How OpenText works

1 Finish SGML markup, put SGML document(s) and DTD on server
2 Based on SGML & it's DTD, OpenText builds an index, which it uses to perform searches (more efficient than actually searching through an SGML document for every search). Not really important HOW this index is built.
3 User enters a search query (WWII poster database)
4

OpenText takes the user's query, performs the search, returns a list of "hits" and some other abbreviated data from the associated record. Displays these hits in a Web browser as clickable links.

5

The user can click on these links to retrieve a complete record. Very much like Voyager, other database searches up to this point.

6

FOR MORE COMPLEX DOCUMENTS (EAD, ETEXT), it's not enough to just deliver the entire record, because it is probably very long and quite complex. Let's look at how the University of Michigan handles its EAD searches through OpenText.

7

Custom scripts must be written to not only display abbreviated data in a search "hit" page, but to then break down the document further for web display and navigation. This is the complicated part.

 

 

M. Claire Dougherty

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