[eXist-TEIXML] greetings! eXist and web servers

[Elisa Beshero-B. <eb...@pi...>]

Greetings, list members!
I'm a newcomer to the eXist-TEIXML list, and joined during the wonderful
TEI Convention in Evanston not long ago. I'm working on multiple projects
that rely in some way on eXist and XQuery, and I'm currently teaching an
XQuery unit in my coding-based Digital Humanities at Pitt-Greensburg. My
course materials are posted here (and I'm grateful for suggestions and
advice on them!):  http://www.pitt.edu/~ebb8/DHDS/

Among a number of small experimental TEI-based projects (such as the
Thalaba project on which I presented at the TEI conference), I'm the
principal editor of big project with a ~20 member team, the Digital Mitford
archive: http://mitford.pitt.edu
Though we don't have a large body of material posted yet, there are some
hundreds of files we've been generating behind the scenes that I'm
compiling in eXist in preparation for querying from the site.

What I need to learn at this point is how best to work with eXist to
develop search queries (rather than simply to use it as I've been, which is
to run queries to check for consistency of our coding, to generate "code
reports"--or reports on our use of particular TEI elements, etc., and to
gather for myself a comprehensive view of our editing and data extraction
to our centralized prosopography list (currently posted for use by our
editing team at http://mitford.pitt.edu/si.xml )

I'm learning my way around how to implement eXist to support live search
querying from our site, and I wonder if members of this list can help with
some advice: I'm an English professor who has some intensive background
with all the coding I'm teaching my students, but thus far I've only
implemented XQuery to compile data from files and generate HTML output (or
collect text-based output to process in network analysis or graphing
software) --data extraction that thus far I and my students have been doing
"manually."  I'm working with my head of IT at my campus, who's more
familiar with databases like MySQL, etc. but has been learning about eXist
and is willing to work with me to experiment as we try to build query tools
for the Mitford project (as well as the other smaller-scale projects.) I
need (or at least I think I need) to learn PHP and REST, and I'm keen to do
that when I come up for air from a busy college semester: I like to think
I'm a quick study when I find time to breathe from my teaching load!

Here are some things I and my IT colleague would like to learn as we figure
out how best to implement eXist for the Digital Mitford project:

* Should eXist be installed at the "front end" of a public-facing web
project? How direct can the relationship be between web interface and eXist
database?

* What methods do other projects use to invoke and deliver XQuery scripts
from website to database?

We're considering whether to have eXist run behind a firewall on another
server, to speak to public-facing site pages. In reading eXist's
development pages, I'm thinking I'd like the simplest possible interface:
If I could have users press a button that simply delivered an XQuery file
to process in eXist, and have eXist post the HTML output directly to the
site, I'd be pretty happy---I'm just not sure how it's done!

This is my second time teaching the coding-based DH class at my campus, and
I hope to offer it each fall. Each year, prepping for the class offers some
opportunity for me to explore something new--and this month, as my students
are writing their first XQuery to the eXist installed on our intranet
"sandbox" server (behind the campus firewall), I'm hoping to learn how to
bring eXist from behind our firewall...any leads are most appreciated!

Thanks,
Elisa
-- 
Elisa Beshero-Bondar, PhD
Associate Professor of English
University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
Humanities Division
150 Finoli Drive
Greensburg, PA  15601  USA
E-mail: eb...@pi...
about.me/ebbondar



>
> From: Joe Wicentowski [mailto:jo...@gm...]
> Sent: den 2 november 2014 19:23
> To: exist-teixml
> Subject: [eXist-TEIXML] Back from #TEIConf2014
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> It was great to meet and see many of you again at the TEI Annual Meeting
> at Northwestern the week before last.  For those who couldn't make it, the
> conference Twitter hash tag has tons of great material.
>
>
>
> Peter Stadler and I were chatting about this list, the community of TEI
> and eXist users, and we thought this would be a good opportunity for
> everyone to check in and say a few words about how you are doing.  What are
> you working on these days?  How is it going?  Lessons?  Questions?
>
>
>
> A few things occurred to me about the state of TEI and eXist:
>
>
>
> First, this list was launched after the eXist seminars at TEI@Oxford 2010
> and Digital Humanities@Oxford Summer School 2011.  It occurred to me
> that, thanks to the incredible improvements have been made in eXist, a
> seminar like those would be so much more effective today.  I spent easily
> the first hour helping people with setting up eXist, connecting it to
> oXygen, and installing the sample Punch application.  Now, between eXist's
> new default "apps" directory, the powerful and free eXide app for writing
> apps in the browser, and eXist's new Package Manager for installing new
> applications and libraries, all of that setup and configuration could be
> skipped - leaving much more time for instruction and exploration.  These
> same improvements benefit not just first time learners, but the entire
> community.  Today, it's so much faster to get up and running, developing
> applications, and sharing them with others
>
>
>
> Second, I kept hearing from folks online and at the conference that the
> Punch application I used at the seminars was still useful.  On the plane
> back from the conference and in the days since, I've worked on updating
> Punch to use some more modern frameworks in eXist, and I've re-released the
> app as a .xar file (EXPath Package) - easily installable via the
> Dashboard.  Pull requests and suggestions are welcome.
>
>
>
> Best regards to all,
>
> Joe
>
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> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 12:40:30 -0500
> From: Winona Salesky <wsa...@gm...>
> Subject: Re: [eXist-TEIXML] Back from #TEIConf2014
> To: Joe Wicentowski <jo...@gm...>
> Cc: exist-teixml <exi...@li...>
> Message-ID:
>         <CAJthYRd_z_fKsKAgrD76iY6ou77UR_y_TfWWtUDSA=
> 3Kz...@ma...>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi all,
> We are using TEI and eXist in an ongoing project I am working on;
> http://syriaca.org/ (code and data is available on github:
> https://github.com/srophe/srophe-eXist-app).  Content currently available
> includes a bibliography, a gazetteer and a prosopography with more modules
> in development, including some sort of editing pipeline. We have been very
> pleased with the integration and what we have been able to build so far.
>
> I have also been involved with an effort to teach xquery to digital
> humanists, and we used eXist for our teaching platform.
>
> I look forward to hearing about other projects in development. I was
> particularly interested in Martin's presentation (pdf version) on
> CodeSharing and have passed it along to my colleagues, I think could be a
> useful tool as our TEI markup strategies develop.
>
> -Winona Salesky
>
> -----------------------------------
> Winona Salesky
> Consultant
> wsalesky.com
> wsa...@gm...
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Joe Wicentowski <jo...@gm...> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > It was great to meet and see many of you again at the TEI Annual Meeting
> > at Northwestern the week before last.  For those who couldn't make it,
> the
> > conference Twitter hash tag has tons of great material.
> >
> > Peter Stadler and I were chatting about this list, the community of TEI
> > and eXist users, and we thought this would be a good opportunity for
> > everyone to check in and say a few words about how you are doing.  What
> are
> > you working on these days?  How is it going?  Lessons?  Questions?
> >
> > A few things occurred to me about the state of TEI and eXist:
> >
> > First, this list was launched after the eXist seminars at TEI@Oxford
> 2010
> > and Digital Humanities@Oxford Summer School 2011.  It occurred to me
> > that, thanks to the incredible improvements have been made in eXist, a
> > seminar like those would be so much more effective today.  I spent easily
> > the first hour helping people with setting up eXist, connecting it to
> > oXygen, and installing the sample Punch application.  Now, between
> eXist's
> > new default "apps" directory, the powerful and free eXide app for writing
> > apps in the browser, and eXist's new Package Manager for installing new
> > applications and libraries, all of that setup and configuration could be
> > skipped - leaving much more time for instruction and exploration.  These
> > same improvements benefit not just first time learners, but the entire
> > community.  Today, it's so much faster to get up and running, developing
> > applications, and sharing them with others
> >
> > Second, I kept hearing from folks online and at the conference that the
> > Punch application I used at the seminars was still useful.  On the plane
> > back from the conference and in the days since, I've worked on updating
> > Punch to use some more modern frameworks in eXist, and I've re-released
> the
> > app as a .xar file (EXPath Package) - easily installable via the
> > Dashboard.  Pull requests and suggestions are welcome.
> >
> > Best regards to all,
> > Joe
> >
> >
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > eXist-TEIXML mailing list
> > eXi...@li...
> > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/exist-teixml
> >
> >
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>
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>
> End of eXist-TEIXML Digest, Vol 12, Issue 2
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