Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database?

[Rob Casson]

Actually, it comes with the OPAC as far as I know.  We don't have the XML
server.

yeah, it comes with the stock innopac; the returned xml is the same as
that from the (defunct) xml server, and there are xslts that can convert
it to marcxml, mods, dc, etc.

it may not have all the info that godmar wants tho....my first thought
was to suggest the xrecord stuff too :)

rc

- adam

On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 02:51:04PM -0700, Bin Zhang wrote:

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
Adam Brin
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 2:29 PM
To: CODE4LIB@listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Z39.50 for III Database?

BTW, one other solution comes to mind, III supports an XML format
request
from the OPAC (it has to be configured in the wwwoptions to enable, but
you *should* be able to request bib's/items via:

<catalog_url>/xrecord=b100200
<catalog_url>/xrecord=i102345

eg.
http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/xrecord=b1005614

I believe it's III's xml (as opposed to marcXML, but it might be
preferable (and easier). It's essentially a poor man's rest interface.

- adam

[BZ] You don't have it unless you have purchased the XML server product, right?

Bin

On Tue, May 01, 2007 at 06:32:02PM -0400, Godmar Back wrote:

If I may follow up on an earlier discussion [ relevant parts are
included below ] regarding how to extract holdings information from
III or other catalogs.

I have one thing to offer and 1 thing to request. I'll start with the
offering: MAJAX. MAJAX is a JavaScript library that screenscrapes III
catalogs and can include the results so obtained into any document
served from the same domain. URL of the current code is
http://libx.org/majax/majax.html ; a demo is at
http://libx.org/majax/majaxtest4.html )

After an initial, somewhat clumsy approach, we've now adopted an
approach that's similar to COinS. For instance, to include holdings
information for a book into a website, all you have to do is include

a

<span class="majax-showholdings" title="iXXXXXXXXX"></span> in your
HTML, and include MAJAX via a single <script> element, which will
result in that SPAN being replaced with the holdings of the book with
ISBN XXXXXXX. Also support bibrecord number and title.
It's so easy a cave librarian could do it. It can be done directly
from the WebBridge management panel for those of you have are damned
to use WebBridge. Of course, the underlying JavaScript API is still
available for more advanced users. MAJAX has been released under the
LGPL.

Now for the thing to request. Are there any reusable, open source
scripts out there that implements a REST interface that screenscrapes
or otherwise efficiently accesses a III catalog? David and James have
provided links, but no code. I would be grateful for anything I could
reuse and don't have to reimplement.

Here's what I envision:

Interface: REST

Input: search terms/type - maybe OpenURL v0.1-syntax, or another
adopted standard, or something custom, but ideally simple.

Output: XML - maybe Marc XML with 852 (or whatever the number is)
holdings records - similar to what David's screen scrape test
provides. Ideally XML that comes with a schema and validates against
it. Maybe JSON like James's scripts (?)

Implementation: Something that a cave librarian could deploy - good
candidates are PhP and possibly Perl-based cgi, but one could

conceive

of others. Nothing that requires elaborate server setups or

installing

custom frameworks.

Thank you for any pointers/suggestions you may have.

- Godmar

On 3/4/07, Birkin James Diana <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

On Mar 1, 2007, at 5:23 PM, Walker, David wrote:

http://walkertr.csusm.edu/scrape/test.htm

Very cool; works on our III catalog!

Nathan Mealy -- I also used the screenscrape method to get info we
needed for a couple of ISBN-based projects, not knowing at the time
about the yaz-z39.50-OPAC option.

By implementing this in the form of a web-service, I can switch the
work-horse code without affecting other apps, and minimize session
concerns.

<http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/examples.php>
<http://dl.lib.brown.edu/soa_services/josiah_status/tests/
InfoHolderTest.php>

(The returned json info is more comprehensible via view-source.)

---
Birkin James Diana
Programmer, Web Services
Brown University Library
[EMAIL PROTECTED]