[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Software architecture ?

[Mike Rylander]

On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 1:44 PM, Reuben Pasquini <rdp0004 at auburn.edu> wrote:
> Thanks a lot, Mike!
>  It's a pretty cool setup.
>
>  I'm finally up and running with an OpenILS install
>  where the OPAC and staff-client run and
>  authenticate - enough to let some people
>  see what it looks like.  I've got a couple
>  more questions if you or anyone else can help.
>
>  *. Is it possible to connect to the gapines demo system
>     with the staff client ?
>              http://demo.gapines.org/
>      If so, would you setup the version-link so that the
>      download-and-run Windows staff-client
>      version will talk with the server ?
>            http://open-ils.org/downloads/evergreen-setup-v100rc2.exe
>      It would be nice to be able to tell people to just download
>      that staff-client build, point it at demo.gapines.org, and play
>  around.

The best staff client to use for the demo server is now the version
1.2.1.4 build.  You can grab that from
http://open-ils.org/downloads/evergreen-setup-rel_1_2_1_4.exe .

>
>  *. I know one thing people are concerned about here when evaluating
>     the Evergreen ILS is the lack of acquisitions and serials modules.
>     I read someplace that there was a project afoot to address that -
>     is there likely to be acquisitions/serials support in
>      Open-ILS in the near future ?
>

Acquisitions is under heavy development right now.  We're expecting a
functional alpha in April with full monograph ordering.  Depending on
feedback, it should be in full release in late spring.  I'm working on
the serials side as well, and I'm hoping to have something to show
with the April release.

--miker

>  Thanks again,
>  Reuben
>
>
>  >>> "Mike Rylander" <mrylander at gmail.com> 2/29/2008 7:41 PM >>>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Reuben Pasquini <rdp0004 at auburn.edu>
>  wrote:
>  > Hello!
>  >
>  >  I'm installing Evergreen-ILS-1.2.1.4/OpenSRF-0.9,
>  >  and in the process trying to get a grip on how the software is put
>  >  together.
>  >  The following is what I came up with so far - can someone verify if
>  >  this
>  >  is right, or straighten me out if it's wrong ?
>  >
>  >  *. Evergreen-OpenILs consists of several OpenSrf modules
>  >      (separate applications that plug into an OpenSrf setup
>  >         to communicate with each other)
>  >       and a shared postgres database.
>
>  RIght on.
>
>  >
>  >  *. OpenSRF is a distributed computing framework characterized by:
>  >
>  >      o. The use of a central jabber server to manage communication
>
>  One or more jabber servers, but, yes.  You can configure multiple
>  jabber domains for access separation, and you can load-balance the
>  jabber servers in one domain.  Then, there's an OpenSRF Router per
>  jabber domain, with which the services (that you mention below)
>  register -- services can register with multiple Routers on separate
>  domains.
>
>  >      o. WSDL/SOAP-like procedure-call mechanisms where a component
>  >             publishes its interface with OpenSRF via an XML-spec,
>  >             and remote-procedure call is implemented via exchange
>  >             of XML messages via jabber.
>  >
>
>  Well, there are several interfaces.
>
>  - The native transport is JSON-over-XMPP (jabber) -- all OpenSRF-level
>  messages are JSON encoded, and wrapped in Jabber XML
>  - A ReST-ish HTTP gateway which can consume and produce both JSON and
>  XML -- this is not OpenSRF proper, but rather a Web Service like
>  translation
>  - An XML-RPC gateway built on top of the RPC::XML Perl module
>  - A true port of the OpenSRF message passing syntax from XMPP to HTTP,
>  based on the spec I put together here(1).   Bill Erickson has created
>  a Python reference implementation.
>
>  Then there are the client flavors.  There's a new JavaScript package
>  for interacting with the OpenSRF-over-HTTP translator, as well as the
>  existing JSON gateway JavaScript package.  There are XMPP client
>  libraries for JavaScript (only supported in Mozilla as an extension),
>  Perl, Python, C and Java, as well as support for any language with
>  XML-RPC bindings.
>
>  One other interesting feature is the introspection API.  Whenever a
>  method is registered, an entry in an introspection table is created
>  within the OpenSRF server. Using the XML gateway and some XSLT, we've
>  built a simple web app for exploring the in-line documentation from a
>  running instance of the OpenSRF application.  You can check that out
>  here(2).
>
>  I hope that helps shed some more light on how these things work
>  together, and please don't hesitate if you have any more questions.
>
>   (1) http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=opensrf_over_http
>   (2)
>  http://dev.gapines.org/opac/extras/docgen.xsl?service=open-ils.actor&all=on&offset=0&limit=25
>
>
>  --
>  Mike Rylander
>   | VP, Research and Design
>   | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
>   | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>   | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
>   | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com
>



-- 
Mike Rylander
 | VP, Research and Design
 | Equinox Software, Inc. / The Evergreen Experts
 | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
 | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
 | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com