**This announcement is being widely released; apologies in advance for
duplication.**
 

California Digital Library Announces Self-Guided Tutorial for the
eXtensible Text Framework (XTF)

 

March 3, 2009

Oakland, CA

 

For more information, contact: 

Lisa Schiff

California Digital Library

University of California

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(510) 987-0881 

 

The California Digital Library (CDL) is pleased to announce the
availability of an extensive self-guided tutorial for its eXtensible
Text Framework (XTF) <http://xtf.wiki.sourceforge.net/>  application
<http://application/>  (http://xtf.wiki.sourceforge.net/). XTF is an
open source, highly customizable piece of software supporting the
search, browse, and display of heterogeneous digital content and
offering efficient and practical methods for creating customized
end-user interfaces for distinct digital collections. The tutorial
provides guidance for implementing and customizing XTF, from core
functionality to overall look and feel.  Downloads for the Mac and
Windows <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=119724>
<http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=119724> operating
systems <http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=119724>
(http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=119724) are
available from the XTF Project page on SourceForge
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtf/>
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtf/), along with the complete
distribution and documentation.

The tutorial comes with a complete XTF package that is ready to run when
uncompressed; no other installation is required. It contains nine
modules spanning the most powerful and popular features, including how
to: 

*	Add new content 
*	Change metadata 
*	Change logo and colors 
*	Increase significance of titles in ranking hits 
*	Customize and enable default status of advanced search 
*	Change fields displayed in search results 
*	Enable structural searching 
*	Create a hierarchical facet 
*	Change footnote behavior

XTF Background and Overview

Since first developing and deploying this indexing and display
technology in 2005, the CDL has worked to build and maintain XTF as a
highly customizable application built 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, the CDL has succeeded in dramatically reducing the
investment in infrastructure, staff training, and development for new
digital content projects. 

XTF offers the following core features out of the box:

*	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., 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

*	Powerful for the end user: 

	*	Spell checking of queries 
	*	Faceted displays for browsing 
	*	Dynamically updated browse lists 
	*	Session-based bookbags

A sampling of XTF-based applications include:

*	Mark Twain Project Online <http://www.marktwainproject.org/>
(http://www.marktwainproject.org), developed by the Mark Twain Papers
Project, the CDL and the University of California Press. 
*	Calisphere <http://www.calisphere.org/>
(http://www.calisphere.org/), developed by the CDL. 
*	The Encyclopedia of Chicago
<http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/>
(http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/) 
*	The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
<http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/>
(http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/) and The Swinburne Project
<http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/swinburne/www/swinburne/>
(http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/swinburne/www/swinburne/) 
*	Finding Aids at the New York Public Library
<http://labs.nypl.org/2007/10/30/extensible-text-framework-xtf/>
(http://labs.nypl.org/2007/10/30/extensible-text-framework-xtf/) 
*	EECS Technical Reports
<http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu:8088/xtf/servlet/org.cdlib.xtf.crossQuery.
CrossQuery?rmode=btr>
(http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu:8088/xtf/servlet/org.cdlib.xtf.crossQuery.
CrossQuery?rmode=btr) 

	 

	For more information, visit
http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/xtf/.

 
-----------------------------------------------
Lisa Schiff, Ph.D.
Technical Lead
eScholarship Publishing Group
California Digital Library
300 Lakeside Drive #744
Kaiser Center
Oakland, CA 94612
510-987-0881 (t)
510-987-0243 (f)
www.cdlib.org <http://www.cdlib.org/> 
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