12 October 2011Andrew Brown

IMu Technology

2012 Australasian EMu Conference11 September 2012

IMu Overview

IMu

• EMu is the electronic museumIMu is making data in EMu available on the Internet

• Conventional web pages for desktops

• Web publication for mobile devices

• Web-based applications for data capture

• Web services for many different applications

• It’s more than “web pages for EMu”

• But it definitely is part of EMu

What is IMu?

• A set of tools for accessing data within EMu

• Web pages

• Web plugins

• Web apps

• Web services

• Two core components:

• Server

• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Web Pages

• Internet / Intranet interface to EMu collection

• Modern interface components (Web 2.0)

• Theme-able

• “My Museum” lists

• Cross-module searches

• Highly customisable interface

Web Plugins (“Widgets”)

• Components embedded within other web pages

• Can be used with Content Management Systems

• Not tied to specific CMSs

• Uses JavaScript for simple configuration

Web Plugins (“Widgets”)

• Many types of components

• Browse

• Search

• Display List/Lightbox/Details Map Locator

• “My Museum”

• Device-aware

• To be released with IMu 2.0

Web apps

• Interfaces built for data capture

• Based around user login

• Can create tailored “mini-apps” aimed at specific tasks

• Just getting started

Web Services

• Standards-based

• OAI/PMH

• Generic

• Multimedia

• Bespoke

• Living Worlds

• Bristol M-Shed

How does it work?

• Access to EMu data provided by an IMu server

• IMu-based applications talk to the IMu server

• Web-based applications run on a web server

Server

• Runs within an EMu environment

• “Understands” EMu

• Secure

• Extensible

• Efficient

• Uses one or more EMu licences

APIs

• Provide low-level programmer access to IMu server

• Client/Server

• “Stateful” or stateless

• Anonymous or authenticated access

• Open source

How does it all fit together?

EMu

IMu APIs

Web services

Pages WidgetsApps

Web Apps

IMu Server