
Hyrax: An open-source repository front-end - atjamielittle
http://hyr.ax/
======
smarx007
This project needs a heavy redesign of the landing homepage and it should
change the language not to confuse the developers.

Hyrax is a frontend of Hydra with CMS and social features. It's a merger of
[https://github.com/projecthydra/sufia](https://github.com/projecthydra/sufia)
and
[https://github.com/projecthydra/curation_concerns](https://github.com/projecthydra/curation_concerns)

Hydra is a web applications framework based on the digital asset management
repository (Fedora) and the search index (Solr). Demos:
[https://projecthydra.org/apps-demos-2-2/](https://projecthydra.org/apps-
demos-2-2/)

Fedora stands for Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture.
Its repository is based on the Linked Data Platform (5-star linked data
according to Tim Berners-Lee
[http://5stardata.info/en/](http://5stardata.info/en/)). An intro
presentation:
[http://fedorarepository.org/presentations](http://fedorarepository.org/presentations).

In regard to the name:

 _In 1997 a research project at Cornell University was named the Flexibile
Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora). In 1998 the Fedora
name was used in article published by Payette and Lagoze and in research
software that was released to the public under the Fedora name._

 _In 2005 Red Hat, Inc. filed a trademark request for the name "Fedora" to be
associated with their Linux operating system project. Cornell and UVA formally
disputed the request and, as a final settlement, all parties settled on a co-
existence agreement [...]_

~~~
BlackLotus89
This is a good but incomplete summary.

1) the project before was called Hydra, but couldn't use the name anymore
because of prior art

1.2) hyrax is a frontend for hyku which is basically a split of Hydra into 2
projects

2) the whole thing stores everything in fedora (fcrepo4/fedora commons 4)
which is basically a data/key storage that calls itself repository

2.1) it is used to store the data with the according "metadata"

3) the idea behind hyrax is for scientists to work on their research and
collaborate with other scientists

3.1) that is why the project was called Hydra because every researcher could
work on their own "head" and the heads could collaborate with each other

3.2) the hyrax project now supports multi tenancy so that multiple people can
work on it simultaneously

4) after the research is done the whole thing can be published with backlight

This project is a collaboration of multiple universities and entered beta on
the third of may to collaborate on the testing/documentation

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with this project, but setup a test system for
the university I work at.

PS yes this is all pretty confusing and hard to work with, but a worthwhile
cooperation

~~~
crosbyar
swing and a miss on choosing new names without prior uses

~~~
dom0
How about Hyrothrax? That name got a fine Anthrax-vibe going for it!

------
jitl
Nothing here is what I expected:

\- a "repository solution" is not a thing for source control like Github. It's
a CMS or a file sharing system or something.

\- "Fedora" is not a Linux distribution. It's a previous repository solution
software.

\- this homepage causes more questions than it answers. No screenshots. No
examples.

~~~
catern
Haha, yeah. And when I saw it was based on "Hydra" I thought it was the
Nix/Guix continuous build system. I was briefly really excited!

------
brunoqc
What the hell is a repository solution? A CMS?

~~~
Karunamon
Same question I had, it looks like that's an accurate description. From the
"Fedora" link on their front page, which this tool is apparently built on:

 _Fedora is a robust, modular, open source repository system for the
management and dissemination of digital content. It is especially suited for
digital libraries and archives, both for access and preservation. It is also
used to provide specialized access to very large and complex digital
collections of historic and cultural materials as well as scientific data.
Fedora has a worldwide installed user base that includes academic and cultural
heritage organizations, universities, research institutions, university
libraries, national libraries, and government agencies._

As an aside, FOSS projects: Please think before overloading common names, like
a popular Linux distro.

As a double aside: Think about your target audience. Most developers hear
"repository" and think VCSes.

~~~
smarx007
Well, they did not "override" Fedora Linux name, because Fedora Commons
preceded its OS counterpart by a couple years and has a trademark for the
Fedora logo: [http://fedora-commons.org/about](http://fedora-
commons.org/about)

By repository they mean digital asset management repository instead of a
version control system repository.

~~~
je42
so may be start with explaining that this is not a repository as a developer
would expect.

~~~
smarx007
I think they represent the library community more than the dev community and
are a bit stubborn to use the terms familiar to us (IMO).

~~~
neuromantik8086
I mean, why wouldn't librarians be stubborn with respect to jargon? The
intended audience clearly isn't Hacker News and the terms of the trade predate
the tech community by decades in many cases- it doesn't make sense to just
throw terminology to the wind.

It'd be like if a bunch of Frenchmen suddenly invaded England and forced them
to speak French, even though English was perfectly sufficient for
communication already.

Oh wait...

------
thrillgore
I don't understand any of this shit. Like, what is this a package management
system for?

~~~
dom0
Information.

~~~
vortico
So uh... It rivals .txt files?

------
crosbyar
Sounds like vaporware to me, also they didn't do too much research about their
name, because this is the hyrax I deal with day to day:
[http://docs.opendap.org/index.php/Hyrax](http://docs.opendap.org/index.php/Hyrax)

------
gglitch
cf.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository)

