[libdb-develop] [Fwd: LibDB: Embarrassing UberAlpha Available]

[Morbus I. <mo...@di...>]

This was sent this morning to the FRBR list.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: LibDB: Embarrassing UberAlpha Available
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:05:00 -0500
From: Morbus Iff <mo...@di...>
To: fr...@in...


With the sole intent of showing /something/, I've decided to let you all
know about the latest with LibDB, my open sourced (MySQL and PHP) OPAC
that is founded on the FRBR Final Report. Those with particularly acute
memories may vaguely recall something about this very early in the year.

First, LibDB is no longer a standalone application: it has not been
integrated with the Drupal content management system (CMS). Drupal is
also an open sourced (MySQL and PHP) application, and provides all the
"other stuff" that any web site or service generally needs: content
creation and document workflow, user management and access permissions,
internationalization and translation, forums, aggregators, and blah blah
blah. I felt that LibDB becoming an OPAC/CMS was more important than it
being merely an OPAC. You can find more about Drupal, LibDB, and Why I
Chose Drupal at the following URLs:

  http://www.drupal.org/
  http://www.libdb.com/
  http://www.libdb.com/why_drupal

The new LibDB.com web site is also of interest: it is a full Drupal site
with, more importantly, a very very very very early version of LibDB
installed. This version does absolutely nothing /useful/, and it is with
some embarrassment that I show it to you: I generally only like to
unveil "WOW!" work, and not my in-progress stuff.

To play with the LibDB uberAlpha:

  * sign up for an account at LibDB.com (which is running Drupal).

  * go to the "administer" menu and choose "libdb".

In this very early version, there are only two goals:

  * represent "as little as possible" to get record manipulation working
    (this means that you'll only see G2 "Person" and no "Corporate Body",
    and only G1's "Manifestation" and no other G1 Entities).

  * get an administrative editing interface going, i.e., nothing
    that the public would ever want to browse through.

It is very, very rough. I can't stress this enough. Out of a 100%
project, I'm saying maybe barely 5% or 10% is finished. Of particular
warning is that you can add a new record but you can't go in and edit it
(this is one of the final things I've to do before moving on to the next
big part: some sort of browsable public interface). The only things
currently editable are all the individual parts: the Persons, Group 3
Entities, Other Data Types and so forth.

To stay notified of LibDB updates:

  * create an account.
  * go to "my account"
  * choose "my notify settings"

I'll still be posting news to this list, but it'll be more Milestone or
Theory related, and not all the interim minor updates. The next major
steps of the LibDB project include:

  * finish the administrative record editing interface.

  * re-examine the database schema (http://www.libdb.com/node/2)
    and update it according to all the comments since it's initial
    creation: FRBR super-types, handling dates, the variant table,
    etc., etc.

  * implement those database changes and update the editing code.

  * create some sort of browsing interface.

-- 
Morbus Iff ( take your rosaries off my ovaries )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/
icq: 2927491 / aim: akaMorbus / yahoo: morbus_iff / jabber.org: morbus


-- 
Morbus Iff ( is this a cut out bath-poster Morbus, or what? )
Technical: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/779
Culture: http://www.disobey.com/ and http://www.gamegrene.com/
icq: 2927491 / aim: akaMorbus / yahoo: morbus_iff / jabber.org: morbus