Re: Building a Z39.50 client and server

Sebastian

just one minor quibble with your reply - whether his server has to accept
connections from other clients (where you answered yes) - is pretty much
up to him - the server can certainly control who it will or wont talk to
of course by handle if all you mean is get in (and possibly reject)
requests you are right

mark


On Wed, 23 May 2001, Sebastian Hammer wrote:

> At 13:13 23-05-01 +0100, Stevio wrote:
> 
> >Would it be possible for my Z39.50 origin (client) to be a form on a web
> >page. It would send a request to the target (server) application which would
> >then return the results.
> 
> Definitely. There's a number of tools around to help you build WWW-based 
> Z39.50 origins in different sorts of development environments. It'd be fair 
> to say, probably, that a majority of the deployed Z39.50 clients are based 
> on web forms, just as you suggest.
> 
> >The target application (the Z39.50 server) would also have to be able to
> >handle requests from other Z39.50 clients, right?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> >Also, my Z39.50 client would have to be able to send requests to other
> >Z39.50 servers?
> 
> Whether it would "have to" depends on your users, but it will probably be 
> expected.
> 
> >Can I create my Z39.50 compliant library system through web sites and web
> >applications acting as my origins and targets respectively? Is that how a
> >lot of other Z39.50 compliant systems work?
> 
> A Z39.50 target is not really a web application. It's a separate protocol, 
> and has a separate network port number associated to it (210, where HTTP 
> generally uses 80). When your users install your library system, this is 
> something you have to be clear about -- otherwise they can run into trouble 
> with their firewall operators (many small libraries don't have internal 
> control of their firewall, so you need to tell them exactly what THEY have 
> to tell their ISP or IT department).
> 
> >For existing systems, do they use the internet as their network to allow
> >them to communicate with other library databases that they want to search,
> >or do they use private networks that have been established between
> >libraries?
> 
> I'd say that using the internet is *by far* the most common approach.
> 
> >The server in this case would be an NT server. My existing library system
> >has been written in Delphi.
> 
> I'll leave it to others to comment if they have tools specifically suited 
> to interact with Delphi applications. We have a few tools around, and I 
> know at least one of them has been used with a Delphi-based server. You're 
> welcome to get in touch off-list if you're interested.
> 
> --Sebastian
> --
> Sebastian Hammer        <quinn@indexdata.dk>            Index Data ApS
> Ph.: +45 3341 0100    <http://www.indexdata.dk>    Fax: +45 3341 0101
> 
>

Received on Wednesday, 23 May 2001 08:40:14 UTC