Greenstone Blog http://www.greenstone.org/blog News and Posts from the Greenstone Team 2008-04-16T04:29:52Z hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Nightly Snapshot Releases http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2008-04-16/nightly-snapshot-releases/ 2008-04-16T04:16:32Z Oran Fry Starting now, nightly "snapshot" releases of Greenstone3 will be constructed and made available on our snapshots page. Every night, the most recent revision of the Greenstone3 source code will be automatically checked out, compiled, and packaged up as an easy-to-use installer and put up on our website. These snapshots will be ... Starting now, nightly “snapshot” releases of Greenstone3 will be constructed and made available on our snapshots page.

Every night, the most recent revision of the Greenstone3 source code will be automatically checked out, compiled, and packaged up as an easy-to-use installer and put up on our website. These snapshots will be created for Linux and Windows, and soon, Mac. They will be made available in two formats: as an executable Jar, or as a native binary for your operating system. And to make things even easier, there is also a native binary which comes bundled with Java.

As of today, you no longer have to wait for a release to come out before you can take advantage of a new feature of Greenstone3. All you have to do is install the latest snapshot release, and you will have all the features added up to the previous day.

Nightly snapshot releases were made possible by our move to the open source installer Ant Installer. We have been able to construct a release “kit” for each operating system, which automatically creates releases of Greenstone3 using a number of Ant scripts, the Ant Installer software, and a simple executable wrapper program. Since creating a release is now as easy as running a single command, we decided to let the computer create them nightly.

Not surprisingly, the snapshot releases are likely to have a few flaws. These flaws will have two sources: bugs in the release kits, and bugs in the Greenstone code. As far as the release kits are concerned, in time we aim to eliminate all the bugs, so that they produce robust and usable installers. But as for the Greenstone code, we recognise that the most recent revision of the Greenstone code will always have some “bleeding edges”, so we do not expect to ever eliminate all the bugs there. (If you want thoroughly tested releases, go for one of our regular releases, not a snapshot.)

You can help us to perfect the Greenstone3 release kits by downloading and installing a snapshot release, and telling us if you hit any problems. Go on, be brave!

(For those interested, instructions for getting and using the release kits themselves are available at http://wiki.greenstone.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseKits.)

Also, keep a look out for Greenstone2 snapshot releases and release kits, which are coming soon.

]]> OAI Visualisation Tool online http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2008-01-23/oai-metadata-tool/ 2008-01-22T22:07:55Z Dave Nichols A prototype OAI metadata analysis tool - producing statistics and visualisations of repository metadata - is now online. Usage notes: when clicking on the links of the left of the visualisation you may need to configure your browser to allow popups from nzdl.org producing the analysis report does take some time (e.g. the whole ... A prototype OAI metadata analysis tool - producing statistics and visualisations of repository metadata - is now online.

Usage notes:

  • when clicking on the links of the left of the visualisation
    you may need to configure your browser to allow popups from nzdl.org
  • producing the analysis report does take some time (e.g. the whole of IDEALS at Illinois takes about 20-25 minutes) - so, initially, we suggest using the max records option to limit the number of items processed

There also is a short feedback survey where you can add comments and suggestions for new features.

]]> Greenstone3.03 released! http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2007-10-26/greenstone303-released/ 2007-10-25T23:27:54Z Shaoqun Wu Greenstone3 v3.03 has been released for Windows, GNU/Linux and in Source form (it runs on the Mac no problem; just recompile from source). This release finally contains all the features in Greenstone2, including OAI-PMH and Remote Building support (which are new to this version). It is now very easy to ... Greenstone3 v3.03 has been released for Windows, GNU/Linux and in Source form (it runs on the Mac no problem; just recompile from source). This release finally contains all the features in Greenstone2, including OAI-PMH and Remote Building support (which are new to this version). It is now very easy to install — just as easy as Greenstone2! This release has been extensively tested.

The principal difference between Greenstone2 and Greenstone3 is the format language. Greenstone3 supports more sophisticated XSLT format statements. Right now they are more complex to use, but developments in the pipeline will make it far easier than Greenstone2 in future. (The only other differences are that Greenstone3 still lacks collaging, and collection/document-level authentication.)

There is one known issue. We forgot to ensure that collections built with Greenstone2 are automatically converted when loaded into GLI under Greenstone3. We will add this facility, but for now a manual conversion program is available here; instructions for its use appear in Greenstone3 for Greenstone2 Users.

Greenstone2 will continue to be supported for a long time yet (years), but ultimately we see Greenstone3 replacing it. See the Greenstone3 home page and the Wiki for more details.

]]> Survey on Greenstone customization http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2007-05-22/customization-survey/ 2007-05-22T03:49:53Z Dave Nichols As part of the work on Greenstone 3 we are running a survey on users' experiences with customizing pages in Greenstone 2 - format statements, macros etc. We welcome your comments on how we can make collection customization easier in Greenstone 3; the brief anonymous survey is here: http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/surveys/2333/ As part of the work on Greenstone 3 we are running a survey on users’ experiences with customizing pages in Greenstone 2 - format statements, macros etc.

We welcome your comments on how we can make collection customization easier in Greenstone 3; the brief anonymous survey is here:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/surveys/2333/

]]> Greenstone3.02 released! http://www.greenstone.org/blog/2007-02-19/greenstone302-released/ 2007-02-19T03:53:57Z Oran Fry See the Greenstone3 home page. Greenstone2 will continue to be supported for a long time yet (years), but ultimately we see Greenstone3 replacing it. This is a beta release: it contains (virtually) all the features needed for Greenstone2 compatibility, and has been extensively tested. We have added a new section ... See the Greenstone3 home page. Greenstone2 will continue to be supported for a long time yet (years), but ultimately we see Greenstone3 replacing it. This is a beta release: it contains (virtually) all the features needed for Greenstone2 compatibility, and has been extensively tested. We have added a new section to the Wiki on Greenstone3, and in particular a new page entitled Greenstone3 for Greenstone2 users about how to set it up and migrate your collections (with a list of possible problem areas). Greenstone2 is certainly not yet in the past, but Greenstone3 is definitely the future!

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