keywords management

[Theu]

As an archaeologist responsible for the management of large datasets,
I've found RS to be the (nearly) perfect tool available. Except maybe
the way that keywords are managed: at the moment, lists of keywords
are stored in options boxes, which is fine for basic requirements.
Would it be a lot of work to redesign RS so that keywords can be
fetched in an external table? I'm currently using Dadabik php scripts
(www.dadabik.org) to handle my archives indexes, which allow for such
a choice between option box or external table. This would be a very
useful feature which will open RS to other existing databases.

In the same line of thought, the "Country" keywords always appear as
check boxes in the advanced search form, whatever field type is
selected the system setup (for instance drop down list). How can I
change this (or is it a bug in my installation)?

For small non-profit organization such as that I work for, RS is
really a gift and it can change the way we work and communicate our
knowledge. So many thanks to the conceptors.

[Dan Huby]

Hi Theu,

I'm glad you have found ResourceSpace to be useful.

> Would it be a lot of work to redesign RS so that keywords can be
> fetched in an external table?

No, this wouldn't be a lot of work. I'd implement this as a new
question type called something like "Checkbox list - custom SQL" and a
configuration option is a text box where SQL is entered. The SQL is
executed to generate the option list.

> In the same line of thought, the "Country" keywords always appear as
> check boxes in the advanced search form, whatever field type is
> selected the system setup (for instance drop down list). How can I
> change this (or is it a bug in my installation)?

Both the dropdown and checkbox list types appear as checkbox lists in
the advanced search - it's by design so you can select multiple
options to widen your search. A resource may only have one option
selected in a dropdown box but when searching you might want to find
resources that have one keyword set OR another keyword set, hence the
multiple selection.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[Theu]

Perfect! a custom SQL text box to populate the option list would
exactly fit my requirements.

About the checkbox list in advanced search, I did not pay attention
that the dropdown list did not allow multiple selections: would it be
hard to implement (dropdown list with multiple selections)? It's not
uncommon to have lists of keywords with dozens of items, which makes a
lot of checkboxes to display (for instance, hundred of archaeological
sites in a given region).
I know that the issue of controlled vocabulary is quite complex,
especially hierarchical keywords. Do you think RS will develop with a
robust and scalable system of keywords management? I guess it is not a
priority for most users.

Not only ResourceSpace is useful, but in my (limited) area of
expertise, ie archaeology, I know only few institutions that have a
very robust system to manage and disseminate digital data and RS could
be an adequate answer to most of our needs. Unfortunately, it is not
big market from a business point of view since archaeologists are
poor...