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dpavlin |
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By now, OpenIsis is mainly used for web publishing of Isis databases. |
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Web developers use the Java, Perl or PHP binding for this. |
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There also is a command line version which serves as a demonstration |
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and test of the various features and can be used as a utility for |
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data import/export and similar tasks. |
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A graphical, standalone user interface similar to UNESCO's WinIsis |
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will be developed during 2003, after the Tcl/Tk binding is finished. |
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See |
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> Status current status |
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* developing OpenIsis |
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In general, there are no plans to reimplement every piece of code ever |
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written for isis. To be of practical value, OpenIsis has to maintain |
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compatibility in the format of the database files anyway. So, one may |
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use winisis or whatever existing import scripts to create and maintain |
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the database, yet deploy OpenIsis' perl interface to run powerful |
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reports and the Java Native Interface to allow queries from a Servlet |
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based web application. |
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OpenIsis will focus on providing tools rather than applications. For example, |
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there will be no attempt to mirror the full functionality of winisis. |
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To achieve this, OpenIsis provides access from the most important |
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programming languages: Java and PHP for the web, Perl for the scripts |
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and Tcl/Tk for platform independent GUIs (partly DONE). |
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All others can, of course, link the lib. |
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* Roadmap for the development of OpenIsis -- as of September 2002 |
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After more than a year of OpenIsis development, |
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experimenting with various options and environments |
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and some feedback, we learned something about what |
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is important to the community and what is not. |
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* findings and goals |
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- A fairly portable C library that can be plugged into Java, Perl, PHP |
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or Tcl proved to be valuable and estimated by several developers. |
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There was not much demand for a pure Java version. |
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- There is high demand for a GUI version similar to WinISIS |
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(cross-plattform, of course) with a safe multi-user capability. |
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- This in turn requires a simple but fast and robust server. |
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Multithreading can greatly improve the throughput. |
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- Users are used to incompatible file formats, formatting and so on. |
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There is little of a standard to follow. |
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So building a next generation system clearly is more |
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important than sticking to the (which?) legacy too much. |
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- The power buried in the similarity between ISIS records |
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and other structures like, for example, E-Mails is not leveraged. |
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- The existing versions of the formatting language are the result |
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of a process of growth, adding feature after feature. |
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The logic is mixed with the presentation (e.g. HTML literals). |
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* conclusions |
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- The multiformat support will be dropped in favour of an efficient |
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support of the "DOS/WinISIS" (packed little endian) structures. |
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- The database kernel has to support basic thread-safety |
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for use in Java and other server environments. |
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- Tcl will be the scripting language of choice: Tcl/Tk for portable GUIs |
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and a limited set of Tcl commands for server side scripting. |
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* flavours |
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- The core library will not contain any particular external technology, |
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so it is as lightweight as possible and can be linked into Java, |
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Perl, PHP, Tcl and the like. |
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- There are binaries in plain, with Tcl and with Tcl/Tk. |
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Any of these can act standalone, as client, as server, or both. |
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volunteers are welcome ! |
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... ToDo |