Presentation

Basilic is a bibliography server for research laboratories. It automates and facilitates the diffusion of research publications over the internet, automatically generating web pages from a publication database. Each publication has an associated web page, which provides downloads and additional documents (abstract, images, BibTeX...). Index pages are also created, including a search engine with several options for results display. New publications can be added to the database in an instant.

Download and configuration

The installation process is simple and entirely configurable. Your server's configuration is fully tested before installing anything.

The Basilic look and feel is defined using CSS style sheets and can hence easily be customized. Basilic was originally written for a Computer Graphics laboratory, which explains the thumbnails displayed in front of each publication. These can easily be removed.

Download basilic-1.5.14.tar.gz to an arbitrary temporary place on your web server. Then uncompress and untar the archive:

tar -xzf basilic-1.5.14.tar.gz
cd basilic-1.5.14
./configure

Open the install.html page located in this directory with your favorite browser and follow the installation instructions.

Features

• Main features
  • Automated bibliography server: easy to use, automatic page generation.
  • Each publications' web page automatically shows all of the associated documents.
  • Index pages with a powerful search engine.
  • Various result displays : researcher's publication list, image gallery, BibTeX...
  • Separate back-office for edition of publications and database checking.
• Ease of use
  • New publications can be added and edited easily using a simple web form.
  • To publish associated documents (pdf files, images, abstract, ...), simply copy the files to the publication's directory.
  • Thumbnails are generated automatically from images and movies.
• Up-to-date web server
  • Publication lists and associated pages are always up to date.
  • Dynamic content: changes are immediately published.
  • Easy use encourages researchers to keep the server updated.
• Simplified administration
  • Lightweight server administration: an e-mail is sent in case of problems.
  • Delegated management: each researcher manages his or her own publications.
  • Simple semi-automatic system installation
  • Initial database can be created from BibTeX files.
• Clean organization
  • Clean directory hierarchy: sorted by year, then by publication BibTeX key.
  • Each publication's associated directory holds all of the associated documents.
  • A separate back-office section for bibliography management.
  • A unified look and feel for all publications.
  • Bilingual (or more) web sites are handled.
• Conformity to standards
  • XML export, compatible with PubliCNRS format. See export page (in french).
  • Validity of BibTeX entries is enforced.
  • Strict XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0 compliant pages are generated.
• Customization
  • Customizable look and feel using css style sheets.
  • Distributed under the terms of the GNU-GPL licence and hence open source.
  • Based on simple php scripts that can easily be modified and extended.
  • Fully customizable installation paths to fit your web server organization.
• Possible extensions
  • Adding new languages for multilingual web sites is easy.
  • Managing multiple teams, adding a lab member database...
  • Based on a mySQL database: new queries and tables are possible.

More technical details are provided in the Basilic user's guide page.

Required configuration

       

Basilic requires an Apache web server with PHP and mySQL installed and properly configured. The web is full of installation and configuration web pages on this subject. Other system configurations might be used at the expenses of code translation.

Change log

• October 17th, 2005 : Version 1.5.13
  Minor typos fixed.
• July 12th, 2005 : Version 1.5.12
  phpMyAdmin compatible format (instead of mysqlimport) for Bibtex import after installation.
• June 10th, 2005 : Version 1.5.11
  New DocumentRoot configure variable to patch an Apache bug with virtual hosts.
• February 14th, 2005 : Version 1.5.10
  Small bug with movie thumbnails in document database fixed.
• November 22nd, 2004 : Version 1.5.9
  LaTeX accentuated characters can be used in forms. Better BibTeX formating.
• November 19th, 2004 : Version 1.5.8
  Better Basilic update process. CNRS export format polished, export man page (in french).
• November 16th, 2004 : Version 1.5.7
  Many small improvements since last version. Adding a release number to version number to differentiate them. New XML (CNRS format) display mode.
• November 2nd, 2004 : Version 1.5
  GNU GPL standardization. Search for a title also searches in keywords. Better .bib import. New fullYear displayPublications option. Year directories created on demand.
• October 18th, 2004 : Version 1.4
  A new displayPublications functions to include query results in any web page. Minor appearance and HTML changes.
• September 21st, 2004 : Version 1.3
  Many minor bug fixes to increase stability. Easier update from older versions.

Sites that use Basilic

• Artis, Acquisition, Representation and Transformations for Image Synthesis (Basilic site).
• Chalmers Universisty, High Performance Computer Architecture Group (Basilic site).
• CNTS, research in Dutch linguistics and language technology (Basilic site).
• C2i, Centre for Computational Intelligence, Nanyang Technological University (Basilic site).
• εMotion, Geometry and Probability for Motion and Action (Basilic site).
• Evasion, Virtual environments for animation and image synthesis of natural objects (Basilic site).
• ETIS, Equipes Traitement des Images et du Signal (Basilic site).
• GIRO, Grupo de Investigación Reutilizació Orientación Objeto (Basilic site).
• GRIS, Grupo de Redes e Ingenierķa del Software (Software Engineering and Networking Group) (Basilic site).
• IARC, International Artic Research Center (Basilic site).
• Iparla, Visualization and interaction for complex data, on mobile and connected devices (Basilic site).
• ICP, Institute for Computational Physics, Stuttgart (Basilic site).
• Lear, Learning and Recognition in Vision (Basilic site).
• Movi, MOdels for VIsion (Basilic site).
• Reves, REndering and Virtual Environments with Sound (Basilic site).
• VCL, Visual Computing Lab, Pisa, Italy (Basilic site).
• University of Liège, Stochastic Methods research group (Basilic site).
• Wai, Volume Visualization and Artificial Intelligence research group (Basilic site).

Please send an email if you install Basilic so that I update this list.

Contacts

Subscribe to the basilic mailing list to get informed of new releases.

Email any comment, bug report or even feature requests.

Basilic is distributed under the terms of the GNU-GPL license and is distributed as-is with no guarantee.

The scripts were initially written by Marc Lapierre and modified for the Basilic distribution by Gilles Debunne.