SYLI - an external workflow system for DSpace

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

DSpace Interest Group Presentations

Syli is an open source web application for managing workflows, collections and users in any repository implemented with DSpace. Syli is specially aimed for situations where a single DSpace instance is shared by several organizations by giving each organization enough administration rights to manage their own collection, users and workflows. Currently DSpace instances shared by several organizations have some problems, including: - Some configurations are defined instance wide which leads to sub-optimal settings for each organization. - Defining input forms and their localizations requires editing files on a server and restarting DSpace. - Fetching unique identifiers automatically for each item from external systems is difficult. - Input forms for all collections are defined in one file which makes administration difficult. - User management is difficult: Only main administrators are able to create and modify groups. Additionally, the logic how collections and groups are related might not be clear for those people who are not familiar with Dspace. - One has to define workflows for each collection: there is no inheritance. - One has to have an access to the file system in the server to edit any menu in the input forms. The aim of the Syli is to alleviate these problems.