ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Geneva, June 2005

Ole Husby, BIBSYS

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Participants

Susanna Peruginelli, ItalyEre Maijala, Finland

Maja Žumer, SloveniaPetra Otten, Netherlands

Dan Matei, RomaniaJuha Hakala, Finland

Tor Arne Dahl, NorwayJack Bazuzi, Spain

Graham Tritt, Switzerland(Peter Noerr, USA)Ole Husby, Norway

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

ZING defined

Z39.59 International Next Generation:

• SRU = Search and Retrieve URL Service• SRW = Search and Retrieve Web Service• CQL = Common Query Language• ZOOM = The Z39.59 Object-Orientation Model • Zeerex = Z39.50 Explain, Explained and Re-

engineered in XML• ez3950 = Simple Implementation of Z39.50 over

SOAP Using XER

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Agenda NISO Metasearch Initiative SRU/SRW vs related initiatives SRU vs SRW vs SRUP CQL zeeRex New services Migrating from Z29.50 to SRU/SRW Toolkits(Not on the agenda:∙ ZOOM∙ ez3950∙ Google)

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

NISO metasearch initiative

TG1: Access management• surveying practice• recommendingTG2: Collection description (Juha Hakala)• collection description• service descriptionTG3: Search and retrieve (Peter Noerr)• initiative from content providers: metasearch

engines are behaving improperly

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

More on NISO MSI TG3

• Building a reference model for metasearching (use cases, diagrams)

• Scope: transferring searches to and from metasearch engines

• Main problem with SRU/SRW: CQL is too complex (for some)

• Content providers need something cheap or commercially favorable

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

MXG: a new protocol?

• MXG: NISO Metasearch XML Gateway Protocol

• A NISO MSI proposal for a lightweight protocol– Level 1: Minimal query URL requirements– Level 2: Add XML record requirements– Level 3: Add minimal CQL requirements

• Try to get people on the ladder at level 1

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Further work on MXG

• Discuss at ZING meeting later this month

• Potentially submit for NISO registration

• BTW: SRU/SRW has been submitted for NISO registration

• Recommendation: Try to avoid treating SRU/SRW and MXG as parallel (competing) tracks within NISO

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Other related initiatives

• OpenURL is not a search protocol, it is not designed as such and should not be

• OAI-PMH is related to SRU/SRW by– also returning record metadata– also requiring XML

• Recommendation: There is a basis for aligning the tasks of profiling record metadata schemas within SRU/SRW and OAI-PMH

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

more related initiatives

• Xpath/Xquery: not a search protocol• RSS: not a search protocol• OpenSearch (amazon.com): "something

to do with searching, harvesting, syndication". NISO MSI should look into this?

• OpenOffice Bibliographic project: "looks like a reference management system. It is not a search protocol".

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

SRU vs SRW (vs SRUP)

• SRU = HTTP GET

• (SRUP = HTTP POST without SOAP– SRUP is probably deprecated)

• SRW = HTTP POST with SOAP

• Recommendation: Please implement both in the server.– same recommendation as last year ...

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

SRU issues

• SRU does not require a client: could run in the browser

• The URL length problem in HTTP get is not trivial

• See the workshop reports from last year for a more detailed treatment

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

CQL issues

• Documentation: Some more clarity is asked for: Explanations, examples, pointers to external definitions

• Important implementors guide: CQL Index-naming Convention, e.g.:– "attempt to determine if a suitable index name

already exists ... and if so, use it rather than creating a new index name"

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

CQL next version

• (part of SRU/SRW v 1.2 or 2.0)• Most important issue: notion of

conformance levels (0, 1 and 2)• Recommendation: Align the XMG levels

with the CQL levels, e.g. by XMG referring CQL

• We do accept the difference in scope between the metasearch initiative and the SRW standardizing community, but ...

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

ZeeRex

• An abstract schema as well as XML schema• To be used

– by Z39.50 servers– by SRU/SRW servers– by posting XML files on the web

• Feedback on Zeerex coming from the NISO MSI TG2

• Our guess: none of the metasearch portals are actually using it ...

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

please use it!

• Save you're own time

• Do it properly

• Keep it updated

• Post it on the web

• Zeerex is human readable!

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

New services

• One reason for extending SRU/SRW by adding new services:– Closing the gap between Z39.50 and SRU/SRW so a

complete migration is possible

• Candidates:– Update (Z39.50 ext. services UCP profile)– Resource delivery (Z39.50 ext. services Item Order)

• but we have no recommendations!

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Migration & toolkits

• We believe there will be a migration from Z39.50 to SRU/SRW (but slowly)

• And we applaud it!• Main reasons are related to

– service specifications (ASN.1 -> XML/WSDL)– transport technology (sockets -> HTTP)– encoding technology (BER -> XML)

• Tools / gateways / proxies are needed for migrating as well as coexisting

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Z-server

Z-proxy

SR-proxy

Metasearch Portals

Personal Zclients

SR-server

Different scenarios

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

Z-proxySR-server

First step

ELAG 2005 / Workshop 1: ZING

SR-server

Next step