Hi Rogan,
It's hard to say. Catalyst projects a fairly quick turnaround time on
the development, but I haven't seen a potential date yet for 2.4 beta
freeze. Also, it needs to be tested by the community, and it's hard to
know if that could be done in time for feature freeze.
Kathy
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
[email protected]
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
On 2/5/2013 7:44 PM, Rogan Hamby wrote:
Hi Kathy,
I'm curious, are you thinking this will be ready for 2.4?
On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Kathy Lussier <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi all,
We've contracted with Catalyst IT Services to create an interface
to support traditional Boolean operators in tpac. I wanted to
share some of our plans on the list so that we can get feedback
from the community before proceeding.
This functionality was important to many of our libraries because,
even though the advanced search interface provides a graphical way
to do Boolean searches, there is no way to control the nesting of
searches, making it difficult to perform more complex searches.
For example, if a user were to enter the search terms in Advanced
Search as drugs AND teenagers OR adolescents, the resulting query
would be ((drugs && keyword:teenagers) || keyword:adolescents),
when the intended query is drugs && (teenagers || adolescents).
Performing a search with more complex nesting, something like
"((mouse or rat) and trap) or mousetrap", requires free-form entry
to get the nesting right. However, users are expected to know that
&& means "and" and that || means "or." Our academics, in
particular, were concerned, because they often start their
instruction in Boolean searching with the library catalog before
moving on to full-text databases.
Attached is a mock-up of the interface we would like to include.
It would add a new Boolean search tab to the advanced search
interface. When searching from this interface, if any Boolean
operators are present based on the locale settings, the system
will replace them accordingly with the correct syntax (&& || -) to
perform the search. As part of the work, Catalyst will also
leverage the Evergreen locale settings so that operators can be
entered in other languages. After performing the search, clicking
the "Refine Search" link will return the user to the Boolean
search tab with their originally-entered search terms
auto-populating the boxes. There will be a configuration setting
to disable/enable this feature.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on this project!
Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128 <tel:%28508%29%20343-0128>
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
--
Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
York County Library System
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to
suit me."
-- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
