Islandora plugin

Islandora is an open-source repository platform that libraries and archives use to publish digital collections. An Islandora site keeps its controlled vocabularies — subjects, genres, names — as taxonomies.

The Islandora plugin connects a qrate column to those vocabularies. It checks each value against the site, and it offers terms from the site while you type. The official plugin catalog lists the plugin as an example of what a plugin can do.

What the plugin does

It checks column values against a vocabulary. Map a column to one or more vocabularies. The plugin then reports every value the site does not hold as an error in the Problems panel. The message names the vocabularies it consulted, for example "Still image" is not a term in the Islandora typeofresource vocabulary.

It offers terms while you type. Type two or more characters in a mapped cell. A completion list appears under the cell editor with matching terms from the site. One character is too little to narrow a vocabulary, so the plugin stays quiet until the second character.

It accepts several vocabularies for one column. A value passes if any one of the mapped vocabularies holds it. This suits a column that draws from more than one list.

It splits a cell the same way qrate does. The plugin uses the sub-delimiter from Settings ▸ Project ▸ Columns, so a multi-value cell means the same thing to the check as to the column filter. A blank part of a cell is not an error. Missing data is a different check.

It downloads nothing. The plugin asks the server which of a batch of values the server recognizes. One request covers up to 50 values. A vocabulary of a hundred thousand terms therefore costs the same as a vocabulary of ten.

It remembers answers. qrate stores each verdict beside its own data, not in the project file. Only a value nobody has checked before costs a request. A re-check after one typo is free.

It never turns a column red because the server failed. If the site does not answer, the plugin reports nothing for that run and writes the reason to the log.

A first pass over a wide sheet checks up to 200 new values per run. The rest wait for a later run, which the next edit starts.

Install the plugin

Open the Islandora plugin page and select Open in qrate. qrate opens a review screen for the official catalog release. Review the source, version, package hash, and requested permissions. Then select Install.

If you installed qrate from source, the button does not open qrate. Use the Discover Plugins command and select Islandora instead.

You can also open the install screen directly: Open Islandora in qrate.

The Islandora plugin repository has its source code and release history.

Manual install

1. Open Plugins ▸ Plugins Folder.
2. Put the plugin folder there. To clone it, run git clone https://github.com/devnull03/qrate-islandora-plugin islandora.
3. Name the folder islandora. qrate keys the plugin’s stored settings by the folder name.
4. Restart qrate, or reload the plugins.

Turn it on

1. Open Settings ▸ Plugins. Turn on Enabled for islandora.
2. Turn on Network access for islandora. The plugin reaches no server until you do.
3. Open Settings ▸ islandora. Set Islandora server to the base URL of your site, for example https://islandora.example.org.
4. Click Refresh from server. The plugin reads the list of vocabularies the site publishes.
5. Map each column under Mapping. Pick the vocabularies the column must be checked against.

You can also map a column from the grid. Right-click a column header and open the Vocabularies submenu. A tick marks each vocabulary the column already uses. The submenu and the settings page write the same value.

Settings

Setting	Where it is stored	What it is for
Islandora server	The project	The base URL. It travels with the project file.
Username	This computer	An account, only if the site refuses anonymous readers.
Password	This computer	The password for that account. qrate keeps it out of the project file.
Vocabulary names	The project	Comma-separated machine names, for example subject, genre. Use this only if the site will not list its vocabularies.

The plugin has no sub-delimiter setting of its own. It uses the one in Settings ▸ Project ▸ Columns.

The status bar item

The plugin adds an item on the right side of the status bar. It reads Islandora ? until you use it.

Click the item to test the connection. The item then shows one of these:

• Islandora ✓ in green — the site answered.
• Islandora ✗ in red — the site did not answer. The log holds the reason.
• Islandora no server set in red — the Islandora server setting is empty.

After a refresh, the item shows how many vocabularies the plugin found.

Column header menu

Right-click a column header for two more commands:

• Refresh Islandora vocabularies — read the list of vocabularies from the site again.
• Forget cached Islandora terms — discard the stored verdicts for the mapped vocabularies. Use this after somebody adds a term on the site, so qrate asks again instead of trusting an old answer.

What the site must allow

The plugin uses Drupal’s JSON:API, which a stock Islandora site enables. If /jsonapi answers 404, switch the module on with drush en jsonapi.

Drupal guards one call. An anonymous reader needs the access taxonomy overview permission to list vocabularies. Without it, Drupal answers with an empty list instead of refusing, so the mapping tool finds nothing. You have three ways forward:

• Grant that permission on the site.
• Fill in Username and Password.
• Type the machine names into Vocabulary names. The mapping tool works from that list instead.

Related pages

• Diagnostics — the Problems panel, where the plugin reports what it finds.
• Columns — column types and the sub-delimiter.
• Plugins — what a plugin can do, and how to write one.