# /research/announcements/2003-11-07b.xml

originally: http://www.oclc.org/research/announcements/2003-11-07b.htm

        Ralph LeVan's SRW/SRU Open Source database interface now available; includes support for DSpace's Lucene implementation and OCLC's Pears and Newton databases
        The SRW/U Open Source software implements both the SRW Web Service and the SRU REST model interface to databases.
        levan@oclc.org

        http://www.oclc.org/research/announcements/
        http://www.oclc.org/research/announcements/oclc_research_news.rdf
        November 7, 2003
        It includes interfaces that support DSpace's Lucene implementation and OCLC's Pears and Newton databases.
        <P>SRW is a Web Service for searching text databases; SRU provides the same functionality as SRW, but is URL based. They both support the same kind of search and retrieval functionality provided by Z39.50.</P>
    <P>Why use them?<BR>Web Services are becoming part of the standard toolkit for implementors.&nbsp; URL's are even simpler; responses are just XML records.&nbsp; This could well be the interface to repositories that all those architecture diagrams call for.</P>
    <P>User interfaces can be created using XSL stylesheets, allowing browsers to support rich interfaces with no special code at the server end and no client code other than the browser.</P>
    <P>What are we providing?<BR>We've built an SRW/SRU (or SRW/U) server.&nbsp; It acts as an interface to local databases.&nbsp; The local databases it currently supports are Lucene, Pears and Newton.&nbsp; Lucene is the database underlying DSpace and Pears and Newton are used by OCLC's SiteSearch.</P>
        <P>OCLC's SRW/SRU Open Source software:<BR><A href="http://www.oclc.org/research/software/srw/default.htm">http://www.oclc.org/research/software/srw/default.htm</A></P>
    <P>OCLC's SRW/U project:<BR><A href="http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/webservices/default.htm">http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/webservices/default.htm</A></P>
    <P>Ralph LeVan:<BR><A href="http://www.oclc.org/research/staff/levan.htm">http://www.oclc.org/research/staff/levan.htm</A></P>

        Ralph LeVan
        +1-614-764-6115

        Bob Bolander
        bolander@oclc.org
        +1-614-761-5207

        Consulting Research Scientist
        OCLC Research
        Communications &amp; Programs Manager
        OCLC Research