Can I use Omeka for 2 separate archives?

I’m using Omeka Classic (Emiglio theme) for my Photo archive. I would also like to use Omeka to create a Document archive that’s separate. I thought I’d do this by cloning my Omeka site, and adding Documents to the clone. Is there a better way to use Omeka for 2 separate archives?

I want a “Browse Items” page for Photos, and a separate “Browse Items” page for Documents.

Have you thought of using just one single Omeka installment, attributing DC:Type “Image” to the pictures and DC:Type “Text” to the documents? Then it would just be a matter of adding extra navigation buttons to your menu…

Hi @DanieleB. I like the sound of that! Once I label my documents as DC:Type “Text,” how can I create a separate “Browse Items” page?

You could do it different ways.

For instance, you could use Simple Pages plugin, or maybe Reference (I suggest to use my fork, https://github.com/DBinaghi/Omeka-plugin-Reference: it’s a bit newer than the original plugin created by Daniel Bertherau).

Maybe somebody else could give you other hints.

Hi @DanieleB, I’m waiting (and hoping) to get more answers, because I don’t understand how to use the plugins to create what I want.

Probably the simplest option is just to edit the navigation (Appearance -> Navigation).

You can make two links, each to the items browse page filtered to the items you want it to show. If you’re using Item Types this is easy: just add ?type=<number> to the /items/browse URL, where <number> is the ID of the item type you want to show (you can get the ID from looking at the types in the Item Types section of the left nav: click a type in the list, and its ID will be shown on the resulting page title). If you’re using the Dublin Core Type field, it’s still possible to do this, but the necessary query string is a little more complicated.

Hi @jflatness, I tried your solution, and I see how it could work. But if I “Search Items” in the 2nd archive, the results include the 1st archive. How can I keep the archives separated?

It’s possible but more complicated to do that (basically you’d be putting in something like a hidden form element to set the search to the right item type. You’d be getting into the realm of theme edits or a plugin with that kind of thing, though.

Hi @jflatnes, since it will be complicated to achieve more separation between archives 1 and 2 with this solution, would it be better to come up with another solution? What do you think of my 1st idea to create a clone of my Omeka site? Or of @DanieleB’s idea to use a plugin? (And how would the plugin idea work?)

Hi @jflatnes and @DanieleB, I tried my idea of creating an Omeka clone to achieve separation between the Photos and Documents in my archive. What do you think? How would you have done it?

http://topangahistoricalsociety.org/cms/items/browse

Well, it seems quite neat to me, one has to pay attention to notice that it’s actually two repositories.

I’d work on integrating more the other features (website, contact, articles). For instance, you could maybe include the articles in the documents repository, create a contact page with Simple Pages plugin to replicate the info of the official website but in the same style of the repository, and finally add a clear link to the official website (so that users will understand it’s a different site).

Hope this helps.

Hi @jflatnes and @DanieleB, yes my solution to separate Photos and Documents looks neat, but it’s really bulky because it requires a whole other Omeka site. Thanks for your suggestions, and please let me know if you can think of a way to achieve the same effect more simply.

Hi @DanieleB, I decided to take your suggestion to combine the pages for Articles and Documents. However, it seemed easier to move them both off Omeka.

http://topangahistoricalsociety.org/archive/

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