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Running the GS3 web services demo-client application

In this document,

Sections

A What you need

B Obtaining the GS3 web services demo-client

Choose one of the following three methods:

C Compiling the client

NOTE: This step is not necessary if you have downloaded the zip/tar.gz containing the executable. It's only necessary if you want to try compiling it up yourself, or if you want to make changes to the code then need to compile it.
  1. Open a Linux x-term or Windows DOS-prompt and navigate into the top-level folder of the gs3-webservices-democlient.
  2. Now, if you've made changes to the code, type
    ant build-demo-client
    to create the executable jar file. If you want to recompile it from scratch, type
    ant clean
    ant build-demo-client
    If you want a list of other available ant commands (targets), type
    ant
    or
    ant usage
  3. Run the client application as described below.

D Running the gs3-webservices-democlient

Once you've got an executable version--either by compiling it yourself or by having downloaded a zipped version containing the executable jar-file--you can run the client application.
  1. To be able to run the client, go into the unzipped gs3-webservices-democlient folder it would have created. And follow whichever of the steps below is applicable to you:
  2. Continue on with the section How To Use The Client, below.

E How To Use The Client - a brief description

Once you have the application running, the application window should open up.
  1. At the top, select the Digital Library you want to connect to from the drop-down list.
    (If you don't have Fedora installed, the choosing the Fedora option will not make the connection to a Fedora server. See this page for details on installing Fedora and for links to the official Fedora installation instructions page.)
  2. Once you're connected to the digital library, the available collections can be viewed in the collection drop-down box. Select one you want.
  3. The list of Query and Browse services available for a chosen collection are visible in the service drop down box. If you choose a Browse service the Browse tab will open and you can browse on the different classifiers represented by the buttons at the top of the Browse tab.

F General information on the GS3-webservices-democlient

Query services are available for collections in the Greenstone digital library. If you have Fedora Generic installed next to Fedora, there will also be Query services available for the Fedora digital library. (If you have a Fedora repository, see Installing Fedora Generic Search for installation steps.)
If you select a Query service, a form will be displayed in the Query tab. Fill in the query form, hit the search button and you'll be taken to the Search results (if any) in the Search tab.

The search results are documents that you can click on. If they have a hierarchical structure then the documents can be expanded further.

You can view the metadata associated with selected documents (or classifications) in both the Browse and Query tabs.

G Running the client on a remote machine

This section is on how to run the client on one computer when the QBRSOAPServer web services have been deployed on a remote machine.
Assuming you have the QBRSOAPServer web services deployed on the Greenstone 3 server (as described in Getting web services running on the Greenstone 3 server) on one machine, your gs3-webservices-democlient can access these services if you install this client application on another machine.
  1. If you haven't already done so, deploy the QBRSOAPServer web services on one computer.
  2. Point your web browser to the http://HOST:PORT/greenstone3/services page (substitute the host and port on which your Greenstone server resides).
  3. Write down the URL address of "wsdl" link next to the QBRSOAPServer web service. (You can either click on the wsdl link and copy the url from the browser's address bar or hover over the link and rightclick>copy address location.) You need the url of the QBRSOAPServer web services' wsdl file in order to get your client application to work with it later (Step 7).
  4. Move to another computer.
  5. Download the client application as described in the section Obtaining The gs3-webservices-democlient above.
  6. Run the client as described in the section Running the gs3-webservices-democlient
  7. Then, follow on the steps in the section "How To Use The Client" BUT when you choose to connect to the Greenstone digital library, you will need to type in the wsdl url of the QBRSOAPServer web services deployed on the remote machine running the Greenstone 3 server. This is the wsdl url that you made a note of in step 3.