Chapter 11
SOPS (SciX Open Publishing Software)Digital Library Software Evaluationhttp://www.scix.net/sops.htm
Introduction
The SciX (Open, Self Organising Repository for Scientific Information Exchange) project
is an European Commission funded project under the IST Programme[1]. Its aim was
developing web-services on the Internet for scientific publishing and information exchange.
SciX Open Publishing Services (SOPS) is a software that allows setting up various on-line
scientific publishing media such as[2]:
• personal archives
• institutional archives
• topic & society archives
• electronic journals
• electronic conference proceedings
• workflow support for the above
SOPS is a result of an EU funded research project. It is freelyavailable under an open
source license. The first version of the software was made available on March 31, 2004.
332
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 333
As on today, the software has brought out only version 1.0. Ithas not brought out any
further versions of the software after 2004.
SOPS supports to make the material easily accessible through web user interfaces. SciX
has developed a business model where minimal costs are associated which allow end users
to self organise the contents online while providing easy user interfaces.
SOPS is built on top of the WODA (Web Oriented Database) database, which was created
and established by Ziga Turk in 1996. WODA provides servicessuch as user management,
discussions, ratings, reviews, review process support etc. WODA uses a library of CGI
functions written in PERL. Since WODA is available free, oneonly needs a web server
that can handle PERL scripts to use SOPS.
SOPS features are:
• Metadata harvesting according to the OAI-PMH 2.0 standard.
• Compatibility with citation management software such as Reference Manager, Cita-
tion Manager and Endnote.
• Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2003 Research Task Pane
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
• SOPS is multilingual. It exists in English, German and Slovenian languages.
SOPS software can also be used to organize all conference related tasks such as online
abstract and paper submission, online review and scheduling, email notifications to au-
thors, creation of author and title indexes, scheduling of sessions, posting of abstracts and
schedules on the web etc. along with creating digital libraries[3].
In the present study the evaluation of current version of SOPS was selected for evaluation
ie Version 1.0. The following sections lists different observations after having installation
of version 1.0.
After installation and evaluation it was found that software supports minimal digital library
building support. Though it is mentioned that it supports organizing online conference
related tasks many of the tasks did not work. Many functions which are necessary for
digital libraries are also not supported by the existing version of SOPS.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 334
11.1 Content Acquisition
11.1.1 Which document types can be added in the software (books, reports, journal articles,
lecture notes, technical reports, thesis, images, audio/video files, data set files etc.?)
SOPS supports to add only electronic publications such as normal papers, keynote
papers, short papers, extended abstracts, posters, paper sessions in symposium &
workshops.
11.1.2 Does the software have capability to define the domain/scope of Digital Library for whom
it is intended for?
SOPS is specially meant for organising electronic publications.
11.1.3 If yes, what level of the users it is intended for?
It is intended for conference organisers and organising electronic publications.
11.1.4 Which digital document file formats does the system support(proprietary as well as open
source)?
Though SOPS is specially meant for uploading electronic papers it also uploads other
file formats as well such as mp3, tar.gz etc.
11.1.5 Does the system carry out duplicate checking while uploading the data? What happens
if the same digital document is submitted multiple times?
No, System does not carry out duplicate checking. If the samedigital document is
submitted multiple times it gets added into the repository.
11.1.6 How does the system allow to upload the digital objects, whether normal digital object
or compressed digital objects?
Software supports to upload digital objects with normal size as well as compressed
digital objects.
11.1.7 Does the software support to upload digital objects from existing URL?
No, System does not support uploading digital objects from existing URL the docu-
ment has to be available on local disk.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 335
11.1.8 Does the system support distributed/community based acquisition?
Yes, Software has facility to acquire material from networkthrough SOPS users.
SOPS user can upload documents through his/her login area from anywhere on In-
ternet.
11.1.9 Does the software support metadata/content import? In which file format data is required
for importing?
SOPS supports import of metadata if data is available in CSV file format such as
Excel or Access.
11.1.10Does system support importing of bulk metadata/contents of digital objects? Yes
11.1.11Does the software support import of automatic metadata for the digital objects that are
added into the repository? No
11.1.12Does the software support metadata/content export? In which file format data is ex-
ported?
SOPS supports to export data into variety of formats such as Haward Style Refer-
ences, BibTeX References, EndNote (refer), ProCite, Reference Manager, Default
Short Format, Default, Detailed Format, Comma Delimited Format (.csv), Semi-
colon Delimited Format(.csv), Tab Delimited Format, XML Format, Easy to parse
XML, RSS 0.91
11.1.13Does the system support export of bulk metadata/content of digital objects? Yes
11.1.14Does system allow adding past versions of the digital document files? No
11.1.15Does the software support its own accession number for each document that gets added
into the repository? Yes
11.1.16 It is necessary to know whether software supports weed out policy?
Yes, SOPS supports weed out policy.
11.1.17Does the system support to delete items from the collections/repository, move digital
objects from one collection to other collection, cross-list digital objects across different
collections?
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 336
SOPS supports to delete items from the repository but each item in SOPS is sepa-
rately added. It does not support adding items under different collections.
11.1.18Which persistent identifier scheme does the system support?
No, SOPS does not support any persistent identifier scheme.
11.1.19Does the system’s persistent URL have capability to handle an object’s change in location
and state in future with same identifier number? No
11.2 Content Management
11.2.1 Does the system have proper work flow in place which handles different submission
processes?
No, SOPS does not have any work flow while uploading documentsinto SOPS. It
allows only to create different users and users are allowed to submit documents and
documents are added into the repository.
11.2.2 If the system supports to have proper work flow for all actions into the repository then
whether submission supports following options:
11.2.2.1System allows to create overall system administrator Yes
11.2.2.2System allows to submit documents by users via web Yes
11.2.2.3System allows to set up submission rules No
11.2.2.4System can define accept/reject policy for all documents that gets added into the
repository No
11.2.2.5Allows multiple collections within same installation of the system No
11.2.2.6Home page for each collection/community No
11.2.2.7Allows to set different policies for different collections No
11.2.2.8Allows to set different authorization policies for different collection/items added
into the repository No
11.2.2.9Allow to edit metadata submitted by users Yes
11.2.2.10Sends email notification to users/submitters/ authors No
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 337
11.2.2.11Sends email notification to metadata reviewers No
11.2.2.12Sends email notification to reviewer No
11.2.2.13Sends email notification to administrators No
11.2.2.14Allow users to review completed content Yes
11.2.2.15Allow users to review uncompleted content Yes
11.2.2.16Allow content administrator to review submissions No
11.2.2.17View pending content administration tasks No
11.2.3 Does the system support to upload documents into the repository through Librarian’s
interface as well?
No, SOPS does not have any separate support for Librarian’s interface. All functions
in SOPS are carried out through Web User Interface only.
11.2.4 Does the software provide easy way for adding/editing of records for Librarian as well as
for the remote user? Are insertion and deletion of records easy?
SOPS data entry interface is same for all. It is easy to add/edit/delete records in
SOPS.
11.2.5 Are the supported file formats well documented in the system? Can new file formats be
added or removed by the end user ?
SOPS allow to upload any file format there is no mention of any file format restric-
tion. Documentation of supported file formats is not available.
11.2.6 Does the repository software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet
address filters, etc. that limit who is allowed to submit items in the software?
Yes, SOPS supports to have access control based on login and password.
11.2.7 Does the repository software maintain audit logs that identify by whom and when docu-
ments are submitted into the repository?
SOPS provide detailed log file of all users with details such as when each user is
logged on to the system, what actions are carried out by each user, time duration, IP
address of the machine from which SOPS was accessed etc.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 338
11.2.8 Does the system support knowledge organization systems such as ontologies, thesauri,
classification systems and taxonomies for users while adding documents via web in the
repository? No
11.2.9 Does the system support digital objects to be grouped into organized structure (i.e.
linear/hierarchical/graphical structure)? No
11.2.10Does the system support to generate authority files? No
11.2.11Does the system allow digital object to be a member of multiple collections i. e. content
mapping? No
11.2.12Does system allow users to modify (add/delete/update) metadata/complete document
added within the repository? Yes
11.2.13Does the system support to show strength of each collection? No
11.3 Metadata Submission and Support
Metadata support in SOPS is very limited. There is no mentionof which metadata schema
it supports neither it has any other information available.
11.3.1 Does the software support to add descriptive metadata (such as author, title, subject,
publisher, copyright , year of publication, etc. ) for each digital object that gets added
into the repository?
SOPS supports to enter id, authors, year, title, source, summary, keywords, series,
type, email, more, content, discussion and ratings.
11.3.2 Does the software support to add administrative metadata (such as technical aspects of
digital documents, source of information (when and how it was created), rights manage-
ment, how the digital document is created, what is file size, in what file format digital
document is in, what is needed to view the digital document) for each digital object that
gets added into the repository? No
11.3.3 Does the software support to add structural metadata (such as description, owner, data
type, date deposited, version number, date of last revision, how compound objects are
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 339
put together, how pages are ordered to form chapters) for each digital object that gets
added into the repository? No
11.3.4 Does the software support adding/editing/deleting metadata fields? Yes
11.3.5 Are help messages given in each metadata field while entering data? Yes
11.3.6 Does the metadata entry have atleast one field mandatory? What are the mandatory
fields in each software?
While entering metadata SOPS has author, title, year as mandatory fields.
11.3.7 Does the software support Unicode character set for metadata entry? Yes
11.3.8 Does the software allow to create and manage a variety of different metadata schemas
to meet different needs across the subject disciplines ? No
11.3.9 Can the metadata fields or formats be customized? Yes
11.3.10What type of Metadata Schemas are supported by the software default?
SOPS does not support any metadata schema by default.
11.3.11Does the software have default metadata entry templates?
Yes, SOPS has simple metadata entry template which is a standard template for
entering data.
11.3.12Are the metadata formats documented? Yes
11.3.13Does the software support different interface for metadata entry and whether customized
data gets added into the system? No
11.3.14How does the software verify that submitted objects and metadata are correct?
There are no ways by which it is possible to verify submitted objects and metadata.
11.3.15Are there automated checks of the metadata, such as verifying that a date entered into
a field is really a date string? No
11.3.16Does the repository software have any means to verify that objects or metadata have
not been tampered with, such as checksums or digitally signed checksums? No
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 340
11.3.17Does the software support real time updating and indexing of accepted contents?
Yes, as soon as data is uploaded it is available for searchingimmediately.
11.3.18Does the software allow for metadata extensibility and complexity? No
11.3.19Does the software support metadata versioning? What happens to old versions of meta-
data or content objects when they are replaced by new versions or modified in some way?
No
11.3.20Does the repository software support provenance metadata? What is included in the
provenance?
No, SOPS does not support provenance metadata.
11.3.21Does the software support metadata crosswalk? No
11.3.22Does the software support ”thesaurus” building? Does it specify which thesaurus stan-
dard is used? Which subject heading DDC, DC or LC is used for thesaurus building?
No
11.3.23Does software have ontology support? No
11.3.24How does the repository verify file types, for example, if JPEG images are submitted
to the repository, does the software verify that it is really a valid JPEG, or does it just
blindly take the submitters word? No
11.3.25While exporting metadata whether software support checksums? No
11.3.26 It is necessary to know whether the software support RAP protocol? No
11.4 Classification
11.4.1 Does the system allow digital objects to be grouped into classification/subjects? No
11.4.2 Which classification system does the software support? SOPS doesnot support any
classification system.
11.4.3 Does it allow to group documents as per the class number? No
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 341
11.4.4 It is also necessary to know whether system supports hierarchical browsing of collections
through class number? No
11.5 Information Search & Retrieval
11.5.1 Browsing
11.5.1.1Author/Creator/Contributor Yes
11.5.1.2Title of the document/Title of the book/Title of the article etc. Yes
11.5.1.3 Issue Date/Date of Publication Yes
11.5.1.4Collection No
11.5.1.5Communities No
11.5.1.6Subject browsing Yes
11.5.1.7Publisher wise browsing No
11.5.1.8Table of Contents browsing No
11.5.1.9Multi-Dimensional Browsing No
11.5.2 Searching
11.5.2.1Searching content via different metadata fields such as author, title, subject, pub-
lisher etc. Yes
11.5.2.2Full text searching Yes
11.5.2.3Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searching Yes
11.5.2.4Basic search Yes
11.5.2.5Advanced search Yes
11.5.2.6Does the system allow to search the database putting boolean operators such as !,
|, &, ∼ , +, −, etc. as well as ”must contain”, ”should contain”, ”may contain”,
”not contain”, as operators in place of AND, OR, and NOT Boolean operators
respectively. Yes
11.5.2.7Truncation/Wild card searching Yes
11.5.2.8Exact words/phrases searching Yes
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 342
11.5.2.9Proximity searching Yes
11.5.2.10Stemming Yes
11.5.2.11Fuzzy searching Yes
11.5.2.12Phonetic searching No
11.5.2.13Case sensitive or case insensitive while searching No
11.5.2.14System should support term weighting No
11.5.2.15System should support search history option , reuse of query, query save option.
No
11.5.2.16Boosting the term No
11.5.2.17Range searching No
11.5.2.18Use of thesaurus or permuted index for searching No
11.5.2.19Expand search No
11.5.2.20Lateral searching No
11.5.2.21Search support for special collections No
11.5.2.22Searching via table of content and classification numbers No
11.5.2.23Ability to browse subject/author authority files No
11.5.2.24PIC variant searching (plurals, international spelling variants, and compound words)
No
11.5.2.25Support multilingual search and retrieval No
11.5.2.26Allow refinement of searches with qualifiers No
11.5.2.27Ability to group: prior to search, user can delimit pending results’ listings, and
group results by item characteristics (type, format) No
11.5.2.28Spell checker support No
11.5.2.29Refine searches: Once results are retrieved, users have the ability to focus and
reduce number of items retrieved No
11.5.3 Sorting
The system should support sorting results by
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 343
11.5.3.1Author No
11.5.3.2Title No
11.5.3.3 Issue Date No
11.5.3.4Relevance No
11.5.4 Which search engine toolkit is used for searching the database?
WODA has its own search engine which is used for searching theSOPS database.
The woda search engine offers a broad range of facilities, such as full-featured natu-
ral language search, category based browsing etc.
11.5.5 How is the recall and precision ratio while searching the documents?
Since the system supports searching via metadata fields and full text searching the
recall is high via word searching and precision is high if themetadata fields are used
for searching the database.
11.5.6 How is the speed of the retrieval of the documents? The speed of the retrieval of doc-
uments is very fast in SOPS but it does not show on the screen how many documents
are retrieved within how many seconds.
11.5.7 Does the system provide help for users while searching digital documents?
Yes, system provides proper help support for searching the documents in SOPS
repositories.
11.5.8 How the results are displayed to the users? Whether users can download contents after
searching? How are results displayed such as metadata, filetype, file size?
Results are displayed in abridged form with all metadata fields such as author, year,
title, publication details. It allows end user to export data into variety of format such
as BibTex, XML format, Tab Delimited Format etc. after searching with all searched
results or selected search results.
11.5.9 While viewing the results does the system provide access control? Yes
11.5.10Does system support streaming audio/video option? Or it allows only to download doc-
uments? Whether browser can support any other document viewing? Does the end
user need to have plugins and software for viewing particular documents? No mention
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 344
about streaming server was found. SOPS is basically meant for organising electronic
publications.
11.5.11Does the system support advanced features such as my binders, my searchers, my basket,
etc. Yes, SOPS supports adding searched items in each users basket.
11.5.12Whether system supports unified search? (Unified search is the support for finding items
that are scattered among a distributed collection of information sources or services,
typically involving sending queries to a number of servers and then merging the results
to present in an integrated, consistent, coordinated format)? No
11.5.13Whether system supports federated search? ( Federated search allow users to search
multiple digital libraries with a single query from a single user interface. The user enters
a search query in the portal interface’s search box and the query is sent to every other
digital library software)? No
11.6 Access Control, Privacy and Management
11.6.1 How users are managed in the software?
SOPS supports all users data in WODA database.
11.6.2 Does the system support to add/edit/delete user profiles? Yes
11.6.3 Does the system support to define different roles for different users? No
11.6.4 Does the system keep detailed information of each user that is registered in the repository
such as name, email, phone number, address etc.? For all users, SOPS record following
information such as user name, given name, family name, email, title, affiliation,
country and address.
11.6.5 How the permissions are given to users who have registered into the repository ? SOPS
does not have any work flow. It does not give any permissions for different users.
11.6.6 Does the system have provision to identify active and inactive members and take nec-
essary action against inactive members? System keeps track of existing and inactive
members.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 345
11.6.7 User Roles
11.6.7.1Does system allow to create different groups for different users No
11.6.7.2Does system allow to create different groups of users No
11.6.7.3Does system allow definition of different user groups No
11.6.7.4Does system limit access by role No
11.6.7.5Does system allow collection to be customized for each role/group No
11.6.8 Does the system allow access limits at different levels?
(a) File/object level No
(b) Collection level No
(c) User/Group level Yes
11.6.9 How passwords are administered in the system? No information about administrating
passwords is found in the documentation anywhere.
11.6.10Does the system assign passwords for each user? Yes
11.6.11Does the system allow users to select passwords? Yes, system allow end users to
select their own passwords.
11.6.12Does the system have mechanism to retrieve forgotten password? Yes
11.6.13How is the level of access for inside/outside users (such as outside users can access only
metadata and abstract level access and internal members can access full texts as well as
metadata)? It is possible to allow registered users only to access each object added
into the repository.
11.6.14Does the system have any mechanism to provide access to the digital library via
(a) IP source address filtering No
(b) Proxy filtering No
(c) Credential-based access Yes
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 346
11.6.15Are access denials flagged in any special manner by the software? Does the software keep
access logs and how accessible are the logs to either human or machine processing and
interpretation? SOPS keeps detailed log of all actions that are carried out inSOPS.
11.6.16Does the system support access to the collection for a specific period? No
11.7 Authentication and Authorization
11.7.1 Does the system support to provide setting different authorization policies? No
11.7.2 System should support restricting access to contents through password authentication/IP
filtering/proxy filtering. No
11.7.3 System should be able to support access based on browsing/viewing metadata, preferred
records, full text item or collections through different authorizations with different privi-
leges for different communities or individuals. No
11.7.4 System should also be able to allow set different roles for different members for different
items/collections. No
11.7.5 Does the system support a super user/admin user who is overall manager/administrator
of the software? No
11.7.6 Does the system use authorization to support different roles within the system (for eg
submit user, metadata editor, reviewer, approver, overall administrator etc.) Yes
11.7.7 Does the system use an external authentication mechanism such as LDAP (Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol)? No
11.7.8 Does the system display only those pages that are pertinent to each user that he/she is
able to see? No
11.7.9 Does the system support the feature that groups are assigned to one or more roles? No
11.7.10Does the system support the feature that users are assigned to one or more groups or
collections? No
11.7.11Does the system support the following roles:
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 347
(a) Content Developer Role:must be able to create/add/edit/delete metadata and
content in defined (not ALL) collections in addition No
(b) Administrator Role: must be able to add/delete/create users and groups Yes
(c) Contributor Role: must be able to submit metadata and content, in addition to
general users’ role No
(d) General User Yes
(e) Submitter Yes
(f) Metadata Reviewer No
(g) Max Role: must be able to do all activities within the system Yes
11.7.12Does the system use authorization to verify users with campus security systems (NetID)?
No
11.8 Interoperability
11.8.1 It is necessary to know whether the software supports Z39.50 protocol and OAI-PMH
protocol? SOPS support OAI-PMH 2.0 protocol.
11.8.2 Which harvesting software is used by the Digital Library Software for metadata harvesting?
No information found about the harvesting software used in SOPS.
11.8.3 SRU/SRW Support No
11.8.4 Does the software have openURL support? No
11.9 Ease of deployment of each software
The following points will be considered while evaluating installation of each software:
11.9.1 Software Installation
11.9.1.1Packaging and installation steps The installation process of SOPS is added in Ap-
pendix G of this document.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 348
11.9.1.2Automatic installation script There are no automatic installation script available for
SOPS installation.
11.9.1.3Disk space used SOPS requires WODA database installation and SOPS program.
WODA gets installed in /usr/local area,which occupies minimal disk space i.e. 2.2
MB and woda and SOPS executables gets installed in /var/www/cgi-bin and / var/
www/ html area and it uses total 13 MB disk space.
11.9.1.4Time required to install each software SOPS successful installation requires changing
paths in many files. Installation of SOPS needs expertise on handling different in-
stallations of software. It took around four to five hours to completely do installation
of SOPS.
11.9.1.5Documentation help available and useful for installation Documentation help is avail-
able for installation but it is not properly listed hence it is not very easy to install
SOPS with available documentation manual.
11.9.1.6Environments needed to set for installation of each software No environment variables
are needed to set for installation of SOPS as it only uses perlscripts.
11.9.1.7Operating systems (Linux/Windows/Solaris/MacOS/GNU/AIX) on which software can
be installed SOPS works well with Linux, Unix as well as Windows operatingsys-
tem.
11.9.1.8Programming languages used SOPS is developed in PERL programming language.
11.9.1.9Database supported at back end SOPS requires WODA database as a back end
support. WODA database automatically generates web pages,which are used for
adding, updating, searching and reviewing of records, as well as for administration.
11.9.1.10Web Server used It works on Apache Web Server.
11.9.1.11Java servlet engine needed No Java Servlet Engine is used.
11.9.2 System Support/Maintenance
11.9.2.1Documentation/manuals There is one documentation manual available for SOPS but
it is not very detailed documentation manual.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 349
11.9.2.2Mailing lists/discussion forums No mailing lists or discussion forums yet available for
SOPS software.
11.9.2.3Wiki pages No wiki pages are yet available for SOPS.
11.9.2.4Help desk support No help desk support yet available for SOPS.
11.9.2.5Ease of system administration (ability to configure for different users) SOPS is easy for
carrying out different administrative tasks. It has menu driven admin interface where
different tasks can be carried out.
11.9.3 Hardware/Software Requirements
11.9.3.1What are the minimum hardware requirements for the repository software? SOPS
works well with a server connected to the Internet with about20 MB free disk space
plus 4 MB disk space for each language version and requires space for storing data.
SOPS can work successfully with Intel Pentium 133 Mhz class machine.
11.9.3.2How actively is the software maintained by its owners or contributors? SOPS version 1.0
was released during 2004. After that the software developers have not yet brought
out any new versions.
11.9.3.3Does the software have procedures in place to monitor and receive notifications when
hardware technology changes are needed? No
11.9.3.4Does the software creators have a process to stay current with the latest operating system
security fixes? No
11.9.4 Security
11.9.4.1Does the system have security methods such as
(a) Data encryption No
(b) Digital Signatures No
11.9.4.2Server security (Does software have secure database connection?) Yes
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 350
11.9.4.3Ability to restrict access repository at item level (For eg to view metadata but not
content) Yes
11.9.5 System Level Security
11.9.5.1Fixity - such as checksums or digests No
11.9.5.2Management of users’ accounts and rights to specified locations within the DL No
11.9.5.3Logging and auditing events Yes
11.9.5.4Does the software support any security if OS doesn’t have any firewall implemented?
No
11.9.6 General features related to technical aspect
11.9.6.1Does the software have any back end maintenance? No
11.9.6.2Does the software have RSS support? Yes
11.9.6.3Does the software have easy mechanisms to upgrade the software from old versions
to new versions? No new versions have come out so far hence this feature is not
available yet.
11.9.6.4Does the software support migration of data from one repository software to another
repository software? No information available on this feature.
11.9.6.5Does the system support any ranking algorithms for the documents added in the repos-
itory? Yes, SOPS supports to rank each document that is added into the repository
in the scale of poor, average, good, very good, excellent.
11.9.6.6Are there any known issues/bugs in the system? One of the major bugs in installa-
tion is, one has to change paths in many files then only all options in SOPS works
properly.
11.9.6.7Whether a novice user can easily publish content ? Yes, Novice user can easily submit
and publish content easily on SOPS.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 351
11.9.6.8How often user needs to use database schema for making any change? SOPS WODA
database administration page is available through web hence it i s easy to customize
database as per requirements.
11.9.6.9Whether user can reorganize database? Yes
11.9.6.10Does system support automated content acquisition, harvesting and automatic metadata
generation, automatic subject indexing/classification? No
11.9.6.11Does the system support to store metadata records separately from the actual contents?
Metadata and actual contents are stored in different directories in SOPS, such as
metadata is stored in /var/www/html/wdat/works/_data directory and actual contents
are stored in /var/www/html/ wdat/works/att directory.
11.9.6.12Does the software support storing varied file formats? Yes
11.9.6.13Does the system keep the original file’s name, size and created date? No, SOPS
changes file names with its own file name.
11.9.6.14While using the software if any errors occur, does the system allow to submit the error
report? No, system does not allow to submit any error reports.
11.9.6.15How many developers are working for the software? No information about this feature
was found anywhere.
11.9.6.16How many users are using the software/strength of community? Total 12 organisations
are using SOPS software.
11.9.6.17Does the software provide its history on the web page for evidence of sustainability and
vitality? Yes
11.9.6.18Total number of downloads of the software? No record of total number of downloads
of the software is available for this software.
11.9.6.19Is the software really under Open Source License terms and conditions? Though soft-
ware is open it is not provided under any Open Source License terms and conditions.
11.9.6.20Are there any costs involved for using OSS-DL? No
11.9.6.21Does the repository software have a clear policy regarding software upgrades? No
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 352
11.9.6.22Whether the software has a long-term leadership and consulting services? Since no
new versions have come out after 2004, it is difficult that software will be available
during long-term.
11.9.6.23After releasing the software whether it was tested and whether it has integrated new
features or not? No
11.9.6.24How is the mailing list used by the users? No mailing lists of SOPS are available.
11.9.6.25Whether software has conducted any workshops, training sessions on local, regional,
national and international levels? No
11.9.6.26Whether software is built according to open standards? No information about open
standards is found in documentation manual.
11.9.7 Architecture of the Software
11.9.7.1How is the architecture and design of the software whether it is simple or complex?
Architecture of software is modular architecture allowingmodules to be included,
left out, added or replaced relatively easily in any particular implementation or ap-
plication.
Figure 11.1: SOPS Architecture
11.9.7.2Does the architecture support separation between different local parts and put into differ-
ent machines ( e.g. centralised/distributed database, relational/object-oriented database
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 353
management system, different components of the directory to distribute to different ma-
chines) and the transport model (protocols for communication between the system and
the user interface or between system components).
No information was found about this feature.
11.9.7.3Does system support grid architecture? How grids can help disaster recovery of data?
No information about grid architecture was found.
11.9.8 Scalability:It is necessary to know whether software is scalable in terms of storage and
retrieval?
No information about scalability of SOPS was found anywhere.
11.9.9 Extensibility: Extensible, to allow new elements (collections, data types, services, etc.)
to be easily added to the digital library. No
11.9.10Storage: Does the system support data compression for eg in case of multimedia col-
lections the size of the files (for eg video/audio files) would be very large, hence system
should support data compression/decompression techniques. Does the system support
to store compressed file formats?
No, SOPS does not support compression and decompression technique.
11.9.11Backup/Restore facility
11.9.11.1Does software support backup function, which contains metadata associated with
access controls, customized files, as well as full texts of the documents added in
the repository?
Yes, SOPS support backup feature. It supports to backup all tables where actual
data is stored.
11.9.11.2Does the software explicitly require any particular backup strategy, or does it just
rely on system-level backup plans, like periodic disk backups to tape?
Yes, SOPS relies on system-level backup i.e. All digital documents are stored
in /var/www/wdat/_data files.
11.9.11.3In the event of a disaster, what recovery plans are supported by the software?
No recovery plans are supported by the software.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 354
11.10 User Friendly Interface
11.10.1 Whether end user can easily customize the user interface ”look and feel”? Whether the
end user can change the header, theme, footer, overall web interface of the system?
Yes, end user can customize the user interface as per needs. SOPS allows to change
header, footer, theme etc. as per the end user’s requirements.
11.10.2Can user interfaces be localized in their language?
Currently SOPS interface is available in English, German and Slovenian Language.
11.10.3How is user interface for the experienced or non experienced users?
User interface is same for experienced and non experienced users.
11.10.4How is the user interface designed for the use of librarian or for the use of users?
User interface is same for the library staff and for the end user.
11.10.5Whether system provide web based interface for all its functionalities? Yes
11.10.6Does the system provide online help? No
11.10.7Does the system provide multilingual access support? Yes
11.10.8Does the system allow users to submit feedback on system problems? No
11.10.9Does the system notify user’s current state of the task? No
11.11 Usability
11.11.1 What user skill levels are expected to use the web interface?
It is easy to use SOPS web user interface for a non experiencedperson.
11.11.2 Is the user able to navigate and find his/her ways to information quickly and easily? Yes
11.11.3How are the help features provided with the software? Does help feature allow user to
feel comfortable within a digital library? Does the help feature provide general as well as
technical answers to the problems?
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 355
SOPS provide only general help feature. It doesnot provide any extensive help sup-
port.
11.11.4Does the user need to know which player or viewer is necessary to view multimedia or
other digital objects from the system?
No, SOPS automatically identifies required player and display contents on the web
if end user has installed required browser plugin.
11.11.5Does the user interface provide facility to give user opinion on the web as well as does
the software support users to fill up online user feedback form? No
11.11.6Does the system support to show usage statistics such as :
(a) Usage patterns Yes
(b) Use of materials Yes
(c) Usage statistics Yes
(d) Who uses what, when Yes
(e) For what reasons/decisions No
11.11.7Transaction Log Analysis
11.11.7.1Does the system keep error log files?
SOPS keeps detailed log of all actions carried out in the software. It keeps error,
usage log file.
11.11.7.2Does the system keep user logs ?
Yes, software records all data about which user had logged in, time duration, actions
carried out etc.
11.11.7.3Does the system keeps track of query’s submitted to the system? Does it store query
log?
Yes, SOPS records details about all queries submitted to SOPS.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 356
11.12 Copyright/Policy Issues
11.12.1 Does the repository software have any means to manage, store, or enforce contract
agreements for all the digital documents that are added into the repository? No
11.12.2Does the software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet address
filters, etc., that can be used to enforce copyright or access restrictions?
SOPS allows to restrict access to documents added in SOPS either open to all or to
registered users.
11.12.3 If repository ingests digital content with unclear ownership/rights, does it have policies
addressing liability and challenges to those rights. No
11.13 Advanced Features
11.13.1 Whether software has long term leadership and consulting services? No
11.13.2Does the system provide citation data? No
11.13.3Does the software have defined road map for the future? No
11.13.4Does software support indexing of all documents that are added in the repository in a
distributed way, without central control? No
11.13.5Virtual Collection Support: Does software support to generate virtual collections /special
collections across several content providers? No
11.13.6Load Balancing: Does software have any mention of load balancing?
No mention about load balancing was found.
11.13.7Visualization: Does the software support visualization feature? No
11.13.8Personalization: Does the system support Personalization feature? Yes, CDS-Invenio
support personalization feature. Each user can create their own collection baskets
and CDS-Invenio’s search engine alerts for the new items added in the repository to
each user through email. User can also generate discussionson any document which
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 357
is available in the repository. Users can also get citation information of each docu-
ment. Users can also write reviews of any documents that are there in the repository.
software supports to create personal collections.
11.13.9Translation Service: Does the system provide translation service? No
11.13.10Community Services: Does the software support to provide community services such as
allowing members of the digital library community to exchange ideas, make announce-
ments, write reviews etc.
SOPS supports to initiate online discussion on a particulardocument submitted in
SOPS repository.
11.13.11Page Ranking: Does the software support page ranking such as supported by commercial
digital libraries. No
11.14 Digital Preservation
SOPS has not yet implemented any digital preservation support. Hence none of the evalu-
ation criteria related to digital preservation were valid and considered for evaluation.
CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 358
Figure 11.2: SOPS Installation Screen
Bibliography
[1] Bjork, B. ; Turk, Z. ; Martens, B. (2002). Re-engineeringthe scientific publishing
process for the ‘Internetworked’ global academic.ELPUB Proceedings- J. A. Carvalho
[et al.] [ed.], VWF, Berlin, 8 p.
[2] SciX Open Publishing Services (SOPS) version 1.0, Documentation Manual. March
31, 2004,http://www.scix.net/sops.htm. (Browsed on 27th February2008).
[3] Martens, B. and Cerovsek, T. (2004). Experiences with web-based scientific collabora-
tion: managing the submission and review process of scientific conferences.8th ICCC
International Conference on Electronic Publishing, Brasilia, - DF, Brazil, June, p. 204-
217.http://elpub.scix.net/cgi-bin/works/Show?204elpub2004 . (Browsed on 1st March
2008).
359