SALT recommender API

Data Source: University of Manchester, John Rylands Library (circulation data: 2001 – 2011).

Note: Currently not regularly updated, although this is under review.

Licensing: CC-BY

Where: http://vm-salt.mimas.ac.uk/getSuggestions.api

Raw data also available here: http://vm-salt.mimas.ac.uk/data
Note: these are LARGE files. 1GB of data in total

Go here if you want to learn more about how we processed this data

Parameters:

format	Format of returned results.  Allowed values: xml and json [default: xml]
isbn	ISBN (or JRUL control number) of item for which recommendations are required
threshold	Minimum number of unique users who must have borrowed both the item in the request and any recommendation for the recommendation to be included in results [default: 15]
workID	JRUL workID of the item for which recommendations are required

Notes:

(i)        one of isbn and workID is required, though if values for both isbn and workID are given then isbn is used in preference (i.e. workID is ignored).

(ii)        a maximum of 40 suggestions are returned.

Results (with example data)

1.    Request successful, results found (results returned)

http://vm-salt.mimas.ac.uk/getSuggestions.api?isbn=0552153575&threshold=6

Returns HTTP Status 200 OK.

XML (default format)

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<Response_getSuggestions>

<Item>

<isbn>041508881x</isbn>

<citation>Dawson, Graham. – Soldier heroes : British adventure, Empire and the imagining of masculinity 1994</citation>

<workID>838073</workID>

<ranking>1</ranking>

</Item>

</Response_getSuggestions>

JSON (with additional parameter format=json)

[{“isbn”:”041508881x”,”citation”:”Dawson, Graham. – Soldier heroes : British adventure, Empire and the imagining of masculinity 1994″,”workID”:”838073″,”ranking”:1}]

2.    Request successful, no results found (comment returned)

 http://vm-salt.mimas.ac.uk/getSuggestions.api?isbn=0552153575

Returns HTTP Status 404 Not Found.

XML (default format)

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<Response_getSuggestions>

<Comment>No suggestions found [isbn: 0552153575, threshold = 15]</Comment> </Response_getSuggestions>

JSON (with additional parameter format=json)

{“comment”:”No suggestions found [isbn: 0552153575, threshold = 15]”}

3.    Request unsuccessful, invalid parameter value (error returned)

http://vm-salt.mimas.ac.uk/getSuggestions.api?isbn=0552153575%%

Returns HTTP Status 400 Bad Request.

XML (default format)

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<Response_getSuggestions>

<Error>Invalid isbn [0552153575%%]</Error>

</Response_getSuggestions>

JSON (with additional parameter format=json)

{“error”:”Invalid isbn [0552153575%%]”}