Browsing by Author "Phillips, Scott"
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Item Manakin Architecture: Understanding Modularity in Manakin(2007-05-30) Phillips, Scott; Green, Cody; Maslov, Alexey; Mikeal, Adam; Leggett, John; Texas A&M UniversityManakin is the second release of the DSpace XML UI project. Manakin introduces a modular interface layer, enabling an institution to easily customize DSpace according to the specific needs of a particular repository, community, or collection. Manakin’s modular architecture enables developers to add new features to the system without affecting existing functionality. This presentation will introduce Manakin’s modular architecture from a technical perspective, with an emphasis on extending Manakin’s feature set to meet local needs. First the project’s goals will be introduced, followed by a discussion of Manakin’s relationship with DSpace. Next an architectural overview of the primary components will be given: • DRI: The Digital Repository Interface (DRI) is an XML schema defining a language that allows aspects and themes to communicate. Manakin uses DRI as the abstraction layer between the repository’s business logic and presentation. The schema is adapted for digital repositories through the use of embedded METS-based metadata packages. • Aspects: Manakin aspects are components that provide features for the digital repository. These modular components can be added, removed, or replaced through simple configuration changes, enabling Manakin’s features to be extended to meet the needs of specific repositories. Aspects are linked together forming an “aspect chain”. This chain defines the set of features of a particular repository. • Themes: Manakin themes stylize the look-and-feel of the repository, community, or collection. The modular characteristics of themes enable them to encapsulate all the resources necessary to create a unique look-and-feel into one package. Themes may be configured to apply to a range of objects, from an entire repository down to a single page. Finally the presentation will close with a walkthrough of the Manakin architecture detailing how these components work together to form the Manakin framework.Item A Manakin Case Study Visualizing geospatial metadata and complex items(2007-05-30) Maslov, Alexey; Green, Cody; Mikeal, Adam; Phillips, Scott; Weimer, Kathy; Leggett, John; Texas A&M UniversityIncreasingly, repositories are responsible for preserving complex items, and items with specific/unique metadata, such as geospatial metadata. These collections present unique challenges for the repository interface, and traditional approaches often fail to provide adequate visualization mechanisms. This presentation is a case study of a particular collection that exhibits a Manakin solution to both of these challenges. The Geologic Atlas of the United States is a series of 227 folios published by the USGS between 1894 and 1945. Each folio consists of 10 to 40 pages of mixed content -- including maps, text, and photographs -- with an emphasis on the natural features and economic geology of the coverage area. Complex Items: The current visualization model in DSpace offers a cumbersome browsing experience for complex items, as the default item view in DSpace is not optimized for items that contain more than a few bitstreams. The logical organization of the folio collection was as a single DSpace collection with 227 items, where each item contained multiple bitstreams representing each page of the folio. The result was an uninformative list of filenames, each linking to a very large (approximately 100 MB) image file. Manakin allowed us to create a new detail view for the folio items using an image gallery-style viewing interface. This new view has thumbnails for each page and lower-resolution surrogates for screen viewing. It also allows a viewer to download either the full archival-quality TIFF or a reduced-quality JPEG. The combination of thumbnail surrogates and the ability to see all pages of a folio at once serves to increase the ease with which the collection is navigated and understood. Unique Metadata: The current DSpace interface is unable to leverage the potential of atypical metadata, such as the geospatial metadata attached to the folio collection. Although geographic elements were added to the DSpace metadata registry following Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) recommendations, the only visualization mechanism DSpace could offer was a flat listing of the metadata values. Manakin allowed us to exploit the unique geospatial properties of the folio collection. It was determined that a map-based interface for browsing and searching would help a user to quickly determine the coverage area of a particular folio visually, as well as place the title in its geographic context. Both of the challenges presented by this case study could have been addressed using the existing JSP interface. However, the awkward nature of such an implementation would be impractical to create and maintain; furthermore, no mechanism exists to restrict such changes to an individual collection. Manakin's modular architecture made the creation of this interface achievable by a small team in a matter of days. Currently, the interface is available online at http://handle.tamu.edu/1969.1/2490, and has been featured as an Editor's Pick on Yahoo.com for its use of the Yahoo! Maps API.Item Vireo 2.0: An Evolving Partnership in the Service of ETDs(2013-02-08) Hammons, Laura; Park, Kristi; Phillips, ScottVireo Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Submission and Management software, developed by the Texas Digital Library as an open-source application, is a leading tool for graduate offices and academic libraries who accept, manage, and publish theses and dissertations online. During 2012, an evolving partnership among the TDL, the Vireo Users Group, and an emerging open-source community of developers produced two new versions of the Vireo software. These updates provide users with improved usability, greater customization options, and powerful new publishing features. In this presentation, several stakeholders in the Vireo project will discuss the capabilities and limitations of Vireo, share the progress made with the application over the past year, and briefly discuss the new features and improvements in Vireo 1.8 and 2.0. The panel will also discuss the Texas Digital Library’s relationship to Vireo as (1) a development partner on the project, (2) a Vireo hosting solution for its member institutions, and (3) an organizer, in collaboration with the Vireo Users Group, of the growing open-source community around Vireo. Finally, the panel will reflect on the evolution of Vireo and share a vision for future collaborative work on the software.