Thursday, October 1, 2009

The OpenFields OFI System

During development of the OpenFields library, we soon realised that the web address for each Summary Information Page (SIP) was not very meaningful and could prove problematic to share. Remembering that a technical note about the ISOBUS international standard for agricultural implement control could be found at http://www.openfields.org.uk/Library/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=RUVBNzBFQ0QtRUJDNi00QUZCLUE1MTAtNUExOTFCMjJDOUU1&rID=ODcx&sID=MQ==&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ== is not very appealing!

We saw this as an opportunity to improve what we’re offering library users, and decided to create a means of referring to content in OpenFields, using a short persistent url (web address).

Enter the OFI system which gives users a simpler way of identifying content, providing a short url that will be easier to remember as well as fit on just one line in an email!

Using the OFI system, you can browse to the Summary Information Page for the the ISOBUS technical note via http://ofi.openfields.org.uk/1.09120599.

ScreenShot2

Each record in the OpenFields library has its own unique OFI number and can be found on its Summary Information Page next to the “Share” button.(above)