Islandora 8 Learning Series

The organization of an Islandora 7 site’s content is defined by the Fedora Object to Object Relationship Metadata (RELS-EXT). Every object in an Islandora 7 repository has a RELS-EXT datastream that defines the object’s relationship(s) within the repository. For example, the RELS-EXT for a newspaper issue contains information about the newspaper object of which it is a member. In Islandora 8, these relationships are defined within Drupal. The Islandora 8 default configuration adds to Drupal the content type of Repository […]

In Islandora 8 traditional objects such as video files, audio files, PDFs, and photographs become Drupal resource nodes. Resource nodes are different from the “regular” Drupal nodes we described in our Drupal nodes post. Regular Drupal nodes include content on a site such as a page, poll, article, or blog entry. These nodes make up the parts of an Islandora 8 site that are not repository objects.  While using the term “object” is traditional with Islandora it can get in the […]

Everything in an Islandora repository is an object. In Islandora, an object is a collection of properties describing something. Since Islandora 7 was built on top of Fedora an object in Islandora 7 is essentially a Fedora object. In Islandora 8, Drupal, and not Fedora, is the primary source of all aspects of an Islandora object. In Drupal terms, an Islandora 8 object is a node. As we learned in last week’s post on Drupal Nodes, nodes have properties that […]

Drupal nodes are an integral part of how a Drupal 8 site works. Understanding them will help understand how an Islandora 8 site functions. All content on a Drupal site is stored and treated as nodes. Regular Drupal nodes include any individual content on a site such as a page, poll, article, or blog entry. The content type of the node will define what fields (or specific information) that node displays. For example, a basic Page content type has (minimally) two fields: title and body.  Node management and […]

The Islandora community consists of implementers, developers, service companies, and users working as transparently and collaboratively as possible towards better documentation and an always open-source code base. The community operates under a Code of Conduct.  Involvement is formalized through various levels of membership and helps provide financial support. The community remains engaged through several ways, including: Members of the PALS Islandora team are active community members. We have attended past Islandorcons, participate in interest groups, and engage with other Islandora users on […]

Islandora is more than just software. There are a lot of dedicated people who contribute to Islandora’s success, brought together under the umbrella of the Islandora Foundation. The Islandora Foundation is a community driven non-profit that serves several key roles in the Islandora Community. These roles include: The Foundation is financially supported through membership fees. There are three membership tiers: Member, Collaborator, and Partner. The PALS office supports the Foundation at the Collaborator level.  The Islandora Foundation manages the Islandora community and provides resources necessary to ensure Islandora remains a strong, viable digital asset management solution.  The execution of these goals occurs […]

In Islandora 7, Drupal acts as a “front-end” for Fedora. Fedora is designed for the management and dissemination of digital content. Fedora IS NOT designed to handle the management, indexing, discovery, and delivery of digital content. That functionality gets added by Islandora. The Islandora 7 Drupal modules translate user actions into something that Fedora can understand and translate information from Fedora in a user-friendly way. Fedora is not an optional component of an Islandora 7 repository; it is the primary […]

Since the PALS Islandora team is learning so much about Islandora 8, we decided to share our new knowledge in this blog series. We’ll introduce you to Islandora 8 and cover everything from Drupal nodes and taxonomies to Fedora architecture. Our goal is to highlight key aspects and features of Islandora 8 and the differences between Islandora 7 and 8. Throughout this series, we will be drawing heavily on the documentation from the Islandora GitHub repository and the main Islandora web site for inspiration. […]