Connector Overview

What is a connector?

The Locum connector segment is important because it is the initial abstraction layer in a dual abstraction model. In this model, the connector serves purely as a translation layer between the business logic of an Integrated Library System and the rest of the application stack.

The benefit to this model is that the connector will never have to manage any external databases or indexing engine. That is the job the Locum library.

Locum provides normalized application level access to both the database elements, Sphinx indexing engine, as well as the underlying business logic presented by the connector. Connectors, therefore, need only present data structures up to Locum and pass requests back to the ILS.

What does a connector consist of?

A connector is simply a PHP class that can be dropped into a locum installation. When properly implemented, connectors should require minimal configuration.

Connectors may also include ini files that contain ILS-specific configuration options.

Because different ILSes provide different levels of API access, connector development may range from very simple to somewhat complex.