Skylark - Laravel Rebuild of Skylight

A modern Laravel 12 rebuild of the University of Edinburgh's Skylight digital collections discovery interface.

Project Overview

Original Application: Skylight - A CodeIgniter-based discovery interface for DSpace repositories

Goal: Rebuild Skylight in Laravel 12 with modern architecture and best practices

Timeline: 9 weeks

Current Status: ✅ Solr integration POC complete and tested

What's Been Implemented

Phase 1: Solr Integration Proof-of-Concept ✅

Successfully implemented and tested Solr integration with the live DSpace repository.

Key Achievements:

• ✅ Connects to production Solr instance at collectionsinternal.is.ed.ac.uk
• ✅ Retrieves data from 66,585+ documents in the repository
• ✅ Implements search, faceting, and record retrieval
• ✅ Created reusable SolrService class
• ✅ Built demonstration Artisan command

Implementation Approach:

• Uses Laravel's HTTP Client for direct Solr communication
• Clean, maintainable service layer architecture
• Compatible with DSpace's non-standard Solr configuration

Phase 2: Homepage Implementation ✅

Converted the original CodeIgniter homepage to modern Laravel Blade templates.

Key Achievements:

• ✅ Master Blade layout with template inheritance
• ✅ Reusable partials (navigation, search bar, footer)
• ✅ All 40+ collection boxes and links converted
• ✅ Complete asset migration (CSS, images, JavaScript)
• ✅ Responsive Bootstrap 3 layout preserved
• ✅ Collapsible sections functional

Structure:

• resources/views/layouts/app.blade.php - Master layout
• resources/views/home.blade.php - Homepage content
• resources/views/partials/ - Reusable components
• public/css/ - Theme stylesheets
• public/images/ - All collection images and assets

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• PHP 8.3+
• Composer
• Laravel Herd (or similar local PHP server)
• Access to the University of Edinburgh network (for Solr access)

Installation

1. Clone and Install Dependencies

   composer install
   npm install

2. Environment Configuration

   The .env file is already configured with the Solr connection:

   SOLR_BASE_URL=http://collectionsinternal.is.ed.ac.uk:8080/solr/search/
   SOLR_CONTAINER_ID=1
   SOLR_CONTAINER_FIELD=location.comm
   SOLR_RESULTS_PER_PAGE=10

3. Generate Application Key (if not already set)

   php artisan key:generate

Viewing the Homepage

The homepage has been fully converted to Laravel Blade templates and is ready to view:

Visit the site:

• Herd URL: http://skylark.test/
• Or run dev server: php artisan serve then visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/

What you'll see:

• Complete University of Edinburgh Collections homepage
• 4 major online collection sections (Archives, Art, Musical Instruments, Iconics)
• 20+ digital image collection links
• Collapsible sections for "Visit Us" and "Participate"
• Fully functional navigation and search bar
• All original styling and images preserved

Running the Solr POC

The proof-of-concept demonstrates three key Solr capabilities:

Basic Test (all records):

php artisan app:solr-poc

Search with Specific Query:

php artisan app:solr-poc --query="edinburgh"
php artisan app:solr-poc --query="music"
php artisan app:solr-poc --query="author:Smith"

Expected Output:

• 📊 Total results count (66,585+ documents)
• 📋 Table of search results with ID, Title, Author, Date
• 🏷️ Facet information
• 📄 Full record details with all metadata fields

POC Output Example

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║           Solr Proof-of-Concept Demonstration               ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

━━━ 1. Simple Search ━━━
Query: *:*

Total results found: 66585
Showing first 5 results:

+-----+--------------+-------------------------------------+----------+
| No. | ID           | Title                               | Date     |
+-----+--------------+-------------------------------------+----------+
| 1   | 10683/98434  | E to EARS                           | 2017-... |
| 2   | 10683/1383   | Levels of Reality Poster            | 2010-... |
...

✓ All demonstrations completed successfully!

Project Structure

app/
├── Console/Commands/
│   └── SolrProofOfConcept.php    # POC demonstration command
├── Services/
│   └── SolrService.php            # Solr integration service
└── Providers/
    └── AppServiceProvider.php     # Service registrations

config/
├── services.php                   # Solr & Google Analytics config
└── theme.php                      # Theme configuration

resources/views/
├── layouts/
│   └── app.blade.php              # Master layout template
├── partials/
│   ├── nav.blade.php              # Navigation bar
│   ├── collection-search.blade.php # Search bar component
│   └── footer-content.blade.php   # Footer component
└── home.blade.php                 # Homepage view

public/
├── css/                           # Theme stylesheets
├── images/                        # Collection images & logos
│   └── clickboxes/                # Collection thumbnail images
└── js/                            # Custom JavaScript

routes/
└── web.php                        # Web routes (homepage, etc.)

SOLR_POC_README.md                # Detailed POC documentation

Architecture

SolrService

The SolrService class provides a clean interface to DSpace Solr:

use App\Services\SolrService;

// Injected via Laravel's container
public function __construct(SolrService $solr) 
{
    $this->solr = $solr;
}

// Simple search
$results = $this->solr->search('edinburgh', [], ['rows' => 10]);

// Search with facets
$results = $this->solr->searchWithFacets('music');

// Get a single record
$record = $this->solr->getRecord('10683/98434');

Available Methods:

• search($query, $filters, $options) - Execute search queries
• searchWithFacets($query, $filters, $facetFields) - Search with faceting
• getRecord($id, $includeHighlight) - Retrieve single record
• getFacets($query, $filters, $facetFields) - Get facets without documents

Documentation

• SOLR_POC_README.md - Detailed Solr POC documentation
  • Implementation details
  • Configuration guide
  • Troubleshooting
  • Next steps and future enhancements

Technology Stack

• Framework: Laravel 12.x
• PHP: 8.3.30
• Testing: Pest 4
• Code Style: Laravel Pint
• Local Server: Laravel Herd
• Search Engine: Apache Solr (via DSpace)

Original Skylight Application

The original application being rebuilt:

• Location: /Users/chrisgibson/Herd/skylight
• Local Customizations: /Users/chrisgibson/Herd/skylight-local
• Framework: CodeIgniter (forked version)
• Current Status: Production system serving multiple collections

Next Steps

Immediate Next Steps

1. Search Functionality

   • Create search controller connected to SolrService
   • Build search results view with faceting
   • Implement pagination
   • Add result sorting options

2. Record Display

   • Create record controller
   • Build record detail page template
   • Display metadata fields
   • Show digital objects/bitstreams
   • Implement related items

3. Browse Features

   • Browse by author/subject/type
   • Browse routes and views
   • Alphabetical navigation

Phase 2: Core Features (In Progress)

• Homepage with navigation ✅
• Search interface with results display
• Individual record pages
• Faceted navigation
• Browse by author/subject/type
• Pagination
• RSS feeds
• OAI-PMH endpoint

Phase 3: Advanced Features

• Multiple collection support
• Theme system
• Static content pages
• Admin interface
• Caching layer
• Search highlighting
• Spellcheck/suggestions

Phase 4: Migration & Deployment

• Migrate collection configurations
• Theme customizations
• Testing with all collections
• Performance optimization
• Deployment to production

Development Commands

# Run tests
php artisan test

# Format code
vendor/bin/pint

# Run development server
php artisan serve

# Build frontend assets
npm run dev
npm run build

# Run Solr POC
php artisan app:solr-poc [--query=search_term]

Environment Variables

Key environment variables for development:

APP_NAME=Skylark
APP_ENV=local
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://skylark.test

# Solr Configuration
SOLR_BASE_URL=http://collectionsinternal.is.ed.ac.uk:8080/solr/search/
SOLR_CONTAINER_ID=1
SOLR_CONTAINER_FIELD=location.comm
SOLR_RESULTS_PER_PAGE=10

Contributing

This is a rebuild project with a 9-week timeline. Development follows Laravel best practices and the Laravel Boost guidelines.

Resources

• Laravel 12 Documentation: https://laravel.com/docs/12.x
• DSpace Documentation: https://wiki.lyrasis.org/display/DSDOC/
• Apache Solr: https://solr.apache.org/guide/
• Original Skylight: https://github.com/UoEMainLibrary/skylight
• University of Edinburgh Collections: http://collections.ed.ac.uk/

License

This project is developed for the University of Edinburgh. See original Skylight license for details.

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Project Start Date: February 2026
Target Completion: 9 weeks from start
Current Phase: Phase 2 - Homepage Implementation ✅
Completed Phases:

• Phase 1: Solr Integration POC ✅
• Phase 2: Homepage Blade Templates ✅