Description Language (draft message to SRU implementors)

["Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress" <rden@loc.gov>]

Draft message about the description language. For discussion at this
mornings call

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In conjuntion with the recent invitation to participate in the development
of SRU/CQL 2.0, The OASIS Search Web Services Technical Committee also
invites your participation in the development of the SWS Description
Language.

The Description Language will be used to write description files describing
SWS bindings: capabilities and general characteristic of a search engine and
how it may be accessed.

For example consider the hypothetical description file below, including  a
general description (<databaseInfo>), a request formulation. element
(<requestInfo>), and a response interpretation element (<responseInfo>).

<sws>
<!-- -->
   <databaseInfo>
      <name>Science Fiction Database</name>
       <shortName>SciFi</shortName>
       <contact>
              <name>Ralph LeVan</name>
              <email>levan@oclc.org</email>
      </contact>
   </databaseInfo>
<!-- -->
   <requestInfo>
     <template>
           http://orlabs.oclc.org/SRW/search/scifi
          ?query=cql.any+%3D+%22{query}%22&version=1.1
          &operation=searchRetrieve&maximumRecords={maximumItems}
         &startRecord={startPosition}
     </template>
     <example>
            http://orlabs.oclc.org/SRW/search/scifi
           ?query=cql.any+%3D+%22ninja+turtles%22&version=1.1
           &operation=searchRetrieve&maximumRecords=10&startRecord=1
      </example>
      </requestInfo>
<!-- -->
  <responseInfo type='xml' xmlns:srw='http://www.loc.gov/zing/srw/'>
          <numberOfItems>

<tagpath>/srw:searchRetrieveResponse/numberOfRecords</tagpath>
      </numberOfItems>
    <item>
         <tagpath>
        /srw:searchRetrieveResponse/srw:records/srw:record/srw:recordData
       </tagpath>
    </item>
    <diagnostics>
      <tagpath>/srw:searchRetrieveResponse/srw:diagnostics</tagpath>
      </diagnostics>
    </responseInfo>
  </sws>

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We invite SRU implementors to join the effort to develop this description
language.   Please contact ....