[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] One OPAC to Rule Them All...

Thu Jan 17 15:21:32 EST 2008

Hi Kermit,

Kermit Jones wrote:
> Jason,
> 
> Hi again, and thanks for your email.  I'll go with the home solution 
> then since you're saying 2Mbps should be okay for now.  Where do I start 
> looking for the multiple domain documentation?  And just to clarify... 
> I'm not saying one domain per library... I'm saying Three separate 
> institutions, each with multiple libraries.
> I know there will be some Apache magic somewhere in there, but I'm not 
> sure how it shakes out with the databases (three separate user/pass?).
It sounds to me like you could use (name) virtual hosts for the multiple 
domains.  This is an apache thing.  As far as the databases, I think you 
could simply have a different database name for each domain.  The 
Postgres server, like most RDBMS', support multiple databases.
> 
>> You can have customized OPAC's (and domains) for each library with one
>> Evergreen install, using virtual host settings with Apache.
> So, i"m not looking for each library to have a separate domain... I'm 
> looking for each association (multiple libraries within each) to have a 
> separate domain and the associations do not intertwine records, but the 
> libraries within do.
I think here was just a mix of two terminologies.  I think when Jason 
said Library, he was using it as a synonym to Association.  Not 
necessarily a single location, but a single organization.
> 
> Domain1: 10 libraries in the association (each can share)
> Domain2: 20 different libraries in association (each can share)
> 
> Domain1 and Domain2 libraries don't see each other.
> 
> Not sure if that's clear, but I don't know if your answer was to that or 
> my wrongly worded original question.
I think I understand what you want to do, and that would be pretty much 
two totally separate installations.  One option that you could consider 
may be to have one install but make a slight change to the OPAC where it 
automatically scopes search results only to a single association.

Normally, there would be a "Search Everywhere"-type option, but you can 
just eliminate this and just search a specific association.  With 
separate vhosts, you could do a further modification to the source so 
that, if they visit foo.example.org, they will not see the "bar" 
association as an option.

With this option, you have an added advantage of a shared bibliographic 
(title) database to create individual item records against (in the OPAC, 
if a library in the association you're searching doesn't have an item 
attached to the bib/title, it will simply not show.  I would anticipate 
this to be a major time saver.  Also, less server resources should be 
consumed, as redundant processes should be eliminated.

> 
> So where do I got?  I'm planning on using the install script for a 
> Debian Etch installation.  Where do I hack after that?

Overall, you could simply do two complete parallel installations.  They 
would have different users (IE: the XMPP/"Jabber" usernames) and 
database.  However, I personally think a single installation could be 
separated enough virtually to facilitate your goal of preventing a 
patron from seeing the items of the other association.

> 
> Thanks again,
> Kermit

You're welcome! I hope this gives you another idea to consider, and 
answers more questions than it's prompted ;).  If you have any more, 
we're certainly here to help!

Sincerely Yours,
--Don

*hemera