Re: [Koha-devel] Zebra Searching

[lars]

> On Tue, Jun 14, 2005 at 11:19:06AM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> > Joshua Ferraro <address@hidden> wrote:
> > Is this for indexing the koha holdings only, or can it be used to
> > talk to the outside world?
> Zebra can fully index a MARC record; it also runs as a Z39.50 server
> at a high level of compliance to the protocol (support for ranking
> and stemming).

Think of Z39.50 as HTTP "GET" for the library world.  That's both inaccurate and
over simplfied, but is the gist.  One advantage is that it allows users to
choose their own clients to search in the library catalog or import directly
into their own bibliography manager. (e.g. BookWhere, EndNote, and Procite)

Another advantage is that a client can handle multiple Z39.50 targets for
cross-searching in multiple catalogs.  So if a Z39.50 client is added to Koha
AND it is planned right, then it is possible for Koha to offer cross searching
in multiple catalogs.  Or a remote use could search in their own catalog +
Koha.

> > What do zebra searches look like to the user? I admit, I took a
> > look at the test a while ago when on IRC and didn't get far.

Z39.50 search results are meant to be processed by the client and then displayed
for formatting.  Since Zebra can return XML, one option is to use XSLT. 
However, event if you use plain MARC21, then you will still need Koha to do
some formatting.

I used to do a fair amount of work on customizing web-based front ends that used
Zebra and have installed and configured it Zebra quite a few times, but the last
time was 3 years ago.  If you're used to Z39.50 and MARC, then even the
configuration is not so hard.

If it's not already been mentioned, there are some overviews of Z39.50 here:
        http://www.niso.org/z39.50/z3950.html#info

By the way, is there an internal API for Koha?

-Lars


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