>
> Part of the original question was trying to find only those records that
> matched a certain criteria. If that were still desired and those records had
> a unique index entry, then the XML server could make that a much less
> intensive search than crawling through the whole record space.
>

This can still be done, though it's not pretty and would not yield
acceptable performance for real time services. You can pass any kind of
search through a GET request, walk through the records sequentially
extracting the control numbers from the HTML source, and then pull up the
records in XRECORD. This does not address the updated records issue.


>
> Of course, that depends upon the XML Server actually working as expected,
> which is never guaranteed... :-)
>
> > As is the case with many systems, III bib numbers are sequentially issued
> so
> > you can simply guess them which is even easier because when pulling them
> out
> > of the webopac, you leave off the check digit.
>
> Again, if the need is just for a subset of records, it sometimes is easier
> to preload the search rather than crawl the entire database, especially when
> it's someone else's server on someone else's network.
>
> Still, in the end, it's probably just easier to crawl the whole thing as
> often as possible and throw out what you don't need.
>
> I just wish the Innovative server had the ability to tell you which records
> had been updated since a certain time or just sent you the updated record
> numbers as they happened so that you didn't have to crawl the whole thing
> every time. Oh, wait, it does (see, Encore, INN-Reach, Partners)...


As a practical matter, the only methods I know of that allow this involve
automating Create Lists using expect or some of the other methods discussed
in this thread.

kyle


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------
Kyle Banerjee
Digital Services Program Manager
Orbis Cascade Alliance
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