Building an Institutional Repository Interface Using EJB3 and JBoss Seam
Open Repositories 2007 • 23-Jan-2007
Overview
- Executive Overview of the Ohio Digital Resource Commons
- Underlying Technology
- Project Information
Executive Overview of the Ohio Digital Resource Commons
Facets of the Digital Resource Commons Vision
- Multi-institutional
- Cross-institutional
- Fine Granularity in Access Control
- Multi-media
DRC Vision (Multi-Institutional)
leverage statewide economies of scale with a content repository service that enables all OhioLINK members and other Ohio institutions to rapidly publish and comprehensively access the wealth of research, historic and creative materials produced by Ohio's scholarly communities.
DRC Vision (Cross-Institutional)
search within collections or across institutional, location, and subject boundaries to gather materials.
DRC Vision (Access Control)
institutions can set flexible access rights for repository content including worldwide, OhioLINK members, single institution, department, course/section, workgroup, and peer disciplines.
DRC Vision (Multi-Media)
support for an unlimited variety of digital file types and formats including text, data sets, image, audio, video, streaming video, multimedia presentations, animations, and simulations
The DRC Vision of a Unified Content Repository
- Applications use the same underlying object repository
- Institutions use the same underlying object repository
- Objects from one institution and/or application are visible through all others (subject to access rules)
- Eliminate export/import operations, multiple copies
- Cover all of the service facets described earlier
Virtual Content Repositories
- Each institution and/or subunit is, in effect, given their own repository:
- Institution web page layout and branding
- Institution URLs (e.g. repository.school.edu)
- Only the institution's content
- Host names point to OhioLINK's DRC server in the DNS; interface software determines appropriate content scope and branding
- Ohio DRC: a "hosted content repository service"
DRC In Practice
- OhioLINK Provides
- Hardware, software maintenance
- Core repository and interface functionality
- Programmer's sandbox and application development support
- Institution Provides
- Content and descriptive metadata
- Support for DRC to campus users
- Programmers to build tools unique to local needs (tools shared with the collaborative)
Advantages to the Institution
- State-of-the-art repository and services
- Complete control over branding, workflow, access control — as if it was the institution's own server
- Utilize OhioLINK's disk space, systems, and staff — eliminating duplicative and costly investments
Summary: Executive Overview of the Ohio Digital Resource Commons
- Hosted Content Repository Service
- Sensitive to content scoping/branding needs
- Maximizes strengths; seeks an economy of scale
- Built with open source tools with an open source methodology
Underlying Technology
Smart Repository, Thin Presentation Interface
- Influenced by the Aquifer Asset Actions work
- Push media-specific rendering into FEDORA disseminators
- FEDORA repository offers generic methods to presentation interfaces
- Embed much of the object rendering complexity into the repository API
Examples of Generic Methods
- getRawDatastream: returns the raw access master file
- getThumbnail: returns a small graphic representation of the raw datastream
- getFullDisplay: returns a fragment of XHTML that renders the access master in a browser
- getRecordDisplay: returns a fragment of XHTML with metadata describing the object
Outputs of Generic Methods Driven by content models
- All repository objects return common representations:
- static image,
- audio representation,
- media-specific XHTML rendering,
- domain-specific description,
- domain-independent description.
- FEDORA disseminators transform datastreams, if necessary, to return requested method
Thin Presentation Layer
- "Seam has been designed from the ground up to eliminate complexity at the architecture and the API level. It enables developers to assemble complex web applications with simple annotated Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs), componentized UI widgets and very little XML. The simplicity of Seam 1.0 will enable easy integration with the JBoss Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Java Business Integration (JBI) in the future."
- Java Enterprise Environment (JEE) integrating Java Server Faces (JSF), Enterprise Java Beans (EJB3), Hibernate, etc.
Other Presentation Layers
- Integration with Collaboration and Learning Environments — possibly using Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) "Repository" Open Service Interface Definition (OSID)
- Embedding object dissemination in member campus portals and other environments
- Become the object store for other interface layers: ePortfolio, e-journal publishing, etc.
- Watching new Open Archives Initiative Object Exchange and Reuse (ORE) work
Project Information
Interested? Interesting URLs...
- Digital Resource Commons Information Website
- http://info.drc.ohiolink.edu/
- Digital Resource Commons Project Management Website
- http://drc-dev.ohiolink.edu/
- Subversion Code Repository
- https://drc-dev.ohiolink.edu/svn/
For followup...
- This Presentation
- http://info.drc.ohiolink.edu/presentations/200701-open-repositories/
Peter Murray
http://www.pandc.org/peter/work/
2455 North Star Rd, Suite 300, Columbus, OH 43221
E-mail: peter@OhioLINK.edu
Phone: 614-728-3600 x338
Open Repositories 2007 • 23-Jan-2007
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