The Discovery Module for the XML user interface enables faceted searching & browsing for your repository.
Although these techniques are new in DSpace, they might feel familiar from other platforms like Aquabroser or Amazon, where facets help you to select the right product according to facets like price and brand. DSpace Discovery offers very powerful browse and search configurations that were only possible with code customization in the past.
Watch the DSpace Discovery introduction video
From the user perspective, faceted search (also called faceted navigation, guided navigation, or parametric search) breaks up search results into multiple categories, typically showing counts for each, and allows the user to "drill down" or further restrict their search results based on those facets.
When you have successfully enabled Discovery in your DSpace, you will notice that the different enabled facets are visualized in a "Discover" section in your sidebar, by default, right below the Browse options.
In this example, there are 3 Sidebar Facets, Author, Subject and Date Issued. It's important to know that multiple metadata fields can be included in one facet. For example, the Author facet above includes values from both dc.contributor.author as well as dc.creator.
Another important property of Sidebar Facets is that their contents are automatically updated to the context of the page. On collection homepages or community homepages it will include information about the items included in that particular collection or community.
In a standard search operation, a user specifies his complete query prior to launching the operation. If the results are not satisfactory, the user starts over again with a (slightly) altered query.
In a faceted search, a user can modify the list of displayed search results by specifying additional "filters" that will be applied on the list of search results. In DSpace, a filter is a contain condition applied to specific facets. In the example below, a user started with the search term "approach", which yielded 15 results. By applying the filter "economics" on the facet "Subject". After applying this filter, only 6 results remain.
Another example would be the standard search operation [wetland + "dc.author=Mitsch, William J" + dc.subject="water quality" ]. With filtered search, a user can start by searching for [wetland ], and then filter the results by the other attributes, author and subject.
As with any upgrade procedure, it is highly recommend that you backup your existing data thoroughly. Although upgrades in versions of Solr/Lucene do tend to be forwards compatible for the data stored in the Lucene index, it is always a best practice to backup your [dspace]/solr/statistics cores to assure no data is lost.
<xmlui>
<aspects>
<!--
@deprecated: the Artifact Browser has been devided into ViewArtifacts,
BrowseArtifacts, SearchArtifacts
<aspect name="Artifact Browser" path="resource://aspects/ArtifactBrowser/" />
-->
<aspect name="Displaying Artifacts" path="resource://aspects/ViewArtifacts/" />
<aspect name="Browsing Artifacts" path="resource://aspects/BrowseArtifacts/" />
<!--<aspect name="Searching Artifacts" path="resource://aspects/SearchArtifacts/" />-->
<aspect name="Administration" path="resource://aspects/Administrative/" />
<aspect name="E-Person" path="resource://aspects/EPerson/" />
<aspect name="Submission and Workflow" path="resource://aspects/Submission/" />
<aspect name="Statistics" path="resource://aspects/Statistics/" />
<!--
To enable Discovery, uncomment this Aspect that will enable it
within your existing XMLUI
Also make sure to comment the SearchArtifacts aspect
as leaving it on together with discovery will cause UI overlap issues-->
<aspect name="Discovery" path="resource://aspects/Discovery/" />
<!--
This aspect tests the various possible DRI features,
it helps a theme developer create themes
-->
<!-- <aspect name="XML Tests" path="resource://aspects/XMLTest/"/> -->
</aspects>
|
# default synchronous dispatcher (same behavior as traditional DSpace) event.dispatcher.default.class = org.dspace.event.BasicDispatcher #event.dispatcher.default.consumers = search, browse, eperson, harvester event.dispatcher.default.consumers = search, browse, discovery, eperson, harvester |
#Put the recent submissions count to 0 so that discovery can use it's recent submissions, # not doing this when discovery is enabled will cause UI overlap issues #How many recent submissions should be displayed at any one time #recent.submissions.count = 5 recent.submissions.count = 0 |
##### Search Indexing ##### solr.search.server = http://localhost/solr/search |
./bin/dspace update-discovery-index |
NOTE: This step may take some time if you have a large number of items in your repository. |
The configuration for discovery is located in 2 separate files.
The discovery.cfg file is located in the [dspace]/config/modules directory and contains following properties:
Property: |
search.server |
Example Value: |
search.server=http://localhost:8080/solr/search |
Informational Note: |
Discovery relies on a SOLR index for storage and retrieval of its information. This parameter determines the location of the SOLR index. |
Property: |
index.ignore |
Example Value: |
index.ignore=dc.description.provenance,dc.language |
Informational Note: |
By default, Discovery will include all of the DSpace metadata in its search index. In cases where specific metadata is confidential, repository managers can include those fields by adding them to this comma separated list. |
The spring-dspace-addon-discovery-configuration-services.xml file is located in the [dspace]/config/spring directory.
Because this file is in XML format, you should be familiar with XML before editing this file. The configurations are organized together in beans, depending on the purpose these properties are used for.
This purpose can be derived from the class of the beans. Here's a short summaries of classes you will encounter throughout the file and what the corresponding properties in the bean are used for.
Download the configuration file and review it together with the following parameters
Class: |
DiscoveryConfigurationService |
Purpose: |
Defines the mapping between separate Discovery configurations and individual collections/communities |
Default: |
All communities, collections and the homepage (key=default) are mapped to defaultConfiguration |
Class: |
DiscoveryConfiguration |
Purpose: |
Groups configurations for sidebar facets, search filters, search sort options and recent submissions |
Default: |
There is one configuration by default called defaultConfiguration |
Class: |
DiscoverySearchFilter |
Purpose: |
Defines that specific metadata fields should be enabled as a search filter |
Default: |
dc.title, dc.contributor.author, dc.creator, dc.subject.* and dc.date.issued are defined as search filters |
Class: |
DiscoverySidebarFacetConfiguration |
Purpose: |
Defines which metadata fields should be offered as a contextual sidebar browse option |
Default: |
dc.contributor.author, dc.creator, dc.subject.* and dc.date.issued |
Class: |
DiscoverySortConfiguration |
Purpose: |
Further specifies the sort options to which a DiscoveryConfiguration refers |
Default: |
dc.title and dc.date.issued are defined as alternatives for sorting, other than Relevance (hard coded) |
In addition to the summarized descriptions of the default values, following details help you to better understand these defaults. If you haven't yet, download the configuration file and review it together with the following parameters.
The file contains one default configuration that defines following sidebar facets, search filters, sort fields and recent submissions display:
Many of the properties contain lists which use references to point to the configuration elements. This way a certain configuration type can be used in multiple discovery configurations so there is no need to duplicate these.
This section explains the properties of an individual SidebarFacet, like SidebarFacetAuthor, SidebarFacetSubject and SidebarFacetDateIssued from the default configuration. In order to create custom SidebarFacets, you can either modify specific properties of those that already exist or create a totally new one from scratch.
Here's what the SidebarFacetAuthor looks like:
<bean id="sidebarFacetAuthor" class="org.dspace.discovery.configuration.SidebarFacetConfiguration">
<property name="indexFieldName" value="author"/>
<property name="metadataFields">
<list>
<value>dc.contributor.author</value>
<value>dc.creator</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="facetLimit" value="10"/>
<property name="sortOrder" value="COUNT"/>
<property name="type" value="text"/>
</bean> |
The id & class attributes are mandatory for this type of bean. The properties that it contains are discussed below.
This section explains the properties of an individual SearchFilter, like searchFilterTitle, searchFilterAuthor, searchFilterSubject and searchFilterIssued from the default configuration. In order to create custom Search Filters, you can either modify specific properties of those that already exist or create a totally new one from scratch.
Here's what the searchFilterAuthor looks like:
<bean id="searchFilterAuthor" class="org.dspace.discovery.configuration.DiscoverySearchFilter">
<property name="indexFieldName" value="author"/>
<property name="metadataFields">
<list>
<value>dc.contributor.author</value>
<value>dc.creator</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="fullAutoComplete" value="true"/>
<property name="type" value="text"/>
</bean> |
The id & class attributes are mandatory for this type of bean. The properties that it contains are discussed below.
This section explains the properties of an individual SortConfiguration, like sortTitle and sortDateIssued from the default configuration. In order to create custom sort options, you can either modify specific properties of those that already exist or create a totally new one from scratch.
Here's what the sortTitle SortConfiguration looks like:
<bean id="sortTitle" class="org.dspace.discovery.configuration.DiscoverySortFieldConfiguration">
<property name="metadataField" value="dc.title"/>
<property name="type" value="text"/>
</bean> |
The id & class attributes are mandatory for this type of bean. The properties that it contains are discussed below.
The DiscoveryConfiguration Groups configurations for sidebar facets, search filters, search sort options and recent submissions. If you want to show the same sidebar facets, use the same search filters, search options and recent submissions everywhere in your repository, you will only need one DiscoveryConfiguration and you might as well just edit the defaultConfiguration.
The DiscoveryConfiguration makes it very easy to use custom sidebar facets, search filters, ... on specific communities or collection homepage. This is particularly useful if your collections are heterogeneous. For example, in a collection with conference papers, you might want to offer a sidebar facet for conference date, which might be more relevant than the actual issued date of the proceedings. In a collection with papers, you might want to offer a facet for funding bodies or publisher, while these fields are irrelevant for items like learning objects.
A DiscoveryConfiguration consists out of five parts
Below is an example of how one of these lists can be configured. It's important that each of the bean references corresponds with the exact name of the earlier defined Facets, filters or sort options.
<property name="sidebarFacets">
<list>
<ref bean="sidebarFacetAuthor" />
<ref bean="sidebarFacetSubject" />
<ref bean="sidebarFacetDateIssued" />
</list>
</property> |
The search sort field configuration block contains the available sort fields and the possibility to configure a default sort field and sort order.
Below is an example of the sort configuration.
<property name="searchSortConfiguration">
<bean class="org.dspace.discovery.configuration.DiscoverySortConfiguration">
<!--<property name="defaultSort" ref="sortDateIssued"/>-->
<!--DefaultSortOrder can either be desc or asc (desc is default)-->
<property name="defaultSortOrder" value="desc"/>
<property name="sortFields">
<list>
<ref bean="sortTitle" />
<ref bean="sortDateIssued" />
</list>
</property>
</bean>
</property> |
The property name & the bean class are mandatory. The property field names are discusses below.
Default filter queries are applied on all search operations & sidebarfacet clicks. One useful application of default filter queries is ensuring that all returned results are items. As a result, subcommunities and collections that are returned as results of the search operation, are filtered out.
Similar to the lists above, the default filter queries are defined as a list. They are optional.
<property name="defaultFilterQueries">
<list>
<value>query1</value>
<value>query2</value>
</list>
</property> |
This property contains a simple list which in turn contains the queries. Some examples of possible queries:
The recent submissions configuration element contains all the configuration settings to display the list of recently submitted items on the home page or community/collection page. Because the recent submission configuration is in the discovery configuration block, it is possible to show 10 recently submitted items on the home page but 5 on the community/collection pages.
Below is an example configuration of the recent submissions.
<property name="recentSubmissionConfiguration">
<bean class="org.dspace.discovery.configuration.DiscoveryRecentSubmissionsConfiguration">
<property name="metadataSortField" value="dc.date.accessioned"/>
<property name="type" value="date"/>
<property name="max" value="5"/>
</bean>
</property>
|
The property name & the bean class are mandatory. The property field names are discusses below.
Command used: |
|
Java class: |
org.dspace.discovery.IndexClient |
Arguments (short and long forms): |
Description |
|
called without any options, will update/clean an existing index |
|
(re)build index, wiping out current one if it exists |
|
clean existing index removing any documents that no longer exist in the db |
|
if updating existing index, force each handle to be reindexed even if uptodate |
|
print this help message |
|
optimize search core |
|
remove an Item, Collection or Community from index based on its handle |
It is strongly recommended to run maintenance on the Discovery SOLR index daily (from crontab or your system's scheduler), to prevent your servlet container from running out of memory:
[dspace]/bin/dspace update-discovery-index -o
Discovery is built as an application layer on top of the Open Source Enterprise Search Server SOLR. Therefore, SOLR configuration can be applied to the SOLR cores that are shipped with DSpace.
The DSpace SOLR instance itself now runs two cores. One for collection DSpace Solr based "statistics", the other for Discovery Solr based "search".
solr
├── search
│ ├── conf
│ │ ├── admin-extra.html
│ │ ├── elevate.xml
│ │ ├── protwords.txt
│ │ ├── schema.xml
│ │ ├── scripts.conf
│ │ ├── solrconfig.xml
│ │ ├── spellings.txt
│ │ ├── stopwords.txt
│ │ ├── synonyms.txt
│ │ └── xslt
│ │ ├── DRI.xsl
│ │ ├── example.xsl
│ │ ├── example_atom.xsl
│ │ ├── example_rss.xsl
│ │ └── luke.xsl
│ └── conf2
├── solr.xml
└── statistics
└── conf
├── admin-extra.html
├── elevate.xml
├── protwords.txt
├── schema.xml
├── scripts.conf
├── solrconfig.xml
├── spellings.txt
├── stopwords.txt
├── synonyms.txt
└── xslt
├── example.xsl
├── example_atom.xsl
├── example_rss.xsl
└── luke.xsl
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