EPrints Web Configuration Management

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EPrintsWebConfiguration Management
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EPrints - the Administrator's View

• SQL database
• Web server
• Scripts to configure repository activities
• Configuration files

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Orientation

• Where is the configuration information?

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On the Server The EPrints Folder
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EPrints Folder Configuration
Global configuration for all repositories
Repository-specific configuration for each
repository

• One EPrints install can run multiple repositories
• each may be very different in style
  functionality

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EPrints Folder All of the Archives
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Contents of archives Folder
A subdirectory for every active repository
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Contents of individual archive folder
The configuration files for this repository
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Contents of individual archive directory
PDFs etc.
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Contents of individual archive directory
Processed static webpages (e.g. home page,
abstract pages and views). This is where content
gets served from.
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Contents of individual archive directory
Temporary files
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Contents of individual archive directory
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Layers of Configuration Management give a wide
range of power and flexibility
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Configuration Files

• Every repository on each server has many dozens
  of configuration files.

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Command line Editing

• Command line editing requires the authorisation
  to get terminal access to the server, and the
  skill to use the command line shell and text
  editors.

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Web Configuration Editing

• Web configuration editing allows config files to
  be edited in a web page. You still need to
  understand the config file contents and where
  they go, but it is more convenient.

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Phrase Editor Application

• Lists all phrases used by the repository
• Edit or add new ones
• You dont need to know about the config files at
  all - the phrase editor reads and writes them for
  you and shows their contents in an
  easy-to-understand way.

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Metadata Editor Application

• Lists all metadata used by the repository
• Add new metadata fields
• You dont need to know about the config files at
  all - the metadata editor reads and writes them
  for you and shows their contents in an
  easy-to-understand way.

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Web Page Editor Application

• Allows you to edit the repository template and
  home pages
• You dont need to know about the config files at
  all - the web page editor reads and writes them
  for you and shows their contents in an
  easy-to-understand way.

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Now in Web browser

• Configuration can now be viewed and edited from
  the web browser instead of the command line
• The config file structure is mimicked in the
  displays tree structure
• Some tasks have bespoke interface
• Phrases, subjects, metadata schema
• All the underlying config files can still be
  accessed on command line

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Caveat Administrator

• Config files contain either
• XML
• Raw data
• Perl data
• Perl files are programs!
• EPrints does not allow Perl editing by default
• You must specify config/edit/perl in the
  administrators roles

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Introduction to Configuration

• We will some of the more important configuration
  by looking at common tasks
• Page Editing
• Metadata Schema Management
• Phrase Management
• Deposit workflow
• Bibliographic styles
• Views
• Searches

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Task 1 Editing EPrints pages
All EPrints pages
equals
template

page content
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The template provides a uniform style

• It sets the layout and visual structure
• e.g. 1-column fixed width vs 3-column liquid
• It imports all the necessary stylesheets and
  scripts
• It uses university brand images, colours and
  designs

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Templates assemble many different fragments of
content into a complete Web page

• The template is a skeleton HTML file with named
  pins that insert different bits of content in
  the right place in the page structure

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Examples
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EPrints provides for static and dynamic page
contents
STATIC
About Page
Help Page
Home Page
DYNAMIC
Search Page
Browse View
Abstract Page
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Editing Repository Pages

• The Edit Page screen assembles the template and
  page content into a single HTML file for editing
  by a web page editor.
• Or, you can separately edit the template
•  
• and the page contents
•  

cfg/lang/en/templates/default.xml
cfg/lang/en/static/index.xpage
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Task 2 Metadata Schema Control

• EPrints uses the same familiar metadata workflow
  interface to enter new metadata and to define new
  kinds of metadata for eprints, documents and
  users.
• add new fields for local requirements
• text, dates, booleans, names, compound
• restricted vocabularies

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Metadata Schema

• The Manage Metadata Fields screen
• lists the current set of fields in the database
• Allows you to easily create new fields on the fly
  
• It allows you to add new fields to
• eprints , documents , users
• As well as creating the fields, it adds
• phrases for names and help text
• places in the deposit workflow

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Task 3 EPrints Phrases

• All EPrints screens and fields and buttons are
  given structured ids
• e.g. eprint_fieldname_creators
• and each id is given a phrase in one or more
  languages
• The Phrase Editor lists all the structured ids
  and lets you change the human language phrases.

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Task 4 Deposit Workflow

• The deposit pages are shown to users in a
  specific order
• this is specified in a workflow configuration
  file cfg/workflows/eprint/default.xml

ltflowgt ltstage ref"type"/gt ltstage
ref"files"/gt ltstage ref"core"/gt ltstage
ref"subjects"/gt lt/flowgt
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EPrints Workflow
The EPrints deposit workflow is specified by an
XML document. It contains a flow element which
points to a number of stages. Each stage will
appear in a separate web page. Each stage
element contains a number of components and
fields. Components are boxes on the web page.
Fields are metadata input items. Components can
be divided between any number of stages.
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Sample Workflow with Displayed Result
ltstage name"core"gt ltcomponentgt ltfield
ref"title" required"yes"/gt lt/componentgt
ltcomponentgt ltfield ref"abstract"/gt
lt/componentgt lt/stagegt
Notes The EPrints phrase used for the core
stage is Details. You can change it in the
phrase editor. The title field is required, so
it gets a red star next to it.
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Collapsed Components
ltcomponent collapse"yes"gtltfield
ref"note"/gtlt/componentgt
A component can be set to collapse and its
contained field is hidden by default. It appears
again when the user clicks on the reveal button.
revealed
collapsed
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Conditional Components
ltepcif test"type 'thesis'"gt
ltcomponentgtltfield ref"thesis_type"/gtlt/componentgt
lt/epcifgt

• A component can be made conditional, using
  elements from the EPrints Control (or epc)
  format.
• Here the thesis_type field will only be shown for
  eprints if they are declared to be of type
  thesis, and not for books or journal articles.
• epcchoose provides another kind of conditional
  test.
• For more details about controlling the visibility
  of components, see
• EPrints Control format (EPC)http//wiki.eprints.o
  rg/w/EPrints_Control_Format
• EPScript language http//wiki.eprints.org/w/EPScri
  pt

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Task 5 Bibliographic Formats

• EPrints uses rules to create bibliographic
  references whenever it refers to an eprint
• In the abstract page
• In a list of search results
• On a view page
• These rules (the bibliographic styles) are
  expressed in an XML language
• (Same language as used in workflows)

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Task 5 Bibliographic Formats (2)

• Galil, L. and Utsunomiya, R. (2005) Mexican Musk
  Turtles and Man. Animal Issues, 18 (19). pp.
  146-193.

ltchoosegt ltwhen test"type 'book' and is_set(
creators )"gt ltprint expr"creators_name"/gt
lt/whengt ltwhen test"type 'book' and !is_set(
creators )"gt ltprint expr"editors_name"/gt,
edltif test"length(editors_name) gt 1"gtslt/ifgt.
lt/whengt ltwhen test"type 'patent'"gt
ltprint expr"patent_applicant"/gt lt/whengt
ltotherwisegt ltprint expr"creators_name"/gt
lt/otherwisegt lt/choosegt ltif test"date"gt(ltprint
expr"date" opts"resyear"/gt)lt/ifgt ltcitelinkhere
gtltxhtmlemgtltprint expr"title" opts"magicstop"/gtlt
/xhtmlemgtlt/citelinkheregt
cfg/citations/eprint/default.xml
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Task 6 Making Views

• Rules for generating the views / collections

cfg/cfg.d/views.pl
id gt "types", fields gt "type",
order gt "-date/title", hideempty gt
1,,
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Task 7 Making Searches

• Rules for making different searches

cfg/cfg.d/search.pl
c-gtsearch-gtsimple search_fields gt
id gt "q", meta_fields gt
EPrintsUtilsFULLTEXT,"title","abstract","cre
ators_name","date" ,, preamble_phrase
gt "cgi/searchpreamble", title_phrase gt
"cgi/searchsimple_search", citation gt
"result", page_size gt 20, order_methods gt
"byyear" gt "-date/creators_name/title",
"byyearoldest" gt "date/creators_name/title",
"byname" gt "creators_name/-date/title,
"bytitle" gt "title/creators_name/-date"
, default_order gt "byyear",
show_zero_results gt 1,