On 05/07/07, James Rutherford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 01:13:38PM +0200, Ina Smith wrote: > > My question relates to the preservation of the bitstream URL: In stead > > of linking from another database (e.g. our library catalogue) to the > > Item URL, we would like to link directly to the Bitstream URL. Is > > there any guarantee that the Bitstream URL will also stay persistent > > if we decide to export our items to another server one day? We also > > use the CNRI Handle System. > > The short answer is "no". Bitstreams don't get handles, so if you move > your DSpace having directly referenced a Bitstream URL, that link will > either break, or you will have to maintain it yourself (which is a bad > road to go down). Until this is fixed (and I should point out that not > everyone thinks it's a problem) you shouldn't use Bitstream URLs > anywhere unless you're prepared to deal with it when the time comes.
Software systems do not persist or guarantee URLs or identifiers, people do. This use case is precisely the one that led to DSpace bitstream URLs being in the current form they are -- a form that is easy to persist, but does not require the overhead of minting and resolving huge numbers of Handles. So it depends what you mean by 'export ... to another server'. If you're just thinking about having DSpace run on beefier hardware, although the 'preferred' bitstream direct access URL may change in the future, certainly the existing /bitstream/* URLs will always be supported by DSpace as redirects, so provided the new server can get the same DNS name you will be able to persist the bitstream URLs. If you're thinking about running other software, provided you still have control of the DNS space, it shouldn't be too hard to keep (e.g.) dspace.up.ac.za/bitstream/123/456/1/foo.pdf pointing at the right place. At least, it wouldn't be any harder to do this than to update a huge number of Handle records to point at the right (new) place. If you think that the DNS name may change, you would have to look into Handles or another ID scheme resilient to DNS name changes of the actual server. Rob ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
