On May 1, 2007 Godmar Back wrote:

> ..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...

Godmar,

I'm the 'James' noted above. Below is the link to my code. If that
URL changes, it'll be updated at the wiki page URL that provides some
notes on the service.

A couple of extra notes that aren't yet on the wiki page...

- The web-service is completely ISBN-based.

- The webservice grew as needs grew: first I had a need only to know
if we had a title, then eventually its status, then eventually its
location. Since I wanted it to be as fast as possible, and each extra
piece of info requires extra screen-scraping processing (especially
going from existence-info to item-level info), I made each piece of
returned info optional -- though even asking for all info, it's fast.

It's likely not as extensible as David's terrific code, since mine
uses in some places super-specific screen-scraping markers to get the
data I want, but I hope its useful to folk.

<http://dl.lib.brown.edu/code/iii_opac_webservice.zip>

<http://128.148.7.210/~birkin/wikinotes/doku.php?
id=public:soa_josiah_status>

-Birkin

---
Birkin James Diana
Programmer, Integrated Technology Services
Brown University Library
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