MetaVista Overview

MetaVista (http://www.metavista.it) is a product meant for database publishing, both via Internet and/or inside a standard circuit designed for on-line access, even on distributed databases. Metavista can be used to develop portals in the application domains of Cultural Assets, but suits nicely in any vortal or b2b e-commerce application.

Metavista offers an efficient and reliable way for simple relational database publishing on IP networks. Metavista supports distributed queries towards heterogenous systems, either local or remote.
Thanks to MetaVista, it is now possible to publish electronic catalogues, both textual and multimedia, of any type: commercial, informative, and so on. Access can be controlled with filters or security policies according to the type of information and technical characteristics of the catalogue.
MetaVista offers all the components of the ISO23950 standard, and can be integrated in any standard distributed Z39.50 system.
MetaVista is avaiable for the majority of operative systems, web servers and relational DBMSs. MetaVista’s mapping facilities allow for high flexibility and complete indipendence from the data storage structure.
With MetaVista, the Internet user can operate with geographically distributed systems with an uniform, unique interface.

ARCHITECTURE

Metavista is made by an AccessServer (ACS) that offers access to the different peripheral systems and a DataServer (DAS) that offers catalogue publishing.
Both ACS and DAS offer HTTP and Z39.50 interfaces. ACS parses the user requests and sends them to the systems of interests; in some cases the request can span multiple ACSs. DAS transforms the request in a query for the local DBMS and returns the data. ACS then collects the data and presents the query result to the user.

- MetaVista -

THE CIRCUIT

With MetaVista the catalogue is published in a semantic context where the data is known for what it means, and not for its structure. The user need not know the local names or object type, but

circuit is a community of catalogues and users on specified systems that act in a single application context.

Metavista offers search and retrieval functions for any catalogues and can be used in the following application contexts:

• Territory and Environment
• Publishing and Advertising
• Cultural Assets, OPACs and MetaOPACS
• Citizen information support
• Industry, Agriculture and Finance