[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] [OPEN-ILS-DEV] Evergreen API

[Tara Robertson]

I think better documentation might help. It's been awhile since I looked,
but in February at code4lib some people wanted to play around with
Evergreen APIs and they reported having a tough time finding the
information they needed. I think Karen Coombs, from OCLC, contacted Dan
Scott directly to get the info she needed.

tara

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 7:18 AM, Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre at galecia.com>wrote:

> Thanks, All.  I know we don't need APIs in the same sense that a
> proprietary system does.  However, I've spoken to some developers of other
> products who are interested in integrating their product with Evergreen and
> I keep hearing that this is very challenging because it isn't clear what
> does what and how to do that without making a pretty big investment in
> learning Evergreen internals.
>
> I'm just looking for a way to lower the barrier for outside developers who
> have something we might want to use with Evergreen, how can we make it
> easier for them to work with our product?
>
> Lori
>
>
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Lori Bowen Ayre //
> Library Technology Consultant / The Galecia Group
> Oversight Board & Communications Committee / Evergreen
> (707) 763-6869 // Lori.Ayre at galecia.com
> Availability:  http://tungle.me/lori.ayre
>
> <Lori.Ayre at galecia.com>Specializing in open source ILS solutions, RFID,
> filtering,
> workflow optimization, and materials handling
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:05 AM, <rogan.hamby at yclibrary.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> To echo Dan, and without reading ahead to the weekend's posts, developers
>> usually talk about APIs in terms of methods of accessing the functions of a
>> system.  Usually, the APIs are bundled and published because the core
>> system is closed in some way or licensing is involved.  If you want a
>> fascinating discussion right now about what APIs really are the Google /
>> Oracle lawsuit has brought a lot of great information into the open about
>> what people agree APIs are and what they disagree about them being and the
>> legal grey area of them.
>>
>> Anyway, that aside Evergreen is very open and doesn't really need APIs in
>> that Oracle / Sun sense that they were published.  But, Evergreen's methods
>> of access certainly could be documented better and documentation is
>> generally a big challenge for open source projects as they grow.  I do not
>> envy the challenge the DIG folks have though I admire what they're doing.
>>
>>
>> Quoting Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net>:
>>
>>  On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 07:18:09PM -0700, Lori Bowen Ayre wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Devs and Community,
>>>>
>>>> Has there ever been serious consideration given to developing an
>>>> Evergreen
>>>> API?  And if not, why not?
>>>>
>>>> I'm just wondering if that might be something that we could make happen
>>>> as
>>>> a community, perhaps with funds we raise through some clever activity
>>>> or by
>>>> selling some groovy merchandise.  We've been talking about doing
>>>> something
>>>> like that on the Oversight Board although no particular project has been
>>>> suggested.
>>>>
>>>> But, I may suggest developing an Evergreen API unless there's some
>>>> reason
>>>> not do.  Please advise!
>>>>
>>>
>>> Maybe you need to define what you mean by API. If you mean "a set of
>>> methods that you can call to return data or produce results", then I
>>> think Evergreen has had that since day one. It would be really hard for
>>> us to develop Evergreen without an API. A Google search for "Evergreen
>>> API" returns this as hit #2 for me: http://evergreen-ils.org/blog/**
>>> ?p=46 <http://evergreen-ils.org/blog/?p=46>
>>>
>>> What we have could certainly use a lot more documentation in many
>>> places, but we currently have native bindings for Perl, Python, Java, C,
>>> and a Google Summer of Code project to pull together an official PHP
>>> binding... all talking to the same API.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------
>> Rogan Hamby
>> Manager Rock Hill Library & Reference Services
>> York County Library System
>>
>> "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's
>> too dark
>> to read." - Groucho Marx
>>
>
>
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