<chapter id="introduction">
- <!-- $Id: introduction.xml,v 1.39 2006-09-03 21:37:26 adam Exp $ -->
+ <!-- $Id: introduction.xml,v 1.40 2006-09-22 12:34:45 adam Exp $ -->
<title>Introduction</title>
<section id="overview">
programs and toolkits, both commercial and free, which understand
this protocol. Application libraries are available to allow
bespoke clients to be written in Perl, C, C++, Java, Tcl, Visual
- Basic, Python, PHP and more - see
- <ulink url="http://zoom.z3950.org/">the ZOOM web site</ulink>
+ Basic, Python, PHP and more - see the
+ <ulink url="&url.zoom;">ZOOM web site</ulink>
for more information on some of these client toolkits.
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
Zebra is written in portable C, so it runs on most Unix-like systems
- as well as Windows NT. A binary distribution for Windows NT is
- available at
- <ulink url="http://ftp.indexdata.dk/pub/zebra/win32/"/>,
+ as well as Windows (NT/2000/2003). A binary distribution for Windows
+ is available at
+ <ulink url="&url.idzebra.download.win32;"/>,
and pre-built packages are available for
<!--- some Linux
distributions:
and Debian packages at
-->
<literal>GNU/Debian Linux</literal> at
- <ulink url="http://ftp.indexdata.dk/pub/zebra/debian/"/>.
+ <ulink url="&url.idzebra.download.debian;"/>.
</para>
</listitem>
<literal>alvis</literal> filter module.
</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Additional PQF query syntax for
- <literal>searchRetrieve</literal>
- and <literal>scan</literal> operations is supported.
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Extended RPN queries for search/retrieve and scan are supported,
+ for controlling approximate hit counts, etc.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</section>
</section>
-
-
- <section id="introduction-support">
- <title>Support</title>
- <para>
- You can get support for Zebra from at least three sources.
- </para>
- <para>
- First, there's the Zebra web site at
- <ulink url="http://indexdata.dk/zebra/"/>,
- which always has the most recent version available for download.
- If you have a problem with Zebra, the first thing to do is see
- whether it's fixed in the current release.
- </para>
- <para>
- Second, there's the Zebra mailing list. Its home page at
- <ulink url="http://lists.indexdata.dk/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zebralist"/>
- includes a complete archive of all messages that have ever been
- posted on the list. The Zebra mailing list is used both for
- announcements from the authors (new
- releases, bug fixes, etc.) and general discussion. You are welcome
- to seek support there. Join by filling the form on the list home page.
- </para>
- <para>
- Third, it's possible to buy a commercial support contract, with
- well defined service levels and response times, from Index Data.
- See
- <ulink url="http://indexdata.dk/support/"/>
- for details.
- </para>
- </section>
+
+
+ <section id="introduction-support">
+ <title>Support</title>
+ <para>
+ You can get support for Zebra from at least three sources.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ First, there's the Zebra web site at
+ <ulink url="&url.idzebra;"/>,
+ which always has the most recent version available for download.
+ If you have a problem with Zebra, the first thing to do is see
+ whether it's fixed in the current release.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Second, there's the Zebra mailing list. Its home page at
+ <ulink url="&url.idzebra.mailinglist;"/>
+ includes a complete archive of all messages that have ever been
+ posted on the list. The Zebra mailing list is used both for
+ announcements from the authors (new
+ releases, bug fixes, etc.) and general discussion. You are welcome
+ to seek support there. Join by filling the form on the list home page.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Third, it's possible to buy a commercial support contract, with
+ well defined service levels and response times, from Index Data.
+ See
+ <ulink url="&url.indexdata.support;"/>
+ for details.
+ </para>
+ </section>
<section id="future">
XSLT transformations during indexing and record retrieval. Work
on this filter has been sponsored by the ALVIS EU project
<ulink url="http://www.alvis.info/alvis/"/>. We expect this filter to
- mature soon, as it is planned to be included in the version 1.4
+ mature soon, as it is planned to be included in the version 2.0
release of Zebra.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Access to the search engine through SOAP/RPC API to allow the
- construction of applications without requiring Z39.50 tools.
- <!--
- This will shortly be available by means of Index Data's
- <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/">SRW</ulink>-to-Z39.50 gateway, currently in beta test.
- -->
- Experimental support of the
- Search/Retrieve Via URL ( <ulink url="&url.sru;">SRU</ulink>)
- <ulink url="&url.sru;"/>
- REST webservice, and the
- Search/Retrieve Web Service ( <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/">SRW</ulink>)
- <ulink url="http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/srw/"/>
- SOAP Web Service have recently been added to the YAZ/Zebra
- combo - including server side Common Query Language (<ulink url="&url.cql;">CQL</ulink>)
- <ulink url="&url.cql;"/> parsing
- and configuration. It remains to find a sponsor for further testing,
- documentation and packaging of this exiting component.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
Finalisation and documentation of Zebra's C programming
API, allowing updates, database management and other functions
not readily expressed in Z39.50. We will also consider
<listitem>
<para>
- Support for the use of Perl both for access to the Zebra API
- and for building extension ``plug-ins'' such as input filters.
- The code for this has been contributed to the source tree by
- Peter Popovics
- <email>pop@technomat.hu</email>,
- and is in the process of being integrated and tested.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
Improved free-text searching. We're first and foremost octet jockeys and
we're actively looking for organisations or people who'd like
to contribute experience in relevance ranking and text