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What is InfoCon
History of InfoCon
The main functions of InfoCon
How does InfoCon work
Further development
A document publishing/migration/conversion framework using webservices. Started of as an extension for DSpace. The framework uses other open source software for specific conversions (for instance OpenOffice).
InfoCon started as an extension of DSpace. This is a digital archive used for instance to store the publications of an institute. In order to make these publications available for all users, it was necessary to convert different file formats into each other. This allows the user to submit e.g. the original word-document and InfoCon will automatically generate a pdf, html, etc. when requested.
Another advantage over directly adding the pdf-file is that higher quality metadata can be generated from a word-document in comparison to the pdf-version.
There are two main functions this framework should provide:
The list of all available output formats can be shown similar to the item display page in DSpace shown in figure 1. This list can be requested from InfoCon, which will hereby not yet generate the files, but only gives a list of file formats.
The file formats supported by InfoCon depends on which converters are added to the framework.
Currently OpenOffice and docbook XSL stylesheets in combination with Apache's FOP have been added to InfoCon.
OpenOffice can convert between various office file formats and the docbook converter converts docbook XML into HTML, PDF, etc.
To be able to determine which converter should handle which conversions an XML config file is used.
This provides the user of the framework with an easy way to configure the framework and add new converters and is independent of any database.
An example of an XML config file for InfoCon is shown in figure 2.
When a certain conversion, like e.g. the pdf version, is selected by the user, the request for the file is sent to InfoCon.
InfoCon will use the sourcefile, and can be given access to any other files that might be necessary to be able to convert documents consisting of multiple files.
This framework has a simple, yet powerful interface towards DSpace or other possible archives in which it should be integrated.
The list of the different converters is configurable in an easily understandable XML file. A new converter can be added by simply inheriting from the abstract superclass "AbstractConverter" and implementing its abstract methods.
Finally, there are always extra enhancements possible with InfoCon.
