M OVING FROM A PHP F LAT - F ILE E LECTRONIC R ESOURCES M ANAGER TO D RUPAL 6 V IEWS Junior Tidal New York City College of Technology, CUNY code4lib NE,

MOVING FROM A PHP FLAT-FILE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES MANAGER TO DRUPAL 6 VIEWSJunior TidalNew York City College of Technology, CUNYcode4lib NE, Yale UniversityOctober 26, 2012

THE CHALLENGE OF ELECTRONIC RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (ERM)

E-resources can be a hassle to manage

Lack of back-end accessibility to the library website

Lack of a collaborative environment

Software and security challenges: lack of MySQL, shell access, and file permissions.

HOW DID WE WORK AROUND THESE CHALLENGES?

Solution required an easier way to manage ERM.

The solution also required compatibility for the server’s configuration.

FTP access for files (through Dreamweaver)

PHP 3 compatible

Solution could compensate for security lockdown

WHAT IS A FLAT-FILE DATABASE?

A flat-file database is a tabular database that uses plain text file as storage.

The flat-file consists of a single entry with keys and attributes on each new line within the file, separated by a delimiter.

There are no built-in relationships between records.

EXAMPLE OF A FLAT-FILE ENTRY

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)|http://citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=a9h|http://library.citytech.cuny.edu/research/annotations/index.php#ASP|The largest scholarly, multidisciplinary, full-text database.|09-03-2009

PHP IMPLEMENTATION

The server script consisted for a PHP file that would retrieve results from the flat-file.

The flat-file contents would be rendered in HTML and displayed to the end user.

The flat-file was accessible to a number of librarian.

PHP SCRIPT FOR FLAT-FILE DATABASE LOADING

http://snipt.org/vghfe9#expand

MIGRATING TO DRUPAL 6

Library was able to get their own server.

This opened up many possibilities including a new OS (Linux), software, statistics recording and experimentation.

We were now able to utilize the Drupal 6 content management system

DRUPAL VIEWS

After migrating the website content to Drupal, we still needed a way for ERM.

Using work based on Leo Klein, we were able to use Drupal to manage our eResources

We used the built-in Taxonomy moduleand the following custom modules:

Content Construction Kit (CCK) Views

DRUPAL VIEWS AND ERESOURCES

eResources are stored as a custom content type in Drupal

The Taxonomy module is used to assign type and subject to each eResource

Editable attributes of eResources such as the name, URL, and description, are pulled based on selecting a subject

These resources are displayed to the user

ADVANTAGES OF USING VIEWS Smoother workflow, less work Collaborative environment Single versions of the database Subject specific eResources are stored in a

single database Content is stored in a MySQL database which

is easier for migration and backups Maintenance is done through Drupal

DISADVANTAGES OF VIEWS

Learning curve of Views

Lack of date control through Views

eResources are dependent on Views and subsequent updates and maintenance

FFDB doesn’t require as much as Views

FFDB can be more flexible than Views

CONCLUSION

Challenge of ERM management

Flat-file databases can be used to overcome restrictive server environments

They offer few advantages in comparison to Drupal Views

Views provides a more collaborative and smoother workflow

Questions?

Thanks!

Junior TidalNew York City College of Technology, CUNY

[email protected]@juniortidal