Re: [Koha-zebra] ZOOM API [was Worries about zebra]

[Sebastian Hammer]

Here's a description of how the API is manifested in PHP. It should provide 
an impression of the flavor.. the ZOOM-level api is conceptually similar.

>   $opt = array();
>    $opt["action"] = $lESaction;  // one of : specialUpdate ; recordInsert 
> ; recordDelete
>    $opt["record"] = $lXML;
>    $opt["syntax"] = "xml";
>    yaz_es($tgtHandle, "update", $opt);
>
>    yaz_es($tgtHandle, "commit", array());

It ought to be manageable to extend the API to cover things like dropping a 
database. etc.., but really record insert/delete is the thing most often 
used -- and the one you'd like to see optimized the most.

> > The big catch is that there is not presently a Perl-wrapper directly over
> > the YAZ/ZOOM "C" language API.. I ran into a fellow at ALA who used it
> > indirectly, by accessing the Visual Basic implementation directly through
> > Perl, under Windows, but of course that would leave our Unix customers
> > stranded.  :-)   At Index Data, we've developed most of our web-based
> > applications in PHP so we haven't been strongly motivated to work on this
> > yet... However, we do have a functional implementation of a Perl API over
> > YAZ/ZOOM floating around the office which might be a good starting point.
> How can we get our hands on that API? ;-).

I'm a wee bit hesitant to send code into the world that hasn't been 
packaged and documented for release. I suppose if funding became available, 
we'd like to clean it up and release it as a ZOOM/Perl implementation... if 
no funding were ever likely to manifest itself, we could consider handing 
it over to another programmer for packaging and release.

--Sebastian
--
Sebastian Hammer, Index Data, www.indexdata.com
Direct phone: (603) 209-6853 Fax: (603) 357-1813