Awesome! This looks like it probably does what I need, I'll have to play with it.
I'm still confused about the values: "borrow - when the book is available to borrow from openlibrary" What does this mean? How does one borrow a book from openlibrary? I wasn't aware there was such a service. "restricted - when the book is available only to printdisabled. " What does "printdisabled" mean? Will this information be added to the OpenLibrary API documentation somewhere? Or do I need to keep a copy of this email myself and not lose it, to refer back to it? Obviously I am suggesting it ought to be added to the documentation. Jonathan Anand Chitipothu wrote: > On 08-Nov-2010, at 9:06 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote: > > >> I think the answer is, there is another API, the "REST" one, but it won't >> even tell me _anything_ about whether digitized copies are available? >> >> http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6511983M.json >> >> My suggestion is still that I think discovering online copies at the IA is >> one of the most attractive use cases for the OL/IA, and I'd encourage you to >> provide for the API to support it. >> >> I'm beginning to have deja vu, I think maybe we've had this same >> conversation before a year or two ago? >> >> My use case: Using _some_ simple OL/IA api, look up a book by isbn, lccn, or >> any other identifying numbers you may have. If I get a hit in the OL >> database, find out easily from the API if online versions are avaialable at >> the IA, and if so what URL they can be accessed at. >> >> While this information is available on the HTML OL page for an edition, I >> believe maybe there's no way to get it from an API at all? I guess I could >> find the OL identifier from the API, and then screen-scrape the HTML? >> > > I've extended the OL Books API to support this. (running on my dev server > right now) > > $ curl -s > 'http://anand.openlibrary.org/api/books?bibkeys=OL22336175M,OL24218576M,OL1114172M&format=json' > | rejson > { > "OL24218576M": { > "bib_key": "OL24218576M", > "preview": "borrow", > "thumbnail_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6558913-S.jpg";, > "preview_url": > "http://www.archive.org/details/romanceonthreele00hafnrich";, > "info_url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL24218576M/A_romance_on_three_legs"; > }, > "OL22336175M": { > "bib_key": "OL22336175M", > "preview": "full", > "thumbnail_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6465002-S.jpg";, > "preview_url": > "http://www.archive.org/details/adventuresoftoms20twai";, > "info_url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL22336175M/The_Adventures_of_Tom_Sawyer"; > }, > "OL1114172M": { > "bib_key": "OL1114172M", > "preview": "restricted", > "thumbnail_url": "http://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/6599977-S.jpg";, > "preview_url": "http://www.archive.org/details/pastaperfect00sant";, > "info_url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL1114172M/Pasta_perfect."; > } > } > > The value of "preview" is: > > full - when the book is available for reading > borrow - when the book is available to borrow from openlibrary > restricted - when the book is available only to printdisabled. > > with jscmd=data, the API provides a lot more info. > > $ curl -s > 'http://anand.openlibrary.org/api/books?bibkeys=OL22336175M,OL24218576M,OL1114172M&format=json&jscmd=data' > { > "OL24218576M": { > "title": "A romance on three legs", > "url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL24218576M/A_romance_on_three_legs";, > "key": "/books/OL24218576M", > ... > "ebooks": [ > { > "borrow_url": > "http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24218576M/A_romance_on_three_legs/borrow";, > "availability": "borrow", > "preview_url": > "http://www.archive.org/details/romanceonthreele00hafnrich";, > "formats": { > "djvu": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/romanceonthreele00hafnrich/romanceonthreele00hafnrich.djvu";, > > "permission": "restricted" > } > } > } > ] > }, > "OL22336175M": { > "title": "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", > "url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL22336175M/The_Adventures_of_Tom_Sawyer";, > > "key": "/books/OL22336175M", > "ebooks": [ > { > "availability": "full", > "preview_url": > "http://www.archive.org/details/adventuresoftoms20twai";, > "read_url": > "http://www.archive.org/stream/adventuresoftoms20twai";, > "formats": { > "pdf": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/adventuresoftoms20twai/adventuresoftoms20twai.pdf"; > }, > "djvu": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/adventuresoftoms20twai/adventuresoftoms20twai.djvu";, > > "permission": "open" > }, > "epub": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/adventuresoftoms20twai/adventuresoftoms20twai.epub"; > }, > "text": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/adventuresoftoms20twai/adventuresoftoms20twai_djvu.txt"; > } > } > } > ] > }, > "OL1114172M": { > "title": "Pasta perfect.", > "url": > "http://anand.openlibrary.org/books/OL1114172M/Pasta_perfect.";, > "key": "/books/OL1114172M", > ... > "ebooks": [ > { > "availability": "restricted", > "preview_url": > "http://www.archive.org/details/pastaperfect00sant";, > "formats": { > "djvu": { > "url": > "http://www.archive.org/download/pastaperfect00sant/pastaperfect00sant.djvu";, > "permission": "restricted" > } > } > } > ] > } > } > > When the availability is full, read_url and available formats are provided. > When the availability is borrow, borrow_url is provided. > > Sometimes the daisy file is not openly available. That can be found by > looking at the permission field. > > Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. > > Anand > _______________________________________________ > Ol-tech mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-tech > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ Ol-tech mailing list [email protected] http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-tech To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to [email protected]
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