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.
• Caching - Notes on VuFind's use of caching.
• 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
• Language / Localization Support
• Lightbox Functionality (Bootstrap themes)
• Real-Time Availability Status
• Search Service
• Solr Index Schema
  • Authority Index Schema
• Zend Framework - Information about the MVC framework used in VuFind.

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.
• jsTree - Notes on the Javascript library used for rendering hierarchies in VuFind.
• LESS - Notes on how the bootstrap3 / bootprint3 themes use LESS to generate CSS