[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Overdrive API

[Sharon Herbert (Project Sitka)]

Hi Kathy,

Sorry for the delay in following up on this; Steven Chan’s analysis of  
the Overdrive API that he provided for Sitka Support is outlined  
below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

For context, Sitka already imports MARC records from Overdrive into  
our public catalogue, scoping on the 856$9 for location. The patron  
can click the associated 856 url, which takes them to the Overdrive  
website, where they need to re-authenticate against Overdrive. What we  
are hoping to achieve for our patrons is a more seamless experience  
for the patron, i.e. they initially log in to My Account in Sitka pac,  
then when click on the link for the pac for an Overdrive resource,  
they are immediately authenticated. We’d also like them to see  
real-time availability within the Sitka pac.

==Steven Chan’s analysis of the Overdrive API follows==

The intent of the API is to allow developers to recreate an Overdrive  
website to perform  searches, get a list of results, see the details  
of a selected title, and see its availability.  The search is over the  
Overdrive catalogue; consequently, you can integrate other services  
with the recreated Overdrive website, or embed it into another  
website, but you cannot integrate the search with another catalogue.

You could try to issue a parallel search over the Overdrive catalogue  
and over the library catalogue, but you will have the difficulty of  
integrating the two sets of search results. Since the two sets will  
almost always be paged, integrating them can't really be done.

The best that can be done I think, even when the remaining API—the  
so-called Content API--is released, is to continue to import MARC  
records into the library catalogue. Then we would use the Metadata API  
to show title details, the Availability API to show real-time status,  
and the Content API to place holds and checkouts.

The login procedure (1) for Overdrive I haven't studied yet, but I'm  
guessing this can be done with extra programming of the current OPAC;  
it wouldn't need a new API.

There is also the issue of getting an authorization token in order to  
be able to access the APIs; every call to an API will need to include  
the token otherwise access is refused. A token needs to be gotten for  
each user session. The token will eventually expire, eg, the demo  
shows the token lasting an hour; therefore, the token will need to be  
refreshed if the session persists.

Real-time availability (2) can be done by using the Metadata API and  
the Availability API in the existing OPAC. If a user clicks a title on  
the search result list, we would check if the title is an Overdrive,  
and if so, we would show title details via the Metadata API and  
real-time status via the Availability API; otherwise, we would show  
details and statuses in the 'normal' way.

The Overdrive APIs do not seem to allow for improving MARC record  
import. What is needed is a 'synchronizing' API, whereby a library  
gets notified of newly available records and can pull them into the  
catalogue.

Re: the pending “content” api from Overdrive that is being developed  
for Innovative and referenced in this article:
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/04/ebooks/overdrives-upcoming-apis-to-allow-ebook-checkouts-from-opac/

We can improve seamlessness right away by doing (1) and (2) above; we  
needn't wait for the Content API.

It will be interesting to see what Innovative will show: will they  
show a separate interface for searching Overdrive resources?  Or will  
they show an integrated search? If the latter, then the natural  
question to ask is how they do it, ie, is there a hidden API that  
Innovative and Overdrive is not showing us?

===End===


Sharon Herbert
Sitka Manager
BC Libraries Cooperative
Tel: 1-855-383-5761 x1013
Email: sherbert at sitka.bclibraries.ca
Website: http://bc.libraries.coop




Quoting "Sharon Herbert (Project Sitka)" <sherbert at sitka.bclibraries.ca>:

> Hi Kathy,
>
> Sitka is very interested in Overdrive integration as well. We've also
> included MARC records from Overdrive, but would like to display title
> availability and have seamless checkout from within the Evergreen pac.
> When we last reviewed the API on the Overdrive developers' site about a
> month ago, it didn't appear that any of the existing API  would allow
> either of those functions. The existing API seemed more geared to
> making Overdrive content available on library websites.
>
> This article alludes to a content.api that is still pending from
> Overdrive, which would seem to get us closer to what we want:
> http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2013/04/ebooks/overdrives-upcoming-apis-to-allow-ebook-checkouts-from-opac/
>
> Steven Chan did some detailed analysis on the Overdrive API (we got
> sidetracked by the 2.4 upgrade, so haven't revisited Overdrive yet), so
> I will look that up and aim to share it out with everyone.
>
> Thanks,
> Sharon
>
> Quoting open-ils-general-request at list.georgialibraries.org:
>
>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 16:14:32 -0400
>> From: Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org>
>> Subject: Re: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Overdrive API
>> To: open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
>> Message-ID: <51E45828.4060009 at masslnc.org>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; Format="flowed"
>>
>> Thanks Ruth!
>>
>> To be clear, we've already included MARC records from Overdrive into our
>> catalogs. What we're looking for is development to use the Overdrive API
>> to display title availability information directly in the catalog and to
>> allow patrons to check out Overdrive titles without leaving the catalog.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Kathy
>>
>> Kathy Lussier
>> Project Coordinator
>> Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
>> (508) 343-0128
>> klussier at masslnc.org
>> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>
> -- 
> Sharon Herbert
> Sitka Manager
> BC Libraries Cooperative
> Tel: 1-855-383-5761 x1013
> Email: sherbert at sitka.bclibraries.ca
> Website: http://bc.libraries.coop