Note: We now offer a variety of SaaS options if you want the benefits of Pazpar2 (and more, like access to hundreds of predefined Open Access targets, etc) without having to run the software locally. See MasterKey Express for more information.
Pazpar2 is a high-performance, user interface-independent, data model-independent metasearching middleware webservice featuring merging, relevance ranking, record sorting, and faceted results. It is the engine behind our hosted MasterKey metasearch solution.
In a nutshell, pazpar2 is a web-oriented information retrieval client. It will search several (more than 100) targets in parallel and provide on-the-fly normalization and integration of the results. The API can be used it from any development environment. It is particularly easy to use Ajax to build dynamic end-user experiences, and this can be combined with server-side logic to support authentication, resource selection, etc. Configuration can be static, using XML configuration files, or fully dynamic, using the webservice API to configure Pazpar2 on the fly.
For examples of interface platforms for Pazpar2, see our Drupal module, our Java ServerFaces module, the Typo3 plugin (not ours), and our most exciting new technology: The MasterKey Widget Set.
Pazpar2 is data model-independent — incoming records are normalized using XSLT to an internal tagged-field representation, and the software can in turn be configured to use different elements of that format for ranking, merging, sorting, facets, and display. Pazpar2 can access information sources directly through SRU, Z39.50, as well as the Apache Solr API.
New! You can use Index Data’s hosted Masterkey Connect service to easily integrate remote resources that are not directly accessible by Pazpar2. Simply let us know which resources are of interest to you, and we will set up hosted connectors for you with a SRU/Z39.50 interface. We support most possible access methods, including native APIs, OAI-PMH harvesting, and screenscraping. Now you no longer have to rely on your data providers to support sensible interfaces: MasterKey Connect is the ultimate glue layer for your application. Now, hundreds of freely accessible resources are available in one affordable package.
MasterKey is a suite of tools that supplement Pazpar2, especially for more demanding enterprise- or consortial applications. It includes a distributed target and subscription management system with many predefined targets, a web-based admin console, and a template-based user interface framework.
If you would like installation, configuration and/or customization services, or even a complete, turnkey, customized metaseach solution, please contact us. If you need to access resources that do not directly support Z39.50, we can help with that, too — we have tools and gateways to cover a very broad range of requirements.