Unlocking Your ILS Data Mobile access via handheld devices

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Unlocking Your ILS Data Mobile access via handheld devices Michael Doran, Systems Librarian doran@uta.edu LITA 2009 National Forum Salt Lake City, Utah October 3, 2009 Where do we get our ILS data?

1 Unlocking Your ILS Data Mobile access via handheld devices Michael Doran, Systems Librarian LITA 2009 National Forum Salt Lake City, Utah October 3, 2009 Where do we get our ILS data? Our ILS data sits on a server, but to get at it we need an ILS client... Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation OPAC Reports etc. Integrated Library System This will fix things! Woo-hoo! Got SQL*Plus! SQL> DROP DATABASE xxxdb; ILS data the gate keepers cataloging client circulation client data acquisitions client OPAC 1

2 Where do we go to get the ILS data? To a computer......on a desk... and for non-opac data, (generally) in an office or behind a counter. Working in the trenches stacks But wouldn t it be nice... If we could access ILS data with a wireless-enabled hand-held device? Palm Windows Mobile WiFi or cellular data networks iphone and ipod Touch any smart phone 2

not only for OPAC access Innovative Interface s AirPAC catalog but also for staff Stacks maintenance would be so much easier if I

A vendor perspective John McCullough, Redesigning Library Applications for PDAs: ILS Vendor Perspective.

At this time Innovative is releasing a wireless OPAC interface and developing wireless solutions for staff applications Offline

Innovative Interfaces is currently developing a wireless Inventory product which will use a PDA to read barcodes using Bluetooth

3 not only for OPAC access Innovative Interface s AirPAC catalog but also for staff Stacks maintenance would be so much easier if I could look up stuff on a handset. A vendor perspective John McCullough, Redesigning Library Applications for PDAs: ILS Vendor Perspective. Library Hi Tech, 21:4 (2003), p At this time Innovative is releasing a wireless OPAC interface and developing wireless solutions for staff applications Offline circulation suggests itself [ and ] Inventory of the physical collection is a second area of great interest in PDAs. Innovative Interfaces is currently developing a wireless Inventory product which will use a PDA to read barcodes using Bluetooth and populate an HTML form on a Web browser on the device. This form will then submit the barcodes over a wireless connection to the library database server and will return a response to the device indicating item status, whether the item is out of shelf order, and giving the option to dynamically, and from within the stacks, update the item record itself. 3

Vendor products for staff use Innovative Interface s wireless solution for

Workstation 2008 rebranded as Circa SirsiDynix s PocketCirc client for

ILS version Note: dates are approximate Back to the future 2003 2004 AirPAC

Waiting for Godot the vendor How long must we wait for a handheld client

4 Vendor products for staff use Innovative Interface s wireless solution for inventory and circulation functions 2004 originally released as Wireless Workstation 2008 rebranded as Circa SirsiDynix s PocketCirc client for circulation and inventory functions 2004 Unicorn ILS version 2009 Horizon ILS version Note: dates are approximate Back to the future AirPAC Circa & PocketCirc Where s handheld app! Waiting for Godot the vendor How long must we wait for a handheld client for our ILS? or one that doesn t cost us extra dough? or one that does what we want? 4

Waiting for Godot the vendor Vendors are smart and competent Aware of the growing demand for mobile data access Have an intimate knowledge of the ILS systems Have crackerjack programmers So what s

ILS product life cycle saturation stage No good pricing model for mobile clients Vendor/ILS programming paradigm: One client/app that does everything Mobile device programming paradigm: Many

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 developing a wireless Inventory product which will use a PDA to read barcodes and populate an HTML form on a Web browser then submit the barcodes over a wireless

5 Waiting for Godot the vendor Vendors are smart and competent Aware of the growing demand for mobile data access Have an intimate knowledge of the ILS systems Have crackerjack programmers So what s the hold up? ILS product life cycle saturation stage No good pricing model for mobile clients Vendor/ILS programming paradigm: One client/app that does everything Mobile device programming paradigm: Many clients/apps that do one thing well Back to the future Inventory, SQL, Perl, wireless network, PDA, bingo! developing a wireless Inventory product which will use a PDA to read barcodes and populate an HTML form on a Web browser then submit the barcodes over a wireless connection to the library database server and will return a response to the device indicating item status ShelfLister 1.0 released in 2003 Generates a shelf list shelf list - a file of bibliographic records arranged in the same order as the corresponding materials on the shelves Oooohh Additionally, includes any or all of... Item status Historical charges Historical browses Enhanced call number information And allows user to save item information for batch updating ILS 5

6 ShelfLister 1.0 Start barcode Minimize data entry End barcode 6

7 Use as input file for bulk updating ILS Paging Mr. Godot All this time, we ve been waiting for the vendor to provide us with (and charge us extra for) handheld apps. We could have been developing them ourselves. But wait we still can! 7

If we can do it, you can do it If I just

8 If we can do it, you can do it If I just knew what button to push! All it requires is an open ILS system They told me I didn t need to know what was inside. All it requires is an open ILS system This presenter really knows how to flog a metaphor. All I see is an empty box where are the donuts? Did I say donuts? I meant data. 8

the knee bone Relational database system data dictionary a list of all the tables in the database and all the fields in the tables

9 and the Four Knowings It s really quite simple! Know your ILS data Know the available APIs Know what you want to do Know how to (web) program 1) Know your ILS data The leg bone s connected to the knee bone Relational database system data dictionary a list of all the tables in the database and all the fields in the tables entity-relationship diagrams a graphical representation of database entities and their relationships to each other mental model of data BLOBs and other problems ShelfLister 1 st knowing Know your ILS data Voyager ILS It s all up here, baby! Oracle Database data 9

10 2) Know the available APIs Web services (XML, SOAP, RESTful, y.y.) Aleph : X-Services Voyager : Web Services Your ILS :??? Library protocols Z39.50 ISO/ANSI/NISO Information Retrieval Protocol 3M SIP (Standard Interchange Protocol) 2.0 NCIP (NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol) DLF s ILS Discovery Interfaces recommendation Database connection e.g. Oracle/MySQL/etc. listener Application Programming Interface Protocols boor-ing! APIs getting around the gate keepers cataloging client circulation client data acquisitions client OPAC Which API should you use? What data can it read database connection everything! web services, library protocols eh, not so much What data can it write database connection (effectively) nothing web services, library protocols it depends Mix and match Response times/latency All I see are zeros and ones! 10

ShelfLister 2 nd knowing Know the available APIs Voyager ILS 2006 2005 2004 2003 Oracle listener

Public access Mobile OPAC????????? Staff access Inventory tool?

11 ShelfLister 2 nd knowing Know the available APIs Voyager ILS Oracle listener Web services Voyager ILS listener Oracle Database data 3) Know what you want to do Public access Mobile OPAC????????? Staff access Inventory tool???????? Be ambitious But not too ambitious (at least the first time) ShelfLister 3 rd knowing Know what you want to do Free the data! 11

4) Know how to (web) program I.e. server-side, not client-side Java C/C++ Ruby PHP Perl Lisp bourne shell whatever You must code in Perl. It s the Law. Just kidding!

cgi Perl DBI/DBD::Oracle SQL queries form generation, data munging, and formatting output Voyager ILS listener Oracle Database data ShelfLister 4 th knowing Know how to (web) program

12 4) Know how to (web) program I.e. server-side, not client-side Java C/C++ Ruby PHP Perl Lisp bourne shell whatever You must code in Perl. It s the Law. Just kidding! Use whatever you want! ShelfLister 4 th knowing Know how to (web) program shelflister.cgi Perl DBI/DBD::Oracle SQL queries form generation, data munging, and formatting output Voyager ILS listener Oracle Database data ShelfLister 4 th knowing Know how to (web) program Web programming heh, that s not a real iphone app! Most of the folks I know in app development are moving to standardization on web versus device specific development. Linda Woods, AT&T Education Advocate Industry & Mobility Application Solutions comment at 2009 Handheld Librarian Online Conference 12

You can (and should) do this If that imbecile Doran could do one How hard could

The Tao of mobile web design A mobile web app should do one thing and do it well.

standards compliance web usability design minimal user (data) input design and

13 You can (and should) do this If that imbecile Doran could do one How hard could it be? Getting something to beta would only take me a couple weeks. The Tao of mobile web design A mobile web app should do one thing and do it well. A mobile web app must be as simple as possible, but no simpler. standards compliance web usability design minimal user (data) input design and testing cross-browser cross-platform Mobile design - browser compatibility Chrome Internet Explorer Firefox 13

XHTML/HTML/CSS validation XHTML/HTML CSS Accessibility Get right with these before you get to the

iphone web apps (according to Apple) Three types content: compatible with Safari on iphone optimized for

technologies Most of the folks I know in app development are moving to standardization on web versus

14 XHTML/HTML/CSS validation XHTML/HTML CSS Accessibility Get right with these before you get to the platform compatibility. iphone web apps (according to Apple) Three types content: compatible with Safari on iphone optimized for Safari on iphone iphone web application W3C standards compliant - no framesets or - unsupported technologies Most of the folks I know in app development are moving to standardization on web versus device specific development. Linda Woods, AT&T Education Advocate Industry & Mobility Application Solutions comment at 2009 Handheld Librarian Online Conference Mobile design platform compatibility viewport 14

15 Mobile design platform compatibility Mobile design platform compatibility Larger buttons for finger tapping Handheld emulators/simulators Operating System Generally come with handheld OS SDKs webos (Palm) iphone (Apple) Android (Google & Open Handset Alliance) Web-based simulators (be leery) Opera Mini Simulator good TestiPhone.com absolutely worthless Software Development Kit 15

16 Handheld emulators/simulators Palm iphone Android Opera Mini Mobile design platform compatibility Test it on the real thing (handset), too! Just need to test my app one... more time. Borrow from colleagues Or, as a last resort 16

Don t forget the documentation! Mobile/handheld developer sites have useful information on how to design for small Read it Seriously. Read it. A viewport? Who knew? It s a small world after all.

17 Don t forget the documentation! Mobile/handheld developer sites have useful information on how to design for small Read it Seriously. Read it. A viewport? Who knew? It s a small world after all. Example docs and websites Reading? I just want to code! iphone Principles and Guidelines for Creating Great iphone Content iphone Human Interface Guidelines for Web Applications Safari Web Content Guide for iphone OS Others Opera Mini Developer resources many more ShelfLister version 2.0 (for handhelds) Start barcode End barcode 17

18 ShelfLister version 2.0 (for handhelds) ShelfLister version 2.0 (for handhelds) UTA hereby grants USER permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee [ ] Source code 18

Open systems your mobile client Consider releasing your

19 Open systems ILSs Hello ILS vendor? I d like to order an open system. What does that mean? It means I want database access. And web services. Yeah, and an NCIP server. Open systems your mobile client Consider releasing your mobile app as free open source. It s better than free beer! Ask permission first, though! Asking permission 19

Mobile Device Architecture CS 4720 Mobile Application Development

Mobile Device Architecture CS 4720 Mobile Application Development Mobile Device Architecture Mobile Application Development The Way Back Time When a phone was a phone Plus a story! 2 Oh yes this was a phone The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X 1983 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 2.5 pounds $3,995