[Koha-devel] Improving Koha's OPAC Search

[Michael Hafen]

Koha uses two methods of searching in the OPAC, and in general.  The
first is through third party open source package from IndexData called
Zebra.  The second is NoZebra mode.  My opinion is that applying your
algorithm to the NoZebra mode would be the easiest option here.  Unless
you want to also work with IndexData to add to that package.

I'm not totally familiar with how NoZebra searches work currently, but
my understanding is that there is a database table of search terms and
the record id's associated with those terms.  Others from the list may
have a better understanding, or be able to provide more details.  Point
is that there may need to be some changes to the database as part of
implementing your algorithm.  This isn't a big deal though, Koha has an
upgrade mechanism to handle this.

The big catch is that library formats (MARC) will play a big role in
what is index for searching.  Some limited knowledge will be necessary.
This may be provided by members of the Koha developer community though.
Just be warned that the various MARC formats are complex.

To summarize: adding your algorithm to Koha is possible, and will be
easy with help from the developers community.

Good luck with your project.

On Thu, 2009-12-10 at 10:17 -0700, Chad G. Hansen wrote:
> I am part of a team of researchers in the Brigham Young University
> Computer Science department who are interested in improving the
> searching used by Koha's OPAC interface.
> Others on the team have come up with a fast and effective way to do
> searching using folksonomies and we are interested in adding that
> system to one of the open-source library systems out there. We are
> considering both Koha and Evergreen for this.
> We would like to have the Koha communities involvement as much as
> possible.
> 
> We would like to either enhance the existing search algorithm of Koha
> or replace it with our own search.
> 
> We would like to know if anyone is interested in being involved with
> this?
> We would also like to get any pointers on how possible and how
> difficult this might be for our team to do this, keeping in mind that
> we are newish to the library specific protocols and formats (MARC,
> Z39.50, etc).
> 
> Thanks for your consideration.
> 
> -- 
> Thank you,
> Chad Hansen
> 
> e. cgh at byu.edu
> p. 801-477-0295
> _______________________________________________
> Koha-devel mailing list
> Koha-devel at lists.koha.org
> http://lists.koha.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel


-- 
Michael Hafen
Systems Analyst and Programmer
Washington County School District
Utah, USA

for Koha checkout
http://development.washk12.org/gitweb/
or
git://development.washk12.org/koha