[odf-discuss] eXtensible Text Framework (XTF)

[Russell Ossendryver]

The following email is from the oss4lib-discuss list:
http://www.oss4lib.org/ I noticed the Microsoft Word Indexing. I thought
some on the list might be interested. From a brief discussion with someone
involved in the project, adding Opendocument support should not be that
difficult if needed for a digital library.

Russell



Contact: Lisa Schiff
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President
415 20th St., 4th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
              (510) 587-6132
lisa.schiff at ucop.edu
http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/xtf/

California Digital Library Announces New Release of the eXtensible Text
Framework (XTF)

Oakland, CA, May 12, 2008 - The California Digital Library (CDL) is pleased
to announce a new release of its search and display technology, the
eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) version 2.1 (
http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/xtf/
).  XTF is an open source, highly flexible software application that
supports the search, browse and display of heterogeneous digital content.
XTF offers efficient and practical methods for creating customized end-user
interfaces for distinct digital content collections.

Highlights from the 2.1 release include:
Extensive interface improvements, including new search forms, built-in
faceted browsing, and a new look and feel.
Increased support for document and information exchange formats.
XHTML and OAI-PMH output
NLM article format indexing and output
Microsoft Word indexing
Streamlined XSLT stylesheets for simpler deployment and adaptation.
Updated documentation that has been moved to the XTF project wiki, allowing
XTF implementers to share solutions with entire user community.
"Freeform" Boolean query language, offered as an experimental feature.
Backward compatibility with existing XTF implementations.

A complete list of changes is available on the XTF Project page on
SourceForge, where the distribution (including documentation) can also be
downloaded.

Since the first deployment of XTF in 2005, the development strategy has been
to build and maintain an indexing and display technology that is not only
customizable, but also draws upon tested components already in use by the
digital library and search communities - in particular the Lucene text
search engine, Java, XML, and XSLT.  By coordinating these pieces in a
single platform that can be used to create multiple unique applications, CDL
has succeeded in dramatically reducing the investment in infrastructure,
staff training and development for new digital content projects.

XTF offers a suite of customizable features that support diverse
intellectual access to content.  Interfaces can be designed to support the
distinct tools and presentations that are useful and meaningful to specific
audiences.  In addition, XTF offers the following core features:
Easy to deploy: Drops directly in to a Java application server such as
Tomcat or Resin; has been tested on Solaris, Mac, Linux, and Windows
operating systems.
Easy to configure: Can create indexes on any XML element or attribute;
entire presentation layer is customizable via XSLT.
Robust: Optimized to perform well on large documents (e.g., a single text
that exceeds 10MB of encoded text); scales to perform well on collections of
millions of documents; provides full Unicode support.
Extensible:
Works well with a variety of authentication systems (e.g., IP address lists,
LDAP, Shibboleth).
Provides an interface for external data lookups to support thesaurus-based
term expansion, recommender systems, etc.
Can power other digital library services (e.g., XTF contains an OAI-PMH data
provider that allows others to harvest metadata, and an SRU interface that
exposes searches to federated search engines).
Can be deployed as separate, modular pieces of a third-party system (e.g.,
the module that displays snippets of matching text).
Powerful for the end user:
Spell checking of queries
Faceted displays for browsing
Dynamically updated browse lists
Session-based bookbags
These basic features can be tuned and modified.  For instance, the same
bookbag feature that allows users to store links to entire books, can also
store links to citable elements of an object, such as a note or other
reference.

A sampling of XTF-based applications both within and outside of the CDL
include:
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.opendocumentfellowship.com/pipermail/odf-discuss/attachments/20080513/6bc7820a/attachment.html