On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Paul Hollands wrote:
> Hi folks,
(I've cut this over to the [log in to unmask] mailing list. I suggest it
might be better to have further discussion about the DNER architecture and
any further messages in this thread sent only to that list?).
A couple of quick comments...
> On a related matter. The ESRC have asked us to develop a method of
> incorporating searches of the Regard service
> <http://www.regard.ac.uk> into their new Website such that they have
> complete control over display of the information. The solution I came up
> with is an XML-RPC -> Z39.50 gateway.
This sounds similar to RDN-Include, the approach taken by the RDN for
embedding the ResourceFinder into institutional and other Web sites. See
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/rdn-i/
and
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/www10/rdniposter/
for more details.
> This means that simple clients can be coded using pretty much any
> programming language you want and the results can be formatted however you
> please. This was a surprising simple and elegant way of solving the problem,
> and an order of magnitude less complex than the architecture proposed for
> the DNER although to be fair so was the problem..
I don't understand your comment about complexity - your gateway has Z39.50
sitting behind it, which is presumably where any 'complexity' lies?
In 4.14 of the architecture document we explicitly note that we expect
relatively lightweight mechanisms to be developed that allow 'thick
portal' functionality to be embedded within 'thin portals'. RDN-Include
and your XML-RPC -> Z39.50 gateway are examples of that.
Andy
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Distributed Systems and Services
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