Last updated 2003-12-01 11:16:46 EST
Doc Title Image Class COLLDB (Collection Database)
Author 1 Weise, John
CVS Revision $Revision: 1.6 $
Image Class COLLDB (Collection Database) Configuration

The COLLDB (collection database) is for configuration of individual collections. Many aspects of how a collection is presented in the interface are controlled by elements in the COLLDB. It is very powerful in that sense, and allows extensive customization to be done without creation of HTML templates. It is still possible to create templates and modify style sheets, etc. if that is necessary. Please see DLXS HTML Templates / Interfaces for an overview.

Some of the COLLDB elements may have corresponding Processing Instructions. Under certain situations, the Processing Instruction may override the COLLDB. This generally happens in a logical fashion. Just be aware of this possibility.

The majority of Collmgr Fields are fully documented within Collmgr. This document now only includes extensive information beyond what could be reasonably kept in the Collmgr help document.

Table of COLLDB Field Definitions

Field Name Description Example
dfltentryflds and dfltresentryflds the list of fields (as abbreviations) to display in entry (full record) views. to display all fields, enter the value "default".

BHL_IT
BHL_TIS
dateconv:on
BHL_DA
dateconv:off
BHL_CR
BHL_WC
BHL_CA
BHL_NO
BHL_SU
BHL_G
BHL_CT
BHL_CC
BHL_LO
BHL_ITNO
BHL_NE
BHL_SS
url:on
idres:on
BHL_EL
url:off
idres:off
BHL_RI
BHL_RE

In colldb, values must be listed 1 per line. However within a processing instruction, values must be delimited by pipes ( "|" ). e.g., MUSART.TI|MUSART.CR|musart.DA

Values are not case sensitive.

There are several options that may be turned on and off to enhance the display of records. The options are specified as another value among abbreviations. When the status of an option is changed, the change is persistent for all subsequent fields, until the status is changed again. The exceptions to this are "sectionlabel" and "urltext", which are specified as often as needed.

The "url" option, for example, causes fields that contain a URL (and nothing but a URL), to be turned into a hyperlink. It can be used in conjunction with the "urltext" option, which allows the link text to be specified. By default the URL itself is used for the link text. e.g.,
MUSART.TI
url:on
urltext:View_Copyright_Statement
MUSART.cp
url:off
MUSART.DA

The "hilite" option causes search terms to be hilited. This option is "on" by default, but if you wanted to turn hiliting off for several consecutive fields, you could. e.g., MUSART.TI
hilite:off
MUSART.DA
MUSART.PG
MUSART.LI
hilite:on
MUSART.TY

The complete list of field options are as follows:

option values default description
label on/off on display name of field before field value
sectionlabel text string*
 empty display a section label before a series of fields. allows a record to split into sections.
url on/off off turn the entire contents of the field in to a link. assumes the field contains a single URL.
urltext text string* empty display the provided string as the text of the "url" option link. if "urltext" is not specified, the URL value is used as the text of the link.
idres on/off off look the value of the field up in the id resolver and display the value. use with "url" and/or "urltext" to turn the value in to a link.
dateconv on/off off

displays some ISO format dates in a more human readable form.

supports YYYYMMDD, YYYYMMDD/YYYYMMDD and maintains any data that might follow the date in the field e.g, (ca.)
hilite on/off on

hilites search terms in the field.

DLXS hiliting supports 3 search fields only (q1 - q3).

keylinks on/off off

turns the field value into a url that will search the collection for that value. by default, each word of the field is made into a separate link. the delimiter used to split the field can be specified by the "delim" option.
delim 1 or more characters SPACE

used in conjunction with the keylinks option to split the value of a field into smaller parts by the value delim specifies. for example, if a field holds a list of keywords delimited by "; " delim can be set to ";_" to tell the keylinks option how to split the field. (note: use an underscore for SPACE.) e.g., delim:;_

* use underscores for spaces. special characters may not work.

The Processing Instruction "RECORDTABLE" has similar functionality.