[OPEN-ILS-DEV] Public API to Lookup Items By Barcode

[Mike Rylander]

Matt,

As it happens, I wrote the code needed to do exactly what you're attempting
just two months ago.  It's linked from here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1367926 ... the commit message in
the git branch attached to that launchpad bug gives an example of
retrieving the details of a title by an attached barcode.  Now, there are
ways to gather that data programmatically without that code, but it
requires several hoops and is far from trivial for anyone not familiar with
the internals of Evergreen.

I'm pretty sure that MVLC does not have that branch in production, but it
will almost certainly be included in the next major release, due out in the
spring, and I bet that MVLC will be one of the first to deploy it.  They
often run pretty close to the leading edge.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

--
Mike Rylander
| President
| Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
| email: miker at esilibrary.com
| web: http://www.esilibrary.com
 Hello, library-minded folks.  I’m writing an app for my daughter that
allows her to track her borrowing from our local library: Westford, MA,
part of MVLC.  For that last couple weeks, I’ve been beating my head
against the wall trying to determine how to programmatically retrieve
information about an item, using only the library-assigned barcode of the
book (or movie, CD, DVD, whatever).

It feels to me like I ought to be able to use unAPI, Opensearch or
Supercat, but for the life of me, I can’t figure it out.  I’ve plowed
through the source code, though I’d be lying if I said I understood it
all.  I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time Googling around for “RESTful
evergreen ils” and myriad combinations thereof.  I’ve found the search
grammar
<http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=documentation:technical:search_grammar>
, supercat examples
<http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=backend-devel:supercat:examples>,
and many other pointers in what feels like the right direction, but I can’t
figure it out.  I even went so far as to to setup a test Evergreen
installation, though my hardware was not up to the task.

I know there exists an efficient way to do this, because the “Numeric” pane
of “Advanced” search provides this exact functionality to a human using a
web browser.

Basically, I’m looking for some means to accomplish this lookup by barcode
<http://westford.mvlc.org/eg/opac/record/1563600?contains=contains;_special=1;qtype=item_barcode;query=31990004109968;locg=1>,
but being able to apply one of the various “format” parameters you guys
implement throughout the system.

Thanks very much for whatever you can do.

-Matt
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