bfe

Note: This editor is no longer under development. The Library of Congress is using MARVA to edit BIBFRAME resources.

bfe is a standalone Editor for the Library of Congress's Bibliographic Framework (BIBFRAME) Initiative. It can be used more generically as an editor for RDF data. bfe uses [BIBFRAME Profiles][profilespec] to render an HTML/UI input form; it is capable of integrating 'lookup' services, which query data from external Web APIs; and implementers can define the input and extract the output.

This repository includes a development example, a "production" example, and various BIBFRAME Profiles with which to begin experimenting. In order to get started with bfe quickly and easily, there are two main aspects of bfe: a javascript library and an accompanying CSS file. The packaged javascript library bundles a few additional libraries, some of which are JQuery, Lo-Dash, elements from Twitter's Bootstrap.js, and Twitter's typeahead.js. The CSS bundle includes mostly elements of Twitter's Bootstrap and a few additional custom CSS declarations.

Getting Started

bfe is currently submodule of recto, an express-based webserver, which uses verso a loopback-based server for backend data. The current recommendation is to install recto and verso and use bfe as part of the demonstration environment.

bfe's RECTOBASE is now set using an environment variable. Note: default RECTOBASE value is http://localhost:3000.

./env.sh > builds/env.js
npm install
grunt

bfe can be run as a demo or development version using a simple express-based server - found in the main bfe directory - that ships with bfe:

node server-bfe.js

Documentation

• API

Demo?

Online Demo

Browser Support

• Chrome 34
• Firefox 24+
• Safari - 6+
• Opera - 12+

NOTE: bfe has also not been thoroughly tested in the browsers for which support is currently listed. It has been developed primarily using Chrome. It has been tested in both Chrome and Safari mobile versions. IE is no longer supported.

Issues

Log them here:

https://github.com/lcnetdev/bfe/issues

Support

For technical questions about bfe, you can use the GitHub Issues feature, but please "label" your question a 'question.'

Although you are encouraged to ask your quesion publicly (the answer might help everyone), you may also email this repository's maintainer directly.

For general questions about BIBFRAME, you can subscribe to the BIBFRAME Listserv and ask in that forum.

Developers

From a design standpoint, the objective with bfe was to create the simplest 'pluggable' form editor one can to maximize experimental implementer's abilities to create/edit BIBFRAME data. The current focus is to transform bfe into a production ready tool.

All contributions are welcome. If you do not code, surely you will discover an issue you can report.

'Building' bfe requires npm, bundled with node.js and grunt. See package.json for dependencies. See Gruntfile.json for build dependencies.

Basic build steps:

• npm init
• npm install
• grunt

Acknowledgements

In addition to all the good people who have worked on JQuery, Lo-Dash, Twitter's Bootstrap, Twitter's typeahead.js, require.js, dryice, and more, all of whom made this simpler, special recognition needs to go to the developers who have worked on Ajax.org's Ace editor and the fine individuals at Zepheira.

Using require.js, Ace's developers figured out a great way to bundle their code into a single distributable. Ace's methods were studied and emulated, and when that wasn't enough, their code was ported (with credit, of course, and those snippets were ported only in support of building the package with dryice). The Ace's devs also just have a really smart way of approaching this type of javascript project.

In late 2013, and demoed at the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference, Zepheira developed a prototype BIBFRAME Editor. Although that project never moved beyond an experimental phase, Zepheira's work was nevertheless extremely influential, especially with respect to bfe's UI design. (None of the code in bfe was ported from Zepheira's prototype.) Zepheira also developed the [BIBFRAME Profile Specification][profilespec].

Contributors

• Jeremy Nelson
• Kevin Ford
• Kirk Hess
• Matt Miller

Index Data:

• Charles Ledvina
• Wayne Schneider

Maintainer

• Kirk Hess
  • GitHub

License

Unless otherwise noted, code that is original to bfe is in the Public Domain.

http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

NOTE: bfe includes or depends on software from other open source projects, all or most of which will carry their own license and copyright. The Public Domain mark stops at bfe original code and does not convey to these projects.