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Re: [VuFind-General] Voyager SIP and NCIP APIs [was: General Questions about VUFind]
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From: Chris D. <ce...@ui...> - 2007-07-31 15:46:22
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On Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 10:31:30AM -0500, Doran, Michael D wrote: > Hi Chris, Hi Michael, (BTW, we have enjoyed using your New Books list. Thanks!) > > > I heard that there is a Voyager module that can handle 3M > > Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP) communication. ... > > I wonder if there are any SIP API's available for Voyager > > so I can do without the screen-scraping web services! > > NCIP and a SIP2 APIs exist for Voyager. However, don't get your hopes up too high. > Believe me, my hopes are not very high ;-) I will try searching through the links you were generous enough to provide. You're right about making our voices heard and we plan on doing just that (not that we've been "quiet" over the years). In the meantime, I will probably integrate with my screen-scraping API until/unless development in VUFind seems promising. There are a lot of things I hate about this approach (e.g., all of those keyword search servers getting launched for each OPAC server, of which will be deemed unnecessary if we can get VUFind to work in production), not to mention all of the ugly and rigid code. I will just have to be careful in re-using WebVoyage sessions whenever I can. Also, I plan on using WebVoyage as a backup in the event of a Web Service failure. All of this hardship wouldn't be necessary if there simply was a Voyager API! Even if it were proprietary and not open source, it would still be enormously helpful. Good luck with your endeavors (pun intended)! Chris > My understanding is that Ex Libris (nee Endeavor) supplies an NCIP server binary as part of their ILL add-on product. If you have not purchased that ILL product, then you will not have that NCIP server. It is also my understanding that while the Voyager NCIP API supports their ILL product, it was not meant to serve as a general purpose NCIP application programming interface (API) [1]. > > Similarly, a SIP2 server is included when purchasing the Voyager Self-Check add-on product and, again, while it supports their Self-Check product, it was not meant to serve as a general purpose SIP application programming interface (API) [2]. > > That doesn't mean you can't try to utilize these APIs for other purposes (if you have purchased them). However, it will probably involve a lot of trial and error -- you can't assume that all the functionality outlined in the standards is going to work. I know that a couple of the Finnish Universities did some very innovative work, utilizing SIP to integrate Voyager with a mobile phone application [3]. If I recollect, though, that particular development effort was done with Endeavor's cooperation. > > For more information, search the voyager-l archive on "NCIP" and "SIP"; see in particular the Voyager Product Manager's informative update re (then) Endeavor's accomplishments and plans for NCIP interoperability [4]. Many of us would be interested in a more fully-functioning NCIP API into Voyager so that we can (safely) write to, and read from, the circulation module data via our own client programs; my impression was that Endeavor was not too keen on providing that type of functionality, since it would entail a fairly substantial development effort. I've been beating this drum since 2003 and have talked off the record with some of the Voyager developers. They're not going to do anything until, and unless, there is some demand. Make your voice heard! > > -- Michael > > [1] NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) > http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_at.html > > [2] 3M Standard Interchange Protocol > http://cms.3m.com/cms/US/en/0-170/ckceiFQ/viewimage.jhtml > > [3] See "Voyager circulation services to customers using mobile phones, cases Helsinki School of Economics and Helsinki University of Technology" by Matti Raatikainen, Ulla Huurinainen, Systems Analyst, Helsinki University of Technology Library. EndUser 2003 > > [4] Subject: RE: [VOYAGER-L]: Voyager SIP or NCIP interface > Date: 2004-03-11 16:34:00 > To: Voyager-L > "I'd like to clarify our accomplishments and plans > for interoperability and for NCIP..." > > # Michael Doran, Systems Librarian > # University of Texas at Arlington > # 817-272-5326 office > # 817-688-1926 mobile > # do...@ut... > # http://rocky.uta.edu/doran/ > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: vuf...@li... > > [mailto:vuf...@li...] On > > Behalf Of Chris Delis > > Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 6:31 PM > > To: vuf...@li... > > Subject: [VuFind-General] General Questions about VUFind > > > > Hi Andrew, > > > > Welcome back! Hope you had a relaxing time at the beach. > > > > I have a few general questions about the current design of > > VUFind, if you don't mind: > > > > Why are XML bib records stored locally in addition to the SOLR > > (Lucene) database? I'm assuming it is for performance reasons, right? > > Did you begin development without the local files? > > > > I notice that you are in the middle of developing Holding > > capabilities but haven't yet activated them in the code. How > > much functionality do you plan on performing? Do you plan on > > making VUFind actually perform the holding requests (and > > cancellation)? The reason I ask is that we are Voyager > > customers and the development team over there recommended > > strongly against doing this ourselves (performing writes to the > > database) and insisted on using WebVoyage; they said it was > > because of data integrity issues. As you can imagine, one of > > the reasons we are interested in solutions such as VUFind is > > because of WebVoyage's limitations ;-) For the time being, > > instead of performing the Holding requests myself, I instead > > decided to create a web services facade for WebVoyage (where > > I basically run WebVoage instances in the background and > > screen scrape-the GET and POST parameters needed to perform > > certain actions - yuck!). I heard that there is a Voyager > > module that can handle 3M Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP) > > communication. I didn't know this until recently. I wonder > > if there are any SIP API's available for Voyager so I can do > > without the screen-scraping web services! :-) Do you or > > anyone on this list know of any? > > > > Scalability. I understand that the backend Lucene database > > can scale horizontally (replication), which is good, but I'm > > wondering what sort of "horse-power" you plan on using for > > Villanova's VUFind implementation. Do you mind sharing your > > current or planned hardware architecture for running this on > > your campus? Approximately how many bib records do you > > manage? Also, have you tweaked any java VM settings? > > > > Thanks again for all your hard work! > > > > Cheers, > > Chris > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > ----------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. > > Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. > > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and > > a browser. > > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> > > http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ > > VuFind-General mailing list > > VuF...@li... > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vufind-general > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. > Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. > Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. > Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ > _______________________________________________ > VuFind-General mailing list > VuF...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vufind-general |