A B C D
Introduction to the ABCD software as an ISIS- and WWW-based integrated library management tool

 Background information
 Technology overview
 Installation issues
 Modules overview
 Management and planning

 ABCD = Automatisación de Bibliotécas y
Centros de Documentación
 ABCD = WinISIS + KOHA
 ISIS database creation and structures definition
 ISIS PFT's creation with testing
 ISO-2709 import/export, import from text files and CSV with conversion tables
 All main library management functions : cataloguing, OPAC, loans, statistics, serials management, portal, acquisitions

 ABCD is a BIREME initiative supported by
VLIR/UDC
 BIREME avails not only their best existing web-based ISIS applications (SeCS, EMP, iAH) but also their experts coordinated by E. Spinak and hired G. Ascencio (Venezuela) to contribute from her Orbital Documental products

All BIREME ISIS-technology culminates into ABCD !
 VLIR/UDC (Flemish University Development Co-operation) selected ABCD as preferred ILS and contributes funding and will provide French version plus training materials + pilot workshop through DOCBIBLAS project (E. de Smet)

 ABCD aims at :
 Providing ISIS-users community with an integrated library system
 which is suitable also for university libraries as per requirements of VLIR/UDC
 e.g. MARC, AGRIS, METS, Z39.50, thesaurus-support
 High volumes (at least up to 500K full records)
 (close to) state-of-the-art functionality
 Which can be(come) an alternative to KOHA c.s. for ISIS-users building on the existing ISIS reality

 Planning of the development :
 September 2008 : first beta version distributed for testing at Rio ISIS3 conference, including :
 Database management
 Cataloguing in MARC + CEPAL structures
 OPAC + Serials Management + Portal
 End 2008 : full version 1.0
 + Circulation + Statistics
 March 2009 : Training materials in English,
Spanish and French

 Planning of 1 st phase users :
 University libraries in Latin-America, e.g.
 UMSS (Cochabamba, Bolivia)
 UCLV and public libraries network (Cuba)
 University libraries in Africa. e.g.
 Moi University (Eldoret, Kenya)
 Mekelle and Jimma University (Ethiopia)
 Sokoine University (Tanzania)
 Some 4 – 5 other VLIR/UDC partner universities are queuing (Suriname,
Peru, Ecuador, Mozambique)
 ... many others for sure !
 => not just a newcomer on the scene …

 WEB-based :
 The software runs as web-pages in a web-browser (IE, FF,
Opera, Chrome, Safari...) served by a web-server (Apache,
Xitami, IIS)
 Client-server can run on 'localhost' (127.0.0.1) on any PC with Windows or UNIX/Linux
 Pages are written in PHP (v5.2)
 E.g. HTML Editor controls can be used
 PFT's can contain all HTML codes as literals, including e.g.
JavaScripts (e.g. to create links in OPAC)
 Links are web-links (<A HREF>) and multimedia is provided by HTML

 ABCD is ISIS-based :
 All data are stored in ISIS-databases
 Until 2009 : 'classic ISIS-technology' upgraded with
CISIS extensions, i.e. MST+XRF with 1Mb records upto 4 Gb databases, IF with 60-character keys
 From 2009 : 'seamless' migration to NBP
 ISIS-Script is used for data retrieval
 (C)ISIS Formatting Language is used throughout
 Existing ISIS-databases and their structures can be imported

 ABCD uses PHP :
 Current version 5.2
 Free OS software with large developers community and very wide usage
 Easy installation, often together with Apache, e.g. WAMP,
XAMP, EasyPHP...
 Already offers a wealth of 'controls' (existing codes for almost any popular function), e.g. calendar, HTML Editor etc.
 Strong links with e.g. (MySQL and) Postgres e.g. to be used in future Loans module
 ABCD uses JavaScript and AJAX
 as part of its HTML-capabilities
 for enhanced interactivity and flexibility

 Client-server with 2 options :
 CGI (Common Gateway Interface) : if $url variable is defined in config.php, this 'classic' protocol will be used to call the wxis-server to serve ISIS-pages
 Advantages : widely used, more secure
 Direct executable calling : if no $url variable is defined in config.php, PHP will directly 'exec' the wxis-server as a call to the OS
 Advantages : (a bit) faster
 Disadvantage : less secure, e.g. Windows 'cmd' needs
'executable rights' on WWW-sharing

 Web-server : Apache
 PHP
 Both are free OS softwares, most resp. very widely used web-server resp. scripting engine
 Both can be installed independently or as part of packages such as WAMP, XAMP, EasyPHP
 Apache needs PHP-modules to be included (in httpd.conf)
LoadModule php5_module "c:/wamp/bin/php/php5.2.5/php5apache2_2.dll"
 Apache needs 'Alias ‘ declared in httpd.conf for :
 'abcd' for the folder \abcd\www\htdocs
 'bases' for the folder \abcd\www\bases
 ScriptAlias for the folder \abcd\www\cgi-bin

 If not working : open in your browser
\abcd\www\htdocs\php\test\test.php
 Test on PHP installation
 Test on WXIS being available, executable and having access to users-DB
 ABCD-users can/should be created first (by administration super-user : login 'abcd', password 'adm') :
 Create user
 Link to pre-listed DBs as 1 of 4 possible levels

 4 user levels for added security :
 System Administrator : 'access to all areas'
(superuser, be careful !!)
 Database Administrator : can change, modify read and write the given database
 Database Operator : can read and write the given database
 Loans Operator : can read and write only the
Loans database

 Database management
 Creation and modification of database structures
 Internal and external database ID
 Can be copied from existing WinISIS-databases or from existing ABCD-databases
 Can be created 'from scratch' with FDT, FST, FMT and
PFT-editors
 Updating of created database structures
 FDT, FST, FMT, PFT + record validation
 Advanced search form (for cataloging) definition
 Help files

 Database management : Utils
 Initialise DB
 Delete DB
 Lock/unlock DB
 Help pages and translation editing
 Browsing database folder
 OPAC configuration for DB

 Cataloguing with main handy (!) toolbar :
 Browsing MFN's
 Searching by form, A-Z browser
 New or copied record, Z39.50 downloading
 Edit, stop edit, save or delete record
 Print, tools (import/export, GMOD, locks, IF)
 Help pages, Home

 Serials Management with SeCS module

 OPAC searching with iAH

 The ABCD interactive portal : allows
‘localisation’, news/messages
 localhost/site/admin/index.php : allows editing of
ALL elements of the ‘site’ (portal/home page), e.g.
 Which databases to search in meta-search
 Which links to provide for external resources for metasearch
 Which partners exist in the network with other information resources
 Communication : newsletter etc..

 Configuration screen :
 Identify source DB
 Configure users DB
 User and items types definitions
 Loans policy for objects (per user/item type, days/hours, fines, reservation conditions etc.)
 Currency + calendar definition
 Users management (editing of simple database with names, categories, etc.)

 Transactions :
 Loan or return :
 Identification of the user by code (e.g. barcode)
 Identification of the object by code (e.g. barcode)
 Table display of all object in use by user with immediate options to return
 Reports and statistics : not yet available
(expected decembe 2008)

 Statistics and reports : preview

 Acquisitions management
 Not yet available, expected March 2009

 Timing :
 Test version (beta) to be tested September-
December 2008
 Loans, Statistics + Acquisition modules to be developed by December 2008
 loans/statistics : 75% ready now (September)
 Acquisitions : simple 'pre-cataloguing' module will be produced by end of 2008
 Training materials (in En, Sp, Fr) to be produced by March 2009

 Other additional developments :
 Loans module using Postgres with dynamic coupling over LDAP to existing user-registration systems
 UMSS (Cochabamba, Bolivia) is interested to do this
 French version to be produced (by DOCBIBLAS project from VLIR/UDC)
 Arabic version ? => is being planned
 ...
 ???

 Separate from ISIS co-ordination or not ?
 Communication through ISIS-list or dedicated OS-tools ?
 Co-ordination through BIREME
 Who ?
 How ?
 Migration to NBP in 2009 : how, guidance ?


Main subfolders in /ABCD :
 apache : the Apache server software
 php : the PHP scripting software
 www : the application directory
 www-subdirectory :
 bases (see infra)
 htdocs : the ‘home folder’ for Apache
 Apache configuration : httpd.conf
 ServerRoot "/ABCD/apache“
 Listen 9090 (to use port 9090 instead of 80)
 PHPIniDir "/ABCD/php"
 DocumentRoot "/ABCD/www/htdocs“
 ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/ABCD/www/cgi-bin/"


Start sequence: index.php includes config.php and calls inicio.php, which includes homepage.php
 config.php in /htdocs is crucial file as it contains the main
‘variables’ of the system :
 $db_path="/ABCD/www/bases/";

Also : paths for images, wxis-server and scripts
 $lang="en";
 $lang_db="en";
 $wxisUrl=""; //"http://localhost:90/wxis/wxis.exe";
 $institution_name="BIREME in co-operation with VLIR/UOS";
 $distributor_url="www.ua.ac.be";
 inicio.php and homepage.php create the visible pages

 header.php : rather standard => don ’t change
 footer.php : version and year information
 the use of CSS :
 php/styles : basic.css
 php/css : layout.css, styles.css and template.css
 But : many other CSS for other modules still to be made homogenous for non-beta version …

 The folder ‘www/bases’ is the default database-folder for ABCD
 A subdirectory ‘PAR’ contains the parameter-files for all databases
 E.g. ‘users.par’ : users.*=/ABCD/www/bases/users/data/users.*
 In case of ‘exe’ (not cgi) setup : environment variable %path_database% can be used, e.g. dblil.*=%path_database%dblil/data/dblil.*

 Each database has the following directorystructure :
 pfts : for each languagesubdirectory PFT’s and TAB’s
 def : for each languagesubdirectory FDT’s and TAB’s
 data : the MST/XRF/IFP files
 cnv : for conversion files
 ayudas : for help files (for each DB in each language)
 bases.dat (in /bases) : text-file with internal/external names
 E.g. marc|Marc catalogue
 lang.tab : text-file with language codes

 Index.php <div header class> header presents heading names :
 <div class="institutionalInfo">
<h1>BIREME Centro Latino Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde</h1>
<h2>ABCD</h2>
</div>
 E.g. for main OPAC-portal page :
C:\ABCD\www\bases\site\html\en\bvs.html: contains reference to logo ’s
 E.g. main logo left :
<img src="/img/logovliruos.png
“ …
 E.g. logo ’s to UN-bodies right :
<img src="../image/public/skins/classic/en/logoOpas.gif" alt="BIREME
| PAHO | WHO logo"/>

 Supposing : localhost:90
 Cataloguing : http://localhost:90/index.php
 Loans : idem, login as ‘Loans administrator’
 Portal with OPAC : http://localhost:90/site/(php/)index.php
 Portal CMS : http://localhost:90/site/admin/index.php
 Serials Control : http://localhost:90/secs-web/index.php

 administration of ABCD portal :
 http://localhost:90/site/admin/
 user: adm
 pass: x
 SeCS-Web :
 http://localhost:90/secs-web/
 administrador: admsecs/ADM
 ABCD : cataloguing + Loans
 http://localhost:90/
 administrador abcd / adm

 Before everything else : create your own administrator login and password and delete the default one.
 Start from : ‘Data Entry’ (cataloguing)
 Each user needs to get assigned all databases to get access to !
 For each database : access level
(administrator/db admin/db operator/loans operator) needs to be defined!

 Row
 Type :
 Field or Group (=repeatable field with subfields)
 Fixed Field
 MARC fixed field and leader
 Line or heading
 Tag
 Name/title of field

 I : Identifier field : the field to be used for listing the records in the A->Z list
 Only one can be identified as such
 Repeatable
 Subfield delimiters
 Pre-literals : punctuation to replace subfield-delimiters in data-entry
 Input type : all HTML types + table, date, password, upload file

 Picklist definition :
 Type : DB, Thesaurus or table
 Name (of DB, thesaurus or table)
 Prefix : used to identify index-section
 Browse : details of external picklist
 Display format : PFT to show items in picklist, can be external PFT (with @), e.g. with ‘select…. endsel’ series to adjust to different fieldtags
 Extract as format : PFT to define what to enter
 Default value
 Help page for use with this entry