop, we introduced
46 [MKWS (the MasterKey Widget Set)](http://mkws.indexdata.com/)
47 -- a set of simple, very high-level HTML+CSS+JavaScript
48 components that can be incorporated into any web-site to provide
49 MasterKey searching facilities. By placing `<div>`s with well-known
50 MKWS classes in any HTML page, the various components of an application
51 can be embedded: search-boxes, results areas, target information, etc.
58 [a complete MKWS-based searching application](//example.indexdata.com/simple.html):
62 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
63 <title>MKWS demo client</title>
64 <script type="text/javascript" src="//mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
65 <link rel="stylesheet" href="//mkws.indexdata.com/mkws.css" />
68 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
69 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
73 Go ahead, try it! Simply put the above in a file (e.g index.html),
74 drop it into a folder accessible with an ordinary web-server (e.g
75 Apache) and load it in your web browser. Just like that, you have
76 working metasearching.
81 If you know any HTML, the structure of the file will be familar to
82 you: the `<html>` element at the top level contains a `<head>` and a
83 `<body>`. In addition to whatever else you might want to put on your
84 page, you can add MKWS elements.
86 These fall into two categories. First, the prerequisites in the HTML
87 header, which are loaded from the tool site `mkws.indexdata.com`:
90 contains all the JavaScript needed by the widget-set, including a
91 copy of the jQuery library.
94 provides the default CSS styling
96 Second, within the HTML body, `<div>` elements with special IDs that
97 begin `mkws-` can be provided. These are filled in by the MKWS code,
98 and provide the components of the searching UI. The very simple
99 application above has only two such widgets: a search box and a
100 results area. But more are supported.
102 Defining widget elements
103 ========================
108 An HTML element is made an MKWS widget by including an MKWS
109 class-name. These names begin `mkws-`: what follows that prefix
110 specifies the type of the widget. The type can be any sequence of
111 alphanumeric characters and hyphens _except_ something beginning
114 The main widgets are:
116 * `mkws-search` -- provides the search box and button.
118 * `mkws-results` -- provides the results area, including a list of
119 brief records (which open out into full versions when clicked),
120 paging for large results sets, facets for refining a search,
121 sorting facilities, etc.
123 * `mkws-progress` -- shows a progress bar indicating how many of the
124 targets have responded to the search request.
126 * `mkws-stat` -- provides a status line summarising the statistics of
129 * `mkws-switch` -- provides links to switch between a view of the
130 result records and of the targets that provide them. Only
131 meaningful when `mkws-targets` is also provided.
133 * `mkws-targets` -- the area where per-target information will appear
134 when selected by the link in the `mkws-switch` area. Of interest
135 mostly for fault diagnosis rather than for end-users.
137 * `mkws-lang` -- provides links to switch between one of several
138 different UI languages. By default, English, Danish and German are
141 To see all of these working together, just put them all into the HTML
144 <div class="mkws-switch"></div>
145 <div class="mkws-lang"></div>
146 <div class="mkws-progress"></div>
147 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
148 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
149 <div class="mkws-targets"></div>
150 <div class="mkws-stat"></div>
152 The full set of supported widgets is described in the
159 In general a set of widgets work together in a team: in the example
160 above, the search-term that the user enters in the `mkws-search`
161 widget is used to generate the set of records that are displayed in
162 the `mkws-results` widget.
164 Sometimes, it's desirable to have multiple teams in a single page. A
165 widget can be placed in a named team by giving it (in addition to its
166 main class) a class that begins with `mkws-team-`: what follows that
167 prefix specifies the team that the widget is part of. For example,
168 `<div class="mkws-search mkws-team-aux">` creates a search widget that
169 is part of the `aux` team.
171 Widgets that do not have a team specified (as in the examples above)
172 are placed in the team called `AUTO`.
174 Old and new-style class-names
175 -----------------------------
177 **NOTE.** Versions of MKWS before v1.0 used camel-case class-names:
178 without hyphens and with second and subsequent words capitalised. So
179 instead of `mkws-search`, it used to be `mkwsSearch`. And the classes
180 used to specify team names used an `mkwsTeam_` prefix (with an
181 underscore). So instead of `mkws-team-foo`, it used to be
184 The 1.x series of MKWS releases recognise these old-style class-names
185 as well as the canonical ones, as a facility for backwards
186 compatibility. However, **these old class-names are deprecated, and
187 support will be removed in v2.0**. Existing applications that use them
188 should be upgraded to the new-style class names as soon as convenient.
196 Many aspects of the behaviour of MKWS can be modified by setting
197 parameters into the `mkws_config` object. So the HTML header looks
200 <script type="text/javascript">
202 lang_options: [ "en", "da" ]
204 sort_default: "title",
208 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
210 This configuration restricts the set of available UI languages English
211 and Danish (omitting German), sets the default to Danish (rather than
212 the English), initially sorts search results by title rather than
213 relevance (though as always this can be changed in the UI) and makes
214 the search box a bit wider than the default.
216 The full set of supported configuration settings is described in the
217 reference guide below.
219 Per-widget configuration
220 ------------------------
222 In addition to the global configuration provided by the `mkws_config`
223 object, individual widgets' behaviour can be configured by providing
224 configuration settings as attributes on their HTML elements. For example,
225 a `records` widget might be restricted to displaying no more than
226 three records by setting the `numrecs` parameter as follows:
228 <div class="mkws-records" maxrecs="3">
230 Although this works well, HTML validators will consider this element
231 acceptable, since the `maxrecs` attribute is not part of the HTML
232 schema. However, attributes beginning `data-` are always accepted as
233 HTML extensions, much like email headers beginning with
234 `X-`. Therefore, the widget set also recognises configuration
235 attributes prefixed with `data-mkws-`, so:
237 <div class="mkws-records" data-mkws-maxrecs="3">
239 For first form is more convenient; the second is more correct.
241 Because some configuration settings take structured values rather than
242 simple strings, they cannot be directly provided by inline
243 attributes. To allow for this, the special attribute
244 `data-mkws-config`, if provided, is parsed as JSON and its key-value
245 pairs used as configuration settings for the widget in question. For
246 example, the value of `lang_options` is an array of strings specifying
247 which of the supported UI languages should be made available. The
248 following invocation will limit this list to only English and Danish
251 <div class="mkws-lang" data-mkws-config='{ "lang_options": [ "en", "da" ] }'></div>
253 (Note that, as JSON requires double quotes around all strings, single
254 quotes must be used to contain the entire attribute value.)
257 Control over HTML and CSS
258 =========================
260 More sophisticated applications will not simply place the widgets
261 together, but position them carefully within an existing page
262 framework -- such as a Drupal template, an OPAC or a SharePoint page.
264 While it's convenient for simple applications to use a monolithic
265 `mkws-results` area which contains record, facets, sorting options,
266 etc., customised layouts may wish to treat each of these components
267 separately. In this case, `mkws-results` can be omitted, and the
268 following lower-level widgets provided instead:
270 * `mkws-facets` -- provides the facets
272 * `mkws-ranking` -- provides the options for how records are sorted and
273 how many are included on each page of results.
275 * `mkws-pager` -- provides the links for navigating back and forth
276 through the pages of records.
278 * `mkws-navi` -- when a search result has been narrowed by one or more
279 facets, this area shows the names of those facets, and allows the
280 selected values to be clicked in order to remove them.
282 * `mkws-records` -- lists the actual result records.
284 Customisation of MKWS searching widgets can also be achieved by
285 overriding the styles set in the toolkit's CSS stylesheet. The default
286 styles can be inspected in [mkws.css](mkws.css)
287 and overridden in any
288 styles that appears later in the HTML than that file. At the simplest
289 level, this might just mean changing fonts, sizes and colours, but
290 more fundamental changes are also possible.
292 To properly apply styles, it's necessary to understand how the HTML is
293 structured, e.g. which elements are nested within which
294 containers. The structures used by the widget-set are described in the
295 reference guide below.
298 Customised display using Handlebars templates
299 =============================================
301 A lot can be done by styling widgets in CSS and changing basic MKWS config
302 options. For further customisation, MKWS allows you to change the markup it
303 outputs for any widget. This is done by overriding the
304 [Handlebars](http://handlebarsjs.com/) template used to generate it. In general
305 these consist of `{{things in double braces}}` that are replaced by values from
306 the system. For details of Handlebars template syntax, see [the online
307 documentation](http://handlebarsjs.com/).
309 The templates used by the core widgets can be viewed in [our git
310 repository](http://git.indexdata.com/?p=mkws.git;a=tree;f=src/templates;).
311 Parameters are documented in a comment at the top of each template so
312 you can see what's going where. If all you want to do is add a CSS class to
313 something or change a `span` to a `div` it's easy to just copy the existing
314 template and make your edits.
319 To override the template for a widget, include it inline in the document
320 as a `<script>` tag marked with a class of `mkws-template-foo` where foo is the
321 name of the template you want to override (typically the name of the widget).
322 Inline Handlebars templates are distinguished from Javascript via a
323 `type="text/x-handlebars-template"` attribute. For example, to override the
324 pager template you would include this in your document:
326 <script class="mkws-template-pager" type="text/x-handlebars-template">
327 ...new Pager template
330 The Facet template has a special feature where you can override it on
331 a per-facet basis by adding a dash and the facet name as a suffix eg.
332 `facet-subjects`. (So `class="mkws-template-facet-subjects"`.) When
333 rendering a facet for which no specific template is defined, the code
334 falls back to using the generic facet template, just called `facet`.
336 You can also explicitly specify a different template for a particular
337 instance of a widget by providing the name of your alternative
338 (eg. `special-pager`) as the value of the `template` key in the MKWS
339 config object for that widget: for example, `<div class="mkws-pager"
340 template="special-pager"/>`.
342 Templates for MKWS can also be
343 [precompiled](http://handlebarsjs.com/precompilation.html). If a precompiled
344 template of the same name is found in the `Handlebars.templates` object, it
345 will be used instead of the default.
347 Inspecting metadata for templating
348 ----------------------------------
350 MKWS makes requests to the Service Proxy or Pazpar2 that perform the
351 actual searching. Depending on how these are configured and what is
352 available from the targets you are searching there may be more data
353 available than what is presented by the default templates.
355 Handlebars offers a convenient log helper that will output the contents of a
356 variable for you to inspect. This lets you look at exactly what is being
357 returned by the back end without needing to use a Javascript debugger. For
358 example, you might prepend `{{log hits}}` to the Records template in order to
359 see what is being returned with each search result in the list. In order for
360 this to work you'll need to enable verbose output from Handlebars which is done
361 by including this line or similar:
363 <script>Handlebars.logger.level = 1;</script>
368 If you would like your template to use the built in translation functionality,
369 output locale specific text via the mkws-translate helper like so:
370 `{{{mkws-translate "a few words"}}}`.
375 Rather than use the toolkit's included AJAX helpers to render record
376 details inline, here's a summary template that will link directly to
377 the source via the address provided in the metadata as the first
378 element of `md-electronic-url`:
380 <script class="mkws-template-summary" type="text/x-handlebars-template">
381 <a href="{{md-electronic-url.[0]}}">
384 {{#if md-title-remainder}}
385 <span>{{md-title-remainder}}</span>
387 {{#if md-title-responsibility}}
388 <span><i>{{md-title-responsibility}}</i></span>
392 For a more involved example where markup for multiple widgets is decorated with
393 [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/) classes and a custom Handlebars helper is
394 employed, take a look at the source of
395 [topic.html](http://example.indexdata.com/topic.html?q=water).
405 Some applications might like to open with content in the area that
406 will subsequently be filled with result-records -- a message of the
407 day, a welcome message or a help page. This can be done by placing an
408 `mkws-motd` division anywhere on the page. It will initially be moved
409 into the `mkws-results` area and displayed, but will be hidden as soon
410 as the first search is made.
413 Popup results with jQuery UI
414 ----------------------------
416 The [jQuery UI library](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery_UI)
417 can be used to construct MKWS applications in which the only widget
418 generally visible on the page is a search box, and the results appear
419 in a popup. The key part of such an application is this invocation of
420 the MKWS jQuery plugin:
422 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
423 <div class="mkws-popup" popup_width="1024" popup_height="650">
424 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
427 The necessary scaffolding can be seen in an example application,
428 [popup.html](http://example.indexdata.com/popup.html).
430 The relevant properties (`popup_width`, etc.) are documented
431 [below](#jquery-ui-popup-invocation)
432 in the reference section.
435 MKWS target selection
436 =====================
441 MKWS accesses targets using the Pazpar2 metasearching engine. Although
442 Pazpar2 can be used directly, using a statically configured set of
443 targets, this usage is unusual. More often, Pazpar2 is fronted by the
444 Service Proxy (SP), which manages authentication, sessions, target
445 selection, etc. This document assumes the SP is used, and explains how
446 to go about making a set of targets (a "library") available, how to
447 connect your MKWS application to that library, and how to choose which
448 of the available targets to use.
450 By default MKWS configures itself to use an account on a service
451 hosted by `sp-mkws.indexdata.com`. By default, it sends no
452 authentication credentials, allowing the appropriate account to be
453 selected on the basis of referring URL or IP address.
455 If no account has been set up to recognise the referring URL of the
456 application or the IP address of the client, then a default "MKWS
457 Demo" account is used. This account (which can also be explicitly
458 chosen by using the username `mkws`, password `mkws`) provides access
459 to about a dozen free data sources.
461 In order to search in a customised set of targets, including
462 subscription resources, it's necessary to create an account with
463 Index Data's hosted Service Proxy, and protect that account with
464 authentication tokens (to prevent unauthorised use of subscription
467 Maintaining the library
468 -----------------------
470 The Service Proxy accesses sets of targets that are known as
471 "libraries". In general, each customer will have their own library,
472 though some standard libraries may be shared between many customers --
473 for example, a library containing all open-access academic journals.
474 A library can also contain other configuration information, including
475 the set of categories by which targets are classified for the library.
477 Libraries are maintained using MKAdmin (MasterKey
478 Admin). Specifically, those used by MKWS are generally maintained on
479 the "MKX Admin" installation at
480 <http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
481 In general, Index Data will create a library for each customer, then
482 give the customer a username/password pair that they can use to enter
483 MKAdmin and administrate that library.
485 Once logged in, customers can select which targets to include (from
486 the list of several thousand that MKAdmin knows about), and make
487 customer-specific modifications to the target profiles --
488 e.g. overriding the titles of the targets.
490 Most importantly, customers' administrators can add authentication
491 credentials that the Service Proxy will use on their behalf when
492 accessing subscription resources -- username/password pairs or proxies
493 to use for IP-based authentication. Note that **it is then crucial to
494 secure the library from use by unauthorised clients**, otherwise the
495 customer's paid subscriptions will be exploited.
497 Access to libraries is managed by creating one or more "User Access"
498 records in MKAdmin, under the tab of that name. Each of these records
499 provides a combination of credentials and other data that allow an
500 incoming MKWS client to be identified as having legitimate access to
501 the library. The authentication process, described below, works by
502 searching for a matching User Access record.
505 Authenticating your MWKS application onto the library
506 -----------------------------------------------------
508 Some MKWS applications will be content to use the default library with
509 its selection of targets. Most, though, will want to define their own
510 library providing a different range of available targets. An important
511 case is that of applications that authenticate onto subscription
512 resources by means of back-end site credentials stored in MKAdmin:
513 precautions must be taken so that such library accounts do not allow
516 Setting up such a library is a process of several stages.
518 ### Create the User Access account
520 Log in to MKAdmin to add a User Access account for your library:
522 * Go to <http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
523 * Enter the adminstrative username/password
524 * Go to the User Access tab
525 * Create an end-user account
526 * Depending on what authentication method it be used, set the
527 User Access account's username and password, or referring URL, or
530 If your MWKS application runs at a well-known, permanent address --
531 <http://yourname.com/app.html>, say -- you can set the User Access
532 record so that this originating URL is recognised by setting it into
533 the "Referring URL" field. Then the application will always use that
534 library that this User Access record is associated with (unless it
535 sends a username/password pair to override this default).
537 Or if your application's users are coming from a well-known range of
538 IP-address space, you can enter the range in the "IP Ranges"
539 field. The format of this field is as follows: it can contain any
540 number of ranges, separated by commas; each range is either a single
541 IP address or two addresses separated by a hyphen; each IP address is
542 four small integers separated by periods. For example,
543 `80.229.143.255-80.229.143.255, 5.57.0.0-5.57.255.255, 127.0.0.1`.
545 Alternatively, your application can authenticate by username and
546 password credentials. This is a useful approach in several situations,
547 including when you need to specify the use of a different library from
548 usual one. To arrange for this, set the username and password as a
549 single string separated by a slash -- e.g. `mike/swordfish` -- into
550 the User Access record's Authentication field.
552 You can set multiple fields into a single User Access record; or
553 create multiple User Access records. For example, a single User Access
554 record can specify both a Referring URL and a username/password pair
555 that can be used when running an application from a different URL. But
556 if multiple Referring URLs are needed, then each must be specified in
557 its own User Access record.
559 ### (Optional): embed credentials for access to the library
561 When credential-based authentication is in use (username and
562 password), it's necessary to pass these credentials into the Service
563 Proxy when establishing the session. This is done
564 by providing the `sp_auth_credentials` configuration setting as a string
565 containing the username and password separated by a slash:
567 mkws_config = { sp_auth_credentials: "mike/swordfish" };
569 ### (Optional): conceal credentials from HTML source
571 Using credential-based authentication settings such as those above
572 reveals the the credentials to public view -- to anyone who does View
573 Source on the MKWS application. This may be acceptable for some
574 libraries, but is intolerable for those which provide authenticated
575 access to subscription resources.
577 In these circumstances, a different approach is
578 necessary. Referer-based or IP-based authentication may be
579 appropriate. But if these are not possible, then a more elaborate
580 approach can be used to hide the credentials in a web-server
581 configuration that is not visible to users.
583 The idea is to make a Service Proxy authentication URL local to the
584 customer, hiding the credentials in a rewrite rule in the local
585 web-server's configuration. Then local mechanisms can be used to limit
586 access to that local authentication URL. Here is one way to do it when
587 Apache2 is the application's web-server, which we will call
590 Step 1: add a rewriting authentication alias to the configuration:
593 RewriteRule /spauth/ http://sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/\
594 ?command=auth&action=check,login&username=U&password=PW [P]
596 Step 2: set the MKWS configuration setting `service_proxy_auth` to
597 `http://yourname.com/spauth/`.
599 Step 3: protect access to the local path `http://yourname.com/spauth/`
600 (e.g. using a `.htaccess` file).
603 Choosing targets from the library
604 ---------------------------------
606 MKWS applications can choose what subset of the library's targets to
607 use, by means of several alternative settings on individual widgets or
608 in the `mkws_config` structure:
610 * `targets` -- contains a Pazpar2 targets string, typically of the form
611 "pz:id=" or "pz:id~" followed by a pipe-separated list of low-level
613 At present, these IDs can take one of two forms, depending on the
614 configuration of the Service Proxy being used: they may be based on
615 ZURLs (so a typical value would be something like
616 `pz:id=josiah.brown.edu:210/innopac|lui.indexdata.com:8080/solr4/select?fq=database:4902`)
617 or they may be UDBs (so a typical value would be something like
618 `pz:id=brown|artstor`)
620 * `targetfilter` -- contains a CQL query which is used to find relevant
621 targets from the relvant library. For example,
626 * `target` -- contains a single UDB, that of the sole target to be
629 This is merely syntactic sugar for "targetfilter" with the query
632 For example, a `Records` widget can be limited to searching only in
633 targets that have been categorised as news sources by providing an
634 attribute as follows:
636 <div class="mkws-records" targetfilter='categories=news'/>
645 The following widgets are provided in the core set. (Others can be
646 added: see the [MKWS developers' guide](mkws-developer.html).)
651 `auth-name` Initially empty, it updates itself to shows the name
652 of the library that the application is logged in as
653 when authentication is complete.
655 `builder` A button which, when pressed, analyses the current
656 settings of the team that it is a part of, and
657 generates the HTML for an auto-searching element
658 that will replicate the present search. This HTML is
659 displayed in an alert box: it is intended that this
660 widget be subclassed to store the generated widget
661 definitions in more useful places.
663 `button` The search button. Usually generated a `search`
666 `categories` Obtains from the Service Proxy a list of the target
667 categories associated with the library in use, and
668 displays them in a drop-down list. When a category
669 is selected, searches are limited to the targets
670 that are part of that category.
672 `config` This widget has no functionality of its own, but its
673 configuration is copied up into its team, allowing
674 it to affect other widgets in the team. This is the
675 only way to set configuration settings at the team
678 `console-builder` Like the `builder` widget, but emits the generated
679 HTML on the JavaScript console. This exists to
680 provide an example of how to subclass the `builder`
683 `cover-art` Displays cover art for a book by searching in
684 Amazon. Often used with an `autosearch` attribute to
685 indicate what book to display. For example,
686 `<div class="mkws-cover-art" autosearch="isbn=1291177124"></div>`
687 displays cover art for _All Yesterdays: Unique and
688 Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric
690 For this widget to work, a library that includes the
691 AmazonBooks target must be used. For example, the
692 "DEMO AmazonBooks for MKWS" account, which can be
693 selected with `sp_auth_credentials="mkws-amazon/mkws"`.
695 `details` This widget is generated by the toolkit itself to
696 hold the full details of records that are initially
697 listed in summary form.
699 `done` Initially empty, this widget is set to display
700 "Search complete: found _n_ records" when all
701 targets have completed their work, either returning
702 a hit-count or an error. The message displayed can
703 be changed by overriding the `done` template using
704 `<script class="mkws-template-done" type="text/x-handlebars-template">`.
706 `facet` A facet that displays the frequency with which a set
707 of terms occur within a specific field. The specific
708 field whose contents are analysed must be specified
709 by the widget's `facet` configuration setting, which
710 may conveniently be done by means of the
711 `data-mkws-facet` attribute on the HTML
712 element. The supported facets are "subject",
713 "author" and "xtargets" -- the latter a special case
714 which treats the target providing a record as a
715 facet. Most often, `facet` widgets are generated
716 by a `facets` widget, which knows which facets are
717 required, but they can also be placed individually.
719 `facets` An area that contains a "Facets" heading and several
720 `facet` widgets. The set of facet widgets generated
721 is specified by the `facets` configuration setting,
722 which may be set globally or at the level of the
723 widget or the team. The value of this configuration
724 setting is an array of zero or more strings, each
727 `google-image` A specialisation of the `images` widget which
728 defaults to the `Google_Images` target.
730 `images` A specialisation of the `records` widget which
731 defaults to the `images` template. Unlike the default
732 summary template, this displays an image from the
733 URL specified by the `md-thumburl` field of each
736 `lang` Provides a selection between the supported set of
737 languages (which defaults to English, German and
738 Danish, but can be configured by the `lang`
739 configuration setting, whose value is an array of
740 two-letter language codes).
742 `log` Initially empty, this widget accumulates a log of
743 messages generated by the widget set, similar to
744 those emitted on the JavaScript console.
746 `lolcat` A specialisation of the `google-image` widget which
747 defaults to the search-term "kitteh" and
750 `motd-container` An empty container which the `motd` widget, if any,
751 is moved into for initial display. Usually generated
752 as part of the `results` widget.
754 `motd` May be provided, containing content to appear in the
755 area where records will later appear. It is moved
756 into this area (the `motd-container` widget) and
757 initially displayed; then hidden when the first
758 search is run. It can be used to provide a "message
761 `navi` Shows a list of the facets that have been selected,
762 and allows them to be deselected.
764 `pager` Shows a list of the available pages of results, and
765 allows the user to navigate to a selected page.
767 `per-page` Provides a dropdown allowing the user to choose how
768 many records should appear on each page. The
769 available set of page-sizes can be specified as the
770 `perpage_options` configuration setting, whose value is
771 an array of integers. The initial selected value can
772 be specified by the `perpage_default` configuration setting.
774 `progress` Shows a progress bar which indicates how many of the
775 targets have responded to the search.
777 `query` The input area for a query. Usually generated a `search`
780 `ranking` The result-ranking area, consisting of a `sort`
781 widget and a `per-page` widget. These may instead
782 be specified separately if preferred.
784 `record` A detailed display of a single record, usually
785 appearing when the user clicks on a summary
786 record. This is generated by the `records` widget.
788 `records` The area in which summary records appear. (Clicking
789 on a summary record make it pop up as a detailed
792 `reference` A short summary about a subject specified by the
793 `autosearch` configuration setting. This is created by
794 drawing a picture and a paragraph of text from
795 Wikipedia. To work correctly, this widget must be
796 used in a library that provides the
797 `wikimedia_wikipedia_single_result` target.
799 `results` A large compound widget used to provide the most
800 important results-oriented widgets in a pre-packaged
801 framework: `facets`, `ranking`, `pager`, `navi` and
804 `search-form` The search form, containing the query area and the
805 button. Usually generated a `search` widget.
807 `search` The search box, consisting of a form containing a
808 query area and a button.
810 `sort` Provides a dropdown allowing the user to choose how
811 the displayed records should be sorted. The
812 available set of sort criteria can be specified as the
813 `sort_options` configuration setting, whose value is
814 an array of two-element arrays. The first item of
815 each sub-array is a pazpar2 sort-expression such as
816 `data:0` and the second is a human-readable label
817 such as `newest`. The initial selected
818 value can be specified by the `sort_default` configuration
821 `stat` A summary line stating how many targets remain
822 active, how many records have been found, and how
823 many of them have been retrieved for display. For
824 most purposes, the `progress` widget may be
827 `summary` A short record, included in the list shown when a
828 search is run. When clicked, this generally pops up
829 a detailed `record` widget. This widget is generated
830 by the toolkit in response to search results.
832 `switch` A pair of buttons allowing the user to switch
833 between viewing the search results (the usual case)
836 `targets` A list of all targets in the present library,
837 showing their ID, the number of records they have
838 found for the current search, any diagnostics they
839 have returned, the number of records that have been
840 returned for display, and the connection state.
844 Configuration settings
845 ----------------------
847 Configuration settings may be provided at the level of a indiviual widget, or a team, or globally. Per-widget configuration is
848 described above; per-team settings can be placed in a `config` widget belonging to the relevant team, and will be applied to that
849 team as a whole; and global settings are provided in the global variable `mkws_config`. This structure is a key-value lookup
850 table, and may specify the values of many settings.
852 Some settings apply only to specific widgets; others to the behaviour of the tookit as a whole. When a widget does not itself have
853 a value specified for a particular configuration setting, its team is consulted; and if that also does not have a value, the global
854 settings are consulted. Only if this, too, is unspecified, is the default value used.
856 The supported configuration settings are described in the table below. For those settings that apply only to particular widgets,
857 the relevant widgets are listed. All entries are optional, but if specified must be given values of the specified type. Long
858 default values are in footnotes to keep the table reasonably narrow.
861 Element Widget Type Default Description
862 -------- ------ ----- --------- ------------
863 auth_hostname _global_ string If provided, overrides the `pp2_hostname` setting when constructing the
864 Service Proxy authentication URL. This need only be used when authentication
865 is performed on a different host from the remaining operations (search,
868 autosearch facet, string If provided, this setting contains a query which is immediately run on behalf
869 facets, of the team. Often used with an [indirect setting](#indirect-settings).
874 facet facet string For a `facet` widget, this setting is mandatory, and indicates which field to
875 list terms for. Three fields are supported: `subject`, `author` and
876 `xtargets` -- the latter a special case which treats the target providing a
877 record as a facet. Any other field may also be used, but the default caption
878 and maximum term-count may not be appropriate, needing to be overridden by
879 `facet_caption_*` and `facet_max_*` settings.
881 facet_caption_* facet string Specifies what on-screen caption is to be used for the named facet: for
882 example, if a `date` facet is generated, then `facet_caption_date` can be
883 used to set the caption to "Year".
885 facet_max_* facet int Specifies how many terms are to be displayed for the named facet: for
886 example, if a `publisher` facet is generated, then `facet_max_publisher` can
887 be used to limit the list to the top six.
889 facets _team_ array *Note 1* Ordered list of names of facets to display.
891 lang _team_ string Two-letter ISO code of the default language to display the UI in. Supported
892 language codes are `en` = English, `de` = German, `da` = Danish, and whatever
893 additional languages are configured using `language_*` entries (see below).
895 lang_options lang array [] A list of the languages to offer as options. If empty (the default), then all
896 configured languages are listed.
898 language_* _global_ hash Support for any number of languages can be added by providing entries whose
899 name is `language_` followed by the code of the language. See the separate
900 section below for details.
902 limit facet, string Allows a partial search to be included in the specification of an
903 facets, auto-executing widget. This is ANDed with the submitted query, as though it
904 record, had been selected from a facet. See the Search section in [the Protocol
905 records, chapter of the Pazpar2 manual
906 results ](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/doc/pazpar2_protocol.html)
908 log_level _global_ int 1 Level of debugging output to emit. 0 = none, 1 = messages, 2 = messages with
909 datestamps, 3 = messages with datestamps and stack-traces.
911 maxrecs facet, int Limits the metasearching middleware to retrieving no more than the specified
912 facets, number of records from each target.
917 paragraphs reference int Limits the number of paragraphs rendered to the specified number. If
918 omitted, there is no limit.
920 pazpar2_url _global_ string If specified, this is the URL used to access the metasearch middleware. This
921 service must be configured to provide search results, facets, etc. It may be
922 either unmediated Pazpar2 or the MasterKey Service Proxy, which mediates
923 access to an underlying Pazpar2 instance. When not specified, the URL is
924 assembled from `pp2_hostname` and `pp2_path`. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
925 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
927 perpage facet, int Specifies the number of records to show per page in an auto-executing
928 facets, widget. Contrast with `perpage_default`, which is used to prime the dropdown
929 record, with which a user chooses the page-size in an interactive session.
933 perpage_default _team_ string 20 The initial value for the number of records to show on each page.
935 perpage_options ranking array *Note 2* A list of candidate page sizes. Users can choose between these to determine
936 how many records are displayed on each page of results.
938 pp2_hostname _global_ string *Note 3* Unless overridden by the `pazpar2_url` setting, this is used together with
939 `pp2_path` to construct the URL to the Pazpar2 service (or Service
940 Proxy). Set this to connect to a service on a different host from the
943 pp2_path _global_ string *Note 4* Unless overridden by the `pazpar2_url` setting, this is used together with
944 `pp2_hostname` to construct the URL to the Pazpar2 service (or Service
945 Proxy). Set this to connect to a service on a different host from the
948 query_width _search_ int 50 The width of the query box, in characters.
950 responsive_design_width _global_ int If defined, then the facets display moves between two locations as the
951 screen-width varies. The specified number is the threshhold width, in
952 pixels, at which the facets move between their two locations. The `switch`
953 and `lang` widgets also disappear entirely below this threshhold.
955 scan_all_nodes _global_ bool false An internal setting that changes how MKWS scans the HTML documen to discover
956 widgets. If set to true, a different approach is used which may be faster
957 under some circumstances.
959 sentences reference int Limits the number of sentences rendered to the specified number. If
960 omitted, there is no limit.
962 service_proxy_auth _global_ url If defined, this is the URL which, when `use_service_proxy` is true, is
963 fetched once at the beginning of each session to authenticate the user and
964 establish a session that encompasses a defined set of targets to search
965 in. When not defined, the URL is assembled from `auth_hostname` or
966 `pp2_hostname`, `sp_auth_path`, `sp_auth_query` and
967 `sp_auth_credentials`. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
968 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
970 service_proxy_auth_domain _global_ domain When the server used for authentication -- e.g. the one identified by the
971 `service_proxy_auth` URL -- proxies for different server, this can be set to
972 the domain of the server that it proxies for, so that cookies are rewritten
973 to appear to be from this domain.
975 show_lang lang bool true Indicates whether or not to display the language menu.
977 show_perpage ranking bool true Indicates whether or not to display the perpage menu.
979 show_sort ranking bool true Indicates whether or not to display the sort menu.
981 show_switch switch bool true Indicates whether or not to display the switch menu.
983 sort facet, string Specifies the order in which to sort the records retrieved by an
984 facets, auto-executing widget. Must be one of those in the `sort_options`
985 record, array. Contrast with `sort_default`, which is used to prime the dropdown
986 records, with which a user chooses the sortorder in an interactive session.
989 sort_default _team_ string relevance The default sort criterion to use. Must be one of those in the
990 `sort_options` array.
992 sort_options ranking array *Note 5* List of supported sort criteria. Each element of the list is itself a
993 two-element list: the first element of each sublist is a pazpar2
994 sort-expression such as `data:0` and the second is a human-readable label
997 sp_auth_credentials _global_ string If defined, this must be a slash-separated combination of username and
998 password, which is sent as the authentication credentials on session
999 initialisation. See the [Assembling Pazpar2 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls)
1002 sp_auth_path _global_ string *Note 6* Part of the URL used for authentication. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
1003 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
1005 sp_auth_query _global_ string *Note 7* Part of the URL used for authentication. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
1006 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
1008 target facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1009 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1010 record, section above.
1014 targetfilter facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1015 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1016 record, section above.
1020 targets facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1021 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1022 record, section above.
1026 template details, string Numerous widgets use Handlebars templates to render HTML. In general, each
1027 done, of these by default uses a template with the same name as the widget
1028 facet, itself. Individual widgets can be customised to use a template of a
1029 facets, different name by means of their `template` setting. The `records` widget
1030 images, (and `record`, an equivalent that shows only a single record) use the
1031 lang, `summary` template as well as the `records` template.
1044 <!--- The widget called "record" is a special-case of "records"; both also use "summary" -->
1046 text builder string "Build!" Specifies what text to use for the Builder button.
1048 use_service_proxy _global_ bool true If true, then a Service Proxy is used to deliver searching services rather
1049 than raw Pazpar2. An authentication phase is run during initialisation.
1052 (Perhaps we should get rid of the `show_lang`, `show_perpage`,
1053 `show_sort` and `show_switch` configuration settings, as we display the relevant menus
1054 only when their containers are provided -- e.g. an `mkws-lang` element
1055 for the language menu. But for now we retain these, as an easier route
1056 to lightly customise the display than by providing a full HTML
1061 1. The default for `facets` is `["xtargets", "subject", "author"]`
1063 2. The default for `perpage_options` is `[10, 20, 30, 50]`
1065 3. The default for `pp2_hostname` is `"sp-mkws.indexdata.com"`
1067 4. The default for `pp2_path` is `"service-proxy"`
1069 5. The default for `sort_options` is `[["relevance"], ["title:1", "title"], ["date:0", "newest"], ["date:1", "oldest"]]`
1071 6. The default for `sp_auth_path` is `"service-proxy/"`.
1073 7. The default for `sp_auth_query` is `"command=auth&action=perconfig"`.
1075 ### Indirect settings
1077 FIXME !query!q, !path!2, etc.
1079 ### Assembling Pazpar2 URLs
1081 FIXME describe how `pazpar2_url` is assembled from `pp2_hostname` and `pp2_path`; and how `service_proxy_auth` is assembled from
1082 `auth_hostname` or `pp2_hostname`, `sp_auth_path`, `sp_auth_query` and `sp_auth_credentials`.
1084 Language specification
1085 ----------------------
1087 Support for another UI language can be added by providing an entry in
1088 the `mkws_config` object whose name is `language_` followed by the
1089 name of the language: for example, `language_French` to support
1090 French. Then value of this entry must be a key-value lookup table,
1091 mapping the English-language strings of the UI into their equivalents
1092 in the specified language. For example:
1096 "Authors": "Auteurs",
1097 "Subjects": "Sujets",
1098 // ... and others ...
1102 The following strings occurring in the UI can be translated:
1118 In addition, facet names can be translated:
1124 Finally, the names of fields in the full-record display can be
1125 translated. These include, but may not be limited to:
1135 jQuery UI popup invocation
1136 --------------------------
1138 The MasterKey Widget Set can be invoked in a popup window on top of the page.
1140 Note that when using the `popup` layout, facilities from the jQuery UI
1141 toolkit are used, so it's necessary to include both CSS and JavaScript
1142 from that toolkit. The relevant lines are:
1144 <script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
1145 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
1146 href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" />
1148 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
1149 <div class="mkws-popup" popup_width="1024" popup_height="650" popup_autoOpen="0">
1150 <div class="mkws-switch"></div>
1151 <div class="mkws-lang"></div>
1152 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
1153 <div class="mkws-targets"></div>
1154 <div class="mkws-stat"></div>
1158 Element Type Default Description
1159 -------- ----- ------- ------------
1160 popup_width string 880 Width of the popup window (if used), in
1163 popup_height string 760 Height of the popup window (if used), in
1166 popup_button string `input.mkwsButton` A click on this selector will trigger the
1169 popup_modal string 0 Modal confirmation mode. Valid values are 0 or 1
1171 popup_autoOpen string 1 Open popup window on load. Valid values are 0 or 1
1175 You can have more than one mkws-popup widgets on a page. Please use a different
1176 popup_button value to address the right ones.
1178 The structure of the HTML generated by the MKWS widgets
1179 -------------------------------------------------------
1181 In order to override the default CSS styles provided by the MasterKey Widget
1182 Set, it's necessary to understand that structure of the HTML elements that are
1183 generated within the widgets. This knowledge make it possible, for example,
1184 to style each `<div>` with class `term` but only when it occurs inside an
1185 element with class `mkws-facets`, so as to avoid inadvertently styling other
1186 elements using the same class in the non-MKWS parts of the page.
1188 The HTML structure is as follows. As in CSS, #ID indicates a unique identifier
1189 and .CLASS indicates an instance of a class.
1199 input#mkwsQuery type=text
1200 input#mkwsButton type=submit
1203 (no contents -- used only for masking)
1224 span (for sequence number)
1226 span (for other information such as author)
1227 div.details (sometimes)
1250 Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Index Data ApS. <http://indexdata.com>