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1.1       harris41    1: This is a pilot release of the NSDL-LONCAPA Gateway.
                      2: 
                      3: The goal
                      4: ========
                      5: Implement a metadata exchange of resources from
                      6: NSDL (http://www.smete.org) to LON-CAPA (http://www.lon-capa.org)
                      7: and vice versa.
                      8: 
                      9: More information is in the doc/ directory.
                     10: 
1.6     ! harris41   11: Quick installation instructions
        !            12: ===============================
        !            13: If you are using a tarball, then, as root, execute the UPDATE command:
        !            14: ./UPDATE.
        !            15: 
        !            16: If you are working directly from the CVS repository, then, as root:
        !            17: cd build; make build; make install.
        !            18: 
1.1       harris41   19: What's new
                     20: ==========
                     21: For a history of this software, you should work through
                     22: the CVS repository.
                     23: 
                     24: export CVSROOT=:pserver:USERNAME@install.lon-capa.org:/home/cvs
1.2       harris41   25: cvs login
                     26: cvs co nsdl
1.1       harris41   27: 
                     28: How to build and install
                     29: ========================
                     30: 
                     31: cd nsdl/build
                     32: make build
                     33: make install
1.2       harris41   34: 
                     35: Important files
                     36: ===============
1.4       harris41   37: To get a good overview on the metadata conversion, I recommend
                     38: you look at the nsdl/prototypes/metadata_convert.pl script
1.5       harris41   39: (perldoc ./metadata_convert.pl).  Among other things, this
1.4       harris41   40: provides a list regarding the crosswalk possibilities of
                     41: LON-CAPA to&from IEEE-LOM and LON-CAPA to&from Dublin Core.
                     42: 
                     43: Currenty, the four stylesheets for carrying out the metadata conversion are:
                     44: * nsdl/lib/stylesheets/dcnsdl_to_loncapa.xsl
                     45: * nsdl/lib/stylesheets/lomnsdl_to_loncapa.xsl
                     46: * nsdl/lib/stylesheets/loncapa_to_dcnsdl.xsl
                     47: * nsdl/lib/stylesheets/loncapa_to_lomnsdl.xsl
1.2       harris41   48: 
                     49: The Apache web handler modules are defined in the directory:
                     50: nsdl/lib/perl/Apache/  .
                     51: 
                     52: The Apache configuration file (see below also) is
                     53: nsdl/conf/nsdl.conf  .
                     54: 
1.4       harris41   55: The source-to-target information is defined by nsdl/build/gatewayfiles.lpml
1.3       harris41   56: (an XML file defines how the software is "rendered" onto the system).
1.4       harris41   57: gatewayfiles.lpml is used in many locations inside nsdl/build/Makefile.
1.2       harris41   58: 
                     59: And, there are other files.
1.1       harris41   60: 
                     61: System requirements
                     62: ===================
                     63: * Apache and mod_perl
                     64: * Graham Barr's TimeDate module (http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=TimeDate)
                     65: * XML::Xalan perl module (http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=XML-Xalan)
                     66: 
                     67: To configure your machine, you will need to add the following
                     68: line to your /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file.
                     69: 
                     70:   Include conf/nsdl.conf
                     71: 
                     72: (You will then need to restart your web server;
                     73:  /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart)
                     74: 
                     75: Issues
                     76: ======
                     77: This is a pilot effort.  The goal was to enact a reasonable
                     78: solution and directly uncover difficult issues.
                     79: 
                     80: Here are some of the remaining issues
                     81: * ISSUE: User authentication
                     82:   PROBLEM: users are crossing domains, so browser-cookie validation can't work
                     83:   SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS: should require a GPG public key and/or
                     84:                        servers should communicate to coordinate passing of user
                     85:                        and/or some kind of proxy or central verification system
                     86: * ISSUE: Imperfect metadata cross-walking
                     87:   PROBLEM: There are a range of imperfect mappings between Dublin Core and
                     88:            LON-CAPA metadata fields as well as between IEEE LOM and LON-CAPA
                     89:            metadata fields.
                     90:   SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS: Improve the LON-CAPA metadata that is collected and
                     91:                        place more importance on the exhaustive IEEE LOM
                     92:                        standard rather than the weaker Dublin Core standard.
                     93:                        In the future, to get to Dublin Core, it might make
1.4       harris41   94:                        sense to first convert LON-CAPA to IEEE LOM and *then*
                     95:                        go to the Dublin Core metadata standard.
1.1       harris41   96: * ISSUE: Set hierarchies
                     97:   PROBLEM: Asking for ListIdentifiers from LON-CAPA will return a really long
                     98:            list that represents a "jumbled" repository.  Currently,
                     99:            ListIdentifiers, ListRecords, etc return error messages--
                    100:            we do not yet support set hierarchy results.
                    101:   SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS: authors should be able to nominate their records
                    102:                        for being part of a meaningful collection of academic
                    103:                        resources; thus multiple OAI-distributed metadata sets
                    104:                        would actually be contained within LON-CAPA
                    105: * ISSUE: Code thoroughness
                    106:   PROBLEM: Limited time.  I had limited time (100 hours) to enact a gateway.
                    107:   SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS: Invest more time.  The API and documentation
                    108:                        could be a better match for what is implemented
                    109:                        and vice versa.
                    110: * ISSUE: Making SMETE available to LON-CAPA
                    111:   PROBLEM: Ummm... I thought SMETE supported OAI.  The only interface I find
                    112:            is enriched HTML forms.
                    113:   SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS: SMETE should support OAI or some exporting of XML files
                    114:                        in Dublin Core or IEEE LOM or whatever they are using.
                    115: 
                    116: Author
                    117: ======
                    118: Scott Harrison, 2002