How do I customize Z39.50 search results screens?
- Article Type: General
- Product: Aleph
- Product Version: 16.02
Description:
What files does a Z39.50 search (find-m) invoke? I have a header that is different that then one we normally use. Are we using the short-a-head-ext01 that exists or am I really using the results screen that the Z39.50 uses? When I do a view source, it looks like my short-a head, short-2-head and the like but I don't know where these files are coming from. I would like the results pages to look just like my normal ones.
http://svr.univ.edu:8991/F
MORE LIBRARES on the basic screen
Do a search in a remote (Z39.50) library and get a results screen.
Also when I search basic, advanced and CCL, I get the different results screen as well even though it says short-2-head.
Resolution:
I used the following strategy to confirm that these searches are using your standard short-2-head. You can use the same strategy to discover the specific names of other templates being used.
cd $alephe_root/www_f_eng
cp -p short-2-head short-2-head.yyyymmdd
vi short-2-head
change the header so it says something distinct, like "filename: short-2-head (test only)"
Do a search and look at the page source to see if it is using your file
--when you're done:
mv short-2-head.yyyymmdd short-2-head
The "cp -p" will copy the original file to a new name, preserving the last update date. When you do the "mv" at the end, it will restore the original file with its original update date. If you want to retain the edits you make, in order to make it easier to identify what file is what (for example, changing the filename in short-a-head-abc01 permanently), you can skip that final "mv" step.
When I do searches on your full library catalog and on a Z39.50 library catalog, everything looks the same to me down to the field name header "# Author Format Title Year Owning Libraries" vs. "# Author Title Year Subject - L.C. Call No." These values come from www_tab_short.eng and its variants (e.g. www_tab_short.eng.abc01). The one for the Union Catalog is in the ABC01 $data_tab directory, while the one for Z39.50 comes from the EXT01 $data_tab directory.
To get to the EXT01 tables, type "dlib ext01", then type "dt" to get to the $data_tab directory. It's in the a-tree. Since the www_tab_short.eng files are different, a different set of fields is selected, so the header looks different as well.
In general, you don't want to make changes to files in the a-tree, as any file there could be replaced when you move to a new release or even when you install a new service pack. So, you have several options for how to deal with this situation. They all have their good and bad points, so you'll need to assess them and decide which you prefer.
You could:
- go ahead and alter the files in the a-tree
Pro: very easy; Con: need to remember to check them for any new release or SP
- add lines to path_convert in the ext01 $data_tab directory to direct to u-tree
Pro: still very easy; Con: still need to remember to check for each new release or SP
- move ext01 to the u-tree
Pro: changes will now be in the u-tree; Con: probably will cause problems with new releases
- create a new library and define Z39.50 stuff to go through it rather than EXT01
Pro: in u-tree; Con: lots of complex steps to set it up correctly
All in all, the easiest is to do either the first or the second. Make a note somewhere of what has been done so you or others there will remember to check it after a new release. Since it is possible for an SP to replace any file you alter, this might be a good argument to use path_convert (i.e. the second solution above). If you keep a copy of your ext01 path_convert file, you could easily restore all functionality within seconds if any important files were changed. That file is unlikely to change in an SP (or even in a new release), but if it did, just restoring it from your copied version would be sufficient to restore functionality.
- Article last edited: 10/8/2013