Record Builder Process Model and System Overview

Contents

Introduction
Record Builder Process Model
Record Builder and WebZ
Record Builder and Database Builder
Maintaining and Searching Databases Built with Record Builder
More About Record Builder

Introduction

Record Builder is an end-user application built on WebZ technology that harnesses Database Builder's administrative utilities to allow you to create, modify, and maintain Newton searchable databases for local collections of digital objects (such things as images, sound files, Web sites, and .PDF files) and data. Through its own prebuilt Web interface, Record Builder offers an alternative to Database Builder's batch updating by providing cataloguers a way to add, modify, and delete records online using a variety of predefined workforms (data entry forms).

Record Builder Process Model

The following diagram depicts the Record Builder architecture by displaying its components alongside those of WebZ to highlight their similarities, differences, and shared resources.

Record Builder and WebZ

Similar Servers

Record Builder operates as another instance of WebZ. As such, it uses its own servers for the following three components:

• Access (AccessRB)
• JaSSI (JaSSIRB)
• ZBase (ZBaseRB)

Each of the servers have the same name as their WebZ counterparts, but have names that end with "RB". Record Builder processes URLs in the same fashion as WebZ by using the WebZ extension. The same WebZ namespace and sessionid parameter are appended to an URL issued from Record Builder to establish communication with its JaSSI (JaSSIRB). As you can see from the process model diagram, Record Builder also uses its own instance of the Web server to communicate with JaSSIRB.

Shared Resources

In a SiteSearch environment that includes both WebZ and Record Builder, a single OpServe manages all WebZ and Record Builder servers. WebZ and Record Builder each have their own Access server and Access clients, but share a single Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver and Structured Query Language (SQL) server. (See Access Component Overview for more information.)

Record Builder and WebZ are designed to share the same local databases. You can use Record Builder to populate local databases and your patrons can use WebZ to search these same databases. In the process model diagram, the dotted line between the local databases maintained with Record Builder and ZBase in WebZ illustrates this relationship.

Application vs. Toolkit

Record Builder is included with Database Builder. Both applications are designed to give users easier and more convenient ways to perform routine tasks within SiteSearch. As a prebuilt application, Record Builder is not a customizable toolkit; instead, it is a Web-based interface for adding records to local databases. Because Record Builder is an application, its database frameworks (sample databases that you can clone to create your own databases), templates (files that contain data entry fields for all fields in a database), and workforms (data entry forms) are all predefined, straightforward, and ready to use.

Record Builder and Database Builder

Similar Databases

The same utilities build both Record Builder and Database Builder databases. Both types of databases have the same physical file structure (indx, post, hedr, pdir, and hdir files) and database description rules. Additionally, both types of databases are Newton searchable and are treated as local databases by the WebZ interface. You can also use Database Builder to initially perform a batch load to add data to a database and then use Record Builder to subsequently add, modify, and delete database records one record at a time.

Design Differences

Record Builder is designed for online updates to individual records in local databases, whereas Database Builder is designed for offline batch updates to local databases, such as updates from tape.

Using an interface with several predefined database frameworks, templates, and workforms, Record Builder allows cataloguers to add, modify, and delete records one at time while still permitting other users to modify and search the current database. Online updates are possible because of the lock server in the Record Builder architecture. The lock server prevents two different users from accessing or modifying the same record at the same time, while simultaneously allowing access or modification to other records in the same database.

Maintaining and Searching Local Databases Built with Record Builder

You can make databases built using the Record Builder interface accessible to your patrons through the WebZ interface.

Maintaining Local Databases with Record Builder

The Record Builder interface is specifically designed to allow cataloguers to enter a wide variety of metadata about a library resource (such as a document, community information, Web site, image, or audio file), including bibliographic and administrative data. Some of the typical tasks performed by the cataloguer in Record Builder include:

• Adding a record to a local database
• Updating a record in a local database
• Deleting a record in a local database

Searching Local Databases with WebZ

Once you enter records into a local database with Record Builder, it is often desirable to make those records available to all or part of your user community. You may want patrons to be able to search and retrieve the local database. To provide patron access to these databases, you need to consider the following:

• Which fields from the database do patrons wish to see?
• How should the records be formatted?

More About Record Builder

The table below contains additional topics about Record Builder for your reference.

See Also

Access Component Overview
The WebZ Interface
Database Building
WebZ Rules-Based Formatting