re: real-time interaction with an ILS?

[Casey Bisson]

Via a comment at about.Scriblio, Phil asked:
http://about.scriblio.net/scribbles/97#comment-833

> Can you use this to connect directly into the ILS database, so
> patrons can view “live” status information? It seems the data would
> only be valid as of the last import date/time.

Yes!, the data must be imported and indexed for Scriblio to work, but
essential real time data like availability and location of an item are
best represented live from the ILS. That’s exactly how it works at
Plymouth State University, see this example: http://library.plymouth.edu/read/222334
. The location and status information are being fetched from the ILS
as the page is generated (the result is then cached for a short time).

Here’s a not-quite-current example of the code: http://about.scriblio.net/wiki/scrib_availability
. When a record is displayed, a typical install calls the
scrib_availability function, and that’s how the data gets fetched in
real time.

You can replace the scrib_availability with one of your own, and as
more people use Scriblio I hope we'll see more examples that the
community can draw from.

--Casey

[Don]

Where shoiuld the code be placed to retrieve live status information?
Thanks.

[zebil]

+1

[Casey Bisson]

The code can go in a lot of places, but for my installs, I put it in a
separate plugin along with other code that's unique to the site it's
running on.

I've put some more detail in documentation:

http://about.scriblio.net/wiki/scrib_availability#92_putting-the-function_1

As a separate plugin, it won't get overwritten with updates to
Scriblio or WordPress.

--Casey

On Mar 24, 2008, at 8:13 AM, Don wrote:

>
> Where should the code be placed to retrieve live status information?

[don....@gmail.com]

Thanks for this Casey. I was poking around the Project Blacklight
OPAC - http://blacklight.betech.virginia.edu - and they are using a
combination of JQuery and AJAX to do 'on demand' lookups for
availability. Might be worth exploring :)
Don

On Apr 6, 2:05 pm, Casey Bisson <ca...@scriblio.net> wrote:
> The code can go in a lot of places, but for my installs, I put it in a
> separate plugin along with other code that's unique to the site it's
> running on.
>
> I've put some more detail in documentation:
>

> http://about.scriblio.net/wiki/scrib_availability#92_putting-the-func...

[Casey Bisson]

The example code fetches availability and location information as it's
needed, when it's needed. I used to use ajax for that, but theme
compatibility is easier with the non-ajax solution that Scrib uses now.

I'd encourage people to try ajax, though. The availability function
could be made to return a link to the ILS, and a small jQuery script
could then replace the link with information it fetches.

--Casey