CIC: Historic Campus Architecture Project

The CIC Historic Campus Architecture Project (HCAP) collection contains records from a survey of architecture in colleges represented by CIC. A Microsoft Access database contains the textual information from the survey, and also links to the place images (stored separately).

Configuration

The HCAP collection was developed with Greenstone v2.62, and is unlikely to work with other versions. It does not have a collection-specific receptionist, but has a collection-specific plugin and highly customised macrofiles.

The steps involved to install this collection on a new computer are:

  1. Install Greenstone v2.62.
  2. Copy the place images from the CIC server onto the computer.
  3. Copy the "cic-hcap" collection folder into the Greenstone "collect" directory.
  4. Copy the "cic-hcap\main.cfg" file into the Greenstone "etc" directory.
  5. Copy the "cic-hcap\bin\windows\perl\lib\DBI.pm" file into the Greenstone "bin\windows\perl\lib" directory.
  6. Copy the "cic-hcap\bin\windows\perl\site" directory into the Greenstone "bin\windows\perl" directory.
  7. Copy the current version of the database into the "cic-hcap\import" folder.
  8. Create an ODBC Data Source for the collection database:

    Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources (ODBC)

    Add Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) source "CIC-HCAP" for the collection database (in the "cic-hcap\import" directory).

Rebuilding the collection

  1. Close Microsoft Access if it is running. (You should not edit the database while the collection is building).
  2. Run the Greenstone Local Library (Start -> Program Files -> Greenstone Digital Library -> Greenstone Librarian Interface).
  3. Open the "CIC Historic Campus Architecture Project" collection.
  4. Change to the Design pane, then choose "Document Plugins", then configure the "CICPlug" plugin. Check that the "-images_directory" and "-cache_directory" options are correct, and the "-michael_mode" option isn't on.
  5. Change to the Create pane and click "Build Collection". Check the building output for errors.
  6. Click "Preview Collection" to view the built collection.

Implementation notes

The key files for this collection are:
etc/collect.cfg
Contains format statements for generating the place, institution and designer display pages.

macros/extra.dm
Contains macros for the customised look of the collection and all of the static pages.

perllib/plugins/CICPlug.pm
This plugin uses DBI to extract the places, institutions and designers out of the database; processes the place images; and writes the static macrofiles for the browse pages.

Editing collection text

Static text within the collection can be changed by editing the macros/extra.dm file. Search for the text you want to change and edit it, taking care with HTML tags.

Refresh the browser window to see the effect of your changes (you do not need to restart the Greenstone Local Library).