{"id":381,"date":"2016-01-04T23:22:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T23:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/?page_id=381"},"modified":"2016-01-05T17:44:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T17:44:11","slug":"chapter-5-direct-ils-integration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/book-v-features-for-developers\/chapter-5-direct-ils-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5: Direct ILS Integration"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>In this Chapter<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Getting Started<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Setting up ILS Integration<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Working with Koha<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Getting Started<\/h3>\n<p>With all the new ILS systems being produced and the emphasis being placed on support for API support, one of the things that I\u2019d like to eventually see is the ability to integrate directly with specific ILS systems to allow users to pull content directly from their systems (in batch or individually), edit the records in MarcEdit, and then upload the data back to their ILS systems. \u00a0Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where licensing tends to get in the way, since most ILS systems tend to protect access to their API documentation. \u00a0This means that for most systems, in order for this work to be completed, I&#8217;ll need to have an ILS customer that can work as a liasion between myself and the vendor. With that said, there are some open source ILS systems, and utilizing these systems, I&#8217;v developed a framework that should provide the necessary infrastructure to integrate with external systems.<\/p>\n<h3>Setting up ILS Integration<\/h3>\n<div class=\"entry-container fix\">\n<div class=\"entry fix\">\n<p class=\"first-para\">At this point, MarcEdit&#8217;s ILS Direct Integration primarily supports the\u00a0ability to search\u00a0and update\/creation of records.\u00a0 Essentially, users will select their ILS system from the list of supported ILS\u2019s (at this point, just Koha) and MarcEdit will add a new option to the MarcEditor window targeting interactions with that ILS. Here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Users will enable the functionality through the preferences.\u00a0 A new Preference Tab has been added to the MarcEdit options.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div id=\"attachment_383\" style=\"width: 787px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-383\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-383\" src=\"http:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha.png\" alt=\"Figure 1: ILS Integration\" width=\"777\" height=\"577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha.png 777w, https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha-768x570.png 768w, https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/ils_integration_koha-624x463.png 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 777px) 100vw, 777px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-383\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 1: ILS Integration<\/p><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>In the preference list, I\u2019ve added a list for Supported Systems.\u00a0 At this point, the only option is Koha, but I hope to eventually add support for other ILS systems as either vendors provide documentation or individual users request\/sponsor development.\u00a0 The options needed to support a specific system are primarily a host name (baseURL that will be used to interact with the API), a username and password.\u00a0 My assumption is that there may be some additional data needed (for example, Koha will use Z39.50 for searching, so some additional data may be needed\u2026and when it is, MarcEdit will ask specifically then and save the data upon entry).<\/li>\n<li>When the ILS option is selected, a new menu item appears in the MarcEditor.\u00a0 This is the menu item that needs to be used if the user wishes to push data directly back to their ILS system.\n<p><div style=\"width: 662px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/blog.reeset.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/image4.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"image\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.reeset.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/image_thumb4.png?resize=691%2C513\" alt=\"image\" width=\"652\" height=\"484\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Figure 2: Integration within the MarcEditor<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While Koha\u00a0is currently the only ILS system currently profiled, my hope is that over time, this list will become more substantial. \u00a0Today, most ILS systems provide some level of API interaction with their ILS systems. \u00a0While not all support the necessary components to provide Search\/Create\/Update &#8212; they are getting there.<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the hold up? \u00a0In a word, trust. \u00a0ILS vendors compete against each other, and traditionally this has lead to strict controls around how data moves into and out of their systems. \u00a0In order for MarcEdit to provide direct integration to a specific ILS provider, there has to be a level of trust that making this information available openly (and with what would now be a reference implementation) is a good thing. \u00a0For MarcEdit as a project, it means having someone within the user community willing to be an advocate within their own ILS community and a liaison between MarcEdit and the ILS vendor. \u00a0Can we make this work? \u00a0Sure we can! \u00a0Will we see progress in this space? \u00a0We&#8217;ll see.<\/p>\n<h3>Working with Koha<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sYC6nME0WoI?feature=player_embedded\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this Chapter Getting Started Setting up ILS Integration Working with Koha Getting Started With all the new ILS systems being produced and the emphasis being placed on support for API support, one of the things that I\u2019d like to eventually see is the ability to integrate directly with specific ILS systems to allow users [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":371,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441,"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/381\/revisions\/441"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcedit.reeset.net\/learning_marcedit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}