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Fields: Library Favorites

Path: Library Favorites

Library Favorites lets you manage the library favorites for all profiles. A library favorite is an external web location that you can index with your library data. When patrons search for library items, Portfolio displays any library favorites that fit their search criteria in the search results.

Library Favorites is a free subscription service. To sign up, contact your SirsiDynix SirsiDynix Customer Support representative.

In order to set up and display library favorite URLs in patron search results, you need to set up the Library Favorites search target for that profile.

You can add or remove URLs from the list of library favorites for a search profile. When adding a library favorite URL, you can specify to crawl the URL at the domain, subdomain, folder (with or without subdirectories), or single webpage level. After you add the library favorite URL, Portfolio crawls and indexes the data from the URL at the crawl level that you specify.

The crawl mode that you choose needs to match the type of URL that you enter. For example, if you choose the “Domain” crawl level but then enter the URL “weather.cnn.com,” Portfolio will crawl all the data at the domain “www.cnn.com.” If you choose the “Single page” crawl level but then enter the URL “www.cnn.com” instead of “www.cnn.com/contact_us.html” then the URL will be invalid and Portfolio will not crawl or index its data.

When choosing which URLs to use as library favorites, be aware that the amount of data available on a website and the crawl mode that you choose will affect how long it takes for Portfolio to crawl the data at that URL, as well as the number of library favorite hits that appear in the search results. For example, if you choose a URL with a large amount of data (such as “www.wikipedia.com”) as a library favorite and then set the crawl mode to crawl all the data at the domain level, the amount of data from the library favorite URL would overwhelm the catalog results when search results are returned.

SirsiDynix recommends that you choose a limited number of library favorite URLs (such as your own library’s website) and choose to crawl the URLs at the “single page” or “folder” crawl mode. In cases where you want to specify a large number of library favorite URLs, SirsiDynix recommends that you create a separate search profile dedicated to Library Favorites and then make that profile accessible for patrons to search.

When you have finished entering data on the page, choose OK to save your changes, or choose Cancel to discard your changes and return to Profiles.

Crawl Mode

Lets you specify the type of data that you want Portfolio to include as part of a library favorite URL. The type of data that you choose will determine how much data Portfolio will crawl and index for searching. For example, if you choose “Folder with all subdirectories” as the crawl mode, Portfolio will crawl and index the folder that you designate and any subdirectories underneath it. The data in that folder and subdirectory is then available for patrons to search.

Note: The crawl mode that you choose needs to match the type of URL that you enter. For example, if you choose the “Domain” crawl level but then enter the URL “weather.cnn.com,” Portfolio will crawl all the data at the domain “www.cnn.com.” If you choose the “Single page” crawl level but then enter the URL “www.cnn.com” instead of “www.cnn.com/contact_us.html” then the URL will be invalid and Portfolio will not crawl or index its data.

You can choose these options:

Option	Description
Domain	Specifies to crawl all data at the domain level for the URL that you enter. If you choose this option, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types at the domain level and down for whatever Base URL you enter. (For example, if choose this option and then enter “www.cnn.com” or “weather.cnn.com” as a Base URL, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types at “www.cnn.com” and index it as Library Favorites data. Note: If you choose this option, the base URL must begin with http(s):// and only specify domain information. You cannot include a subdirectory or any slashes as part of the Base URL when you choose this option.
Subdomain	Specifies to crawl all data at the subdomain level for the URL that you enter. If you choose this option, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types at the subdomain level and down for whatever Base URL you enter. (For example, if choose this option and then enter “weather.cnn.com” as a Base URL, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types from the subdomain down and index it as Library Favorites data. It will not include “sports.cnn.com” or any other subdomains. Note: If you choose this option, the base URL must begin with http(s):// and only specify domain information. You cannot include a subdirectory or any slashes as part of the Base URL when you choose this option.
Folder with all subdirectories	Specifies to crawl all the data at the folder level (and any subdirectories) for the URL that you enter. If you choose this option, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types at the folder level and down for whatever Base URL you enter. (For example, if you choose this option and then enter “cnn.com/weather” as a Base URL, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types from the folder down and index it as Library Favorites data. It will not crawl “www.cnn.com/sports.” Note: If you choose this option, the base URL must begin with http(s):// and specify domain information with at least one folder.
Folder without subdirectories	Specifies to crawl all the data within a specific folder specified by the URL that you enter. If you choose this option, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types within a specific folder indicated by the Base URL that you enter. (For example, if you choose this option and then enter “cnn.com/weather” as a Base URL, Portfolio will crawl all the data of supported file types within this folder and index it as Library Favorites data. Note: If you choose this option, the base URL must begin with http(s):// and specify domain information with at least one folder. Important: Portfolio does not support trailing slashes in a URL for a folder without any subdirectories.
Single page	Specifies to crawl all the data on a single page for the URL that you enter. If you choose this option, Portfolio will crawl one web page of a supported file type for whatever Base URL you enter. (For example, if you choose this option and then enter “cnn.com/contact_us.html” as a Base URL, Portfolio will only crawl that web page and index it as Library Favorites data. Note: If you choose this option, the base URL must begin with http(s):// and specify a web page.

Base URL

Specifies the URL that you want to use as the library favorite. The URL that you enter must correspond to the crawl mode that you specified. Enter the URL, then click Add. (For more information, see Adding or removing a library favorite URL.)

Note: All base URLs must begin with “http(s)://.”

Seed URLs

Displays a list of any library favorite URLs specified for this profile. To remove a library favorite URL, you can select or multiselect one or more URLs and then choose the Remove button, or you can double-click individual URLs to remove them from the Seed URLs list. (For more information, see Adding or removing a library favorite URL.)

Important: SirsiDynix strongly recommends that you do not include URLs for large websites over 100,000 pages. These large websites might include personal websites, blogs, wikis, webrings, and Google searches, or domains such as “www.about.com,” “www.wikipedia.org,” “www.answers.com,” “www.findarticles.com.” “www.myspace.com” or “www.youtube.com”). Portfolio will not prevent you from entering these URLs as library favorites, but crawling these URLs will dramatically affect product performance.

Note: You can have a maximum of 750 seed URLs for each instance of Portfolio that you are running.