1 % 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 * libpz2.js -- a low-level JavaScript library for interrogating the
23 Service Proxy and Pazpar2. It allows the HTML/JavaScript programmer
24 to create JavaScript applications display facets, records, etc. that
25 are fetched from the metasearching middleware.
27 * masterkey-ui-core -- a higher-level, complex JavaScript library that
28 uses libpz2.js to provide the pieces needed for building a
29 full-featured JavaScript application.
31 * MasterKey Demo UI -- an example of a searching application built on
32 top of masterkey-ui-core. Available as a public demo at
33 http://mk2.indexdata.com/
35 * MKDru -- a toolkit for embedding MasterKey-like searching into
38 All of these approaches require programming to a greater or lesser
39 extent. Against this backdrop, we introduced MKWS (the MasterKey
40 Widget Set) -- a set of simple, very high-level HTML+CSS+JavaScript
41 components that can be incorporated into any web-site to provide
42 MasterKey searching facilities. By placing `<div>`s with well-known
43 identifiers in any HTML page, the various components of an application
44 can be embedded: search-boxes, results areas, target information, etc.
50 The following is a complete MKWS-based searching application:
54 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
55 <title>MKWS demo client</title>
56 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
57 <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkwsStyle.css" />
60 <div id="mkwsSearch"></div>
61 <div id="mkwsResults"></div>
65 Go ahead, try it! You don't even need a web-server. Just copy and
66 paste this HTML into a file on your computer -- `/tmp/magic.html`,
67 say -- and point your web-browser at it:
68 `file:///tmp/magic.html`. Just like that, you have working
75 If you know any HTML, the structure of the file will be familar to
76 you: the `<html>` element at the top level contains a `<head>` and a
77 `<body>`. In addition to whatever else you might want to put on your
78 page, you can add MKWS elements.
80 These fall into two categories. First, the prerequisites in the HTML
81 header, which are loaded from the tool site mkws.indexdata.com:
84 contains all the JavaScript needed by the widget-set.
87 provides the default CSS styling
89 Second, within the HTML body, `<div>` elements with special IDs that
90 begin `mkws` can be provided. These are filled in by the MKWS code,
91 and provide the components of the searching UI. The very simple
92 application above has only two such components: a search box and a
93 results area. But more are supported. The main `<div>`s are:
95 * `mkwsSearch` -- provides the search box and button.
97 * `mkwsResults` -- provides the results area, including a list of
98 brief records (which open out into full versions when clicked),
99 paging for large results sets, facets for refining a search,
100 sorting facilities, etc.
102 * `mkwsLang` -- provides links to switch between one of several
103 different UI languages. By default, English, Danish and German are
106 * `mkwsSwitch` -- provides links to switch between a view of the
107 result records and of the targets that provide them. Only
108 meaningful when `mkwsTargets` is also provided.
110 * `mkwsTargets` -- the area where per-target information will appear
111 when selected by the link in the `mkwsSwitch` area. Of interest
112 mostly for fault diagnosis rather than for end-users.
114 * `mkwsStat` --provides a status line summarising the statistics of
117 To see all of these working together, just put them all into the HTML
120 <div id="mkwsSwitch"></div>
121 <div id="mkwsLang"></div>
122 <div id="mkwsSearch"></div>
123 <div id="mkwsResults"></div>
124 <div id="mkwsTargets"></div>
125 <div id="mkwsStat"></div>
130 Many aspects of the behaviour of MKWS can be modified by setting
131 parameters into the `mkws_config` hash. **This must be done *before*
132 including the MKWS JavaScript** so that when that code is executed it
133 can refer to the configuration values. So the HTML header looks like
136 <script type="text/javascript">
139 sort_default: "title",
143 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mkws.indexdata.com/mkws-complete.js"></script>
145 This configuration sets the UI language to Danish (rather than the
146 default of English), initially sorts search results by title rather
147 than relevance (though as always this can be changed in the UI) and
148 makes the search box a bit wider than the default.
150 The full set of supported configuration items is described in the
151 reference guide below.
154 Control over HTML and CSS
155 -------------------------
157 More sophisticated applications will not simply place the `<div>`s
158 together, but position them carefully within an existing page
159 framework -- such as a Drupal template, an OPAC or a SharePoint page.
161 While it's convenient for simple applications to use a monolithic
162 `mkwsResults` area which contains record, facets, sorting options,
163 etc., customised layouts may wish to treat each of these components
164 separately. In this case, `mkwsResults` can be omitted, and the
165 following lower-level components provided instead:
167 * `mkwsTermlists` -- provides the facets
169 * `mkwsRanking` -- provides the options for how records are sorted and
170 how many are included on each page of results.
172 * `mkwsPager` -- provides the links for navigating back and forth
173 through the pages of records.
175 * `mkwsNavi` -- when a search result has been narrowed by one or more
176 facets, this area shows the names of those facets, and allows the
177 selected values to be clicked in order to remove them.
179 * `mkwsRecords` -- lists the actual result records.
181 Customisation of MKWS searching widgets can also be achieved by
182 overriding the styles set in the toolkit's CSS stylesheet. The default
183 styles can be inspected in `mkwsStyle.css` and overridden in any
184 styles that appears later in the HTML than that file. At the simplest
185 level, this might just mean changing fonts, sizes and colours, but
186 more fundamental changes are also possible.
188 To properly apply styles, it's necessary to understand how the HTML is
189 structured, e.g. which elements are nested within which
190 containers. The structures used by the widget-set are described in the
191 reference guide below.
198 ### Message of the day
200 Some applications might like to open with content in the area that
201 will subsequently be filled with result-records -- a message of the
202 day, a welcome message or a help page. This can be done by placing an
203 `mkwsMOTDContainer` division on the page next to `mkwsResults` or
204 `mkwsRecords`. The contents of this element are initially displayed,
205 but will be hidden when a search is made.
208 ### Responsive design
210 Metasearching applications may need to appear differently on
211 small-screened mobile devices, or change their appearance when
212 screen-width changes (as when a small device is rotated). To achieve
213 this, MKWS supports responsive design which will move the termlists to
214 the bottom on narrow screens and to the sidebar on wide screens.
216 To turn on this behaviour, set the `responsive_design` configuration
217 element to `true`, and `responsive_design_width` to the desired
218 threshhold width in pixels. For example:
220 <script type="text/javascript">
222 responsive_design: true,
223 responsive_design_width: 990
227 If individual result-related components are in use in place of the
228 all-in-one mkwsResults, then the redesigned application needs to
229 specify the locations where the termlists should appear in both
230 cases. In this case, wrap the wide-screen `mkwsTermlists` element in a
231 `mkwsTermlistContainer1` element; and provide an
232 `mkwsTermlistContainer2` element in the place where the narrow-screen
233 termlists should appear.
236 ### Popup results with jQuery UI
238 The [jQuery UI library](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JQuery_UI)
239 can be used to construct MKWS applications in which the only component
240 generally visible on the page is a search box, and the results appear
241 in a popup. The key part of such an application is this invocation of
242 the MKWS jQuery plugin:
244 <script type="text/javascript">
245 jQuery.pazpar2({ "layout":"popup", width:800, height:500 });
248 The necessary scaffolding can be seen in an example application,
249 http://example.indexdata.com/index-popup.html
252 ### Authentication and target configuration
254 By default, MKWS configures itself to use a demo account on a service
255 hosted by mkws.indexdata.com. This demo account provides access to
256 about a dozen free data sources. Authentication onto this service is
257 via an authentication URL on the same server, which MKWS uses by
258 default so no configuration is needed.
260 Access to a customised set of resources (including resources that
261 require authentication) can be provided. In this case, a
262 customer-specific authentication URL is used to gain access to these
263 rather than the default set. Contact Index Data on info@indexdata.com
270 ### Configuration object
272 The configuration object `mkws_config` may be created before including
273 the MKWS JavaScript code to modify default behaviour. This structure
274 is a hash, whose entries are described in the table below. All entries
275 are options, but if specified must be given values of the specified
276 type. If ommitted, each setting takes the indicated default value;
277 long default values are in footnotes to keep the table reasonably narrow.
280 Element Type Default Description
281 -------- ----- --------- ------------
282 debug int 1 Level of debugging output to emit. 0 = none, 1 = messages, 2 = messages with
283 datestamps, 3 = messages with datestamps and stack-traces.
285 facets array *Note 1* Ordered list of names of facets to display. Supported facet names are
286 `sources`, `subjects` and `authors`.
288 lang string en Code of the default language to display the UI in. Supported language codes are `en` =
289 English, `de` = German, `da` = Danish, and whatever additional languages are configured
290 using `language_*` entries (see below).
292 lang_display array [] A list of the languages to offer as options. If empty (the default), then all
293 configured languages are listed.
295 lang_menu bool true Indicates whether or not to display the language menu. ### We should get rid of this
296 setting, and simply display the menu if there's an `mkwsLang` element.
298 language_* hash Support for any number of languages can be added by providing entries whose name is
299 `language_` followed by the code of the language. See the separate section below for
302 pazpar2_url string *Note 2* The URL used to access the metasearch middleware if `use_service_proxy` is false. ###
303 It's silly that you have to provide a different setting depending on whether
304 `use_service_proxy` is set. Should just use pazpar2_url in all cases.
306 perpage array *Note 3* A list of candidate page sizes. Users can choose between these to determine how many
307 records are displayed on each page of results.
309 perpage_default string 20 The initial value for the number of records to show on each page. ### The `perpage` and
310 `perpage_default` entries should be renamed `perpage_display` and `perpage`
311 respectively for consistency with the language-related settings.
313 perpage_menu bool true Indicates whether or not to display the perpage menu. ### We should get rid of this
314 setting, and simply display the menu if an appropriate container is provided.
316 query_width int 50 The width of the query box, in characters.
318 responsive_design bool false If true, then the facets display moves between two locations as the screen-width
319 varies, as described above. ### This entry should not exist: the design should be
320 responsive whenever `responsive_design_width` has a defined value.
322 responsive_design_width int 980 If `responsive_design` is true, this is the threshhold width, in pixels, at which the
323 facets move between their two locations.
325 service_proxy_auth url *Note 4* A URL which, when `use_service_proxy` is true, is fetched once at the beginning of each
326 session to authenticate the user and establish a session that encompasses a defined set
327 of targets to search in.
329 service_proxy_url string *Note 5* The URL on which the service proxy is accessed if `use_service_proxy` is true. This
330 service must be configured to provide search results, facets, etc.
332 sort array *Note 6* List of supported sort criteria. Each element of the list is itself a two-element list:
333 the first element of each sublist is a pazpar2 sort-expression such as `data:0` and
334 the second is a human-readable label such as `newest`.
336 sort_default string relevance The label of the default sort criterion to use. Must be one of those in the `sort`
339 sort_menu bool true Indicates whether or not to display the sort menu. ### We should get rid of this
340 setting, and simply display the menu if an appropriate container is provided.
342 use_service_proxy bool true If true, then a Service Proxy is used to deliver searching services rather than raw
343 Pazpar2. ### Do we even need this? Can't we just assume that the Service Proxy is in
344 use when and only when `service_proxy_auth` is defined? Alternatively, retain this, but
345 use the same entry to specify the URL in either case.
350 1. ["sources", "subjects", "authors"]
352 2. /pazpar2/search.pz2
356 4. http://mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy-auth
358 5. http://mkws.indexdata.com/service-proxy/
360 6. [["relevance"], ["title:1", "title"], ["date:0", "newest"], ["date:1", "oldest"]]
363 ### Language specification
367 ### jQuery plugin invocation
371 ### The structure of the HTML generated by the MKWS widgets
377 Copyright (C) 2013 by IndexData ApS, <http://www.indexdata.com>