Gateway to Managed Information

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RepoMMan and the University of
Hull Institutional RepositoryRichard Green
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RepoMMan project

• Repository, Metadata and Management project
• JISC-funded for two years to end May 2007...
• ...to develop a BPEL-based, standards-compliant,
  web-services based, workflow tool for Fedora
• Closely aligned with the Universitys commitment
  to deploy an institutional repository

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RepoMMan

• Two strands
• research user needs, documentation etc (BPEL,
  surveys, Beginners guide etc)
• technical development
• Surface tool in University portal and/or Sakai
  CLE

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Hulls vision for a DR

• Hulls vision for an Institutional Repository is
  an extremely broad one
• Conventional view was exposure of completed
  objects
• Hulls view encompasses storage, access,
  management and preservation of a wide range of
  file types from concept to completion

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Services

• Survey revealed very wide range of file types
  potentially to deal with
• Storage (backup)
• Access (from anywhere)
• Management (sharing, locking, versioning etc)
• Preservation

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The repository grand plan
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Workflow

• The repository will be a working environment as
  well as a showcase
• Aim is to provide storage, access, management and
  potential preservation painlessly
• Development based on user interviews and surveys
  (researchers thus far, soon Teaching and
  Learning, admin, etc)
• Currently working on automation of repository
  processes (file handling, later auto-metadata)
• Standards-compliant approach using web services

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BPEL v JBPM

• Fedora have workflow group in operation JBPM
  approach
• Hulls BPEL/web services approach is
  complementary (all API-M and API-A functions are
  available through WSDLs)
• Eventual alternate approaches for the Fedora
  Community

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3-tier stack

• Web services (inc Fedora) orchestrated by BPEL
• Spring MVC layer
• JSP presentation layer

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Fedora web services

• Three tier model means BPEL must communicate with
  Fedora WSDLs
• Fedora 2.1(.1) WSDLs based on rpc/encoded
  messaging style BPEL cant reliably validate
  this via XML schema (nor can several other
  things!)
• New WSDLs written for Fedora based on
  document/literal style these validate OK
• (Release in 2.2 ?)
• Great example of Fedora community development
  (Fedora Hull Rightscom)

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Managing user content

• Try to need only a shallow user learning curve
• Surface repository in known user environments
  (Portal, Sakai)
• Expose it as a network drive?
• Use Fedora collections as pseudo-directories

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Get an existing object (versioning)

• User gets current version by default but can see
  (and manipulate) older versions

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Metadata generation

• Take contextual metadata from environment (LDAP,
  Portal, Sakai)
• Generate additional metadata from content (text,
  JHOVE etc)
• Allow user to edit / tweak

Acknowledgements to the Arrow consortium for the
design idea
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Coming next

• Late summer we hope to have a demonstrator of
  some of the workflow processes for researchers
  working through the University Portal and the
  Sakai CLE
• Autumn turn our attention to administrative and
  TL needs. Exam paper repository.

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Project website and contact

• http//www.hull.ac.uk/esig/repomman
• r.green_at_hull.ac.uk