swissbib is a search solution that combines different software applications to best provide its service. To get a general picture one can think of these software applications as layers. Each layer of the solution is responsible for a specific task or group of tasks and operates independent from the other layers. The communication between the layers is secured with proven and well documented protocols and interfaces.
Presentation Layer: provides a convivial interface for users and standard APIs for other applications
swissbib used the open source software VuFind as user interface, which is individually skinned to meet swissbibs requirements. Up to 2013 OCLC Touchpoint was used for the presentation layer.
Search engine: provides facilities to index and group data as well as interpret and correct queries
swissbib used the open source software Solr as a search engine. Up to 2012 FAST was used as a search engine.
Data Preparation: harvests data from the source repositories and prepares them for the search engine
In addition to the layers there are SRU and OAI interfaces that allow external applications to use swissbib as service.
In this phase the project linked swissbib started and accordingly new components for the new worflows had to be integrated into the existing architecture.
For further information see Presentations and publications from 2019 and 2020.