This page provides information on VuFind's overall design, including big-picture design discussions as well as explanations of nitty-gritty details.

These specifications should be useful to most VuFind developers and will help with an understanding of the overall system:

• Authorization - Information on how VuFind handles user authorization.
• Cookies - Notes on VuFind's use of cookies.
• Customizing VuFind - How to change VuFind's behavior.
• Data Model / Key Concepts - Key ideas in the VuFind 2.x+ architecture.
  • Record Driver Method Master List - A reference to get methods used by record drivers.
• Database Schema
• Directory Layout
• Lightbox Functionality (Bootstrap themes)
• Language / Localization Support
• Real-Time Availability Status
• Search Service
• Solr Index Schema
  • Authority Index Schema

See also the plugins page for details on how to extend various aspects of VuFind's functionality.

These notes are of less general interest but will be useful when the referenced subsystems are being worked upon:

• Advanced Search Templates - Notes on how the advanced search UI operates in VuFind 2.4.1 and newer.
• LESS - Notes on how the bootstrap3 / bootprint3 themes use LESS to generate CSS

• Why VuFind 2.0? - Some of the reasons we moved away from the VuFind 1.x design.
• Zend Framework - Information about the framework used in VuFind 2.x and later.