Contents
Introduction
Document Conventions
Configuration Files
HTML Pages
Templates and Workforms
mVerbs
EditSession Object
XML Tree (Populated Template)
Hooks
The Record Builder application included with Open SiteSearch Database Builder allows staff 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 a way for staff to add, modify, copy, and delete records online using a variety of predefined workforms (data entry forms).
This topic describes the elements that comprise the Record Builder interface:
- Configuration files
- HTML pages
- Templates and Workforms
- mVerbs
- Hooks
- EditSession Object
- XML
Tree (Populated Template)
Configuration files and HTML pages are similar to their WebZ counterparts. The other elements are unique to the Record Builder application.
A companion topic, The Record Builder Interface in Action, uses an example to show how these elements work together to present the Record Builder interface and to perform online updates to local databases.
- <WebZ_root> is the location of the SiteSearch environment that contains the Record Builder application.
The configuration files associated with the Record Builder interface are analogous to those associated with a WebZ interface, as follows:
- Database configuration files for each local database that you populate or maintain with Record Builder. Record Builder ships with database configuration files for each of its prebuilt database frameworks.
- Formatting configuration files for viewing database records. Record Builder uses rules-based formatting, as introduced in SiteSearch 4.1.0. The formats used for the Record Builder interface are different from the formats that you use to display records from a local database through the WebZ interface.
- Interface style configuration files and interface display configuration files used to specify the fonts, colors, images, HTML pages, and gadgets referenced in HTML pages to build the interface and to format records retrieved as a result of a search or browse.
The Record Builder Configuration Files document describes all configuration files associated with the Record Builder application, including those that play a role in the Record Builder interface.
Like the WebZ interface, the Record Builder interface uses HTML pages to display screens that allow you to search or browse for a record of interest and to create, modify, delete, and copy records. The HTML pages contain entity references to items stored in the UserStateObject and Record Builder's style table, such as colors, fonts, images, and gadgets. The Record Builder interface uses both WebZ gadgets and those specifically designed for Record Builder. Some pages contain <oclc-app> tags that refer to Java classes used for page processing. Record Builder's HTML pages also use cascading style sheets and JavaScript.
Record Builder's New Record screen contains a list of all the local databases populated and/or maintained with Record Builder and a list of the data entry workforms available for each database. You select a workform from this screen to create a new record in a particular database. The link for each workform has a URL that refers to an mVerb, the workform, the HTML page for the Edit Record screen (<WebZ_root>/htdocs/rbv0/html/edit.html), and the database.
The Record Builder interface includes a Search screen and a Browse screen. These screens allow you to locate records in a local database that you wish to view, modify, copy, or delete.
The Search Results screen provides a different display than the one that patrons see in the WebZ interface when they retrieve records from a local database. The most notable difference is that there are links to HTML pages that allow you to view, modify, copy, and delete records from local databases. Each link has a URL that refers to an mVerb, an HTML page, and the database record.
The page for creating a new record or editing an existing record (the Edit Record screen) is an HTML form with text boxes and drop-down lists for entering or editing data. Record Builder uses an XML (Extensible Markup Language) workform to build the HTML form. Record Builder also uses an XML workform to build the page for viewing a record in full format (the View Record screen). The screens based on XML workforms have an entity reference (&StyleTable.DHooks.gadget) that points to the ORG.oclc.mantis.gadgets.RunDHooks gadget. This gadget runs the hooks in the workform.
See A Walkthrough of the Record Builder Interface for a summary of the typical paths that you take as you navigate through the interface. See Record Builder Interface Screens for a list of all the screens in the interface and links to pages that describe each screen.
Templates
Each Record Builder database has a master XML template. The master template, named template.xml, is stored in the database's top-level directory, <WebZ_root>/dbbuilder/dbs/database_name. The document type definition (.dtd) file associated with the template also resides in this directory. The template includes all of the fields defined for the database in its .dtd file.
You specify the master template associated with the database in the [templates] and [ttemplate_definition] sections of the database's configuration file used for Record Builder. The variable name for the master template must be tDefault.
Record Builder associates each new record with the default (master) template used to create the record when it adds the record to the database.
Each database has one or more data entry forms, or workforms. The database's default template may be its only workform. Workforms are XML templates that contain all the fields or a subset of the fields on a database's master template. They are customized for entering and editing data specific to a particular type of resource.
Record Builder uses XML workforms as the basis for the HTML pages for viewing, creating, modifying, copying, or deleting a record. Workforms contain the following information:
- The record's structure
- Labels for each data entry field
- The type of each data entry field (text box, text area, or drop-down list)
- References to lists of values for drop-down lists
- Whether a field is visible on the screen
- Whether a group of fields is collapsible (you can hide or display a group of fields on the fly)
- References to hooks that allow you to perform a variety of functions while editing the record, such as turning a record's identifier into a hypertext link.
The workforms reside in the database's top-level directory, <WebZ_root>/dbbuilder/dbs/database_name and have an .xml extension. You specify the workforms associated with the database in the [templates] and [ttemplate_definition] sections of the database's configuration file used for Record Builder. Each workform is also associated with a .dtd file. In the database frameworks shipped with Record Builder, all workforms associated with a database used the same .dtd. Finally, beginning with SiteSearch 4.1.1, the workform for a Dublin Core (DC) database also is related to a field.xml file, which contains information about the qualifiers associated with the workform.
Record Builder allows you to search for records and to browse a database to find records you wish to modify, copy, or delete. Record Builder uses WebZ verbs to satisfy search and browse requests.
Record Builder has its own verbs (mVerbs) for performing online updates to local databases. These verbs allow you to create a new record, modify an existing record, copy an existing record, delete a record, submit a new record or a modified record to the database, and cancel changes made to a record before they are submitted to the database. Links on HTML pages that allow you to create, modify, copy, or delete records contain a reference to the appropriate mVerb. These verbs are part of the ORG.oclc.mantis.verbs package. Because each verb's name begins with the letter "M" (MCANCEL, MDELETE, MEDIT, MUPDATE, and so on) they are known as mVerbs.
To allow you to perform the tasks listed above, mVerbs carry out a variety of activities behind the scenes, such as:
- Retrieving a record to edit or display
- Locking an existing record for editing so that only one staff member can update it at any one time
- Reading the master XML template associated with a new or existing record
- Merging the data from a BER record with an XML workform to create an XML tree (populated template) for a record
- Adding the XML tree to the record's EditSession object
- Loading the HTML page specified as the "next" page on the URL.
Record Builder creates and maintains an EditSession object for each new record and every existing record opened for editing. The EditSession object contains all the information necessary to allow Record Builder to perform an online database update of the record. A record's EditSession remains until the user closes the Record Builder application. Record Builder continually updates a record's EditSession object during a user's editing session. Whenever the user performs an action that causes a hook to execute, Record Builder adds any changes made to the record to the EditSession object.
One of the most important parts of the EditSession object is the record's XML tree (or populated template). The MEDIT and MDISPLAY verbs merge a BER data record with the XML workform associated with the record to create the record's XML tree. These mVerbs then place the XML tree in the EditSession object, where it is available to the Edit Record (edit.html) and View Record (display.html) pages.
XML workforms contain references to hooks. Hooks are part of the ORG.oclc.mantis.hooks package. A hook is a Java application program interface (API) used to manipulate or interact with an XML tree, a BER tree, or an HTML document.
Record Builder's Edit Record screen (edit.html) and View Record screen (display.html) contain an entity reference (&StyleTable.DHooks.gadget) that refers to the ORG.oclc.mantis.gadgets.RunDHooks gadget. This gadget runs the hooks in the workform by reading the record's XML tree stored in the EditSession object.
Like gadgets, hooks produce HTML code that is incorporated into the HTML page displayed to the user after page processing. But hooks have additional functionality that differentiate them from gadgets. Hooks add interactivity to HTML pages used to edit or display records in the Record Builder interface.
One use of hooks
in the Record Builder interface is the 
and 
buttons beside some fields on the Edit Record
screen. These buttons allow staff to create multiple entries for a
field. If a user clicks the
button, a hook adds another blank field to the HTML page and modifies
the record's XML tree to accommodate the new element. If the user subsequently
clicks the
button beside a field, a hook removes the field from the HTML page, discards
any entry in the text box, and modifies the record's XML tree accordingly.
Hooks also perform functions such as validating an entry against a list of previously-used entries for a field, and converting an identifier for an online resource into a hot link.
See Also
The
Record Builder Interface in Action
A
Walkthrough of the Record Builder Interface
Performing Online Updates to Local Databases
with Record Builder
Record Builder Process Model and System Overview