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    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: 
   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: 
   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
   25: cvs login
   26: cvs co nsdl
   27: 
   28: How to build and install
   29: ========================
   30: 
   31: cd nsdl/build
   32: make build
   33: make install
   34: 
   35: Important files
   36: ===============
   37: To get a good overview on the metadata conversion, I recommend
   38: you look at the nsdl/prototypes/metadata_convert.pl script
   39: (perldoc ./metadata_convert.pl).  Among other things, this
   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
   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: 
   55: The source-to-target information is defined by nsdl/build/gatewayfiles.lpml
   56: (an XML file defines how the software is "rendered" onto the system).
   57: gatewayfiles.lpml is used in many locations inside nsdl/build/Makefile.
   58: 
   59: And, there are other files.
   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
   94:                        sense to first convert LON-CAPA to IEEE LOM and *then*
   95:                        go to the Dublin Core metadata standard.
   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