This document is an application Profile for WAIS (Wide Area Information
Servers) network publishing systems. It is based on ANSI/NISO Z39.50
Version 2, as specified in Z39.50-1994, the American National Standard for
Information Retrieval Application Service Definition and Protocol
Specification for Open Systems Interconnection.
FACILITIES
For conformance with Z39.50-1994, the Initialization, Search, and Present
Facilities are required.
ATTRIBUTE COMBINATIONS
Other Bib-1 attributes may be supported, but the following are required.
(Refer to Appendix ATR, Attribute Set Bib-1, of the Z39.50-1994
Specification for more information on the Bib-1 Attribute Set.)
Use: Any
Local number
Doc-Id
Relation: Equal
Relevance
Structure: Free form text
Document Text
Local number
URx
This profile assumes the following functions, to be supported by WAIS
systems.
o Free-Form (human-entered) Text.
o Relevance Feedback by Document Text.
o Relevance Feedback by Document Identifier (URx).
o Relevance Feedback by Record Identifier (local identifier).
o Search by Document Identifier (URx).
o Search by Record Identifier (local identifier).
WAIS systems will use the following attribute combinations for these
functions.
o Free-Form (human-entered) Text.
Use: Any
Relation: Relevance
Structure: Free form text
o Relevance Feedback by Document Text.
Use: Any
Relation: Relevance
Structure: Document Text
o Relevance Feedback by Document Identifier (URx).
Use: Any
Relation: Relevance
Structure: URx
o Relevance Feedback by Record Identifier (local identifier).
Use: Any
Relation: Relevance
Structure: Local number
o Search by Document Identifier (URx).
Use: DocId
Relation: Equal
Structure: URx
o Search by Record Identifier (local identifier).
Use: Local number
Relation: Equal
Structure: Local number
RECORD SYNTAX
Support for Generic Record Syntax (GRS-1) is required. (Refer to Appendix
REC of the Z39.50-1994 Specification for the ASN.1 of GRS-1.)
SCHEMA DEFINITION
(Refer to Appendix RET, Schemas and TagSets, of the Z39.50-1994
Specification.)
1. Tag Types
Within GRS-1 records, tag types are mapped to tag sets as follows:
Tag Type Usage
--------- ------------------------------------------------------------
1 Elements from tagSet-1 whose OID is 1.2.840.10003.14.1
2 Elements from tagSet-2 whose OID is 1.2.840.10003.14.2
3 For Occurrences of ObjectElements (locally-defined tags)
2. WAIS Abstract Record Structure
WAIS records include the following elements,
Tag path Element Mandatory? Repeatable?
-------- ---------- -------- -----------
(2,1) Headline Yes No
(2,2) Name No Yes
(2,3) Date No No
(1,10) Rank No No
(1,18) Score No No
(1,14) RecordIdentifier Yes No
(1,12) URx No Yes
(3,<locally-defined tag>) ObjectElement Yes Yes
Headline: Set of words that conveys the main idea of the record.
Name: One or more individuals associated with one of the object
elements; it could, for example, be an author or an
organization. As another example, there might be three
object elements: a fingerprint file, photo, and resume;
the Name would be the individual that these object
elements describe.
Date: A date associated with the record.
Score: Represents the numerical score of the record based on its
relevance to the query, from 1 to 1000, inclusive.
RecordIdentifier: An identifier of that record, defined by, and unique within
the target system (it may, but need not be, a URx).
URx: Universal Resource Locator or Universal Resource Name for
the record.
ObjectElement: Each "object element" contains object information for the
record. It may be text, image, etc. Each may be available
in one or more variants. As in the above example, suppose
there are three object elements: a fingerprint file, a
photo, and a resume; the string tags for these three
elements respectively might be "fingerPrint", "photo",
and "resume". It is recommended that the string tags
for the Object Elements be descriptive of the information
in the element, for discovery purposes (see description
of element set "VARAINT" below). If there are multiple
occurences, each must have a different string tag.
ELEMENT SET SPECIFICATION
The following element set names should be supported. The latter three are
supported with GRS.
o The primitive element set name "F" is required for conformance. The
target will return all elements of the record as specified by the
schema, where for each Object Element the applied variant is
determined by the target. Large records may not be retrievable
using this element set name.
o The primitive element set name "B" is used to obtain all elements
except Object Elements.
o The primitive element set name "VARIANT" is used to obtain elements
with numeric tags, the string tag skeleton, and variant information
for each Object Element: the string tag will be indicated for
each Object Element, and for each, each variant for that element will
be listed, as well as a variant identifier for each variant.
o The primitive element set name <variant identifier> (as returned by
the target, as a result of a request which use the element set
"VARIANT") may be used, to mean: return the "first portion" of the
variant of the element associated with this variant identifier;
"first portion" means from the beginning, as much as fit within the
PDU.
o The primitive element set name <target position> (as returned by the
target in a Generic record) may be used, to mean: return the "next
portion" of the element and variant associated with this target
position; "next portion" means beginning immediately after the end of
the previous portion, as much as will fit within the PDU.
