Systems Planning Homepage MWeb Homepage MWeb Administrator's Guide - How MWeb Works - Getting Started 1. Configuring the Project - Integrated Searching - Project Setup - Subsets - Search Categories - Stopwords - Linking to MWeb - Moving or Deleting a Project 2. Configuring Databases - Types of Databases - Adding Databases - Configuring Features - Configuring Tables - Configuring Subsets - Configuring Fields - Indexing a Database - Maintaining the Index - Testing the Database - If a Database Changes - Deleting a Database - Databases with Images, Part 1 - Databases with Images, Part 2 - Advanced Relational Topics - More about MARC Databases 3. Configuring the Interface - Introduction - Customizing the Splash Screen - Changing Layouts - Adding a Logo - Changing Messages - Changing CSS Stylesheets - Using XML and XSLT 4. Using MWeb Features - Sorting Search Results - Direct Access - Using HTML Tags in Data 5. Administering MWeb - Basic Tasks - Keeping Records - Administrator Control Center - User Administration - Reporting Problems - Performance Appendix 1: Installation Appendix 2: Reference - Interface Options - Security - Browsers and Standards - Error Messages - Character Encodings - Installation Details - Uninstalling & Reinstalling Appendix 3: Troubleshooting MWeb Glossary Contact Us

MWeb™ Universal Administrator's Guide


1. Configuring the Project

How MWeb Provides Integrated Searching

Although you may skip this information and reconfigure the Project after you have some experience with it, you will have less work in the long run if you configure the Project before adding Databases.

The exception to this is if your Project includes a MWeb Enterprise Database, PastPerfect-Online Database, or PastPerfect Export Database. In this case MWeb performs the initial configuration based on the first Database added. You should read this section, but you don't have to follow the procedures. For best results, the first Database added should be the most comprehensive one.

There are two goals that MWeb Universal must achieve. The first is to provide searchers with a cohesive "virtual database" comprising all the Databases in the Project. The second is to allow searchers to search for specific kinds of data when they have targeted information needs. Our aim is to make both kinds of searching so easy and the results so intuitive that no instructions are needed; however, this requires a certain amount of care in setting up the Project.

There are four factors that influence the success of searching multiple Databases.

Examples of Subsets
and Search Categories
  1. Subsets are divisions of the Databases based on type of content. For example, a library might have Subsets for Reference Collection, Juvenilia, Rare Books, and General Collection. An art museum might have Subsets for Artworks, Library Materials, and Archives. In other words, Subsets are groups of records, such as all records for archival material, or all rare-book records. Subsets are mutually exclusive: a record cannot belong to more than one Subset.
  2. Fields in the Databases are grouped into Search Categories; these are used only in MWeb's Advanced Search. Search Categories are groups of fields searched together, such as all titles, or all dates, or all placenames. For example, this allows the search to enter a search term in a "Creator" Search Category and retrieve artists, authors, illustrators, etc. The searcher does not need to know what kinds of creator fields might exist. This is especially important if the Project contains Databases with different data models. Search Categories are mutually exclusive: a field cannot belong to more than one Search Category.

In order for searches to retrieve meaningful results, the same sets of Subsets and Search Categories must be used in all Databases. For example, if one Database has a Search Category for "Persons" and another broke that into "Creators" and "Donors", then searches would not be retrieving equivalent information from the two Databases.

  1. Stopwords are words that should be ignored in searching. Normally Stopwords consist of articles, prepositions, and other common words. MWeb comes with a default Stopword list for English, but you may wish to alter this depending on the language of the data.
  2. Unlike the previous three, which are MWeb configuration settings, agreement on data values and controlled vocabularies is a huge and complex problem, possibly involving changes to the data stored in the Databases. The central issue is that if Databases use different terms for the same object or concept, searches may not find both objects or concepts. For example, if one Database uses the term "pottery" and the other uses "ceramics", then a search on either term will not find the other. This is not a problem MWeb can help with at present (but we have plans), but we bring it to your attention.

Project Setup

You are now ready to set up the Project. This is the first thing that is done after installation. If you have not yet installed the MWeb Universal software, do so now.

Before proceeding, you must allow MWeb to set cookies. Cookies are used to store the permissions, last query, and other information. Cookies are not saved between logons.

Next to some steps we add this symbol. It indicates information you will need to know later with exact spelling. Since this information may be hard to find, we recommend you record it as you go. We suggest you print the Project Worksheet to make this easier.

During installation you assigned your Project a Project Code and each of its Databases a Database Code. In our example we use the Project Code "uni".

If you have multiple MWeb Universal Projects on the same server (which requires multiple licenses), each Project must have a different Project Code.

To begin, in your browser, go to the following address (using your own domain name, of course):

     http://www.example.org/uni/

This will bring up a display where you will be asked for a few basic items of information (all of which can be changed later):

Project Name This will be the name of the Project used at the top of each display, and also as the title in each browser window. (You can change these two independently later.)
An Administrator user ID and password This ID and password will be the logon of the Project Owner. The Project Owner will have the highest level of privilege, including the ability to change search parameters, add other users, and generally control the system. Memorize this ID and the password, or write them down and keep them in a safe place. (If you lose your password, see Troubleshooting.)

The Order Number you received when you purchased MWeb Enter this Order Number exactly as given to you. (The Order Number is associated with your Project in the Systems Planning Registration Database.)

Note: If you ever upgrade to a later release of MWeb, you will use the Order Number of the upgrade purchase from then on.

Click the Save button to save the information you entered. You will then be asked to logon using the new Administrator ID and password.

Whenever you logon using the Administrator ID, you will see the Administrator Control Center. This is a display that lets you configure all aspects of the Project. Now you should proceed to setup the Subsets and Search Categories that will apply to all Databases; it is less work to do this before adding the Databases.

Subsets

In order to be meaningful when the user restricts a search to a Subset, Subsets must be defined for the Project as a whole. Therefore all Databases should use the same Subsets so as to provide a more uniform view to searchers. This means that searchers can select a Subset to search, such as "Archives", and find similar kinds of material from all the Databases in the Project.

We recommend that all material in the Database be assigned to a Subset, including authority files and controlled vocabularies such as artists, geographic names, and subject terms. Those not assigned a Subset will still be found in searches of the entire Database, but will not be found if the searcher specifies a Subset restriction. (Of course, a given Database need not have every Subset that the Project has.)

After creating Subsets for the Project, you will map the Subsets to some criterion in each Database to describe what the Subset means in that Database.

What is Subset Mapping?

A Subset is an abstract concept, such as "archives" or "rare books". Mapping means to explain to each Database how to implement this abstract concept. Here are some examples of mapping:

  • In a MARC Database, mapping would correlate some data in a MARC file to a Subset, such as "6xx=jazz" to the Jazz Subset.
  • In a Relational Database, mapping would correlate a table to a Subset, so that the ARCHIVES table was mapped to the Archives Subset.

Details on how to perform the mapping will be discussed later in Configuring Subsets.

Mapping (or any other MWeb function) does not and cannot make changes to your Databases. MWeb stores the mappings in its own Control Tables.


Initial configuration

If a MWeb Enterprise Database, PastPerfect Export Database, and PastPerfect-Online Database will be the first Database you add to your Project, MWeb will automatically generate your Project's Subsets from that Database. Therefore you may skip below to Search Categories.

If the first Database you will add to your Project is a MARC Database or Relational Database, Subsets are not automatically generated. You should use these instructions to add Subsets before adding Databases.

  1. In the Administrator Control Center, click the Subsets button.
  2. For each Subset you wish, click the Add New Subset button and fill in the sequence and name of the subset. You may change these at any time.

If this is the initial configuration, you may skip below to Search Categories.

Changing Subsets later

Adding, changing, or deleting Subsets in a Project is a two-step process:

  1. First change the Subset list for the Project. Your changes will propagate to all Databases in the Project.
  2. Then review the mapping of Subsets in each Database to ensure that searches will still retrieve what you wish.

Step 1: Changing Subsets in the Project

When you make a change to the Subset list, the change is immediately sent to each Database Server. Therefore, you should ensure that all Databases are available and online before changing the Subset list. They must not be opened exclusively by some other user.

To add, change, or delete Subsets, logon as the Project Owner. You will see the Administrator Control Center. Click the Subsets button to see the list of Subsets. It contains these fields:

ID The unique ID of this Subset (system generated)
Sequence The order this Subset displays in Keyword Search and Advanced Search
Name The name that displays in Keyword Search and Advanced Search

If you add or delete any Subsets, the Databases will need to be reindexed. Changes to the Sequence or Name do not require reindexing.

Step 2: Reviewing the mapping of Subsets in the Databases

When you add a new Subset, the change is propagated to all Databases in the Project. However, you still need to go into each Database and explain how the new Subset is mapped to the data. To do this, from the Administrator Control Center, click the Databases button to see the list of Databases. For each one, click the Configure button, then the Configure Subsets link. For each Subset, click the Edit button to change the mapping of that Subset.

Details on mapping are found in Configuring Subsets.

Search Categories

Search Categories are defined for the Project as a whole. Then the fields in each Database are mapped to the appropriate Search Category.

Whenever you add or change Search Categories, the changes must be mapped to the fields in all Databases. This can be done automatically by MWeb's Search Categories Wizard based on the names of the fields, or you can do it manually. The Wizard is much faster for you, but may not be as accurate as you might wish. We suggest using the Wizard the first time, then making any subsequent additions or changes by hand.

What is Search Category Mapping?

Search Categories are just groups of fields in your Database, so mapping is just assigning fields to a Search Category. The mappings that come with MWeb are shown in the table below.

Mapping (or any other MWeb function) does not and cannot make changes to your Databases. MWeb stores the mappings in its own Control Tables.

Mappings should be coordinated so that similar fields in each Database are mapped to the same Search Category. This will result in better search results from Advanced Searches. For the benefit of the end user we recommend no more than 15 Search Categories, and most Projects will not need that many; however, MWeb does not enforce any limit.

Each field in each Database must be assigned to a Search Category if you wish the field to be searchable.

The table below shows the Search Categories delivered with MWeb Universal. If you are familiar with the Dublin Core, you will notice that the MWeb's Search Category names are less role-oriented than Dublin Core metadata elements. We have found that roles are very hard to map to when merging Databases; in addition, we have found that searchers have trouble distinguishing among DC's roles (for example, are "corporate authors" creators, contributors, or publishers?). Instead we use Search Categories that everyone should be able to understand without explanation.

Sequence* Search Category name Fields mapped to this Search Category
1 Title Names and titles of things (artworks, books, etc.) including alternative titles of all kinds. Examples: Chinese vase, Antelope skull, Blue nude, Untitled, Chemical handbook, Studies in conservation series.
2 Person Artists, authors, donors, people as subjects. You may wish to include ethnic terms here or in #4.
3 Organization Corporate authors, publishers, sponsors, departments
4 Place Where made, where published, geographical coverage, or other geographic terms associated with the record. You may wish to include ethnic terms here or in #2.
5 Subject Topical subject terms, iconographic terms
6 Physical description Material, technique, format, dimensions, physical description, collation
7 Type/classification Object type, classification terms (but not library call numbers)
8 Date/period Creation dates, publication dates, periods, dynasties
9 Remarks Narrative descriptions, notes, remarks. If you ask MWeb to perform automatic mapping, this is the default Category for fields that cannot be assigned to another Category.
10 Identifier Unique identifiers for the record, including accession numbers and library call numbers

* Sequence is the order in which the Search Categories are displayed in Advanced Search.

Initial configuration

When you add Databases to the Project, they will be mapped to the Search Categories shown above.

Exception: if the first Database added is a MWeb Enterprise Database, PastPerfect-Online Database, or PastPerfect Export Database, the Search Categories are taken from that Database.

• For MWeb Enterprise Databases, Search Categories must be changed by Systems Planning if required; therefore it might be wise to use those as the Search Categories for the MWeb Universal Project as well. To do this, add the MWeb Enterprise Database to the Project first.

• For PastPerfect-Online Databases, you may change Search Categories during the export from PastPerfect. Changes will affect both the PastPerfect-Online database and the MWeb Universal database. To make MWeb Universal use the PPO Search Categories, add the PPO Database to the Project first.

• For PastPerfect Export Databases, you may change Search Categories during the export from PastPerfect. To make MWeb Universal use the PPO Search Categories, add the PPO Database to the Project first.

If the automatic mapping performed by MWeb when the Database is first added meets your needs, there is no need to do anything further. You may skip below to Stopwords.

Changing Search Categories

After you have some experience with the Project, you may wish to change some of the Search Categories. This is either a one- or two-step process:

Step 1: Changing Search Categories in the Project

First change the Search Category list for the Project. To change the Search Categories, logon as the Project Owner and click the Search Categories button in the Administrator Control Center. The list of Search Categories will appear. It contains these fields:

ID The unique ID of this Search Category (system generated)
Sequence The order this Search Category displays in the Advanced Search screen
Name The name that displays in the Advanced Search screen

If you added or delete any Search Categories, you have two choices:

  1. If you click Apply Adds/Deletes, your changes will propagate to all Databases in the Project, replacing any mapping you may have done by hand using the Configure Fields display. You should ensure that all Databases are available and online before changing the Search Category list. They must not be opened exclusively by some other user.
  2. Alternatively, to preserve your existing mapping, click Return to Administrator Control Center instead. Then configure each Database separately for the new or deleted Search Categories.

If you used only the Edit button to change the Sequences or Names of Search Categories, updating the Databases is not necessary. In this case, click the Return to Administrator Control Center button.

Step 2: Reviewing the mapping of Search Categories in the Databases

If you added any Search Categories, they must be mapped in each Database. From the Administrator Control Center, click the Databases button to see the list of Databases. For each one, click the Configure button, then the Configure Fields link. To change the mapping of a Field to a Search Category, click the Edit button.

When mapping, remember that a Field can be in only one Search Category.

If you added or deleted any Search Categories, the Databases will need to be reindexed. Changes to the Sequence or Name do not require reindexing.

Stopwords

Stopwords are defined once for the entire Project. MWeb Universal comes with a default Stopword list for common English words. You may want to add to this for words that are not meaningful in your Project. Stopwords do not affect phrase searching, so you may search for "history of france" in quotation marks as shown, even if "of" is a stopword.

Initial configuration

If the Stopword list that comes with MWeb Universal meets your needs, there is no need to do anything further.

Changing Stopwords later

After you have some experience with the Project, you may wish to change some of the Stopwords.

To change Stopwords, logon as the Project Owner and click the Stopwords button in the Administrator Control Center. The list of Stopwordswill appear. It contains these fields:

ID The unique ID of this Stopword (system generated)
Stopword The word to be ignored in Keyword Searches

When you make a change to the Stopword list, the change is immediately sent to each Database Server. Therefore, you should ensure that all Databases are available and online before changing the Stopword list. They must not be opened exclusively by some other user.

Stopword changes do not require reindexing.

Linking to MWeb from Your Website

You may direct users to MWeb from your main website or anywhere else.

Link to the Splash Screen

The normal link to MWeb is this:

     <a href='http://www.example.org/uni/'>Search the Collection</a>

This links to the default Splash Screen "Index.htm" that comes with MWeb (because during installation you configured IIS to look for Index.htm as the default page in the "Uni" directory). You can customize this Splash Screen.

In the above example, "www.example.org" represents your Project's URL, and "uni" is the Virtual Page Directory that was set up during installation. If you followed our recommendations, this will be the same as the Project Code. Of course, you can substitute any phrase you wish for "Search the Collection".

Link to the Keyword Search

If you want to bypass the Splash Screen and have the users go directly to the Keyword Search, use this link:

     <a href='http://www.example.org/unicgi/mwebuni.exe'>Search the Collection</a>

You are now ready to Add Databases to the Project.

Moving or Deleting a Project

You are free to use your MWeb Universal software for a different Project, provided you stop using it for the original Project.

If the new Project is on the same server as the original Project

Delete the following file from the server the MWeb Universal Main Module runs on:

  • /unidata/MWebUni.dat

Delete the following files from the Database servers:

  • /udcdata/MWebXML*.dat

Browse to the URL for MWeb (such as http://www.example.org/unicgi/MWebUni.exe). You will see the screen to setup a new Project.

When you set up the new Project, enter the domain of the original project (even if the same). Setting up the new Project will replace the old Project in our registration database; the old Project will not longer work.

If the new Project is on a different server from the original Project

Uninstall MWeb from the old server and install it on the new server, using the original installation files you downloaded when you bought MWeb.

When you set up the new Project, enter the domain of the original project (even if the same). Setting up the new Project will replace the old Project in our registration database; the old Project will not longer work.


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