BibP - Client Testing

This page documents a number of tests that can be used to assess whether and to what extent particular web clients support bibliographic protocol (the bibp: scheme).

The following tests are available directly from the linked test pages.

1. The bibhost test determines whether your client can correctly request documents from a functioning bibhost.
2. The bibhost-citehost test determines whether your client correctly processes citehost information in the presence of a functioning bibhost.
3. The citehost test determines whether your client correctly requests documents from a specified citehost in the absence of a functioning bibhost.
4. The global test determines whether your client correctly requests documents from a specified global server in the event that neither a bibhost nor a citehost is available.
5. The noicon test determines whether your client correctly bypasses a bibhost that fails to provide the BibP identification icon.

Note: The configurations on these test pages are set up automatically using JavaScript. For lynx and other user agents that do not support JavaScript, some manual configuration is required to perform the test. In particular, manual configuration to enable bibhost testing is required. Two methods are possible.

• The first method is to (temporarily) modify your local DNS hosts file to provide a specific mapping for bibhost as specified on the test page. For example, the first two test pages above require the use of bibhost.cs.sfu.ca at 142.58.111.46. Under most Linux/Unix versions this can be done by adding the following line to your /etc/hosts file.

  142.58.111.46 	bibhost
  

• The second method applies to clients with an appropriate command line or other configuration option. For example, bibp-aware versions of the lynx browser can set a bibhost using the command line parameter --bibhost. To test lynx using this method, invoke it using the command line such as

  lynx --bibhost=http://bibhost.cs.sfu.ca/
  

  before attempting the tests above.