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 >