X-Git-Url: http://jsfdemo.indexdata.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fbook.xml;h=69fc0d94726793730fc271f9014e27f8f729c1df;hb=e31d1b0acf1de1a1e678c87308ba2c61b65391c9;hp=752e359b7d260ef59da0aa29c62805674df8fdd4;hpb=03f9ba557888c19bfcadf2311188a5edcdf19ee8;p=pazpar2-moved-to-github.git

diff --git a/doc/book.xml b/doc/book.xml
index 752e359..69fc0d9 100644
--- a/doc/book.xml
+++ b/doc/book.xml
@@ -9,13 +9,16 @@
      <!ENTITY % common SYSTEM "common/common.ent">
      %common;
 ]>
-<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.9 2007-04-10 08:59:35 adam Exp $ -->
+<!-- $Id: book.xml,v 1.12 2007-04-23 07:03:06 adam Exp $ -->
 <book id="book">
  <bookinfo>
   <title>Pazpar2 - User's Guide and Reference</title>
   <author>
    <firstname>Sebastian</firstname><surname>Hammer</surname>
   </author>
+  <author>
+   <firstname>Adam</firstname><surname>Dickmeiss</surname>
+  </author>
   <releaseinfo>&version;</releaseinfo>
   <copyright>
    <year>&copyright-year;</year>
@@ -333,7 +336,7 @@
     </section>
 
     <section id="client">
-      <title>Client development</title>
+      <title>Client development overview</title>
       <para>
         You can use pazpar2 from any environment that allows you to use
 	webservices. The initial goal of the software was to support
@@ -359,11 +362,79 @@
 	can be fetched using the 'record' command.
       </para>
     </section>
+
+    <section id="nonstandard">
+      <title>Connecting to non-standard resources</title>
+      <para>
+        Pazpar2 uses Z39.50 as its switchboard language -- i.e. as far as it
+	is concerned, all resources speak Z39.50. It is, however, equipped
+	to handle a broad range of different server behavior, through
+	configurable query mapping and record normalization. If you develop
+	configuration, stylesheets, etc., for a new type of resources, we
+	encourage you to share your work. But you can also use pazpar2 to
+	connect to hundreds of resources that do not support standard
+	protocols.
+      </para>
+
+      <para>
+        For a growing number of resources, Z39.50 is all you need. Over the
+	last few years, a number of commercial, full-text resources have
+	implemented Z39.50. These can be used through pazpar2 with little or
+	no effort. Resources that use non-standard record formats will
+	require a bit of XSLT work, but that's all.
+      </para>
+
+      <para>
+        But what about resources that don't support Z39.50 at all? The NISO
+	SRU (MXG) protocol is slowly gathering steam. Other resources might
+	support OpenSearch, private, XML/HTTP-based protocols, or something
+	else entirely. Some databases exist only as web user interfaces and
+	  will require screen-scraping. Still others exist only as static
+	  files, or perhaps as databases supporting the OAI-PMH protocol.
+	  There is hope! Read on.
+      </para>
+
+      <para>
+        Index Data continues to advocate the support of open standards. We
+	work with database vendors to support standards, so you don't have
+	to worry about programming against non-standard services. We also
+	provide tools (see <ulink
+	url="http://www.indexdata.com/simpleserver">SimpleServer</ulink>)
+	which make it comparatively easy to build gateways against servers
+	with non-standard behavior. Again, we encourage you to share any
+	work you do in this direction.
+      </para>
+
+      <para>
+        But the bottom line is that working with non-standard resources in
+	metasearching is really, really hard. If you want to build a
+	project with pazpar2, and you need access to resources with
+	non-standard interfaces, we can help. We run gateways to more than
+	2,000 popular, commercial databases and other resources, making it simple
+	to plug them directly into pazpar2. For a small annual fee per
+	database, we can help you establish connections to your licensed
+	resources. Meanwhile, you can help! If you build your own
+	standards-compliant gateways, host them for others, or share the
+	code! And tell your vendors that they can save everybody money and
+	increase the appeal of their resources by supporting standards.
+      </para>
+
+      <para>
+        There are those who will ask us why we are using Z39.50 as our
+	switchboard langyage rather than a different protocol. Basically,
+	we believe that Z39.50 is presently the most widely implemented 
+	information retrieval protocol that has the level of functionality
+	required to support a good metasearching experience (structured
+	searching, structured, well-defined results). It is also compact and
+	efficient, and there is a very broad range of tools available to
+	implement it.
+      </para>
+    </section>
   </chapter> <!-- Using pazpar2 -->
 
  <reference id="reference">
   <title>Reference</title>
-  <partintro>
+  <partintro id="reference-introduction">
    <para>
     The material in this chapter is drawn directly from the individual
     manual entries.