SFX v2.0 Features
January 2003
SFX Administrative enhancements
A significant focus of SFX v2.0 development has been to facilitate the setup
and ongoing maintenance of an SFX server; whilst maintaining the flexibility
and power of SFX for those wishing to avail themselves of the advanced capabilities.
- New tools to facilitate initial KnowledgeBase (KB) setup:
- Lookup tool: preprocessing of local subscription data
- TargetMatcher tool: match local subscriptions with KB content
- Proxy and CrossRef setup available through web interface
- Centralized username and password management (no longer stored within parse params)
- Tool for exporting KB content eg XML and HTML export for e-journals and e-books
- Profile-based access to SFXAdmin functions eg read-only access to certain functions.
- Enhanced debugging tools
- Enhanced tool for managing thresholds
- Improved management of IP information
- KBUpdate: more automated procedures; improved reporting
SFX API
A fully documented API that will enable server-to-server communication. The
SFX API can be used by a third-party application wishing to request SFX services
for an object for use within an external application; or for two SFX servers
and/or instances to communicate with each other. The latter is useful for example
in consortia environments where shared services can be defined in a central
SFX instance (or separate server) and institutional services can be defined
in a local SFX instance (or server). The two instances (or servers) can then
communicate through the API and the user will be presented with combined services.
KnowledgeBase
1. Ongoing expansion of the KnowledgeBase.
2. New display field for Journal Title will accommodate upper- and lower-case characters and diacritics.
3. Better support for journals with multiple ISSNs.
Unicode
Full Unicode compliance, including support for character set variations per
target.
Support for emerging standards and other initiatives
Pending finalization of the following initiatives some initial work has been
undertaken as part of SFX v2.0 developments to prepare SFX for incorporation
of these, as they become formal standards:
- OpenURL v1.0 - http://library.caltech.edu/openurl
- Shibboleth, the Internet2/Mace project for cross-domain, attribute-based authentication and authorization. See http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/
E-journal Title List
Single entry in Title List for journal with multiple portfolios.
Citation Linker
Additional title search options. New options include "and ", "words in
title", "titles starting with" and "title ending with".