week of May 10 - May 14 (M +1 MofL add Livery Companies research, T +1 finalize siberian spreadsheet processing , W -2 CSG, R +1 King Arthur video rights)
May 17, 2010
With help of Martin and Greg, we figured out that the problem happened because the title field of the latest data file (STOW3) "Biography of John Stow (1524/5-1605)" contains a slash character. I've fixed the code so that should no longer be a problem and we can continue to put slashes in the title.
The behaviour was that for calls to all files other than STOW3, an error was generated and reported by php. We thought at first that the db might be corrupted, but we tested various calls to the db in the exist client and they all worked. We then output more details from the php error and that told us that there was a "modifier" error, which we guessed meant a slash or quote mark in the wrong place. We pinned it down to the function that highlights searched-for text in the page.
the php function str_highlight in the file search_functions has this signature:
function str_highlight($text, $needle, $options = null, $highlight = null)
render_page.php line 273 invokes that function. The line used to be
$xml_result = str_highlight($xml_result, $topic['text'], 2, '<a href="render_page.php?id=' . $topic['id'] . '">\1</a>');
If $topic['text'] contained a slash, then php treated that as a modifier to the second argument (rather than a literal character), didn't know what to do with that modifier and generated a PHP error.
I modified render_page.php to read as follows:
$topic_to_find = str_replace('/','',$topic['text']);
$xml_result = str_highlight($xml_result, $topic_to_find, 2, '<a href="render_page.php?id=' . $topic['id'] . '">\1</a>');
[This originally posted on May 14, but went into Transformer because I wasn't a member of the project blog.]
JJ called to report that after uploading a file (STOW3) into the topics folder in the db, a whole set of files stopped working -- in fact almost all the content is unavailable except for that file. We tried everything, including shutting down and restarting the db, and dumping out an re-uploading all the data, but no joy; it seems a complete mystery. One possibility is that a file has been accidentally deleted -- this has happened before -- but I can't find any backup of the db against which the current db contents could be compared. There must be one somewhere, but I've search Stew's machine and can't find it.
There is a set of XML files up on the Lettuce account in /home1t/london/xml, but that's not complete; I see only two files in the root directory but the db itself currently has eight. So Greg and I are at a loss, and I have to leave soon; I'm going to have to leave it with him.
...based on postings below from PAB.
May 16, 2010
I decided to review the differences in the TEI P5 guidelines between
<role> and "role" and <roleName>
1) <role>
- I did not have any use for this element because it signifies "the name of a dramatic role, as given in a cast list."
2) "role" in <person>
- I used this attribute in the names.xml file because it "specifies a primary role or classification for the person."
3) I used <roleName> within <persName> when it was part of the name in Old Norse, i.e. Sigurðr jarl for which I provided the translation "Earl Sigurd"
4) I revised the names.xml elements and attributes within the names.xml in order to be consistent with the tag usage described above. However, I think that there is a problem in my other xml files because I used King in <roleName> - with xml:lang="en" - outside of and prior to <persName> for kings in <desc> in my TEI Header. I did this because Old Norse kings are frequently referred to simply by their forename in Ynglinga Saga, and I did not want to mix xml:lang attributes within the <persName>. I am going to have give further thought to this and will likely have to do more revising. I am not sure if <roleName> can be used outside of <persName> in this manner.
I changed <persname> to <name> in desc for Huginn in SAM66-077r and in Nks1867-094r
I took the accent off of the A in Asynur in the subtype for goddesses in names.xml
I changed the title in my <fileDesc> for Melsted Edda to SÁM 66
I deleted author and editor in msItem in Nks1867-092r and SAM66-076r because the set of 16 illustrations forms a separate item from the text of the Eddas in both of the manuscripts.
I updated my <editorialDesc> in the names.xml file, and in Nks1867-092r.xml and in the file for the related illustration in SAM66-076r.xml. However, I will have to update these three again to include that I used "role" as well as "type" and "subtype" attributes in the <gi>list<gi> elements.
Attributes for my <gi> list<gi> elements are:
<name> attributes:
- type="animal" subtype="cow"
- type="monster" subtype="wolf"
- type="bird" subtype="raven"
- type="monster" subtype="serpent"
- type="animal" subtype="horse"
- type="animal" subtype="goat"
- type="artifact" subtype="horn"
- type="artifact" subtype="fetter"
- type="artifact" subtype="gloves"
- type="artifact" subtype="belt"
- type="artifact" subtype="hammer"
- type="artifact" subtype="mead"
- type="artifact" subtype="idol"
- type="tree"
<persName> attributes:
- type="giant-god"
- type="giant"
- type="giantess"
- type="god" subtype="Æsir"
- type="Odins-heiti"
- type="goddess" subtype="Asynjur"
- type="person"
<placeName> attrbutes:
- type="realm"
- type="mountain"
- type="hall"
Within <person> in the lists in the names.xml file I used the attributes:
- role="king"
- role="queen"
- role="warrior"
- role="seeress"
- role="earl
I will explain the reasons for this in my next post.
N.B: I have only changed <persname>, <name> etc. to empty elements linked to the names.xml file in two files so far, i.e. Nks1867-092r.xml and SAM66-076r.xml.
May 15, 2010
I added type and subtype attributes for the elements in the lists in names.xml
I also added n="1" attribute for Old Norse items that contain an "eth" or "thorn" or an <addName> that requires a translation. Only the first entry for keywords will be displayed if there is not an n="1" but the first and second entries will be displayed if n=1" is present on the first entry.
The next task is to itemize my use of <persName> and <name> as <gi> tags in my <encodingDesc>, and then get on with changing <persName> and <name> into empty elements in all the files.
May 14, 2010
Created the type attributes for the names.xml file:
- 1. list type="creatures"
- 2. list type="artifacts"
- 3a. listEvent type="mythical"(with 3b. for historical)
- 4. listPerson type="anomaly"> (this one is for Loki who fits in both giant and god categories. He was born a giant but counted as one of the gods. However, there is no evidence that he was ever worshipped. e.g. place names.)
- 5. listPerson type="giants" (includes giantesses)
- 6. listPerson type="gods" (includes goddesses)
- 7. list type="myths" (titles for myths)
- 8. listPerson type="humans" (Odinn is tagged as here as person xml:id="OdiN02 because he is a human chieftain in Ynglinga Saga, the first saga in Heimskringla. Snorre was determined to establish that the origins of the pagan gods was due to the process known as euhemeristism.
- 9. listPlace type="mythical"( with 9b. for historical)
- 10. list type="plants"
- 11. type="sources"
- 12. listPerson type="creators"
- 13.listOrg type="archives"
I missed two files recently when I was fixing the problem created when I added the xml:id attribute to the TEI root element:
- SKng-1899-Oslo-025-01-vgNet.xml
- SKng-1899-Oslo-026-01-vgNet.xml
I fixed these two files listed above and re-saved all of the other 77 files while I was checking the files. I uploaded them all again to the server.
I fixed the misplaced xml:id for Hel as a <placeName> in the names file.
I couldn't find a problem with Huginn (the raven) tagged with a <persName>. I think that I must have fixed it already but hadn't uploaded the file yet because there were other changes to be make. I looked in both SAM66-77r.xml and Nks1867-94r.xml where Huginn occurs in the illustrations, and also in the names.xml file.
In the new biblio.xml file, I created xml:ids for:
- xml:id="SKng-1899-ed-1"
- xml:id="SKng-1900-ed-2"
- xml:id="SAM-66-4to"
- xml:id="Nks-1867-4to"
The xml:ids listed above in the biblio.xml file are different than the xml:ids for these items in the names.xml file.
I added comments in the names.xml file to make sure that it is clear that the xml:ids are different than in the biblio.xml file. These editions and manuscripts, as well as others such the Eddas, are in the names.xml file because I want to write about the circumstances of their creation. For example, the two manuscripts are hand-copied seventeenth-century paper manuscripts because the Church was in control of Iceland's only printing press for a very long time and would not print secular material. As for the editions of Kongesagaer, part of the motivation for creating the deluxe first edition in the first place was to provide a national genesis narrative to aid in Norway's attempts to gain independence from Sweden, and the second edition was actually subsidized by the Norwegian parliament. The second edition was such a success that Kongesagaer became known as Norway's "second Bible."
I should have blogged yesterday about the work that I did on the biblio.xml file. I have added that hour into today's time. I will not neglect blogging in the future. I am using <biblStruct> for articles and monographs and biblio for manuscripts.
Leaving early.