Overview

Details are sparse, but somewhere along the line we discovered that there are issues with using Z39.50 on the new platform. The purpose of this spike is to gain a better understanding of what the problem(s) are and suggest next steps.

Scope

• Get Z39.50 setup in a folio deployment (local or otherwise)

• Test it out and document any problems you run into

• If there are problems, dig in deep enough to understand the underlying issue and file JIRAs if possible.

Acceptance Criteria

• JIRAs are created for any problems found

• Spike findings are documented on the wiki and shared with the team

  • Findings include a description of each problem and link to the corresponding JIRA(s).

Spike Results

Following the https://ebscoinddev.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/GSE/pages/18421749/Z39.50, the current deployment model is to deploy this module as a separate deployment and not a part of a FOLIO cluster. The separately deployed FOLIO Z39.50 module can interact with several FOLIO clusters, providing access to different tenants.

This deployment approach is considered preferable on the module’s readme page (https://github.com/folio-org/Net-Z3950-FOLIO?tab=readme-ov-file#dependencies).

Dependencies are defined in the module descriptor but since the FOLIO Z39.50 server is strictly a client to the rest of FOLIO it does not need to be installed as a part of FOLIO itself, and can run outside of a FOLIO installation provided it is pointing to an Okapi server

@Hongwei Ji confirmed that the same approach will be used for LoC.

In order to deploy this module as a part of FOLIO on top of the Eureka the following should be done:

• no changes are needed to Eureka components/Sidecar

• the module descriptor of the Net-Z3950-FOLIO module should be updated as it is outdated and does not contain all the API dependencies it requires. https://github.com/folio-org/Net-Z3950-FOLIO/blob/master/descriptors/ModuleDescriptor-template.json

• a dedicated application descriptor should be created for the “Net-Z3950-FOLIO“ application, which contains only one module, “Net-Z3950-FOLIO,” and describes all dependencies needed.

Then, since this module is supplied as a Docker Image, it can be deployed like any other Eureka application if necessary. The Sidecar will be used for the egress requests only because the module is just a client of FOLIO.