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+ About Groo
Groo was written in PHP 5.1 with Horde 3.1.
The archived CVS repository can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.horde.org/pub/archive/.
++ High-level use cases
At a minimum, Groo should allow a user to:
* catalog her books, by typing ISBNs or scanning barcodes
* invite friends who will have access to her books
* ask to borrow a book
* approve lending of a book
After the basics are done, we also want our user to be able to:
* search, tag, comment, recommend and rate books in her collective catalog
* get e-mail remembering to return a book, or to ask for a book which is overdue
* arrange the exchange of books, either setting up meetings or scheduling drops
++ Basic entities
The main entities in the Groo system are **Users**, **Books** and **Items**. Users are basically managed and stored by the Horde infrastructure.
+++ Books vs. Items
What we call a Book in Groo is not a physical object, but rather a certain edition of a work, such as "PHP in a Nutshell, ISBN: 0596100671". An Item is a particular physical instance or exemplar of a Book, such as my own copy of "PHP in a Nutshell". Eventually Items will also refer to DVDs, LPs, CDs.
So Groo has a public database of Books, and private collections of Items, which are the user's book collections. The collections are implemented as Horde shares.
++ Application components
+++ groo_books
Each record represents a book in print, usually identified by an ISBN. Since older books don't have an ISBN, the primary key is and internal sequence. When the ISBN is NULL the title must not be NULL (but this is not enforced at this time).
Books have a one-to-many relationship with Items (see groo_items groo_items).
Books have a many-to-many relationship to Creators (see groo_creators and groo_l_book_creator).
The title field is indexed for full text search.
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_books (
book_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
isbn13 CHAR(14), -- ISBN13 + 1 DIGIT = GTIN
title VARCHAR(255), -- Either isbn13 or title must not be null
title_sort VARCHAR(255),-- Title for sorting purposes (article at end)
edition VARCHAR(63), -- Ex: 1st; extended ultimate director's cut edition
publisher VARCHAR(63),
issued CHAR(10), -- publication date in partial ISO-8601 format Ex: 1999-12
metadata_status VARCHAR(32), -- status of the data in this record
metadata_source VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, -- source of the data in this record
metadata_modified_dt TIMESTAMP,
created_dt DATETIME NOT NULL,
--
PRIMARY KEY (book_id),
UNIQUE (isbn13),
FULLTEXT (title)
);
</code>
----
+++ groo_creators
The name field is indexed for full text search.
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_creators (
creator_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
metadata_source VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
metadata_modified_dt TIMESTAMP,
created_dt DATETIME NOT NULL,
--
PRIMARY KEY (creator_id),
FULLTEXT (name)
);
</code>
----
+++ groo_l_book_creator
This table establishes the many-to-many relationship between Books and Creators
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_l_book_creator (
book_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
creator_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
role CHAR(16), -- author, translator, editor, illustrator etc.
citation_order SMALLINT UNSIGNED, -- the order in which the creator name appears
--
PRIMARY KEY (book_id, creator_id)
);
</code>
----
++ groo_items
This table structured was borrowed from Mnemo (the mnemo_memos table). The only change, besides the fieldnames, was the addition of the item_book_id field, which is a foreign key linking to the groo_books table.
Both item_id and item_uid are randomly generated unique strings. A recent discussion on the //dev// list concluded with Chuck saying that id fields (such as item_id) in Horde apps should be converted back to integers. Item_uid will continue as is, because it is used for syncing to external devices. I don't know wether Groo items could be usefully synced to a cell phone or PDA, but for the time being the field stays.
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_items (
item_owner VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, -- id of the Horde share which owns this item
item_id VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, -- id of the item (a random string)
item_uid VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, -- uid of the item, for syncing to external devices
item_desc VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, -- short description of the item
item_body TEXT, -- user comments on the item
item_book_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, -- the book of which this item is a copy
item_category VARCHAR(80), -- one of the user defined categories
item_private SMALLINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0, -- boolean?
item_modified TIMESTAMP, -- used to sort items by date of change
--
PRIMARY KEY (item_owner, item_id)
);
</code>
----
+++ groo_remote_queries
This table is used by the Fetch.php module to record transactions with the remote metadata sources.
Calling {{./Fetch.php --fetch-untitled}} via the command line adds a record in this table for each Book without a title added since the last fetch operation.
Fetch.php then passes the list of queries to the fetch drivers (currently only Amazon.php is implemented). The fetch drivers should be prioritized, that is, the first one invoked should be the one most likely to have the metadata. For US books, Amazon.com is a good first choice because it has book covers (the Library of Congress catalog is more complete but does not have the convers).
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_remote_queries (
query_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
metadata_source VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, -- eg: amazon.com, bn.br etc.
param_name VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL, -- eg: asin, isbn etc.
param_value VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, -- eg: 0486273474
last_attempt_num INT UNSIGNED DEFAULT 0,-- fetch attempts counter
last_attempt_dt DATETIME,
query_status CHAR(32), -- interna status string, eg: SUCCESS, NOT_FOUND
message TEXT, -- the actual message returned by the remote system
record_modified_dt TIMESTAMP,
created_dt DATETIME NOT NULL,
--
PRIMARY KEY (query_id),
UNIQUE (metadata_source, param_name, param_value)
);
</code>
----
+++ groo_item_leases
This is intended to control the lease of items between users. No code dealing with this has been implemented yet. The plan is to try to leverage the Nag (tasks) functionality do implement this, so some of the fields below may turn out to be redundant.
<code type="sql">CREATE TABLE groo_item_leases (
lease_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
item_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, -- leased item id
requester_uid VARCHAR(255), -- who asked to borrow
lease_status CHAR(32), -- internal status string, eg: PENDING, OVERDUE
return_condition TEXT, -- optional owner comment on the state of the returned item
start_dt DATETIME, -- start of the lease period
end_dt DATETIME, -- end of the lease period
returned_dt DATETIME, -- date when the item was returned to the owner
record_modified_dt TIMESTAMP,
created_dt DATETIME NOT NULL,
--
PRIMARY KEY (lease_id)
);
</code>
++ Personal libary managers
There are many sofware products, free or commercial, to help people manage their personal libraries.
+++ Desktop
[[image http://www.delicious-monster.com/images/librarypage/screenshots/cover_BIG.jpg Delicious Library screenshot]]
++++ Delicious Library (http://www.delicious-monster.com/)
* Pros: excellent UI; can read barcodes via iSight web cam; !MacOSX compatible
* Cons: limited to Amazon.com catalog; !MacOSX only; proprietary software
++++ Personal Library Manager (http://www.thebottle.org/)
* Easy navigation to browse through books
* Title, Author, Publisher, Category, Pages, Status, Rating, Description, and Cover fields
* Title and author search
* Filter through books marked "Not Read", "Finished", or "Read Again"
* Compact and repair the database
+++ Web based
++++ !BookCrossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/)
This is a thriving community site which encourages people to pass on their books, even to total strangers, by leaving them in public places. Each book carries a message explaining the idea to whoever found it, and a unique identifier that can be used to track where the book has been previously. This is a fantastic idea, and the first approach to try to manage the ((Book Commons)). However, it is not really a personal library manager in the sense that you do not control your books, but only track them.
++ The Book Commons
Is the collection of all books which freely circulate among people. Most of them are unaccounted for.
I may borrow a book from someone, forget to return it, and then pass it on to somebody else.
+++ Liberated books
Groo users will be able to "liberate" some of their books, which then become available to all users as part of the book commons. A liberated book can be held by anyone as long as no one else wants to borrow it. If you are holding a liberated book and another person asks for it, you are required to pass it on within a certain period.