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e-codices newsletter


The e-codices newsletter provides information about the latest updates, highlights, and activities of our project and appears about 4-5 times per year.
We are delighted to count you among our readers!

The e-codices team

 
In this issue
  1. New application e-codices v2.0
  2. New design - mobile devices — responsive design
  3. IIIF
  4. New viewer
  5. Different sequences
  6. Sidebar
  7. Improved search
  8. CMS
 
 
December 2014
Issue N° 16
 
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application
 
New application e-codices v2.0
 
With todays update, the new web application e-codices v2.0 goes online. It replaces the old web application e-codices v1.29 (from December 2008). We decided to not only thoroughly revise the old web application, but to reprogram it entirely to ensure that new needs and new ideas can be realized with sufficient opportunities for future development. Over the past two years, this new web application was programmed for e-codices by the internet company text & bytes. We asked Rafael Schwemmer, founder and director of „text & bytes“ and former project manager and lead developer of e-codices, about the main idea behind the new web application: „The new version will have a more modern, responsive design that works well on tablets and smartphones. But a redesign is not just about visual appearance. It is about functionality, usability, interoperability and generally about rethinking what it is that we are trying to achieve.”
 
 
 
New design - mobile devices — responsive design
 
The new web application gives e-codices a new visual identity. In addition to the new logo, which was introduced in a previous newsletter, the visual appearance of the navigation and of all static and dynamic pages was revised. e-codices v2.0 was optimized for mobile devices, so that users can now browse manuscripts on a tablet or a smartphone with a simple swipe gesture. By means of responsive design, the page display adjusts to the respective device, so that desktops, tablets or smartphones with different screen sizes each display with optimal visualization.
 
iPhone
 
 
 
IIIF
 
The new web application implements the IIIF Image and Presentation APIs, making e-codices more interoperable and accessible. IIIF is driven by a group of research libraries, national libraries, and nonprofit image repositories. By exposing our content via the IIIF APIs we can share and disseminate our content with partner institutions and anyone interested. The IIIF Image API offers an easy to use, standardized and highly customizable way to request images. We use it internally in the new web application but it can also be used to consume e-codices manuscript images. The IIIF Presentation API allows us to expose manuscript metadata together with the images.
 
iiif
 
 
 
New viewer
 
The new viewer uses OpenSeadragon, an open-source, web-based viewer for zoomable images, implemented in JavaScript. The images are delivered to the viewer with Loris, an open source, Python-based image server that supports the IIIF Image API. For the new application, all images were converted to JPEG 2000. With the Loris image server, the IIIF Image API and OpenSeadragon we can now offer our users an improved viewing experience with continuous zoom. Other improvements include a thumbnail bar that can be shown or hidden and images that can be downloaded in four different sizes. For printing, a PDF is generated on the fly.
 
viewer
 
 
 
Different sequences
 
The new data model SharedCanvas makes it possible to create different sequences of a manuscript or even of a virtual manuscript, which may consist of numerous dispersed pieces. We would like to offer two examples:
Edictus Rothari (Cod. Sang. 730): Digitization before and after restoration. The fragments of Edictus Rothari, which today are held in the Abbey Library of St. Gall, were photographed twice, once in October 2006 and again in April 2009, after the codex, into which these fragments had been bound, had undergone extensive restoration. A simple dropdown menu lets users view images from before and after the restoration.
Codex Pandeli (Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum, Cod. 2): Until now, the viewer could display only the sequence of Latin script, from left to right. In the new application, a modified sequence allows Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts to be displayed in the correct order, from right to left.
 
csg-0730 utp-0002
 
 
 
Sidebar
 
The new viewer makes it possible to show or hide metadata for a manuscript in a sidebar. Currently this sidebar shows basic information, how to quote, rights and description; a scholarly description can, for example, be shown next to the image. In principle, the sidebar is expandable; in the future, other categories will be added, such as image descriptions, codicological information e.g., about the quire formula or the watermark, metadata about the photographs, additional images, as well as editions and transcriptions.
 
sidebar
 
 
 
Improved search
 
The hardest tasks often remain almost completely invisible. e-codices’ great metadata and sophisticated search function are often considered its distinctive high quality characteristics. The new application presents another marked improvement to these features. The search and browse functions were combined since the full potential of a detailed search can only be taken advantage of if both search strategies are used in combination. In addition, the presentation of facets was further differentiated; for example, sub-categories were introduced so that now languages are grouped into language families.
 
search
 
 
 
CMS
 
We also completely reprogrammed the data input in the back end. Different users (super users, administrators, editors, guest pass users) with different access rights can manage data via a simple CMS. The new CMS makes data management simpler, faster, more efficient, more differentiated and more up-to-date, since modifications can be made by various libraries, project partners and collaborating scholars without much training.
 
cms
 
 
 
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e-codices
Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
Rue de l’Hôpital 4, CH – 1700 Fribourg

T + 41 (0) 26 300 71 57
F + 41 (0) 26 300 96 27

www.e-codices.ch
e-codices@unifr.ch
 
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