I am trying to build a simple web application to view items in a Fedora repository. I am aware of the Islandora project, but our team was not satisfied with it as a solution (I am not criticizing their hard-work!). I am looking to build an alternative module / feature / cookbook to contribute back to the Drupal community that would be helpful for other archival institutions who want to implement a Drupal solution for a digital archive / repository.
In short, I am trying to use the power of Drupal to create a web interface to view items deposited into a Fedora digital repository. The repository has a few php apis to get the items, metadata, and permissions. I am wondering what the best approach to solving this problem.
Possible Ideas
I have thought of two ways to approach this problem. Have Drupal regularly index the Solr / Fedora servers and create small entities using the Entity API for the Fedora objects or create a view that shows objects based on queries using the Views API. I would love some help getting ideas on what the best approach would be.
Comments
I don't know a lot about
I don't know a lot about Fedora personally (though a few of my colleagues at Isovera have more experience) but we have had good luck with the Sarnia module (http://drupal.org/project/sarnia) to connect Drupal directly to any (non-Drupal) Solr index and create Views to search and display the data. We're currently using it for an OPAC project.
Kelly
@krlucas Thank you. I will
@krlucas Thank you. I will investigate this now and see if this is just what I need. I will report back if I have any success!
Steven Bassett
@bassettsj
Failed.. What about remote Entities?
Thanks again for the suggestion! I worked for a few hours yesterday on trying to implement sarnia. I could be missing a step, but I was not able to configure the module. I logged an issue on the project page, but don't think the project is as actively maintained so I can't just sit and wait...
I have been looking instead into developing a small module, that hopefully will only depend on the Entity API for Drupal 7 that just extends the entity class in Drupal core.
I would need to create an entity type that represents the objects in the Fedora repository. Drupal 7 assumes that the entity will be stored in the database, so there is not much documentation unfortunately on remote entities. I recently found Remote entities in Drupal 7 writing about this particular challenge. I am thinking this might be the best approach, but I am not sure.
Alternatively, Views has an API that is poorly documented, but powerful. This could be an alternative method.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Steven Bassett
@bassettsj
I would encourage you to
I would encourage you to stick with Sarnia/Search API as they are the best examples of implementing the very concept of "remote" entities in Drupal.
I responded to your issue in the Sarnia issue queue. You can try that patch or consider using Search API Solr RC2 until Sarnia catches up.
Kelly