Hi Derik,

This looks good... I suppose the question to some of your questions is
what's in your toolbox?

Specifically:

- Are you running on windows or unix on the server?
- Are you able to install anything on the server - are you an admin or
similar?
- Are you able to run a scripting language like PHP on the server?
- Do you have access to a database such as MySQL or MSSQL, etc?

I agree with Jon - it'd be much more efficient to store this in a database,
and your looking at a simple table to store the ticTocs data.

Answers to these questions will help listserv members come up with suitable
suggestions - it seems you're comfortable with javascript, so I think you'd
be fine with something like Perl of PHP.

cheers,

Tom

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 4:34 AM, Derik Badman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Just joined the list, and I'm hoping to get a suggestion or two.
>
> I'm working on using the ticTOCs ( http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/ ) text file
> of
> rss feed urls for journals to insert links to those feeds in our Serials
> Solution Journal Finder.
>
> I've got it working using a bit of jQuery.
>
> Demo here: http://155.247.22.22/badman/toc/demo.html
> The javascript is here: http://155.247.22.22/badman/toc/toc-rss.js
>
> Getting that working wasn't too hard, but I'm a bit concerned about
> efficiency and caching.
>
> I'm not sure the way I'm checking isbns against the text file is the most
> efficient way to go. Basically I'm making an ajax call to the file that
> takes the data and makes an array of objects. I then query the isbn of each
> journal on the page against the array of objects. If there's a match I pull
> the data and put it on the page. I'm wondering if there's a better way to
> do
> this, especially since the text file is over 1mb. I'm not looking for code,
> just ideas.
>
> I'm also looking for any pointers about using the file itself and somehow
> auto-downloading it to my server on a regular basis. Right now I just saved
> a copy to my server, but in the future it'd be good to automate grabbing
> the
> file from ticTOCs server on a regular basis and updating the one on my
> server (perhaps I'd need to use a cron job to do that?).
>
> Thanks for much for any suggestions or pointers. (For what it's worth, I
> can
> manage with javascript or php.)
>
>
> --
> Derik A. Badman
> Digital Services Librarian
> Reference Librarian for Education and Social Work
> Temple University Libraries
> Paley Library 209
> Philadelphia, PA
> Phone: 215-204-5250
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> AIM: derikbad
>
> "Research makes times march forward, it makes time march backward, and it
> also makes time stand still." -Greil Marcus
>