WWWISIS: Web-based CDS/ISIS Server

WWWISIS: A Web-based CDS/ISIS Database Server

Table of Contents:

I. Introduction:

Current version: 3.0
Purpose/target usage: WWWISIS is a program designed to serve as a Web-based CDS/ISIS server. It is a complete C library for CDS/ISIS that performs nearly all CDS/ISIS functions.
Availability:

The WWWISIS software can be obtained free via anonymous ftp from the Brazalian archive host ftp://ftp.brme.bireme.br/wwwisis or http://www.bireme.br/wwwisis2.htm (details available at www.bireme.br/wwwisis1.htm).
WWWISIS documentation: http://www.bireme.br/wwwisis1.htm

Standard call for checking http://144.16.72.156/cgi-bin/wwwisis/[hello]/

II. Features of WWWISIS:

WWWISIS operation is driven by parametres
Mandatory parameters are : Database name(db), Search expression(bool) and format specification for display(pft)
WWWISIS parameters can be generated dynamically
WWWISIS may be called directly or as command line inside a CGI script Demo
CDS/ISIS searching, formationg and field updating languages are available
Search specifications can be gathered through forms, passed via CGI to WWWISIS and the results formatted and delivered to the client

1. Technical Specifications:

WWWISIS: Technical Specifications
Server platforms supported Operating system Web server	HP-UX 9.04 SunOS 5.4 SunOS 5.5 IBM AIX PC-Linux 1.2.13 PC-DOS PC-SCO (Any Web server with CGI-BIN support)
Scalability: Index local doc collections only Index doc collections on multiple web servers (remote indexing)	Only Local document collections.
Technical support: E-Mail Mailing list Documentation on Web site	No Yes (listproc@brme.bireme.br) (Subscribe WWWISIS-L your name) Yes (http://www.bireme.br/wwwisis1.htm)
Source code availability	No
Main program modules	WWWISIS Server for CDS/ISIS database. 'mx' utility for generating master file (.MST), used only on Linux system. 'ifload' utility for generating inverted file, used only on Linux system Demo of 'mx' & 'ifload'

II. Features of WWWISIS:

2. Indexing Interface:

WWWISIS: Indexing Interface
File/document formats supported (HTML, ASCII, PDF, SQL, Spread sheets, WYSIWYG)	ASCII
Indexing level support: File/directory level Multi-record files (e.g. bibliographic records in a file)	No Yes
Specification of document collections Package specific/ independent Single/ multiple source directories (and sub directories)	As per CDS/ISIS norms Single file which is in ISO2709 format
Standard formats recognised (MARC, BIB-REF, MEDLINE, etc.)	Supports files in ISO2709 format
Customisation of document formats	No
Stemming	No
Stop words	Yes
Field level indexing	Yes
Database updation (merging)	Yes
Compression support	No

II. Features of WWWISIS:

3. Search Interface:

WWWISIS: Search Interface
Boolean	Yes (terms connected with Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT)
Query term weighting	No
Relevancy ranking	No
Proximity/phrase searching	Yes
Truncation	Yes
Search set manipulation	No
Duplicate detection	No
Field level searching	Yes
Thesaurus/concept searching	No
QBE (Query-By-Example)/ Relevance feedback searching	No
Customisation (thru CGI programming)	No
Soundex search	No
Additional features

II. Features of WWWISIS:

4. Results Display:

WWWISIS: Results Display
Formats supported (Native format, ASCII, HTML)	HTML - can be customised through CGI
Relevancy ranking	No
Option for viewing document summary	Yes
Keyword-in-context	No
Customisation of results display	Yes
Additional features

II. Features of WWWISIS:

5. Costs, license, registration:

WWWISIS: Costs, license, registration, etc.
Completely free	Yes
Maintenance fee, license fee and any other contractual requirements	Official license may be purchased at a cost of US$ 150.00 and annual maintenance fee at a cost of US$ 100.00. Acquiring an official license grants licensee a limited online assistance.
Registration for download and use	No

III. WWWISIS Applications demonstration:

# Application 1: Current Contents (bibliographic)

Document files: No. of records: 25,000, Disc storage : 10MB
Index size: 7MB

# Application 2: IISc Library OPAC (bibliographic)

IV. WWWISIS Indexing and Search Performance:

V. Installation (for Linux OS)

HW: Pentium II PC with 64 MB RAM, 4.1 GB HDD
SW: Linux RH 5.1, Apache Web server 1.2
No Installation is required. Just need to copy WWWISIS executable file to cgi-bin dir.

V. Installation (for Windows 95 OS)

HW: Pentium PC with 16 MB RAM, 1 GB HDD
SW: Windows 95, Omni HTTPD Web server 1.2
No Installation is required. Just need to copy WWWISIS executable file to cgi-bin dir.

VI. Our observations/ recommendations:

The user need not know the CDS/ISIS search syntax. Search statements can be collected through HTML forms.
Very useful for providing Web access to existing CDS/ISIS databases.
Combining search statements is not possible.
It does not not support freetext searching