HUBzero test instance now available at Indiana

Everyone,

The Bamboo HUBzero development instance at IU is up and running. It can be reached at http://bamboo-hub0.dlib.indiana.edu.

Even if you have set up an account recently you will need to do so again. Bruce Barton will be adding the Repository Browser soon. I'm sure he'll have more on that later.

I have set up a couple of tools: the METS Page Turner and the Image Viewerto show how Java AWT applications can run in the rappture environment. To get to these tools, login and go to "my HUB" tab. On the left is a window called "My Tools". Choose the "All Tools" and you will see METS Page Turner, Image Viewer and Workspace. The Workspace is a general development area for tools and opens an X-windows environment with an x-term window.

Image Viewer is a simple image display tool. When you click on the icon on the right or choose the text on the left and then click "Launch Tool", you get the simulation environment that HUBzero calls Rappture. To load the Image Viewer click the Simulate button and a window opens with a File menu. Open the menu and use the file dialog box to pick a file to view. If you choose a directory, you must click the Open button to open that directory. If you want to upload your own image files, go to the Workspace and in the x-term window type "filexfer". This opens a window that allows you to upload files from you machine to the HUBzero file system.

METS Page Turner is a simple app on the surface but how it displays the page images is interesting. First, when you click on the icon on the right or choose the text on the left and then click "Launch Tool", you get the simulation environment that HUBzero calls Rappture. You have some options on the left. At the top is a list of books, sheet music, etc. in the middle is the scale (type in 1000 for instance) and at the bottom you can display one or two pages. To run, click the Simulate button. When finished with the page turner, close the window and return to the Rappture page. You need to make a change in one of the options on the left, then you can run the Simulation again. What's interesting is that the document you choose is a link to a METS file on one of IU's Fedora Repository servers. The tool parses the XML, finds the image files which are also on Fedora and then displays the images back in the page turner.

These tools just show another way to get data into HUBzero. Bruce Bartons's Repository Browser is a Joomla plugin while the tools I worked on are Rappture tools. Both do similar things but in slightly different ways. This gives us a view of some of the choices we have with tools in the HUBzero environment.

If you have any questions or problems, let me know. wgcowan@indiana.edu

–
Will

William G. Cowan
Associate Director
Digital Library Software Development
Herman B. Wells Library
Indiana University