Installing Scriblio 2.3

Note: Cross-posted at Remaining Relevant.

Preparation

Be sure your Apache installation has mod_rewrite enabled.
Download and install Wordpress 2.3.1
Set your permalinks. Do this through Options -> Permalinks; personally, I like numeric. When you save, pay attention to the prompt regarding the .htaccess file - if it says that you must update it yourself, do so! (this may mean you have to create it.) If it says it’s been updated, you’re good.
Be sure your wp-content folder is web-writable.
It’ll be easier for you to switch to the Classic Theme instead of the Default theme.

Make it Scriblio

Download bSuite and place it in your wp-content/plugins/ folder. Then enable it in your blog’s dashboard -> Plugins.
Download the Scriblio plugin. I recommend getting the files from the svn depository, either by installing Subversion or by copying all the files in the trunk into a scriblio folder in your plugins folder. If you go this route, be sure to get them all including the import directory and all its contents.
Activate the Scriblio plugin and the Scriblio Catalog Importer. Optionally, you can also activate the Scriblio III Catalog Importer (only useful if you’re working with a Innovative Interfaces ILS). I’m going to continue these instructions with the Scriblio Catalog Importer.

Bring in the catalog

Let’s import some records. Choose the Scriblio Catalog Importer in Manage -> Import. And follow the instructions. If you don’t have a MARC export handy, you can try it with mine.
If the records import and harvest with no problems, go to Presentation -> Widgets.
This is all customizable, but for demonstration, scroll to the very bottom and choose five or so Scriblio facets.
Drag the Search, Scrib Search Editor, Scrib Scope Selector, Scrib Spelling, and a few Scrib Facets into the sidebar.
Fill in the text boxes of the Search Editor, Scrib Spelling, and Scope Selector. You can see what facets are available to you in the Options -> Scriblio screen. Try auth in one, subj in one, format in another. Save.
Go to Options->Scriblio and Rebuild Spelling Table.
Let’s try some searches–you should see facets and other goodies in the sidebar.
Now play around with themes and widgets to customize.

By Lichen | October 30, 2007 – 10:49 pm | Comments (15)

Sweet victory

Update: These instructions refer to the pre-2.3 version, and many steps do not apply to the current version.

Scriblio is truly in beta form. We released it before it was all polished and buffed in order to get some feedback and start building some community around it. That, of course, comes with some frustrations. Despite my own involvement with the project, when you first saw it, I first saw it too. And, like many of you, my download/installation/configuration had a few false starts. But, as of Friday I am proud to report that I’ve successfully conquered the beast. Here’s my experience:

First, my goods: I’m running Apache 1.3.33, PHP version 5.2.0, and MySQL 5.0.24.

Here’s an annotated process:

Be sure your Apache installation has mod_rewrite enabled.
Download and install Wordpress 2.2.2. Note that 2.2.2 is NOT the current release. The current version, 2.3, is brand new and includes a bunch of changes that need to be accommodated in Scriblio - more on that later.
Take time to get familiar with the dashboard components and set your permalinks. Do this through Options -> Permalinks; personally, I like Numeric. When you save, pay attention to the prompt regarding the .htaccess file - if it says that you must update it yourself, do so! (this may mean you have to create it.) If it says it’s been updated, you’re good.
Download bsuite_core and place it in your wp-content/plugins/ folder. Then enable it in your blog’s dashboard/Plugins/.
Repeat that process with bsuite_btags.
Repeat again with the Scriblio plugin. I recommend getting the files from the svn depository, either by installing Subversion or by copying all the files in the trunk into a scriblio folder in your plugins folder. If you go this route, be sure to get them all including the import directory and all its contents.
Create a Page that will provide the foundation for your catalog data. I went with ‘catalog’.
Go to Options -> Scriblio and select that page as the browse base.
I passed on the Scriblio theme and stuck with Default, but be sure to enable the Scriblio widget. That’s in Presentation -> Widgets. I dragged the Search widget into ‘Sidebar 1′, followed by the Scriblio widget.
Download the starter content to your local desktop.
Verify that your wp-content folder is writable by the server and import demo_content.xml via Manage -> Import -> Wordpress. When prompted choose ‘Submit’ and 61 records should be imported.
Check out the front page and you should see a default Welcome post and a Harry Potter Series post that comes with the starter content. Try a search on ‘potter’. The default is to search both blog and catalog content, so all should show. Then limit to catalog items, then limit to blog & pages. (There’s only one result, so it automatically shows that post. If things don’t look right, go to Options -> bsuite and Re-initialize tables and Rebuild bsuite metadata index in that order.
That should do it. If you’re feeling brave, try and import some MARC records. They must have a .mrc extension and be placed in the wp-content/plugins/scriblio/import/data. Mine is 030807.mrc. Then go to Options -> Scriblio -> MARC File Importer. The file name is data/030807.mrc; the second field is any two letter for identification; the last is the map to the unique id. Import and wait for it to finish, and then ‘Import harvested data’ to make the new records show in the system.

By Lichen | September 30, 2007 – 12:35 pm | Comments (5)

Classic Vonnegut!

I haven’t talked about it nearly enough, but there’s great stuff going on at tamworthlibrary.org, our first public library using Scriblio. Today, we had our first comment on a catalog record:

Just borrowed this book. Classic Vonnegut! For anyone who enjoys his writing, or for those of you who have never read any of his books, borrow this. You won’t be disappointed!

By Lichen | June 2, 2007 – 9:24 am | Comments (0)