1 % The MKWS manual: embedded metasearching with the MasterKey Widget Set
9 There are lots of practical problems in building resource discovery
10 solutions. One of the biggest, and most ubiquitous is incorporating
11 metasearching functionality into existing web-sites -- for example,
12 content-management systems, library catalogues or intranets. In
13 general, even when access to core metasearching functionality is
14 provided by simple web-services such as
15 [Pazpar2](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2), integration work is seen
16 as a major part of most projects.
18 Index Data provides several different toolkits for communicating with
19 its metasearching middleware, trading off varying degrees of
20 flexibility against convenience:
22 * [pz2.js](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/doc/ajaxdev.html) --
23 a low-level JavaScript library for interrogating the
24 [Service Proxy](http://www.indexdata.com/service-proxy/)
26 [Pazpar2](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/).
27 It allows the HTML/JavaScript programmer
28 to create JavaScript applications to display facets, records,
29 etc. that are fetched from the metasearching middleware.
31 * masterkey-ui-core -- a higher-level, complex JavaScript library that
32 uses pz2.js to provide the pieces needed for building a
33 full-featured JavaScript application.
35 * MasterKey Demo UI -- an example of a searching application built on
36 top of masterkey-ui-core. Available as a public demo at
37 <http://mk2.indexdata.com/>
39 * [MKDru](http://www.indexdata.com/masterkey-drupal) --
40 a toolkit for embedding MasterKey-like searching into
41 [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/)
44 All of these approaches require programming to a greater or lesser
45 extent. Against this backdrop, we introduced
46 [MKWS (the MasterKey Widget Set)](http://mkws.indexdata.com/)
47 -- a set of simple, very high-level HTML+CSS+JavaScript
48 components that can be incorporated into any web-site to provide
49 MasterKey searching facilities. By placing `<div>`s with well-known
50 MKWS classes in any HTML page, the various components of an application
51 can be embedded: search-boxes, results areas, target information, etc.
58 [a complete MKWS-based searching application](//example.indexdata.com/simple.html):
62 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
63 <title>MKWS demo client</title>
64 <script type="text/javascript" src="//mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
65 <link rel="stylesheet" href="//mkws.indexdata.com/mkws.css" />
68 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
69 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
73 Go ahead, try it! Simply put the above in a file (e.g index.html),
74 drop it into a folder accessible with an ordinary web-server (e.g
75 Apache) and load it in your web browser. Just like that, you have
76 working metasearching.
81 If you know any HTML, the structure of the file will be familar to
82 you: the `<html>` element at the top level contains a `<head>` and a
83 `<body>`. In addition to whatever else you might want to put on your
84 page, you can add MKWS elements.
86 These fall into two categories. First, the prerequisites in the HTML
87 header, which are loaded from the tool site `mkws.indexdata.com`:
90 contains all the JavaScript needed by the widget-set, including a
91 copy of the jQuery library.
94 provides the default CSS styling
96 Second, within the HTML body, `<div>` elements with special IDs that
97 begin `mkws-` can be provided. These are filled in by the MKWS code,
98 and provide the components of the searching UI. The very simple
99 application above has only two such widgets: a search box and a
100 results area. But more are supported.
102 Defining widget elements
103 ========================
108 An HTML element is made an MKWS widget by including an MKWS
109 class-name. These names begin `mkws-`: what follows that prefix
110 specifies the type of the widget. The type can be any sequence of
111 alphanumeric characters and hyphens _except_ something beginning
114 The main widgets are:
116 * `mkws-search` -- provides the search box and button.
118 * `mkws-results` -- provides the results area, including a list of
119 brief records (which open out into full versions when clicked),
120 paging for large results sets, facets for refining a search,
121 sorting facilities, etc.
123 * `mkws-progress` -- shows a progress bar indicating how many of the
124 targets have responded to the search request.
126 * `mkws-stat` -- provides a status line summarising the statistics of
129 * `mkws-switch` -- provides links to switch between a view of the
130 result records and of the targets that provide them. Only
131 meaningful when `mkws-targets` is also provided.
133 * `mkws-targets` -- the area where per-target information will appear
134 when selected by the link in the `mkws-switch` area. Of interest
135 mostly for fault diagnosis rather than for end-users.
137 * `mkws-lang` -- provides links to switch between one of several
138 different UI languages. By default, English, Danish and German are
141 To see all of these working together, just put them all into the HTML
144 <div class="mkws-switch"></div>
145 <div class="mkws-lang"></div>
146 <div class="mkws-progress"></div>
147 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
148 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
149 <div class="mkws-targets"></div>
150 <div class="mkws-stat"></div>
152 The full set of supported widgets is described in the
159 In general a set of widgets work together in a team: in the example
160 above, the search-term that the user enters in the `mkws-search`
161 widget is used to generate the set of records that are displayed in
162 the `mkws-results` widget.
164 Sometimes, it's desirable to have multiple teams in a single page. A
165 widget can be placed in a named team by giving it (in addition to its
166 main class) a class that begins with `mkws-team-`: what follows that
167 prefix specifies the team that the widget is part of. For example,
168 `<div class="mkws-search mkws-team-aux">` creates a search widget that
169 is part of the `aux` team.
171 Widgets that do not have a team specified (as in the examples above)
172 are placed in the team called `AUTO`.
174 Old and new-style class-names
175 -----------------------------
177 **NOTE.** Versions of MKWS before v1.0 used camel-case class-names:
178 without hyphens and with second and subsequent words capitalised. So
179 instead of `mkws-search`, it used to be `mkwsSearch`. And the classes
180 used to specify team names used an `mkwsTeam_` prefix (with an
181 underscore). So instead of `mkws-team-foo`, it used to be
184 The 1.x series of MKWS releases recognise these old-style class-names
185 as well as the canonical ones, as a facility for backwards
186 compatibility. However, **these old class-names are deprecated, and
187 support will be removed in v2.0**. Existing applications that use them
188 should be upgraded to the new-style class names as soon as convenient.
196 Many aspects of the behaviour of MKWS can be modified by setting
197 parameters into the `mkws_config` object. So the HTML header looks
200 <script type="text/javascript">
202 lang_options: [ "en", "da" ]
204 sort_default: "title",
207 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
209 This configuration restricts the set of available UI languages English
210 and Danish (omitting German), sets the default to Danish (rather than
211 the English), and initially sorts search results by title rather than
212 relevance (though as always this can be changed in the UI).
214 The full set of supported configuration settings is described in the
215 reference guide below.
217 Per-widget configuration
218 ------------------------
220 In addition to the global configuration provided by the `mkws_config`
221 object, individual widgets' behaviour can be configured by providing
222 configuration settings as attributes on their HTML elements. For example,
223 a `records` widget might be restricted to displaying no more than
224 three records by setting the `numrecs` parameter as follows:
226 <div class="mkws-records" maxrecs="3">
228 Although this works well, HTML validators will consider this element
229 acceptable, since the `maxrecs` attribute is not part of the HTML
230 schema. However, attributes beginning `data-` are always accepted as
231 HTML extensions, much like email headers beginning with
232 `X-`. Therefore, the widget set also recognises configuration
233 attributes prefixed with `data-mkws-`, so:
235 <div class="mkws-records" data-mkws-maxrecs="3">
237 For first form is more convenient; the second is more correct.
239 Because some configuration settings take structured values rather than
240 simple strings, they cannot be directly provided by inline
241 attributes. To allow for this, the special attribute
242 `data-mkws-config`, if provided, is parsed as JSON and its key-value
243 pairs used as configuration settings for the widget in question. For
244 example, the value of `lang_options` is an array of strings specifying
245 which of the supported UI languages should be made available. The
246 following invocation will limit this list to only English and Danish
249 <div class="mkws-lang" data-mkws-config='{ "lang_options": [ "en", "da" ] }'></div>
251 (Note that, as JSON requires double quotes around all strings, single
252 quotes must be used to contain the entire attribute value.)
255 Control over HTML and CSS
256 =========================
258 More sophisticated applications will not simply place the widgets
259 together, but position them carefully within an existing page
260 framework -- such as a Drupal template, an OPAC or a SharePoint page.
262 While it's convenient for simple applications to use a monolithic
263 `mkws-results` area which contains record, facets, sorting options,
264 etc., customised layouts may wish to treat each of these components
265 separately. In this case, `mkws-results` can be omitted, and the
266 following lower-level widgets provided instead:
268 * `mkws-facets` -- provides the facets
270 * `mkws-ranking` -- provides the options for how records are sorted and
271 how many are included on each page of results.
273 * `mkws-pager` -- provides the links for navigating back and forth
274 through the pages of records.
276 * `mkws-navi` -- when a search result has been narrowed by one or more
277 facets, this area shows the names of those facets, and allows the
278 selected values to be clicked in order to remove them.
280 * `mkws-records` -- lists the actual result records.
282 Customisation of MKWS searching widgets can also be achieved by
283 overriding the styles set in the toolkit's CSS stylesheet. The default
284 styles can be inspected in [mkws.css](mkws.css)
285 and overridden in any
286 styles that appears later in the HTML than that file. At the simplest
287 level, this might just mean changing fonts, sizes and colours, but
288 more fundamental changes are also possible.
290 To properly apply styles, it's necessary to understand how the HTML is
291 structured, e.g. which elements are nested within which
292 containers. The structures used by the widget-set are described in the
293 reference guide below.
296 Customised display using Handlebars templates
297 =============================================
299 A lot can be done by styling widgets in CSS and changing basic MKWS config
300 options. For further customisation, MKWS allows you to change the markup it
301 outputs for any widget. This is done by overriding the
302 [Handlebars](http://handlebarsjs.com/) template used to generate it. In general
303 these consist of `{{things in double braces}}` that are replaced by values from
304 the system. For details of Handlebars template syntax, see [the online
305 documentation](http://handlebarsjs.com/).
307 The templates used by the core widgets can be viewed in [our git
308 repository](http://git.indexdata.com/?p=mkws.git;a=tree;f=src/templates;).
309 Parameters are documented in a comment at the top of each template so
310 you can see what's going where. If all you want to do is add a CSS class to
311 something or change a `span` to a `div` it's easy to just copy the existing
312 template and make your edits.
317 To override the template for a widget, include it inline in the document
318 as a `<script>` tag marked with a class of `mkws-template-foo` where foo is the
319 name of the template you want to override (typically the name of the widget).
320 Inline Handlebars templates are distinguished from Javascript via a
321 `type="text/x-handlebars-template"` attribute. For example, to override the
322 pager template you would include this in your document:
324 <script class="mkws-template-pager" type="text/x-handlebars-template">
325 ...new Pager template
328 The Facet template has a special feature where you can override it on
329 a per-facet basis by adding a dash and the facet name as a suffix eg.
330 `facet-subjects`. (So `class="mkws-template-facet-subjects"`.) When
331 rendering a facet for which no specific template is defined, the code
332 falls back to using the generic facet template, just called `facet`.
334 You can also explicitly specify a different template for a particular
335 instance of a widget by providing the name of your alternative
336 (eg. `special-pager`) as the value of the `template` key in the MKWS
337 config object for that widget: for example, `<div class="mkws-pager"
338 template="special-pager"/>`.
340 Templates for MKWS can also be
341 [precompiled](http://handlebarsjs.com/precompilation.html). If a precompiled
342 template of the same name is found in the `Handlebars.templates` object, it
343 will be used instead of the default.
345 Inspecting metadata for templating
346 ----------------------------------
348 MKWS makes requests to the Service Proxy or Pazpar2 that perform the
349 actual searching. Depending on how these are configured and what is
350 available from the targets you are searching there may be more data
351 available than what is presented by the default templates.
353 Handlebars offers a convenient log helper that will output the contents of a
354 variable for you to inspect. This lets you look at exactly what is being
355 returned by the back end without needing to use a Javascript debugger. For
356 example, you might prepend `{{log hits}}` to the Records template in order to
357 see what is being returned with each search result in the list. In order for
358 this to work you'll need to enable verbose output from Handlebars which is done
359 by including this line or similar:
361 <script>Handlebars.logger.level = 1;</script>
366 If you would like your template to use the built in translation functionality,
367 output locale specific text via the mkws-translate helper like so:
368 `{{{mkws-translate "a few words"}}}`.
373 Rather than use the toolkit's included AJAX helpers to render record
374 details inline, here's a summary template that will link directly to
375 the source via the address provided in the metadata as the first
376 element of `md-electronic-url`:
378 <script class="mkws-template-summary" type="text/x-handlebars-template">
379 <a href="{{md-electronic-url.[0]}}">
382 {{#if md-title-remainder}}
383 <span>{{md-title-remainder}}</span>
385 {{#if md-title-responsibility}}
386 <span><i>{{md-title-responsibility}}</i></span>
390 For a more involved example where markup for multiple widgets is decorated with
391 [Bootstrap](http://getbootstrap.com/) classes and a custom Handlebars helper is
392 employed, take a look at the source of
393 [topic.html](http://example.indexdata.com/topic.html?q=water).
403 Some applications might like to open with content in the area that
404 will subsequently be filled with result-records -- a message of the
405 day, a welcome message or a help page. This can be done by placing an
406 `mkws-motd` division anywhere on the page. It will initially be moved
407 into the `mkws-results` area and displayed, but will be hidden as soon
408 as the first search is made.
411 Popup results with jQuery UI
412 ----------------------------
414 The [jQuery UI library](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery_UI)
415 can be used to construct MKWS applications in which the only widget
416 generally visible on the page is a search box, and the results appear
417 in a popup. The key part of such an application is this invocation of
418 the MKWS jQuery plugin:
420 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
421 <div class="mkws-popup" popup_width="1024" popup_height="650">
422 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
425 The necessary scaffolding can be seen in an example application,
426 [popup.html](http://example.indexdata.com/popup.html).
428 The relevant properties (`popup_width`, etc.) are documented
429 [below](#jquery-ui-popup-invocation)
430 in the reference section.
433 MKWS target selection
434 =====================
439 MKWS accesses targets using the Pazpar2 metasearching engine. Although
440 Pazpar2 can be used directly, using a statically configured set of
441 targets, this usage is unusual. More often, Pazpar2 is fronted by the
442 Service Proxy (SP), which manages authentication, sessions, target
443 selection, etc. This document assumes the SP is used, and explains how
444 to go about making a set of targets (a "library") available, how to
445 connect your MKWS application to that library, and how to choose which
446 of the available targets to use.
448 By default MKWS configures itself to use an account on a service
449 hosted by `sp-mkws.indexdata.com`. By default, it sends no
450 authentication credentials, allowing the appropriate account to be
451 selected on the basis of referring URL or IP address.
453 If no account has been set up to recognise the referring URL of the
454 application or the IP address of the client, then a default "MKWS
455 Demo" account is used. This account (which can also be explicitly
456 chosen by using the username `mkws`, password `mkws`) provides access
457 to about a dozen free data sources.
459 In order to search in a customised set of targets, including
460 subscription resources, it's necessary to create an account with
461 Index Data's hosted Service Proxy, and protect that account with
462 authentication tokens (to prevent unauthorised use of subscription
465 Maintaining the library
466 -----------------------
468 The Service Proxy accesses sets of targets that are known as
469 "libraries". In general, each customer will have their own library,
470 though some standard libraries may be shared between many customers --
471 for example, a library containing all open-access academic journals.
472 A library can also contain other configuration information, including
473 the set of categories by which targets are classified for the library.
475 Libraries are maintained using MKAdmin (MasterKey
476 Admin). Specifically, those used by MKWS are generally maintained on
477 the "MKX Admin" installation at
478 <http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
479 In general, Index Data will create a library for each customer, then
480 give the customer a username/password pair that they can use to enter
481 MKAdmin and administrate that library.
483 Once logged in, customers can select which targets to include (from
484 the list of several thousand that MKAdmin knows about), and make
485 customer-specific modifications to the target profiles --
486 e.g. overriding the titles of the targets.
488 Most importantly, customers' administrators can add authentication
489 credentials that the Service Proxy will use on their behalf when
490 accessing subscription resources -- username/password pairs or proxies
491 to use for IP-based authentication. Note that **it is then crucial to
492 secure the library from use by unauthorised clients**, otherwise the
493 customer's paid subscriptions will be exploited.
495 Access to libraries is managed by creating one or more "User Access"
496 records in MKAdmin, under the tab of that name. Each of these records
497 provides a combination of credentials and other data that allow an
498 incoming MKWS client to be identified as having legitimate access to
499 the library. The authentication process, described below, works by
500 searching for a matching User Access record.
503 Authenticating your MWKS application onto the library
504 -----------------------------------------------------
506 Some MKWS applications will be content to use the default library with
507 its selection of targets. Most, though, will want to define their own
508 library providing a different range of available targets. An important
509 case is that of applications that authenticate onto subscription
510 resources by means of back-end site credentials stored in MKAdmin:
511 precautions must be taken so that such library accounts do not allow
514 Setting up such a library is a process of several stages.
516 ### Create the User Access account
518 Log in to MKAdmin to add a User Access account for your library:
520 * Go to <http://mkx-admin.indexdata.com/console/>
521 * Enter the adminstrative username/password
522 * Go to the User Access tab
523 * Create an end-user account
524 * Depending on what authentication method it be used, set the
525 User Access account's username and password, or referring URL, or
528 If your MWKS application runs at a well-known, permanent address --
529 <http://yourname.com/app.html>, say -- you can set the User Access
530 record so that this originating URL is recognised by setting it into
531 the "Referring URL" field. Then the application will always use that
532 library that this User Access record is associated with (unless it
533 sends a username/password pair to override this default).
535 Or if your application's users are coming from a well-known range of
536 IP-address space, you can enter the range in the "IP Ranges"
537 field. The format of this field is as follows: it can contain any
538 number of ranges, separated by commas; each range is either a single
539 IP address or two addresses separated by a hyphen; each IP address is
540 four small integers separated by periods. For example,
541 `80.229.143.255-80.229.143.255, 5.57.0.0-5.57.255.255, 127.0.0.1`.
543 Alternatively, your application can authenticate by username and
544 password credentials. This is a useful approach in several situations,
545 including when you need to specify the use of a different library from
546 usual one. To arrange for this, set the username and password as a
547 single string separated by a slash -- e.g. `mike/swordfish` -- into
548 the User Access record's Authentication field.
550 You can set multiple fields into a single User Access record; or
551 create multiple User Access records. For example, a single User Access
552 record can specify both a Referring URL and a username/password pair
553 that can be used when running an application from a different URL. But
554 if multiple Referring URLs are needed, then each must be specified in
555 its own User Access record.
557 ### (Optional): embed credentials for access to the library
559 When credential-based authentication is in use (username and
560 password), it's necessary to pass these credentials into the Service
561 Proxy when establishing the session. This is done
562 by providing the `sp_auth_credentials` configuration setting as a string
563 containing the username and password separated by a slash:
565 mkws_config = { sp_auth_credentials: "mike/swordfish" };
567 ### (Optional): conceal credentials from HTML source
569 Using credential-based authentication settings such as those above
570 reveals the the credentials to public view -- to anyone who does View
571 Source on the MKWS application. This may be acceptable for some
572 libraries, but is intolerable for those which provide authenticated
573 access to subscription resources.
575 In these circumstances, a different approach is
576 necessary. Referer-based or IP-based authentication may be
577 appropriate. But if these are not possible, then a more elaborate
578 approach can be used to hide the credentials in a web-server
579 configuration that is not visible to users.
581 The idea is to make a Service Proxy authentication URL local to the
582 customer, hiding the credentials in a rewrite rule in the local
583 web-server's configuration. Then local mechanisms can be used to limit
584 access to that local authentication URL. Here is one way to do it when
585 Apache2 is the application's web-server, which we will call
588 Step 1: add a rewriting authentication alias to the configuration:
591 RewriteRule /spauth/ http://sp-mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/\
592 ?command=auth&action=check,login&username=U&password=PW [P]
594 Step 2: set the MKWS configuration setting `service_proxy_auth` to
595 `http://yourname.com/spauth/`.
597 Step 3: protect access to the local path `http://yourname.com/spauth/`
598 (e.g. using a `.htaccess` file).
601 Choosing targets from the library
602 ---------------------------------
604 MKWS applications can choose what subset of the library's targets to
605 use, by means of several alternative settings on individual widgets or
606 in the `mkws_config` structure:
608 * `targets` -- contains a Pazpar2 targets string, typically of the form
609 "pz:id=" or "pz:id~" followed by a pipe-separated list of low-level
611 At present, these IDs can take one of two forms, depending on the
612 configuration of the Service Proxy being used: they may be based on
613 ZURLs (so a typical value would be something like
614 `pz:id=josiah.brown.edu:210/innopac|lui.indexdata.com:8080/solr4/select?fq=database:4902`)
615 or they may be UDBs (so a typical value would be something like
616 `pz:id=brown|artstor`)
618 * `targetfilter` -- contains a CQL query which is used to find relevant
619 targets from the relvant library. For example,
624 * `target` -- contains a single UDB, that of the sole target to be
627 This is merely syntactic sugar for "targetfilter" with the query
630 For example, a `Records` widget can be limited to searching only in
631 targets that have been categorised as news sources by providing an
632 attribute as follows:
634 <div class="mkws-records" targetfilter='categories=news'/>
643 The following widgets are provided in the core set. (Others can be
644 added: see the [MKWS developers' guide](mkws-developer.html).)
649 `auth-name` Initially empty, it updates itself to shows the name
650 of the library that the application is logged in as
651 when authentication is complete.
653 `builder` A button which, when pressed, analyses the current
654 settings of the team that it is a part of, and
655 generates the HTML for an auto-searching element
656 that will replicate the present search. This HTML is
657 displayed in an alert box: it is intended that this
658 widget be subclassed to store the generated widget
659 definitions in more useful places.
661 `button` The search button. Usually generated a `search`
664 `categories` Obtains from the Service Proxy a list of the target
665 categories associated with the library in use, and
666 displays them in a drop-down list. When a category
667 is selected, searches are limited to the targets
668 that are part of that category.
670 `config` This widget has no functionality of its own, but its
671 configuration is copied up into its team, allowing
672 it to affect other widgets in the team. This is the
673 only way to set configuration settings at the team
676 `console-builder` Like the `builder` widget, but emits the generated
677 HTML on the JavaScript console. This exists to
678 provide an example of how to subclass the `builder`
681 `cover-art` Displays cover art for a book by searching in
682 Amazon. Often used with an `autosearch` attribute to
683 indicate what book to display. For example,
684 `<div class="mkws-cover-art" autosearch="isbn=1291177124"></div>`
685 displays cover art for _All Yesterdays: Unique and
686 Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric
688 For this widget to work, a library that includes the
689 AmazonBooks target must be used. For example, the
690 "DEMO AmazonBooks for MKWS" account, which can be
691 selected with `sp_auth_credentials="mkws-amazon/mkws"`.
693 `details` This widget is generated by the toolkit itself to
694 hold the full details of records that are initially
695 listed in summary form.
697 `done` Initially empty, this widget is set to display
698 "Search complete: found _n_ records" when all
699 targets have completed their work, either returning
700 a hit-count or an error. The message displayed can
701 be changed by overriding the `done` template using
702 `<script class="mkws-template-done" type="text/x-handlebars-template">`.
704 `facet` A facet that displays the frequency with which a set
705 of terms occur within a specific field. The specific
706 field whose contents are analysed must be specified
707 by the widget's `facet` configuration setting, which
708 may conveniently be done by means of the
709 `data-mkws-facet` attribute on the HTML
710 element. The supported facets are "subject",
711 "author" and "xtargets" -- the latter a special case
712 which treats the target providing a record as a
713 facet. Most often, `facet` widgets are generated
714 by a `facets` widget, which knows which facets are
715 required, but they can also be placed individually.
717 `facets` An area that contains a "Facets" heading and several
718 `facet` widgets. The set of facet widgets generated
719 is specified by the `facets` configuration setting,
720 which may be set globally or at the level of the
721 widget or the team. The value of this configuration
722 setting is an array of zero or more strings, each
725 `google-image` A specialisation of the `images` widget which
726 defaults to the `Google_Images` target.
728 `images` A specialisation of the `records` widget which
729 defaults to the `images` template. Unlike the default
730 summary template, this displays an image from the
731 URL specified by the `md-thumburl` field of each
734 `lang` Provides a selection between the supported set of
735 languages (which defaults to English, German and
736 Danish, but can be configured by the `lang`
737 configuration setting, whose value is an array of
738 two-letter language codes).
740 `log` Initially empty, this widget accumulates a log of
741 messages generated by the widget set, similar to
742 those emitted on the JavaScript console.
744 `lolcat` A specialisation of the `google-image` widget which
745 defaults to the search-term "kitteh" and
748 `motd-container` An empty container which the `motd` widget, if any,
749 is moved into for initial display. Usually generated
750 as part of the `results` widget.
752 `motd` May be provided, containing content to appear in the
753 area where records will later appear. It is moved
754 into this area (the `motd-container` widget) and
755 initially displayed; then hidden when the first
756 search is run. It can be used to provide a "message
759 `navi` Shows a list of the facets that have been selected,
760 and allows them to be deselected.
762 `pager` Shows a list of the available pages of results, and
763 allows the user to navigate to a selected page.
765 `per-page` Provides a dropdown allowing the user to choose how
766 many records should appear on each page. The
767 available set of page-sizes can be specified as the
768 `perpage_options` configuration setting, whose value is
769 an array of integers. The initial selected value can
770 be specified by the `perpage_default` configuration setting.
772 `progress` Shows a progress bar which indicates how many of the
773 targets have responded to the search.
775 `query` The input area for a query. Usually generated a `search`
778 `ranking` The result-ranking area, consisting of a `sort`
779 widget and a `per-page` widget. These may instead
780 be specified separately if preferred.
782 `record` A detailed display of a single record, usually
783 appearing when the user clicks on a summary
784 record. This is generated by the `records` widget.
786 `records` The area in which summary records appear. (Clicking
787 on a summary record make it pop up as a detailed
790 `reference` A short summary about a subject specified by the
791 `autosearch` configuration setting. This is created by
792 drawing a picture and a paragraph of text from
793 Wikipedia. To work correctly, this widget must be
794 used in a library that provides the
795 `wikimedia_wikipedia_single_result` target.
797 `results` A large compound widget used to provide the most
798 important results-oriented widgets in a pre-packaged
799 framework: `facets`, `ranking`, `pager`, `navi` and
802 `search-form` The search form, containing the query area and the
803 button. Usually generated a `search` widget.
805 `search` The search box, consisting of a form containing a
806 query area and a button.
808 `sort` Provides a dropdown allowing the user to choose how
809 the displayed records should be sorted. The
810 available set of sort criteria can be specified as the
811 `sort_options` configuration setting, whose value is
812 an array of two-element arrays. The first item of
813 each sub-array is a pazpar2 sort-expression such as
814 `data:0` and the second is a human-readable label
815 such as `newest`. The initial selected
816 value can be specified by the `sort_default` configuration
819 `stat` A summary line stating how many targets remain
820 active, how many records have been found, and how
821 many of them have been retrieved for display. For
822 most purposes, the `progress` widget may be
825 `summary` A short record, included in the list shown when a
826 search is run. When clicked, this generally pops up
827 a detailed `record` widget. This widget is generated
828 by the toolkit in response to search results.
830 `switch` A pair of buttons allowing the user to switch
831 between viewing the search results (the usual case)
834 `targets` A list of all targets in the present library,
835 showing their ID, the number of records they have
836 found for the current search, any diagnostics they
837 have returned, the number of records that have been
838 returned for display, and the connection state.
842 Configuration settings
843 ----------------------
845 Configuration settings may be provided at the level of a indiviual widget, or a team, or globally. Per-widget configuration is
846 described above; per-team settings can be placed in a `config` widget belonging to the relevant team, and will be applied to that
847 team as a whole; and global settings are provided in the global variable `mkws_config`. This structure is a key-value lookup
848 table, and may specify the values of many settings.
850 Some settings apply only to specific widgets; others to the behaviour of the tookit as a whole. When a widget does not itself have
851 a value specified for a particular configuration setting, its team is consulted; and if that also does not have a value, the global
852 settings are consulted. Only if this, too, is unspecified, is the default value used.
854 The supported configuration settings are described in the table below. For those settings that apply only to particular widgets,
855 the relevant widgets are listed. All entries are optional, but if specified must be given values of the specified type. Long
856 default values are in footnotes to keep the table reasonably narrow.
859 Element Widget Type Default Description
860 -------- ------ ----- --------- ------------
861 auth_hostname _global_ string If provided, overrides the `pp2_hostname` setting when constructing the
862 Service Proxy authentication URL. This need only be used when authentication
863 is performed on a different host from the remaining operations (search,
866 autosearch facet, string If provided, this setting contains a query which is immediately run on behalf
867 facets, of the team. Often used with an [indirect setting](#indirect-settings).
872 facet facet string For a `facet` widget, this setting is mandatory, and indicates which field to
873 list terms for. Three fields are supported: `subject`, `author` and
874 `xtargets` -- the latter a special case which treats the target providing a
875 record as a facet. Any other field may also be used, but the default caption
876 and maximum term-count may not be appropriate, needing to be overridden by
877 `facet_caption_*` and `facet_max_*` settings.
879 facet_caption_* facet string Specifies what on-screen caption is to be used for the named facet: for
880 example, if a `date` facet is generated, then `facet_caption_date` can be
881 used to set the caption to "Year".
883 facet_max_* facet int Specifies how many terms are to be displayed for the named facet: for
884 example, if a `publisher` facet is generated, then `facet_max_publisher` can
885 be used to limit the list to the top six.
887 facets _team_ array *Note 1* Ordered list of names of facets to display.
889 lang _team_ string Two-letter ISO code of the default language to display the UI in. Supported
890 language codes are `en` = English, `de` = German, `da` = Danish, and whatever
891 additional languages are configured using `language_*` entries (see below).
893 lang_options lang array [] A list of the languages to offer as options. If empty (the default), then all
894 configured languages are listed.
896 language_* _global_ hash Support for any number of languages can be added by providing entries whose
897 name is `language_` followed by the code of the language. See the separate
898 section below for details.
900 limit facet, string Allows a partial search to be included in the specification of an
901 facets, auto-executing widget. This is ANDed with the submitted query, as though it
902 record, had been selected from a facet. See the Search section in [the Protocol
903 records, chapter of the Pazpar2 manual
904 results ](http://www.indexdata.com/pazpar2/doc/pazpar2_protocol.html)
906 log_level _global_ int 1 Level of debugging output to emit. 0 = none, 1 = messages, 2 = messages with
907 datestamps, 3 = messages with datestamps and stack-traces.
909 maxrecs facet, int Limits the metasearching middleware to retrieving no more than the specified
910 facets, number of records from each target.
915 paragraphs reference int Limits the number of paragraphs rendered to the specified number. If
916 omitted, there is no limit.
918 pazpar2_url _global_ string If specified, this is the URL used to access the metasearch middleware. This
919 service must be configured to provide search results, facets, etc. It may be
920 either unmediated Pazpar2 or the MasterKey Service Proxy, which mediates
921 access to an underlying Pazpar2 instance. When not specified, the URL is
922 assembled from `pp2_hostname` and `pp2_path`. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
923 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
925 perpage facet, int Specifies the number of records to show per page in an auto-executing
926 facets, widget. Contrast with `perpage_default`, which is used to prime the dropdown
927 record, with which a user chooses the page-size in an interactive session.
931 perpage_default _team_ string 20 The initial value for the number of records to show on each page.
933 perpage_options ranking array *Note 2* A list of candidate page sizes. Users can choose between these to determine
934 how many records are displayed on each page of results.
936 pp2_hostname _global_ string *Note 3* Unless overridden by the `pazpar2_url` setting, this is used together with
937 `pp2_path` to construct the URL to the Pazpar2 service (or Service
938 Proxy). Set this to connect to a service on a different host from the
941 pp2_path _global_ string *Note 4* Unless overridden by the `pazpar2_url` setting, this is used together with
942 `pp2_hostname` to construct the URL to the Pazpar2 service (or Service
943 Proxy). Set this to connect to a service on a different host from the
946 responsive_design_width _global_ int If defined, then the facets display moves between two locations as the
947 screen-width varies. The specified number is the threshhold width, in
948 pixels, at which the facets move between their two locations. The `switch`
949 and `lang` widgets also disappear entirely below this threshhold.
951 scan_all_nodes _global_ bool false An internal setting that changes how MKWS scans the HTML documen to discover
952 widgets. If set to true, a different approach is used which may be faster
953 under some circumstances.
955 sentences reference int Limits the number of sentences rendered to the specified number. If
956 omitted, there is no limit.
958 service_proxy_auth _global_ url If defined, this is the URL which, when `use_service_proxy` is true, is
959 fetched once at the beginning of each session to authenticate the user and
960 establish a session that encompasses a defined set of targets to search
961 in. When not defined, the URL is assembled from `auth_hostname` or
962 `pp2_hostname`, `sp_auth_path`, `sp_auth_query` and
963 `sp_auth_credentials`. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
964 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
966 service_proxy_auth_domain _global_ domain When the server used for authentication -- e.g. the one identified by the
967 `service_proxy_auth` URL -- proxies for different server, this can be set to
968 the domain of the server that it proxies for, so that cookies are rewritten
969 to appear to be from this domain.
971 show_lang lang bool true Indicates whether or not to display the language menu.
973 show_perpage ranking bool true Indicates whether or not to display the perpage menu.
975 show_sort ranking bool true Indicates whether or not to display the sort menu.
977 show_switch switch bool true Indicates whether or not to display the switch menu.
979 sort facet, string Specifies the order in which to sort the records retrieved by an
980 facets, auto-executing widget. Must be one of those in the `sort_options`
981 record, array. Contrast with `sort_default`, which is used to prime the dropdown
982 records, with which a user chooses the sortorder in an interactive session.
985 sort_default _team_ string relevance The default sort criterion to use. Must be one of those in the
986 `sort_options` array.
988 sort_options ranking array *Note 5* List of supported sort criteria. Each element of the list is itself a
989 two-element list: the first element of each sublist is a pazpar2
990 sort-expression such as `data:0` and the second is a human-readable label
993 sp_auth_credentials _global_ string If defined, this must be a slash-separated combination of username and
994 password, which is sent as the authentication credentials on session
995 initialisation. See the [Assembling Pazpar2 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls)
998 sp_auth_path _global_ string *Note 6* Part of the URL used for authentication. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
999 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
1001 sp_auth_query _global_ string *Note 7* Part of the URL used for authentication. See the [Assembling Pazpar2
1002 URLs](#assembling-pazpar2-urls) section below.
1004 target facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1005 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1006 record, section above.
1010 targetfilter facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1011 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1012 record, section above.
1016 targets facet, string One of three ways to select which targets an auto-searching widgets uses. See
1017 facets, the [Choosing targets from the library](#choosing-targets-from-the-library)
1018 record, section above.
1022 template details, string Numerous widgets use Handlebars templates to render HTML. In general, each
1023 done, of these by default uses a template with the same name as the widget
1024 facet, itself. Individual widgets can be customised to use a template of a
1025 facets, different name by means of their `template` setting. The `records` widget
1026 images, (and `record`, an equivalent that shows only a single record) use the
1027 lang, `summary` template as well as the `records` template.
1040 <!--- The widget called "record" is a special-case of "records"; both also use "summary" -->
1042 text builder string "Build!" Specifies what text to use for the Builder button.
1044 use_service_proxy _global_ bool true If true, then a Service Proxy is used to deliver searching services rather
1045 than raw Pazpar2. An authentication phase is run during initialisation.
1048 The `show_lang`, `show_perpage`, `show_sort` and `show_switch` configuration settings are technically redundant, as the relevant
1049 widgets, like all widgets, are displayed only when they are provided. But they are retained as an easier route to lightly
1050 customise the display than by providing a full HTML structure.
1054 1. The default for `facets` is `["xtargets", "subject", "author"]`
1056 2. The default for `perpage_options` is `[10, 20, 30, 50]`
1058 3. The default for `pp2_hostname` is `"sp-mkws.indexdata.com"`
1060 4. The default for `pp2_path` is `"service-proxy"`
1062 5. The default for `sort_options` is `[["relevance"], ["title:1", "title"], ["date:0", "newest"], ["date:1", "oldest"]]`
1064 6. The default for `sp_auth_path` is `"service-proxy/"`.
1066 7. The default for `sp_auth_query` is `"command=auth&action=perconfig"`.
1068 ### Indirect settings
1070 The values of any setting are generally interpreted literally. However, it is possible to specify a value indirectly -- for
1071 example, by reference to a query parameter -- and this is often useful in contexts such as specifying an autosearch query. FIXME
1074 FIXME !query!q, !path!2, etc.
1076 ### Assembling Pazpar2 URLs
1078 FIXME describe how `pazpar2_url` is assembled from `pp2_hostname` and `pp2_path`; and how `service_proxy_auth` is assembled from
1079 `auth_hostname` or `pp2_hostname`, `sp_auth_path`, `sp_auth_query` and `sp_auth_credentials`.
1081 Language specification
1082 ----------------------
1084 Support for another UI language can be added by providing an entry in
1085 the `mkws_config` object whose name is `language_` followed by the
1086 name of the language: for example, `language_French` to support
1087 French. Then value of this entry must be a key-value lookup table,
1088 mapping the English-language strings of the UI into their equivalents
1089 in the specified language. For example:
1093 "Authors": "Auteurs",
1094 "Subjects": "Sujets",
1095 // ... and others ...
1099 The following strings occurring in the UI can be translated:
1115 In addition, facet names can be translated:
1121 Finally, the names of fields in the full-record display can be
1122 translated. These include, but may not be limited to:
1132 jQuery UI popup invocation
1133 --------------------------
1135 The MasterKey Widget Set can be invoked in a popup window on top of the page.
1137 Note that when using the `popup` layout, facilities from the jQuery UI
1138 toolkit are used, so it's necessary to include both CSS and JavaScript
1139 from that toolkit. The relevant lines are:
1141 <script src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>
1142 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
1143 href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" />
1145 <div class="mkws-search"></div>
1146 <div class="mkws-popup" popup_width="1024" popup_height="650" popup_autoOpen="0">
1147 <div class="mkws-switch"></div>
1148 <div class="mkws-lang"></div>
1149 <div class="mkws-results"></div>
1150 <div class="mkws-targets"></div>
1151 <div class="mkws-stat"></div>
1155 Element Type Default Description
1156 -------- ----- ------- ------------
1157 popup_width string 880 Width of the popup window (if used), in
1160 popup_height string 760 Height of the popup window (if used), in
1163 popup_button string `input.mkwsButton` A click on this selector will trigger the
1166 popup_modal string 0 Modal confirmation mode. Valid values are 0 or 1
1168 popup_autoOpen string 1 Open popup window on load. Valid values are 0 or 1
1172 You can have more than one mkws-popup widgets on a page. Please use a different
1173 popup_button value to address the right ones.
1175 The structure of the HTML generated by the MKWS widgets
1176 -------------------------------------------------------
1178 In order to override the default CSS styles provided by the MasterKey Widget
1179 Set, it's necessary to understand that structure of the HTML elements that are
1180 generated within the widgets. This knowledge make it possible, for example,
1181 to style each `<div>` with class `term` but only when it occurs inside an
1182 element with class `mkws-facets`, so as to avoid inadvertently styling other
1183 elements using the same class in the non-MKWS parts of the page.
1185 The HTML structure is as follows. As in CSS, #ID indicates a unique identifier
1186 and .CLASS indicates an instance of a class.
1196 input#mkwsQuery type=text
1197 input#mkwsButton type=submit
1200 (no contents -- used only for masking)
1221 span (for sequence number)
1223 span (for other information such as author)
1224 div.details (sometimes)
1247 Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Index Data ApS. <http://indexdata.com>