Repository Explorer / VT OAI Demonstration
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The Repository Explorer allows a user to browse through the contents 
of any archive conforming to the Santa Fe Convention.

The software was developed to support a consistent interpretation
of the Open Archives protocols by 2 archives at Virginia Tech,
the Web Characterization Repository and the Computer Science Teaching
Centre ... and, hopefully, others who plan to implement the Santa Fe
Convention as well.

To start browing an archive, a user must load the home page and 
specify an archive by selecting from a list or entering a name 
explicitly. We will first look at the Computer Science Teaching Centre.

A list of actions or "verbs" is displayed together with a parameter 
list. The parameters are listed so that the user can explicitly specify 
them if necessary.

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The archive can provide a list of all the metadata formats it supports.
In this case, there are 3 formats, one of which has been tagged as 
being non-standard by the parser. More information can be obtained on 
each format by following the appropriate link.

The second verb is List Partitions. This will list all the sub-sections 
of the repository and we can select one of these. Then we get the 
contents of that partition as a list of record identifiers and we can 
choose one. We then get the contents of the record.

Now lets return to the home page and select another archive, say 
the Web Characterization Repository.

Listing of partitions and retrieving the contents of a single partition
is identical to before. But now if we choose to view the specific formats
of a record, we can select what metadata we want. For this record,
only the standard set is available, and that can be displayed.

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At all steps of this process, the request sent to the server is noted at
the top of the page. Also, the response can be viewed as raw XML instead
of being parsed. These can assist in debugging a server implementation.
In addition, any parsing errors and incorrect formats of responses
will be reported.

Now, while it is possible to completely access the contents of any server 
using just the procedure outlines, there is a small degree of freedom in
usage of the verbs. For example, the "file-after" parameter can be set
to return only records after that date. Or the "metadata" field can be set
to include full metadata for each record when listing contents.

These parameters can be used in all combinations supported by the protocol
to fully test an implementation of a server that is compliant with the Santa
Fe Convention.