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Index Data > Technologies > Z39.50 > Developers start here! Note: This introduction is primarily aimed at programmers wanting to develop new applications using Z39.50, or at systems architects who need to establish information infrastructures that incorporate Z39.50. If you are looking for basic, introductory material about Z39.50, you can start with some of the references on our general page on Z39.50. The Z39.50 maintenance agency in particular has links to lots of tutorials and introductory texts. You're also welcome to send questions to us. We can't always answer all questions as fully as we would like to, but we do try our best. Especially if you're trying to design an entire infrastructure from scratch, we would advise you to seek advice from others. It can be hard to grasp all of the possibilities and limitations of these standards at first glance. The Z39.50 maintenance agency hosts a mailing list where you'll find a large collection of experts. Of course, we at Index Data are happy to offer different kinds of assistance. If you need to develop a client application for the web, you can take your pick of development environments -- there is a rich set of high-quality tools available. We like PHP, but have a look at the ZOOM API for a straightforward, well-documented API that has everything you need for basic search and retrieval applications. Our lowest-level, most flexible tool is YAZ. It literally provides access to the full power of the protocol, and it can be used to develop both clients and servers. We've also recently released a C++ interface for YAZ, if you prefer that language. If what you need to do is provide a Z39.50 server for an existing database, you have a range of options. Our Zebra Server will quickly index a large collection of structured documents or data records and make them available in a powerful Z39.50 server. It supports incremental updates while the server is online and it is fully Unicode-compliant. If you already have a database management tool and you prefer to build a gateway to that, we recommend our SimpleServer in Perl -- Perl is an excellent language for the kind of logic required to convert queries and data records, and SimpleServer is very easy to use. If Perl is not an option for you, the YAZ toolkit can be integrated into almost any other environment, either directly or through its C++ interface. Finally, you'll find lots of specialists (indeed including ourselves) willing to offer you assistance and software, free or for pay. We think you can't go wrong if you speak to some of the people that we ourselves like to work with, so have a look at our partnerships page. |
Index Data tools ZOOM client API The protocol Z39.50 server list |
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