Systems Planning Homepage MWeb Homepage MWeb Administrator's Guide - How MWeb Works - Getting Started 1. Configuring the Project - Integrated Searching - Project Setup - Changing Subsets - Changing Search Categories - Changing Stopwords - Adding Additional Users - 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 Messages - Changing Layouts - Changing CSS Stylesheets - Using XML and XSLT 4. Using MWeb Features - Sorting Search Results - Direct Access 5. Administering MWeb - Basic Tasks - Keeping Records - Administrator Control Center - User Administration - Reporting Problems - Performance Appendix 1: Express Setup Appendix 2: Standard Setup Appendix 3: Reference - Interface Options - Security - Browsers and Standards - Error Messages - Character Encodings - Installation Details - Uninstalling & Reinstalling Appendix 4: Troubleshooting MWeb Glossary Contact Us

MWeb™ Universal Administrator's Guide

Introduction

Welcome to MWeb!

Welcome, and thank you for using MWeb Universal! We hope this document provides the information you need to make MWeb Universal work for your organization. Please email us if there is anything missing or unclear, using the contact information at the bottom of this page.

How MWeb Works

MWeb Universal works by having passing on the users' search requests to Database Connectors on each server hosting a Database. The Database Connectors find the data and return it in XML format. MWeb then displays the results. MWeb and each Database can all be on separate servers, all on the same server, or any other configuration.

MWeb refers to the collection of Databases you plan to search as the Project. Each Project has a Project Owner who has the authority to create and make changes to the Project.

MWeb never makes any changes of any kind to your Databases. It uses Control Tables to store all the information it requires.

Capitalized terms in our documentation indicate terms with precise meanings. The most important ones are defined in the MWeb Glossary.

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Getting Started

To get started with MWeb, first install it, then configure the Database(s). Then you are ready to go. Other configuration and design options can come later.

Express Setup

MWeb makes things easy if you have a simple Project, that is, one that meets these requirements:

  1. The Project has only one Database
  2. The Database is one of these types:
    • A MARC Database. See More About MARC Databases for the definition of a MARC Database.
    • A PastPerfect Database on the PP Server (running on the PastPerfect server)
    • A Self-Hosted PastPerfect Database (running on your own server)
    • An MWeb Enterprise Database (future)
    • (Others will be added in later releases)
  3. The Database will be on the same server as MWeb runs on.
  4. The server does not require programs and data to be in areas with special names. The MWeb installer creates a set of directories using its default names. If you want or need to use different names, you will need to install manually using these instructions.
  5. It is doubtful that any shared-hosting service would allow the installation program to run. You will have to install and configure these manually using these instructions.

If this describes your situation, everything you need to do is on the Express Setup page. Express Setup installs exactly the same system as the Normal Setup, so you can reconfigure or add more Databases to your Project later.

Normal Setup

Configuring a Project on multiple servers or with multiple Databases in such as way that searchers achieve the best results is a bit more complicated. Here is an overview:

  1. Install the software
  2. Configure the Project to optimize integrated searching
  3. Add the Databases
  4. (Optional) Modify the appearance of the user interface
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