ETD-db 2.0: Rewriting ETD-db

Sung Hee Park*†

Paul Mather †, Kimberli Weeks †, Collin Brittle†, Gail McMillan†, Edward Fox *

†Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries, Virginia Tech*Digital Library Research Lab, Computer Science, Virginia Tech

14th International Symposium on Electronic Theses & DissertationsSept. 15,2011, Cape Town, South Africa

ContentsIntroductionRequirementsDesignImplementationTestsSummary and Future Work

IntroductionETD-db 1.0

◦Workflow: submit, manage, search, brows

◦1995/97: James Powell, 1998/2001 Tony Atkins Technical Directors, VT Digital Library and

Archives◦Web applications, Perl, MySQL◦Improvements suggested by

Stakeholders (e.g., system admins, managers, authors)

R. Jones 2004 article compares DSpace & ETD-db

ETD-db 2.0New version of Virginia Tech’s ETD system Web application Ruby on Rails

◦ Model-View-Controller-based Web app framework ◦Any database◦Any server supported by Ruby on Rails

Major objectives of rewriting ETD-db1. Improve the original, powerful functionalities 2. Handle ETD collections more reliably and

securely

Use Cases

Blue: new use cases

Browser by Advisor

Browser by Author

Browser by Department

Browser by Year

Manage Available

Manage Submitted

Manage Withheld

Mail System

Generate html footer

Generate html header

Host OS system

Move Files

Generate_title_pages

Generate_browse_pages

Change Avaiabilty

Patron

Fulltext Search

Metadata Search

Withhold ETD

Approve ETD

Addison

ViewDeleteModity

Display Confirmation

Send Email

Upload Files

Fill Title PageShow Help Pages

ETD-db system

Report UsageReportETDStatisticsShow users

Modify users

Author

Reviewer

Administrator

Browse ETD

Search ETD

Review ETD

Catalog ETDs

Cataloger

Change ETD

Manage ETD

Submit ETD

Manage system

Login

Manager

Yellow: existing use cases

Add users

Manage users

Delete users

Major RequirementsImproving single password per role

◦ETD-db One password per role, multiple staff per role

◦More reliable and safer system Role management functionalities Finer-grained permissions

Supporting fine-grained access control ◦ETD-db

Database-level access permission control For example, ETD-db 1.0 has submitted, available, and withheld

ETD databases. ◦ETD-db 2.0

digital object-level and action-level access permission

Design

Author

(from Use Case View)

Reviewer

(from Use Case View)

Document Audio Video

Committee

Chair Co-chair Member

Cataloger

(from Use Case View)

Administrator

(from Use Case View)

Manager

(from Use Case View)

Content

Keyword Provenance

Person

Person_Role Action

DigitalObject

AvailabilityDescription CopyrightStatement DegreeDescription DoctypeDescription

DepartmentList

UrnRegistry

ETD

Role Permission

Designed ObjectsPerson

◦ Class neutral to roles ◦ Information about users

Role◦ Class neutral to person ◦ Information about the role itself

Permission◦ Class defines actions

Action ◦ Class describes activity like CRUD (Create, Read,

Update and Delete)Digital Object

◦ Class represents something such as metadata or content

Reference Metadata Schema

Authorization

Submission Process

Show ETDs by Author View

Implementation: Role Management

Administrative functionalities1. Register Digital Objects 2. Register Actions3. Register Roles4. Assign Permissions to Roles

Authorization for Multiple Roles1. Different users with the same role2. Same user with multiple roles

Implementation: Submission Process

ETD metadata◦Gets information from ED-ID◦Gets information from Banner ◦Gets information from VT-Specific Banner

ETD file(s)◦Multiple file uploads◦Various files types◦Designed as child classes

Committee members◦Roles◦Association with the Person model and the Role

model

Test Driven Development (TDD)Characteristics of the Ruby on RailsQuality First ModelTypes of tests we are using

1. Unit tests 2. Functional tests3. Integration tests

TDD in Ruby on RailsUnit Tests

◦Examine our models (objects)◦Models in the Model-View-Controller (MVC)◦Object oriented programming

Functional Tests◦Appropriate response to users’ requests?

Integration Tests ◦Study users’ workflow/scenarios/usages

Authentication

Authorization

Register New Staff

Register New Role

DiscussionStakeholder ETD-db 2.0 ETD-db 1.0System Administr-ators

More maintainable administrator functions like user role management

New import & export function for easier migration from existing repositories

Exploiting the state of the art agile web development paradigm – improved maintenance

Eliminates inconsistencies between the file structure and database

Supports explicit UTF-8 character set encoding Record log and audit files Incorporated features for BTDs (scanned bound

theses/dissertations)

Share a single password per each role (e.g., reviewer and system administrator)

Does not support import & export function Written in Perl scripts which provide software libraries

depending on back end database Does not support transaction processing Character set encoding is not strongly enforced, which

leads the inconsistent output Does not support log and audit files External PHP scripts support batch BTD loading into

ETD-db 1.0

Managers Safer, more reliable ‘change_availability’ process through concurrency control and transactional processing support

Better approval and release notification

Does not support transaction processing and relevant rollback.

Authors & Managers

Connection to Banner/HR system Provides authors with better feedback about progress and

submission status Supports explicit UTF-8 character set encoding

Does not connect to Banner/HR system

Cataloger &Reviewer

User role management and authentication (LDAP) Better queue management and notification Set date for automatic release notification Turn off or extend date for automatic release

Share a single username and password per each role Hardcoded release date and release by requests from staffs

or authors

Summary: System Admin View

More maintainable administrator functions New import & export functionExploiting agile web development

paradigm Eliminates inconsistencies between file

structure and databaseSupports explicit UTF-8 character setRecord log and audit filesIncorporated features for BTDs

Summary: Manager ViewSafer, more reliable ‘change_availability’

◦Concurrency control ◦Transactional processing support

Better approval and release notification

Summary: Author ViewConnection to Banner/HR systemAuthors get better feedbackSupports explicit UTF-8 character set

encoding

Summary: Cataloger & Reviewer ViewUser role management and authenticationBetter queue management and notificationSet date for automatic release notificationTurn off or extend date for automatic

release

Conclusion & Future WorkETD-db 2.0

◦ Improved ETD-db reliability and security◦ Benefits all stakeholders◦ State of the art Web development framework

Security◦ Fine-grained access control and increased audit logging◦ Eliminate inconsistencies between file structure and

database ◦ More reliable content management

Increase the consistency between contents and their metadata Ensure content integrity Version control

Plans and Future Work ◦ Access and integrate Banner system◦ Interview more users◦ Implement audit logging and provenance◦ Design import and export functions

19,315 VT ETDs as of Sept. 7, 2011 e.g., ETD-db (1997-2011) works really, really well

10,051 accessible worldwide [240

BTDs]52%

8,551 VT-only ac-cess [7,089 BTDs]

44%

102 mixed access1%

611 withheld from access

3%

ETD-db 2.0Comments? Questions?

Contact Sung Hee Parkshpark@vt.edu