> I don't know if we're all talking about the same thing. If it's
> searching multiple databases *on the same server* then much of this
> discussion doesn't make sense to me. Or are we talking about different
> servers? ....
Currently in SRW we don't have a notion of 'the same server', because we
thought it was too complex (and I still think it's not useful but
apparently people want it, so who am I to complain)
The closest we can talk about is an endpoint that in some fashion queries
multiple databases and how that endpoint might respond.
Obviously for the metasearch people, this endpoint would talk directly to
their underlying databases, but it could also be used to fan searches out
to distributed databases as a broker/gateway/portal.
> > > b) You want individual hit-counts rather than a single count, as was
> > .. this looks like a killer argument against it. At least it has me
> But how did you implement that in Z39.50? We developed SearchResult-1
> for this, but did anyone ever implement it? And why couldn't that be
> done on an index-by-index basis same as database-by-database?
I don't use multiple database queries in Z, so can't answer any of your
questions =) Personally I wouldn't use it in SRW either if it was just
to query homogeneous databases on the same physical machine.
On the other hand, an end point to distributed databases is potentially
useful for more than just saving a few processor cycles.
> Yes, you can think of them -- but what are the requirements of the
> metasearch products?
> -- Lennie
They're not very well specified. Also, why are their requirements more
important than my requirements? :)
If we're going to have multiple database searching, then by golly I want
to be able to say how many hits came from each database, and to send
different record schemas to each.
Rob
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