SKOS Authority Controls

DSpace

@Mire has prototyped a Solr driven Authority Control capable of caching and mixing together authority sources so that they can utilized for super fast term completion and lookup.  Solr is quite effective for quickly retrieving lists of values that a field should be restricted to.  Likewise, when the original DSpace metadata is indexed into the Solr based authority control, the Submitter is also presented with an ad-hoc authority of existing values already contained within the repository.   However, it is recognized that Authority Controls Sources are not just lists and have structural components as well.  SKOS applies quite well to expressing the structured relationships between taxonomies and hierarchical vocabularies that are often relied on for Authority Control.  Recent research in publishing Library of Congress Subject Authorities, Getty TGN Vocabularies etcetera confirms that SKOS is the predominant form to capture these resources for placement on the web.

Create a SKOS RDF Triplestore Authority Control for DSpace that utilizes SPARQL to provide a rich queriable local cache of Authority Control Sources that may be utilized in term completion and lookup in existing Authority Controls.  Extend the Authority presentation to support more useful AC exploratory widgets using jquery and AJAX.

Refer to the following projects and resources for ideas:

• DSpace Sesame Triplestore
• DSpace Tupelo Storage Service
• The HIVE Project:  https://www.nescent.org/sites/hive/Main_Page
• LoC SKOS Sources: http://id.loc.gov/

Yigang Zhou

Mark Diggory (lead)

Ryan Scherle

WebMVC (Freemarker) UI development

DSpace

WebMVC is currently under development, and is creating a new user interface based on Spring's WebMVC framework. This has the same goals as the JSPUI rewrite project in providing a clean technical implementation with business logic removed from the presentation layer.

Although a number of technologies can be used for the presentation layer, the current implementation focuses on Freemarker - a template based language that restricts the amount of logic that you can place in the presentation layer. In addition, it gives more flexibility as to where those templates can be stored, which gives greater possibilities for future customisation.

It has extensive theme support, and allows different themes to be applied to different areas of a repository.

Possible GSoC work includes ensuring parity with XMLUI where possible, or further extending the functionality.

Robert Qin Zhengquan

Graham Triggs (lead)

Peter Dietz

Stuart Lewis

Submission Enhancements in DSpace

DSpace

Guarave Kejriwal

Mark Diggory

Scott Phillips

New UI built over RESTful services

DSpace

Currently, DSpace functionality could be accessed using JSP and XML user interfaces. As in the meantime many other technologies arrived which could provide different way of user experience and UI customization, the idea is to create a new interfaces using some of the following technologies: 

• Client run interface (maybe ExtJS other JavaScript based, probably developed by the GSoC student, or JavaFX, or even Flex based) backed by REST API for DSpace.
  
  The most important functionality this interface should deliver is user interface which has attractive look and feel and provides users with enhanced usability. Additionally, easier customization of resulting interface would be additionally appreciated. As of project complexity and project deadlines, support for many administrative functions in the interface is not so important in current stage.
  
  Attractive, easy to use and customize interface based on currently appealing technologies would further promote DSpace capabilities and play role in its adoption. Client rendered interface based on REST would further decrease load on the server and therefore push DSpace deployment for bigger repositories. 
  Note: RESTful interface over DSpace is developed during previous years under GSoC. It has fully descriptions and specifications available at the web page specified. The interface is to be delivered and developed based on the specifications provided on REST API web page.
  The REST interface is finished at ~90%; the testing could be done directly with the interface or in coordination with the author.

Vibhaj Rajan

Bojan Suzic (lead)

Mark Diggory

Others?