Jeremy
The value of Opensearch is NOT the sitewide search on the institutions themselves (the Firefox/IE box *is* a gimmick), but the ability to take a search result and recntextualise it on another site altogether.
Eg - mix the search results for the Powerhouse's set of compasses -
www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/opensearch/search.php?s=compass&start=1&show=50
with the search reuslts from the NMM's set of compasses -
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/requestHandlers/doQuickSearch.cfm?searchterm=compass&startrow=1&format=rss
Opensearch provides the schema, RSS the transport.
Remembering that these feeds are *live*. They don't rely on a harvest nor the existence of a repository. I remove a compass from my collection, the feed no longer shows that compass. Immediately.
That said, Opensearch does have serious limitations but given it's absurbly low barriers to entry I really can't understand why every museum in the UK doesn't already have it on their collection search.
Seb
Sebastian Chan
Manager, Web Services
Powerhouse Museum
street - 500 Harris St Ultimo, NSW Australia
postal - PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238
tel - 61 2 9217 0109
fax - 61 2 9217 0689
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Ottevanger, Jeremy
Sent: Fri 11/04/2008 8:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: OpenSearch and RSS at the National Maritime Museum
Great work, Jim. Time for us to follow (yet again).
I get an error, though:
********************
Internet Explorer cannot display this feed
This feed contains code errors.
Go back to the previous page.
More information
The following tags were not closed: rss, channel.
Line: 0 Character: 0
*********************
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/requestHandlers/doQuickSearch.cfm?searc
hterm=midshipman&startrow=&format=rss
Looking in Mozilla and checking the source, it looks like an error is
stopping the feed from being written completely before it's flushed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/">
<channel>
<title>midshipman - National Maritime Museum Collections
Online</title>
<link>http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/requestHandlers/doQuickSearch.cfm
?searchterm=midshipman&authority=category&category=&startrow
=</link>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<copyright>National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London</copyright>
<atom:link
href="http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/requestHandlers/doQuickSearch.cfm
?searchterm=midshipman&authority=category&category=&startrow
=&format=rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<openSearch:totalResults>132</openSearch:totalResults>
<openSearch:startIndex></openSearch:startIndex>
<openSearch:itemsPerPage>20</openSearch:itemsPerPage>
The value "" cannot be converted to a number
....and that's it. Hence IE's error. Turns out that it's because the
value for statrow is missing from the URL - putting "1" in there fixed
it.
I'm trying to figure out just how much value of the OpenSearch part
would offer us(as with many sites, most of our pages have a site-wide
search box anyway), but your use of it for collections-specific search
is a possible answer. And the other thing, of course, is that the really
cool thing you've done is the RSS part, not the OpenSearch part -
likewise Perry's work in Bolton. Your data is now out in the wild.
You've taken a sensible approach to structuring your data, mixing DC and
RSS, and it looks like a good model to follow. Now let's see the
mashups!
Cheers, Jeremy
Jeremy Ottevanger
Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
Museum of London Group
46 Eagle Wharf Road
London. N1 7ED
Tel: 020 7410 2207
Fax: 020 7600 1058
Email: [log in to unmask]
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Jim O'Donnell
Sent: 10 April 2008 17:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MCG] OpenSearch and RSS at the National Maritime Museum
Hi everyone,
You might be interested to know that we've added support for opensearch,
and RSS news feeds, to http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections So any list of
objects should now be available as a feed, including search results, and
'NMM Collections' should be available as a search engine in any browser
that supports opensearch.
http://eatyourgreens.org.uk/archives/2008/04/opening_up_muse.html
I'd be interested to know if anyone has thoughts on potential uses for
RSS feeds like this.
Jim
Jim O'Donnell
Senior Web Developer
National Maritime Museum
Park Row
Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
DDI: 020 8312 6517
Fax:
email: [log in to unmask]
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We are listed on everyclick.com, the search engine that helps charity.
Please go to http://www.everyclick.com/uk/nationalmaritimemuseum and set
everyclick as your home page, so you can search the web and help
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