Quick Start

This short guide will help in getting the eXtensible Catalog Drupal Toolkit up and running as fast as possible. It also aids in understanding some of the more basic and fundamental concepts necessary for successful usage of the modules. Although a more in-depth overview of the installation process may be necessary to understand some of the concepts put forth and to better manage the Drupal Toolkit, that information is covered in other documentation pages.

There are five basic steps to get the Drupal Toolkit up and running:

1. Installation
2. Configuration
3. Harvesting
4. Indexing
5. Node generation

Installation

There are two methods to install the Drupal Toolkit. Both are Drupal-based. The first method is how most Drupal modules are installed. We call this a "Manual" (as in "hands-on") installation. The second method uses the Drupal Toolkit installation profile. We call this a "Profile" (as in "installation profile") installation.

Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. If you already have an existing Drupal installation running and need to use the same site for the Drupal Toolkit, you should use the Manual installation. Otherwise, you may want to get started as fast as possible by using the Profile installation.

Manual Installation

• Works on existing sites
• Requires configuration
• Requires choosing which XC modules to install

Steps:

1. Install Drupal (instructions)
2. Download XC themes (download)
3. Download required modules (instructions)
4. Download XC modules (download)
5. Install and configure Solr (instructions)
6. Enable desired XC theme (instructions)
7. Enable desired XC modules (instructions)

Profile Installation

• Creates a new site
• Requires only a minimal amount of configuration
• All XC modules are installed automatically

Steps:

1. Download XC themes (download)
2. Download required modules (instructions)
3. Download XC modules (download)
4. Download XC installation profile (download)
5. Install and configure Solr (instructions)
6. Install Drupal Toolkit installation profile (instructions)

Installation Scripts

For those wanting an even quicker start, BASH scripts are provided in the Drupal Toolkit installation profile package for each installation method.

• xc_manual_installation.sh (view)
• xc_profile_installation.sh (view)

These scripts provide a command-line interface to assist you in downloading, extracting, and installing all requirements.

Configuration

After installation, the next step is to configure desired settings within the Drupal Toolkit. As noted earlier, the Manual installation requires much more configuration than the Profile installation. However, the Profile installation will configure default settings for an XC demo site, which you may not want.

The XC Core module includes a "Setup Checklist" to aid in configuration. This list covers some of the most common configuration options, which are both are system-wide and module-specific:

• Site Settings
• Theme Settings
• Solr and SQL Storage Locations
• Schemas, Formats, and Content Types
• OAI Harvester Repositories and Schedules
• NCIP and ILS Settings
• Login Forms, Blocks, and Pages
• User Permissions

Since an entire section in the documentation pages is devoted to this topic, please refer to this page for more information. Otherwise, follow the Setup Checklist to complete configuration.

Harvesting

All configuration settings are important. However, the settings that effect harvesting, indexing, and node generation have an impact on perhaps the most daunting and time-consuming processes within the Drupal Toolkit. For those harvesting large sets of metadata records, it is important to have a full understanding of the scheduled harvest settings, which are described in detail on the harvesting documentation page.

Once your settings are well-configured, you can begin harvesting. Harvesting, simply put, involves fetching metadata records from OAI repositories. Once fetched, these records must be stored somewhere and the most obvious place is in the Drupal database.

Throughout this process, the most important thing to remember is to be patient. Depending on your harvesting settings, the number of records harvested, the speed of the HTTP connection, and the computing powers of your server, the harvesting process may take up to hours or even days to complete. For more information on the harvesting process, read the related documentation page.

Indexing

To take advantage of the advanced searching, browsing, and faceting features, metadata records, once harvested, must also be indexed by a configured Solr server. This occurs automatically with most post-harvest settings, as they are not only configured to retrieve and store records, but to also prepare those metadata records to be searched, which includes indexing.

If you did not choose to index metadata records after harvesting or if you would like to re-index harvested records, you can do so within the Solr settings. For more information, view the documentation on Solr setup and indexing settings.

As with harvesting, indexing may also take a very long time, so remember to be patient. If you have concerns on whether the process has frozen, you may want to first check your Solr server and system logs.

Node Generation

To make use of metadata records within Drupal, these records must also be converted into nodes. This involves pairing the information stored in a metadata record with a node object. More information is provided on the documentation page detailing the harvesting process.

Metadata records must be made into nodes to be viewed within Drupal; for example, when returned in the results of a search. This also allows metadata records to take advantage of numerous node-related features added to Drupal by contributed modules, such as the Printer, E-mail, and PDF Versions module.

For many reasons beyond the scope of this guide, the node creation process is and will remain slow. In fact, separating the harvesting and indexing from the node generation process was done in part to increase the performance of the entire setup process. Therefore, as with harvesting and indexing, you should be patient throughout the node generation process; particularly, after harvesting large sets of records.