After starting Adlib, normally the Search wizard will be opened, in which you choose the data source (database or dataset) to search in or edit records in. This interface, Step 1 of 4 of the Search wizard, with an empty background, is called the classic mode. In the Options menu (of Adlib 6.6.0 and older software) in a running Adlib application you can switch this mode on or off. (Adlib needs to be restarted before a mode switch comes into effect.)

The new mode (classic mode is switched off) replaces Step 1 of the Search wizard with a dynamically generated HTML page called the dashboard. Data sources and procedures (like print tasks) are presented as hyperlinks which need to be clicked to open the relevant database or start the procedure. Step 2 of the Search wizard will not be presented next automatically anymore. Instead, the user must explicitly choose the search method to continue his or her search with, via the toolbar or menu: this may be the Search wizard, the Expert search language, a QBF (search form) or the Pointer files window.

In Adlib applications older than version 4.2, the dashboard looks very simple by default because it is put together by the software automatically. In model applications 4.2 and higher, stylesheets have been implemented to provide a nice design for the dashboard. (Adlib produces the dashboard by applying an XSLT stylesheet to the data sources list generated in XML format.)
However, you can implement the dashboards from model applications 4.2 in older applications very well. You do need some knowledge of the programming language XSLT, XML and possibly CSS to be able to do this well. Contact our helpdesk to obtain the relevant dashboard stylesheets. The package consist of several stylesheets (.xsl files), dashboardLanguage.xml (fixed texts in different languages), Dashboard.css (layout styles) and some images. Implement the stylesheets in an application, as follows:

The stylesheets have now been linked, but they are not likely to function properly yet because the list of data sources and print tasks in your application probably differs from the list in the Adlib model application 4.2. Therefore you have to adjust the stylesheets to your applications. You may as well change the entire design if you want to, and include the logo of your institution, for example. It is beyond the scope of this text to explain all possibilities of XSLT, but it is relatively easy to adjust the data source lists, as follows.
Open an .xsl file which you want to adjust, in Windows Notepad for example. The data source lists are present in <div id=”menu”> elements. In DashboardArchiveMuseum.xsl for instance, there are five lists. For the supporting databases, the list is the following:

<div id="menu1">
<ul>
<h2>
<xsl:call-template name="translate">
<xsl:with-param name="label">SupportDatabases</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="language" select="$language" />
</xsl:call-template>
</h2>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='12']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='19']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='20']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='21']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='22']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='23']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='24']" mode="table"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//*/item[@id='25']" mode="table"/>
</ul>
</div>

Each @id= points to the serial number of a data source in the XML list. This is the same order (from top to bottom) as the one you can observe in Step 1 of the Search wizard. The top most data source (e.g. Total collection) is number 1, the next is number 2 etc. In the example above, the number 12 is at the top of this list. In our case, that is the Visual documentation data source. You can change this and just replace “12” by another serial number, to point to a different data source. You may also add lines to this list or remove lines.
The fixed texts in the dashboard can be changed in dashboardLanguage.xml. The reference to a specific text in the example above can be found in:

<xsl:call-template name="translate">
<xsl:with-param name="label">SupportDatabases</xsl:with-param>
<xsl:with-param name="language" select="$language" />
</xsl:call-template>