Adlib GebruikersgidsIntroduction

Approaching external sources as friendly databases

Adlib Information Systems

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A-111-6-2008

Adlib GebruikersgidsIntroduction

Approaching external sources as friendly databases

Five so-called gateways (HTTP handlers) to external sources, are made freely available by Adlib. In your applications you can point to those external sources in the shape of friendly databases. This allows you to derive records from these sources, so you don’t need to enter that data yourself anymore. This functionality is available from Adlib 6.4.0.

The external sources which are currently available, and the accompanying URL to the gateway for each of them, are the following:

  • Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Dutch Library)
  • British Library
  • Library of Congress
  • German National Bibliography
  • Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog (GVK - German)

To set up such an external source as a friendly database, do the following:

  1. Create a friendly database in the data source in which you wish to be able to derive records from the external source, for instance the Books data source in a library catalogue. (See the Designer Help for more information about creating friendly databases.)
  2. In the Folder property of the friendly database, enter the URL followed by ?search=
  3. Per friendly database you have set three applicable screens, one to be able to search the external source, one to display a found record and a link screen. Which fields (may) appear on those screens, depends on the relevant external source. AIS has already made these screens for the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Britisch Library, the Library of Congress, the German National Bibliography and the GVK. Download these screens from out website or contact AIS to receive them by e-mail. Per external source you’ll get three different screens; for the Library of Congress for instance, these would be qbf_loc, lnk_loc and zm_loc. First, put all received screens in your own Adlib \screens subfolder. Then set the proper three screens in the Screens property of the friendly database, for example:

    (The screen names for the Koninklijke Bibliotheek end with “kb”, those for the British Library end with “bl”, those for the German National Bibliography end with “dnb” and “ext”, while those for the GVK end with “gvk” and “ext”.)
  4. The Remove original record after retrieval option must of course be left unmarked, since you can’t delete original records from the external sources.
  5. Save the application structure and restart your Adlib application. You are now ready to derive title descriptions from the external sources you set up.

A-111-6-2008