Referring to Oracc project URLs

This document describes how to refer to Oracc web pages online or in print, using short, stable URIs.

Note too that in ESP must link to other web pages, whether on Oracc or elsewhere using full URLs, not the short forms ("tiny URLs") offered by services such as tiny.cc.

Background | Oracc.org | Definitions | Patterns |

Background

The Oracc server supports URLs which are easier to remember and to use in links, persistent, and safe to cite in print. This facility is not yet fully developed and suggestions for additions are welcome.

For some background to the usefulness of these URLs (which are implemented using webserver rewrite rules) see Jakob Nielsen's fundamental article URL as UI [http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990321.html].

You may also find it helpful to read the visitor help page on citing URLs [visitor-citing], which gives a simple introduction to the material presented here.

Oracc.org

When linking to Oracc resources, or citing them in print, you should not cite the oracc.museum server directly: instead, use the hostname http://oracc.org. Then append the relevant part of the URL as given in the patterns below, which are designed to be permanent.

The hostname oracc.org will always redirect to the current Oracc server.

Definitions

In order to express the various URLs supported for Oracc projects we define some basic components before describing the patterns.

PROJECT

The name of a project or subproject, e.g., dcclt or saa/sargon.

PQID

A single CDLI P or Q id followed by six digits. For example, P123456 or Q000001.

PQIDS

A comma-separated list of one or more CDLI IDs, of the form P or Q followed by six digits. For example, P123456 or P123456,Q000001.

LANG

A language code corresponding to a glossary, e.g.: sux, akk.

WORDS

One or more words, consisting of letters and numbers. Depending on the context these may be project names, list names or search terms.

Patterns

PROJECT/PQID.html

This pattern produces the HTML version of the text, without the pager frame. Example: http://oracc.org/dcclt/Q000001.html [http://oracc.org/dcclt/Q000001.html].

PROJECT/PQIDS

This pattern produces a pager listing of the PQIDS; it replaces the functionality of the adhoc method formerly recommended for including references to ad hoc collections of texts. Example: http://oracc.org/dcclt/Q000001,Q000002 [http://oracc.org/dcclt/Q000001,Q000002]. With a single PQID, this behaves similarly to the pattern PROJECT/PQID.html, but includes the pager frame around the text.

PROJECT/LANG

This pattern goes straight to the project glossary for the language. Example: http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab [http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab].

PROJECT/LANG/WORDS

This pattern searches the glossary in the project language for the words.http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab/adru [http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab/adru];
http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab/afraid [http://oracc.org/cams/gkab/akk-x-stdbab/afraid].

PROJECT/WORDS

This pattern is used for several purposes.

• If the first WORD is the name of a sub-project, the remainder of the WORDS are processed in the context of the subproject; all of the above patterns as well as the patterns related to WORDS described below, then behave exactly as if PROJECT is set to the subproject.
• If the first WORD after the project/subproject is `corpus', the pager listing for the corpus is displayed (this allows projects which have content in their `index.html' to have a link directly to the pager listing for the texts.
• If the first WORD after the project/subproject is a list file the pager displays the list of texts from that file. List files are special-purpose files created by the projects which simply give lists of ID numbers. Example: http://oracc.org/ckst/middle_assyrian [http://oracc.org/ckst/middle_assyrian].
• Otherwise the WORDS are used as search terms for the project catalogue. Example: http://oracc.org/ckst/middle assyrian [http://oracc.org/ckst/middle assyrian] (note the space instead of an underscore).

Eleanor Robson & Steve Tinney

Eleanor Robson & Steve Tinney, 'Referring to Oracc project URLs', Oracc: The Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, Oracc, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/doc/help/portals/projecturls/]