Re: [Koha-devel] Access to Koha API

[Joshua Ferraro]

On Fri, Nov 24, 2006 at 12:27:43PM +1300, Alex King wrote:
> Following on from my last email, I wonder if any thought has been given 
> to exposing the Koha API to other external programs?  It seems to me 
> that there is a separation between the web-UI and library functions (in 
> modules/C4) already, and of course there are command line scripts which 
> use the library functions.  (Library could be ambiguous in this context, 
> I mean in the programming sense).
> 
> Has any thought been given to exporting these functions via XML-RPC or 
> some other RPC or web services type of interface?  This would allow me 
> to write my scripts in python, as well as other tools and possibly UIs 
> to be written separately from the main Koha code.  Thoughts?
This is a great idea, and I'm 100% behind it. One problem we're facing
is that the API itself needs to be defined ;-). There's been some effort
to do that in rel_3_0, but not nearly enough time has been devoted to
the problem. As a project, it's a question we have discussed in the past
-- the developers are mainly working for companies who's source of
income comes from libraries who need new features or help with
implementation -- but no library wants to sponsor 'clean up' or 'project
maintenance' and none of the developers have the resources (we're all
small companies with shallow pockets). :-)

So ... in short, yes, we'd love to pursue this idea, but who's going to
do the work ;-)

Cheers,

-- 
Joshua Ferraro                       SUPPORT FOR OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE
President, Technology       migration, training, maintenance, support
LibLime                                Featuring Koha Open-Source ILS
address@hidden |Full Demos at http://liblime.com/koha |1(888)KohaILS