Documentation¶
- Documentation
- Quickstart
- Installation
- Usage
- About
- Rails Integration
- Solr Intregration
- A sample ActiveFedora application
- Disk Image(s) Pre-Configured for Convenience
- Misc
Quickstart¶
Getting Started: a tour of ActiveFedora on the command line.
Installation¶
Installation
Setting up Fedora and Solr for use with ActiveFedora
Getting the Gems
Getting the Code
List of Dependencies
Testing ActiveFedora with RSpec
Usage¶
Setting up a Rails App to use ActiveFedora
About¶
For more information about the relationship between the two gems, see RubyFedora and ActiveFedora
Rails Integration¶
ActiveFedora does not have any explicit dependencies on Ruby on Rails. You can definitely write ruby applications that use ActiveFedora without using Rails. For example, you might use ActiveFedora to write command line scripts or bots without a GUI interface.
Having said that, we have written ActiveFedora with the intention of using it primarily within the context of Rails or Merb applications. In that context, ActiveFedora plays the same role as ActiveRecord or DataMapper. The difference between ActiveFeora and ActiveRecord is that ActiveFedora connects to Fedora where ActiveRecord connects with a Relational Database.
You can use ActiveFedora and ActiveRecord models alongside each other in a single application. Both types of models reside in your "models" directory. This allows you to enjoy all the Rails/ActiveRecord goodness whenever you have data that is essential to your application but doesn't belong in Fedora.
Solr Intregration¶
ActiveFedora currently uses Solr in a very simplistic way. When you save objects, ActiveFedora writes all of their metadata into Solr as well as Fedora. ActiveFedora objects also have a rudimentary find_by_solr method.
In version 1.1, Solr will be entirely optional with ActiveFedora.
If you want to use gsearch to populate Solr instead of having ActiveFedora do it manually, read Notes on Solr usage.
A sample ActiveFedora application¶
MediaShelf is currently building an ActiveFedora-driven Rails app for the Jewish Women's Archive. To get the source code, go to
http://www.bitbucket.org/mediashelf/jwa_fedora/
hg clone http://bitbucket.org/mediashelf/jwa_fedora/ cd jwa_fedora rake db:migrate rake spec
This Oral Histories management application is a work in progress, but it will give you a sense of how you might use ActiveFedora in an application.
We recommend running this code with Ruby 1.8.7. If you use Ruby 1.8.6, you some non-essential specs will fail and you may experience unpredictable performance.
Disk Image(s) Pre-Configured for Convenience¶
Blank Fedora/Solr Disk Image (Mac OS X)