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/
