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The IMesh Toolkit
[ Work In Hand > Components > OAI Normalization tools]
OAI normalization tools: discussion of approaches
Back to Introduction
It is anticipated that there will be strengths and weaknesses in both of the approaches. Some will derive from the characteristics of the programming language being used and will be inherent in the approach, and may be evident from the outset; others may become more apparent as the complexity of the task changes, and as limitations of the tools and libraries are encountered. This discussion will be expanded in the light of our experiences, as the work evolves.
For all the tools, it is assumed that all records conform to the default metadata schema for records in OAI-PMH (since all repositories must support the oai_dc record format as a requirement of the protocol), and therefore have this basic structure (shown schematically). The XML schema for simple DC, as defined by OAI, is found on the Open Archives Initiative web site.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Perl Approach
-
Knowledge of regular expressions is required in order to
be able to write the configuration file.
Advantages and disadvantages of using XSLT
-
A basic knowledge of the structure of XML documents and
confidence to make simple changes in them is required. Note: It would be expected that
since the OAI records are encoded as XML, typical users
should have the required level of knowledge. XSLT documents are themselves
encoded as XML and (with the guidance provided in the documentation)
users should be capable of making minor changes without necessarily understanding the detail.