Web Sites

The DSpace.org information Web site

A general information page giving a high-level overview of what DSpace is, and some ideas and pointers for implementing DSpace in your organisation.

The DSpace Wiki

Where you are right now!

A Wiki is a dynamic Web site that can easily be edited by anyone (yes, anyone). This makes it a great collaboration tool. The DSpace Wiki contains up-to-the-minute technical information about the DSpace platform, and what people around the world are doing with DSpace. If you're working with DSpace, please post what you're doing to the Wiki! You can also find out if others are doing or have done similar work!

Particularly useful pages on the Wiki:

• Home – Most of the latest and greatest information can be found directly off the homepage. Check out the "DSpace Community" section for general information, the "Running DSpace" section for how to get started, and the "Developers" section for latest Developer news and a current roadmap.
• Code Contribution Guidelines – An evolving guide to developing code and documentation for contributing back to the DSpace community
• How to Contribute to DSpace – Find out how to contribute to and participate in DSpace
• LessonsLearned – Learn from other DSpace teams and share lessons you learned about building a DSpace service.

DSpace Demo Site

The DSpace Demo Site is a live installation of the latest version of DSpace software. It is setup such that the maximum number of DSpace features is enabled, so that you can get a better sense of all the various things that DSpace can do. This demo site also allows anyone to login as any "role" in DSpace: System Administrator, Community/Collection Administration, Submitter or basic user (Demo logins are provided in the introductory text of the XMLUI and JSPUI on the demo site). Finally, all user and system interfaces are provided (e.g. XMLUI, JSPUI, SWORD, LNI, OAI-PMH) - a full list of them is on the splashpage of the demo site.

Occasionally, the data in the demo site may be removed or refreshed. This demo site is not meant to provide permanent storage of content and is not indexed by Google or other search engines.

If you run into issues or have questions, feel free to contact us on one of the Mailing Lists or in the IRC chatroom.

DSpace Source Code / Downloads

• The current release of DSpace may be downloaded from our DSpace SourceForge project

• You may checkout/fork the source code via Git from our DSpace GitHub code repository. This code repository is also browseable via GitHub.
  • Stable versions of DSpace can be found under Tags
  • Maintenance branches for major releases can be found under Branches
  • The Unreleased, latest code is on Master (WARNING: may be unstable at times)
  • NOTE: if you're going to be developing with DSpace, we recommend you access the DSpace code using GitHub. For much more information, please see Development with Git and our Code Contribution Guidelines.

DSpace Issue Tracking, Feature Requests, and Patches

The DSpace Jira Ticketing System tracks bugs, feature requests and patches for past, current and future versions of DSpace. It also permits voting on those issues you are interested in, and registering to receive updates - if you create yourself an account.

Documentation and Guides

DSpace System Documentation

Standard System Documentation

DSpace System Documentation is included with each DSpace download. Look in the /dspace/docs/ folder once you unzip the download. More recent documentation can also be accessed online or downloaded in PDF format.

Other formats and translations

• Printable PDF of DSpace System Docs
  • DSpace 1.4.1 beta 1 DSpaceSysDoc141beta1.pdf contributed by Claudia Jürgen UBDO
  • DSpace 1.3.2: DSpaceSysDoc1.3.2.pdf contributed by Gabriela Montoya of UCSD
  • DSpace 1.2.1: DSpaceSysDoc1.2.1-2.pdf contributed by Gabriela Montoya of UCSD
• Japanese
  • DSpace 1.5
    DSpace System Documentation in Japanese contributed by the National Diet Library in Japan (translation by Mr. Akito Fujita)
  • DSpace 1.3.2 DSpace System Documentation in Japanese contributed by NII in Japan
  • DSpace 1.1.1 DSpace System Documentation in Japanese contributed by NII in Japan

Guides

Repository Planning

• The following documents are useful in planning a repository. All are written by Mary R.Barton et al copyright 2004-2005 (RM). 
  
  • LEADIRS Creating an Institutional Repository
  • Creating a Service Model
  • Project Planning Matrix
• SUNScholar/Practical Guidelines for Starting an Institutional Repository. Produced by Stellenbosch University Library, this guide provides step-by-step information to help academic institutions in developing countries start an institutional repository.

Installing DSpace

• Start with the DSpace System Documentation.
• Platform and distribution-specific tips and guides can be found on the DSpace Installation page.

Customizing DSpace

• XMLUI Customization:
  
  • Making DSpace XMLUI Your Own - Concentrates on using Maven to build Overlays in the XMLUI (Manakin). Also has very basic examples for JSPUI. Based on DSpace 1.6.x.
  • Learning to Use Manakin (XMLUI) - Overview of how to use Manakin and how it works. Based on DSpace 1.5, but also valid for 1.6.
  • Introduction Manakin (XMLUI)
• General Tips:
  
  • How-To Guides has a list of all wiki pages which provide "how-to" hints for changing/customizing your DSpace install.
  • Build Cookbook has examples of adding your local changes to a DSpace distribution.
  • The DSpace Course has good examples of using and customizing DSpace 1.5.x. As the customizations involve using Maven, this course is also still mostly valid for many current DSpace versions (1.6 and 1.7).
  • DSpace how-to guide: tips and tricks for managing common DSpace chores (DSpace version 1.4.2 and Manakin 1.1) by Tim Donohue, Scott Phillips and Dorothea Salo - This short booklet is intended to introduce the common, non-obvious customization-related tasks for newcomers to DSpace administration. It has been written against the version 1.4.x of DSpace (1.4.2 specifically) and Manakin 1.x (1.1 specifically) . It's meant to be usable across all platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac). This booklet was a handout from the "Making DSpace Your Own" tutorial from JCDL 2007 taught by Tim Donohue and Scott Phillips. The full presentations and materials from this tutorial are also available from the DSpace Presentations page. Spanish translation by the University of León
  • DSpace 1.4.1 Customization (by Claudia Jürgen) available at Eldorado, the institutional repository of the University of Dortmund. This is the English translation of a customization presentation held at the DSpace Workshop in Kassel (Germany) March 07. The presentation gives an overview to basic customization and configuration techniques and possibilities of DSpace 1.4.1. Thanx to Chris Yates of The University of Wales, Aberystwyth for proofreading it.
  • DSpace how-to guide: tips and tricks for managing common DSpace chores (DSpace version 1.3.2) by Dorothea Salo and Tim Donohue, also available athttp://hdl.handle.net/1920/1045 - This short booklet is intended to introduce the common, non-obvious customization-related tasks for newcomers to DSpace administration. It has been written against the current stable version 1.3.2 of DSpace. It's meant to be usable across all platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac). For even more information, the slides from their "Making DSpace Your Own" Tutorial at JCDL 2006 are available on the DSpace Presentations page. Spanish translation by the University of León
  • Advanced DSpace: Plugins from RSP Technical Day Nov 2007 by Richard Jones etal
• DuraSpace webinar archive: Hot Topics Webinars, DuraSpace Solution Webinars, DuraSpace Courses  
• Additional training materials archive: DSpace Training Archives

Developing with DSpace

• An overall reference for developing code with DSpace (and creating patches) is available on the Developer Guidelines and Tools page.
• Code Contribution Guidelines - How to get your code accepted into DSpace.

Documentation for New DSpace Administrators

• Intro to DSpace (August 19, 2009) - written by Cameron Kainerstorfer and Heather Perkins (both of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center)
• Instructions for New Admin - This is a simple guide to print off for people who will start uploading documents to your instance of DSpace, by Shawna Sadler.

Related Readings

• Lessons learned building an Institutional Repository with DSpace

Mailing Lists

English Lists

There are several public DSpace mailing lists you can join, depending on what your particular interest is.

dspace-general

General discussion about the DSpace platform, and setting up and running a DSpace service. It is open to all DSpace users to ask questions, share news, and spark discussion about DSpace with people managing other DSpace sites.

• Sign up for dspace-general
• View or search archive
• Search all lists at once

dspace-tech

Technical discussion about the DSpace platform. If you have a technical query, or are having problems getting DSpace up and running, this is the place to go (refer to the Troubleshoot an error page for additional help and suggestions). If you are technically savvy, and would like to contribute by helping out those in need, please join!

• Sign up for dspace-tech
• View or search archive
• Search all lists at once

dspace-devel
People working on the DSpace code hang out here.

• Sign up for dspace-devel
• View or search archive
• Search all lists at once

dspace-changelog
This is for "hardcore" developers only. This listserv reports the latest SVN commits, allowing developers to keep in touch with the latest DSpace code changes.

• Sign up for dspace-changelog
• View list archive
• Search this list (or others)

Non-English Lists

While we hope that the community works together by using the above lists, some mailing lists enabling non-English speakers to participate are emerging. We strongly encourage people on those lists who speak English to liaise between them.

• Czech - CZDSUG mailing list
• Japanese (日本語) - The National Institute of Informatics runs an email list for institutional repositories, including DSpace. Contact co5 (at) nii.ac.jp for further information.
• Spanish - DSpace Spanish User Group, Gude

IRC channel

There are two dedicated DSpace IRC (internet relay chat) channels (i.e. "rooms") on the irc.freenode.net server:

• #dspace (irc://irc.freenode.net/dspace) - all DSpace discussions and live Q & A
• #duraspace (irc://irc.freenode.net/duraspace) - for DSpace Committer/Developer meetings, and wider DuraSpace community discussions

If you do not have access to an IRC client, or are new to IRC, the following web interfaces are very easy way to get started:

• Login to #dspace IRC at: http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=dspace
  • Enter in a nickname of your choice (e.g. firstName_lastName) & click "Connect"
• Login to #duraspace IRC at: http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=duraspace
  • Enter in a nickname of your choice (e.g. firstName_lastName) & click "Connect"
• Or you can login to both IRC channels at the same time: http://webchat.freenode.net?channels=duraspace,dspace

For a list of IRC client software, see:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_Relay_Chat_clients

Many current Instant Messaging (IM) clients also support IRC. Here's a list of widely used software you can install that will allow you to connect to IRC:

• Pidgin (supports IM & IRC) - How to Connect to IRC with Pidgin
• Adium (Mac only, supports IM & IRC) - Note: only version 1.4 or above supports IRC
• Trillian (supports IM & IRC)
• Colloquy (Mac only, supports IRC)

User Group Meetings

The DSpace user community has at least one major user group meeting a year held in conjunction with the Open Repository Conference. For information about past or upcoming OR DSpace User Group meetings, including links to any available recordings and/or presentation slides click here. There are also other country specific, regional or European meetings periodically. For information about user group meetings near you, check with your country's/region's DSpace Ambassador.