Glossary
In this section we expand acronyms, define terms, and generally try
to explain concepts used by Evergreen software.
A
Apache
Apache
Open-source web server software used to serve both static
content and dynamic web pages in a secure and reliable way. More
information is available at
http://apache.org.
B
Bookbags
bookbags
Bookbags are lists of items that can be used for any number of
purposes. For example, to keep track of what books you have read,
books you would like to read, to maintain a class reading list, to
maintain a reading list for a book club, to keep a list of books you
would like for your birthday. There are an unlimited number of
uses.
C
CentOS
Linux
CentOS
A popular open-source operating system based on Red Hat
Enterprises Linux
(also known as "RHEL") and often used for in web servers. More
information is available at
http://www.centos.org.
Closure Compiler
A suite of open-source tools used to build web applications with
Javascript; originally developed by Google.
It is used to create special builds of the Evergreen Staff Client.
More information is available at
http://code.google.com/closure/compiler/.
CPAN
Perl
CPAN
An open-source archive of software modules written in
Perl. More information is available at
http://www.cpan.org.
D
Debian
Linux
Debian
One of the most popular open-source operating system using the
Linux kernel that provides
over 25000 useful precompiled software packages. Also known as
Debian GNU/Linux. More
information is available at
http://www.debian.org.
Domain name
domain name
A unique set of case-insensitive, alphanumeric strings
separated by periods that are used to name organizations, web sites
and addresses on the Internet (e.g.:
www.esilibrary.com). Domain names can be reserved via
third-party registration services, and can be associated with a
unique IP address or suite of IP addresses.
E
ejabberd
ejabberd
An open-source Jabber/XMPP instant messaging server that is
used for client-server message passing within Evergreen. It runs
under popular operating systems (e.g.,
Mac OSX,
GNU/Linux, and
Microsoft Windows). One
popular use is to provide XMPP messaging
services for a Jabber domain across an
extendable cluster of cheap, easily-replaced machine nodes. More
information is available at
http://www.ejabberd.im.
F
G
Gentoo
Linux
Gentoo
A popular open-source operating system built on the
Linux kernel. More
information is available at
http://www.gentoo.org.
H
I
IP Address
IP Address
(Internet Protocol address) A numerical label consisting of
four numbers separated by periods (e.g., "192.168.1.15") assigned to
individual members of networked computing systems. It uniquely
identifies each system on the network and allows controlled
communication between such systems. The numerical label scheme must
adhere to a strictly defined naming convention that is currently
defined and overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers ("ICANN").
Item/copy Buckets
copy buckets
item buckets
item buckets
copy buckets
Virtual containers
to use in batch processing
of item or copy records. They can be used to perform various
cataloging/holdings maintenance tasks in batch.
J
Jabber
jabber
XMPP
The communications protocol used for client-server message
passing within Evergreen. Now known as XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol), it was originally named "Jabber".
K
L
M
MARC
MARC
The MARC formats are standards for the representation and
communication of bibliographic and related information in
machine-readable form.
MARCXML
MARCXML
Framework for working with MARC data in a XML environment.
McCoy
An open-source application that allows add-on authors to
provide secure updates to their users. It is used to create special
builds of the Evergreen Staff Client. More information is available
at
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/McCoy.
memcached
memcached
A general-purpose distributed memory caching system, usually
with a client-server architecture spread over multiple computing
systems. It reduces the number of times a data source (e.g., a
database) must be directly accessed by temporarily caching data in
memory, therefore dramatically speeding up database-driven web
applications.
N
Network address
network address
ip address
Also known as an IP address (Internet Protocol address).
nsis
An open-source software tool used to create Windows
installers. It is used to create special builds of the Evergreen
Staff Client. More information is available at
http://nsis.sourceforge.net.
O
OPAC
OPAC
The "Online Public Access Catalog"; an online database of a
library's holdings; used to find resources in their collections;
possibly searchable by keyword, title, author, subject or call
number.
OpenSRF
OpenSRF
The "Open Scalable Request Framework" (pronounced 'open surf')
is a stateful, decentralized service architecture that allows
developers to create applications for Evergreen with a minimum of
knowledge of its structure.
P
Perl
Perl
The high-level scripting language in which most of the business logic of Evergreen is written.
PKI
PKI
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) describes the schemes needed
to generate and maintain digital SSL Certificates.
PostgreSQL
databases
PostgreSQL
A popular open-source object-relational database management
system that underpins Evergreen software.
PuTTY
SSH
Putty
A popular open-source telnet/ssh client for the Windows and
Unix platforms. As used in Evergreen, a handy utility used to create
an SSH Tunnel for connecting Staff Clients to Evergreen servers over
insecure networks. More information is available at
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.
Q
R
Resource Hacker
An open-source utility used to view, modify, rename, add,
delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables. It is
used to create special builds of the Evergreen Staff Client. More
information is available at
Resource Hacker
RHEL
Linux
RHEL
Also known as "Red Hat Enterprises
Linux". An official
Linux distribution that is
targeted at the commercial market. It is the basis of other popular
Linux distributions, e.g.,
CentOS. More information is
available at
http://www.redhat.com.
S
SIP
SIP
SIP (Standard Interchange Protocol) is a communications
protocol used within Evergreen for transferring data to and from
other third party devices, such as RFID and barcode scanners that
handle patron and library material information. Version 2.0 (also
known as "SIP2") is the current standard. It was originally
developed by the 3M Corporation.
srfsh
srfsh
A command language interpreter (shell) that executes commands
read from the standard input. It is used to test the Open Service
Request Framework (OpenSRF).
SRU
SRU
SRU (Search & Retrieve URL Service) is a search protocol
used in web search and retrieval. It expresses queries in Contextual
Query Language (CQL) and transmits them as a URL, returning XML data
as if it were a web page.
SRW
SRW
SRW (Search & Retrieve Web Service), also known as "SRU
via HTTP SOAP", is a search protocol used in web search and
retrieval. It uses a SOAP interface and expresses both the query and
result as XML data streams.
SSH
SSH
An encrypted network protocol using public-key cryptography
that allows secure communications between systems on an insecure
network. Typically used to access shell accounts but also supports
tunneling, forwarding TCP ports and X11 connections, and
transferring files.
SSH proxy
SSH
proxy
As used in Evergreen, a method of allowing one or more Staff
Clients to communicate with one or more Evergreen servers over an
insecure network by sending data through a secure SSH tunnel. It
also buffers and caches all data travelling to and from Staff
Clients to speed up access to resources on Evergreen servers.
SSH tunnel
SSH
tunneling
An encrypted data channel existing over an SSH network
connection. Used to securely transfer unencrypted data streams over
insecure networks.
SSL Certificate
SSL
As used in Evergreen, it is a method of ensuring that Staff
Clients are able to connect to legitimate Evergreen servers.
In general, it is a special electronic document used to
guarantee authenticity of a digital message. Also known as a "public
key", or "identity" or "digital" certificate. It combines an
identity (of a person or an organization) and a unique public key to
form a so-called digital signature, and is used to verify that the
public key does, in fact, belong with that particular
identity.
T
tunneling
tunneling
SSH tunneling
As used in Evergreen, it is a method of allowing Staff Clients
to securely connect to legitimate Evergreen servers.
In general, it is a method of encapsulating data provided in
one network protocol (the "delivery"protocol), within data in a
different network protocol (the "tunneling" protocol). Used to
provide a secure path and secure communications through an insecure
or incompatible network. Can be used to bypass firewalls by
communicating via a protocol the firewall normally blocks, but
"wrapped" inside a protocol that the firewall does not block.
U
Ubuntu
Linux
Ubuntu
A popular open-source operating system using the
Linux kernel that was
originally based on the
Debian GNU/Linux
operating system. More information is available at
http://www.ubuntu.com.
V
Virtualization
virtualization
A method of executing software in a special environment that
is partitioned or separated from the real underlying hardware and
software resources. In typical usage, it allows a
host operating system to encapsulate or emulate
a guest operating system environment in such a
way that the emulated environment is completely unaware of the
hosting environment. As used in Evergreen, it enables a copy of the
Linux operating system
running Evergreen software to execute within a
Windows environment.
VirtualBox
virtualization software
VirtualBox
A popular commercial package of virtualization software that
emulates the x86 microprocessor architecture. It can be installed on
Linux,
Mac OS X,
Windows or
Solaris "host" operating
systems and allows other "guest" (typically including
Linux and
Windows) operating systems
to be loaded and executed.
Virtual PC
virtualization software
Virtual PC
A popular commercial package of virtualization software that
emulates the x86 microprocessor architecture. It is installed on a
Windows "host" operating system and allows other "guest" (typically
including Linux and
Windows) operating systems
to be loaded and executed.
VMware
virtualization software
VMware
A popular commercial package of virtualization software that
emulates the x86 microprocessor architecture. It can be installed on
Linux,
Mac OS X,
Windows or
Solaris "host" operating systems
and allows other "guest" (typically including
Linux and
Windows) operating systems
to be loaded and executed.
Volume Buckets
volume buckets
Virtual containers
to use in batch processing
of multiple volumes. They can be used to perform various
cataloging/holdings maintenance tasks in batch.
W
Wine
Linux
Wine
A popular open-source application that allows
Linux and
Unix
systems to run Windows
executables. More information is available at
http://www.winehq.org/.
X
XML
XML
The eXtensible Markup Language, a subset of SGML; a set of
rules for encoding information in a way that is both human- and
machine-readable. It is primarily used to define documents but can
also be used to define arbitrary data structures. It was originally
defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
XMPP
XMPP
jabber
The open-standard communications protocol (based on XML) used
for client-server message passing within Evergreen. It supports the
concept of a consistent domain of message types
that flow between software applications, possibly on different
operating systems and architectures. More information is available
at http://xmpp.org.
xpath
xpath
The XML Path Language, a query language based on a tree
representation of an XML document. It is used to programmatically
select nodes from an XML document and to do minor computation
involving strings, numbers and Boolean values. It allows you to
identify parts of the XML document tree, to navigate around the
tree, and to uniquely select nodes. The currently version is "XPath
2.0". It was originally defined by the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C).
XUL
xUL
The XML User Interface Language, a specialized interface
language that allows building cross-platform applications that drive
Mozilla-based browsers such as
Firefox. More information is available at
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XUL.
xulrunner
XULRunner
A specialized run-time application environment that provides
support for installing, upgrading and uninstalling
XUL applications. It operates with
Mozilla-based applications such as the
Firefox browser. More information is
available at
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XULRunner.
Y
YAZ
yaz
A programmers’ toolkit supporting the development of
Z39.50 / SRW / SRU clients and servers.
yaz
yaz-client
A Z39.50/SRU client for connecting to YAZ servers.
More information is available at
http://www.indexdata.com/yaz/doc/yaz-client.html
Z
Z39.50
Z39.50
An international standard client–server protocol for
communication between computer systems, primarily library and
information related systems.