The eXtensible Catalog (XC) Drupal Toolkit

The eXtensible Catalog Organization is working to design and develop a set of open-source applications that will provide libraries with an alternative way to reveal their collections to library users.

Please visit our project website at http://www.extensiblecatalog.org for a more complete overview of the eXtensible Catalog project and the software we are creating. Additionally, there is an overall XC mailing list, not just for the Drupal Toolkit, but other toolkits and topics, available at http://www.extensiblecatalog.org/mailinglist.

Drupal Toolkit

The eXtensible Catalog (XC) Drupal Toolkit manages the content and functionality library websites in one easy package with Drupal. This toolkit integrates searchable library metadata, ILS circulation services and library website content into a feature‐rich web user interface. The Drupal Toolkit:

• Provides a single user interface for searching across ILS, digital repository, and library web page content.
• Implements innovative faceted browse features
• Offers powerful tools to build web applications that tie into ILS content and functionality
• Integrates fully with an existing ILS to display live circulation status and place requests in the circulation system
• Works with existing authentication systems such as the ILS patron database and LDAP servers

The Drupal Toolkit is a modular system that handles the creation and manipulation of metadata in accordance to the XC schema format within the Drupal content management system by:

• Defining metadata
• Importing and exporting metadata
• Storing and retrieving metadata
• Searching metadata
• Extending and modifying metadata
• Controlling user access to metadata
• Generating fully customizable XHTML and CSS output

Drupal 7 Support

In January 2012, Ron Jerome (rjerome) created a Drupal 7 version of OAI Harvester and XC Utility modules. The main purpose of this is to create an opportunity to harvest OAI-PMH data providers under Drupal 7.

Theming

A default theme, also used on our demo site, is available at its Drupal project page: http://drupal.org/project/xc_theme.

Screencast

A screencast is available at: http://www.screencast.com/users/eXtensibleCatalog (the second part is about the Drupal modules).

Issues, Bugs, and Feature Requests

As with all other software toolkits within the eXtensible Catalog system, the Drupal Toolkit primarily uses an external public issue tracking system where you can go to submit issues, bugs, and feature requests or explore past submissions and their resolutions.