Simplifying Client Configuration and Installation
In order to make the Trident client code easier to install, configure and maintain, I am working toward the following goals in the next few releases:
- Integration of YUI and jQuery/UI applications into trident.editor. These components began as separate apps with their own config files, etc. Adding them to the Trident project increased the complexity of configuration with no clear benefit. Bundling the YUI CSS and jQuery/UI JavaScript and CSS with the Trident client package adds little bulk and makes the code easier to use of out of the box.
- Auto-configuration of most of the necessary Django settings in trident.project.trident_settings so that they can be imported into the Django project settings module. Ultimately, the user should have to provide little more than the database connection information in the project settings module.
- Creation of a distutils installation script to ease installation of Python package dependencies. Eventually I hope to upload the client code to PyPI to make it available with easy_install. (Unfortunately, on some platforms, there may still be issues installing lxml and pycurl do to their own build requirements.)
- Addition of scripts to trident/bin for running the client web applications using django-admin.py runserver.
Version 0.9.1 (final) Released
Python Client
Changes since 0.9.1dev:
- Changed timezone default to use value consistent with Django TIME_ZONE setting.
- It appears that these codes work with pytz (at least version 2010e).
- TIME_ZONE is now pulled from trident config.
- Added default urls for repository and index to main config.
- Added pattern for Django admin media.
- Removed search module from trident.editor (ticket #6).
- Fixed bug in “My Items” view (ticket #27).
- Removed “experimental” label from CSV and Excel export.
- Added ‘labels’ option to ‘section’ dropdown on the add Component form (ticket #18).
- Changed “copy” field in component form to CharField.
Repository
Changes since 0.9.1dev:
- Changed syntax of MasterMetadataForm
- Modified DukeCore schema to support implementation of new MAPs
Metadata editor screenshots
Screenshots of the Trident metadata editor application have been posted to a Picasa gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/dchandekstark/TridentProject.
Client code preview release
A preview release (0.9.1dev) of the Python client applications for Trident is now available for download from SourceForge. The installation is currently manual (no setup.py yet) and the documentation is a work in progress. If you give it a go, let us know how it goes!
Trident Project on SourceForge
That’s right kids, we’ve released our code, incomplete with no installation instructions or documentation! But you were going to read the code anyway. 
http://tridentproject.svn.sourceforge.net/
Questions? Comment here or give us a holler at info@tridentproject.org.
Enjoy!
Can I Get the Code?
We don’t yet have a distribution package or public code source repository, but we’re working to make this happen soon.
Digital Repository Developer position – Duke University
http://library.duke.edu/jobs/digitalrepositorydeveloper.html
2 year term appointment, with possibility of extension.
The Digital Repository Developer will participate in the design and development of a technical infrastructure to support the management, preservation and appropriate access to digital scholarship at Duke. The incumbent will work closely with data owners, software developers, repository managers, and other library and University staff to communicate and implement technology solutions. The position reports to the Head of Core Services within the Information Technology Services department of the Duke University Libraries.
Code4Lib 2010 Presentation
Metadata Editing: A Truly Extensible Solution
David Kennedy and David Chandek-Stark
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 — 2:00-2:20pm
http://code4lib.org/conference/2010/kennedy_chandek-stark
Presentation slides: bit.ly/c3QpL1
We set out in the Trident project to create a metadata tool that scales. In doing so we have conceived of the metadata application profile, a profile which provides instructions for software on how to edit metadata. We have built a set of web services and some web-based tools for editing metadata. The metadata application profile allows these tools to extend across different metadata schemes, and allows for different rules to be established for editing items of different collections. Some features of the tools include integration with authority lists, auto-complete fields, validation and clean integration of batch editing with Excel. I know, I know, Excel, but in the right hands, this is a powerful tool for cleanup and batch editing. In this talk, we want to introduce the concepts of the metadata application profile, and gather feedback on its merits, as well as demonstrate some of the tools we have developed and how they work together to manage the metadata in our Fedora repository.
