[Koha-zebra] Perl Zoom Persistent Connections

[Mike Taylor]

> Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 04:18:49 +0200
> From: Thomas D <koha at alinto.com>
> 
> I assume that if the authentication is collective for the client
> institution with all client users users sharing the same persistent
> connection at the client institution, the user specific
> authentication issue should be avoided.

That may be true in many cases, but we would not want to build a
system that _assumes_ all users have the same authorisation status.

> Is this cookie ID based connection persistence entirely transparent
> without requiring management in PHP/YAZ or other bindings?

Yes.

> I do not find any documentation for the ID or cookie management.

That's because it's transparent :-)

> Will the forthcoming Perl Zoom bindings support persistent
> connections, either shared or user specific?

The documentation for ZOOM-C, at
	http://indexdata.com/yaz/doc/zoom.tkl#zoom.connections
does not include any mention of "persistent connections" in Table 3.1
of the ZOOOM Connection Options.  So, no, that is not behaviour that
ZOOM-Perl will inherit from ZOOM-C.  But as Seb's pointed out, you can
get a better version of the same functionality using YAZ Proxy.  The
existence of this option in PHP/YAZ is a just a hangover from its
pre-YAZ Proxy days.

> I had given reasons that I had thought that persistent connections
> were useful with even one user retrieving large result sets in my
> previous post on a different branch of this thread.

Once more, remember that _all_ Z39.50 connections are "persistent" in
the usual sense of the word (as opposed to specialised PHP/YAZ sense).
You only open the connection once, then use it for many searches and
retrievals.

 _/|_	 ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike at miketaylor.org.uk>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "Personally, I don't think its sexual dimorphism.  I'm all for
	 it, but not in this case" - Tracy L. Ford.