$Header: /home/cvsroot/NetZ3950/README,v 1.11 2003/05/06 14:12:04 mike Exp $

Net::Z3950.pm -- What Is It?
----------------------------

This module provides a Perl interface to the Z39.50 information
retrieval protocol (aka. ISO 23950), a mature and powerful protocol
used in application domains as diverse as bibliographic information,
geo-spatial mapping, museums and other cultural heritage information,
and structured vocabulary navigation.

Up to date information on this module can be found at
	http://perl.z3950.org/

The Net::Z3950 module is free software, as described at
	http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
It is made available under the GNU General Public Licence, version 2:
see the file COPYING for details.  (This is made explicit as of
release 0.33, but it was always the intention.)

Net::Z3950.pm is an implementation of the Perl binding for ZOOM, the
Z39.50 Obejct Orientation Model.  Bindings for the same abstract API
are available in other languages including C, C++, Java, Tcl, Visual
Basic, Python and Scheme.  There's more about ZOOM, including the
specification, at
	http://zoom.z3950.org/


Building and Installation
-------------------------

There are two (or three, depending on how you count them)
prerequisites to building the Net::Z3950 module:

    1.	You'll need the Event module (a generic event loop).  I've
	tested only with version 0.77 of Event, but later versions
	will most likely be fine; in fact, earlier version probably
	will be too, since I don't do anything clever with it.

    2.	You'll also need version 1.8 or later of Index Data's Yaz
	toolkit, a set of C routines for manipulating, sending and
	receiving the Z39.50 data structures.  You can find it at
	http://indexdata.dk/yaz/

    3.	The third dependency is an optional one, on the MARC module.
	This is required by the Net::Z3950::Record::MARC class's
	render() method, but if you're not going to call that, you
	don't need the MARC module, so it's not listed as a
	prerequisite in the Makefile.PL.

After installing any prerequisites, you know the drill:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install


Now What?
---------

All of the documentation except this file is in the "doc"
subdirectory.  Run "make" there to regenerate the HTML versions of the
POD documents, and start reading at doc/index.html.


Support
-------

Informal support is available directly from the author (see below) but
since ``you get what you pay for'' and I'm doing it for free, there
are of course no guarantees!

In general a better option is to join the Net::Z3950 mailing list at
	http://www.indexdata.dk/mailman/listinfo/net-z3950
and discuss in that forum any problems you may encounter.  I read this
list, so I will see your messages; but you may get better help from
others who have run into similar difficulties.

For those who require it, it's possible to buy professional,
commercial support for this module, with well-defined support levels
and response times, from Index Data, in collaboration with whom I
wrote this module.  See
	http://perl.z3950.org/support/contract.html
or email <info@indexdata.dk> for details.


Author
------

Mike Taylor <mike@perl.z3950.org>
	http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/

With lots of help, encouragement, design input, etc. from

Sebastian Hammer <quinn@indexdata.dk> and
Adam Dickmeiss <adam@indexdata.dk>
	http://indexdata.dk/
