Compass Server 3.0 Developer's Guide

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Appendix A
Glossary

Attribute-Value Pair
An attribute and a value, such as title and John Brown. Attribute values are used in SOIF objects and in parameter blocks (or pblocks).

Browse Page
A page that is displayed when an end user browses a category using the Compass Server. or goes to the Compass Server End User Page for the first time.

Compass Server End User Page
The page that users see when they use the Compass Server to search or browse. This is also the page that is presented when a developer accesses a Compass Server as a client.

Configuration File
A file that lists the pattern files needed to make up a Compass Server End User Page.

Directive
A statement that uses a particular format to invoke a function (such as a robot application function) and pass parameters to the function in a parameter block. For example, the following directive invokes the enumerate-urls function, and passes parameters for max and type. 
Enumerate fn=enumerate-urls max=1024 type=text/html

Matching Category
A category that matches a search query. It is returned as a result of a search submission.

Matching Document
A document that matches a search query. It is returned as the result of a search submission.

Parameter Block/Pblock
A C data structure that holds pairs of attributes and values.

Pattern File
A file that defines the content for a component of a Compass Server End User Page.

Resource Description/RD
A resource description is an entry in the Compass Server database that describes a resource, such as a document, on a network. Resource descriptions are stored in SOIF format.

Resource Description Message/RDM
RDM standards for resource description messages. An RDM has a header and a body. The header contains information about the message, and the body contains the data for the message. An RDM uses SOIF syntax. Processes can communicate using RDM, for example, queries to the Compass Server database must use RDM format.

Robot Application Function/RAF
A function that can be used in robot filter configuration files. User-defined robot application functions are also called plug-in functions. These functions are invoked by directives.

Schema-name
The schema, or type, of a SOIF. For example, a SOIF for a document has the schema-name @DOCUMENT, while a SOIF for an RDM header has the schema-name @RDMHeader.

Search Results Page
The page that is displayed when an end user submits a search query to the Compass Server.

SOIF
SOIF stands for Summary Object Interchange format. Each SOIF object has a schema-name that identifies the kind of SOIF. It has a URL and a set of attribute-value pairs. Resource descriptions in the Compass Server database are stored in SOIF. For example, a document resource has the schema name @DOCUMENT, a URL for the document, and a set of attribute value pairs that describe the document, such as title, description, author, and so on..

SOIF Attribute
Each resource description in the Compass Server database has multiple attributes or fields. These attributes are known as SOIF attributes, where SOIF stands for Summary Object Interchange Format.

View Template or UI Template
A configuration file and its associated set of pattern files, that together determine the appearance of the Compass End User Page.

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Last Updated: 02/07/98 20:49:26

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