Apologies for any cross-posting.

Major new release of OJAX (v0.5) plus on-line demo now available.

Version 0.5 is a complete from-the-ground-up rewrite and features 
dramatically improved performance.

OJAX is a prototype Ajax-powered metasearch service. It provides a 
highly dynamic user interface to a federated search service for OAI-PMH 
compatible repository metadata.

OJAX is simple, non-threatening but powerful. It attempts to minimise 
upfront user investment and provide immediate dynamic feedback, thus 
encouraging experimentation and enabling enactive learning.

Features of OJAX
   * Auto-completion of search terms
   * Triggering of auto-searches
   * Dynamically scrollable search results - no more navigating between 
pages
   * Auto-expansion of search result details
   * Rapid sorting of results

Benefits of OJAX

    * Provides a single search interface across multiple repositories
    * Alternatively, provides an improved search interface to a single 
repository
    * Faster resource discovery
    * Easy to use and support

Unlike previous versions, version 0.5 does not require the ARC federated 
searching service or a relational database. Instead Apache Lucene is 
used to index and search the content. This also provides a much more 
powerful query language for advanced users of OJAX. In addition, OJAX 
now includes its own OAI-PMH harvester.

Two alternative packages are available

   1. OJAX GUI, Web Services & Harvester
   2. OJAX GUI, Web Services, Harvester & example repository index

The second option is a larger download, but allows you to try out the 
software without having to harvest a repository.

Ajax, or Asynchronous JavaScript + XML, is a general approach to the 
development of interactive Web applications. Its use facilitates 
Web-based applications that exhibit the dynamism and richness of desktop 
applications.

Further information, demo and download:  http://ojax.sourceforge.net/

-- 
Dr Judith Wusteman
UCD School of Information and Library Studies
University College Dublin
Belfield 
Dublin 4
Ireland
Tel: +353 1 716 7612
Fax: +353 1 716 1161
URL: http://www.ucd.ie/wusteman/