Slides from Society of American Archivists 2011. Presents a model crosswalk between AT (Archivists' Toolkit) to XTF (a search engine created by California Digital Library).

1. An AT-XTF Workflow for
Presentation and Search
Al Matthews
Software Developer,
Atlanta University Center,
Robert W. Woodruff Library

2. Workflow
Summary
• AT -> EAD -> XTF

3. Clarification of Terms
AT: Archivists’ Toolkit
EAD: Encoded Archival Description
XTF: Extensible Text Framework

4. Clarification of Terms
AT: Archivists’ Toolkit
EAD: Encoded Archival Description
XTF: Extensible Text Framework
[ web app, which
1) Creates HTML from our EAD

5. Clarification of Terms
AT: Archivists’ Toolkit
EAD: Encoded Archival Description
XTF: Extensible Text Framework
[ web app, which
1) Creates HTML from our EAD
2) Indexes EAD (XML) for search ]

6. Deployments
• Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection
• Maynard Jackson Mayoral Administration Collection
• Tupac Amaru Shakur Collection
• Voter Education Project

7. An Example XTF Deployment

8. Doesn’t This “Just Work?”
Not really.
• Considerations:
– Tech Spec Differences
– Plain Old Bugs
– Customization

9. Essential Changes #1: Validation
• XTF Expects EAD DTD
• AT Generates EAD Schema
• Exigent Solution:
– Modify Default Namespace in XTF Declarations
– [ https://groups.google.com/d/topic/xtf-
user/OkuAxFdHyZM/discussion ]

10. Nota Bene: Essential Changes #1B
• It appears that I have not previously recorded,
that XTF appears to expect the following
additional structure from AT-formatted EAD:
ead/archdesc/dsc/head
This is not present for us in AT 1.5.9.
We’ve been adding one accordingly.

11. Changes #2: Rebrand
• It’s easy.
1) Add icons to [xtf] / icons
2) Change reference in [xtf] / brand

12. Changes #3: Data Returns
Our changes:
• Box-Folder information
• Additional <controlaccess> calls
• Fix AT (1.5.9 e.g.) character escaping
<chronlist><chronitem>
• Physical Locations (DAOs)

13. Changes #4: Interface changes
Internal requirements:
• Custom search examples
• Changes to browse interface
– Fire off a search?browse-all=yes
– Suppression of google-style search
– Additional suppressions (sort-by-author, e.g.)

14. Changes #5: Returns Formatting
What About Print?
• RWWL is moving toward “Print View” as
substitute for new paper finding aids.
• Direct changes to XSL output are:
– Inelegant
– Decentralized
• Wanted: abstraction

15. Summary
Workflow
• AT -> EAD -> XTF
Watch your fields (author, creator, e.g.)
Test, retest, and deploy

16. Thank you.
Al Matthews
prolepsis@gmail.com
(337) 214-4688 @google-voice
I also live online at http://fatmilktv.com