Okay, so while I was happy with my account at Drundo, they did away with the account level I was on, but grandfather’d me in at my original level. All was hunky dory.

Last week, I get the message that they’ve ‘upgraded’ all the legacy accounts to the new equivalent. Higher price, without my permission, and while some parts were upgraded, others were downgraded.

So after consulting with the House Finance Manager (husband), I went looking for a new hosting company and plan.

I settled on webhost4life, and last night, began what I thought was going to be a tortuous session, and loss of email for days. Boy, was I surprised.

I grabbed the files from the old server, bought a new domain, then went and ordered the advanced package, with my new domain. Smooth enough. They up sold turbocharged – more disk space for a piddling amount which was fine – and soon I had a brand spanking new website. Time to migrate kaplooey. The only issue there was that I had to ask the helpdesk to fix the email on the kaplooey domain. within 30 minutes of the ticket, I had kaplooey email back up and running on the new server, transparent to outlook.

While migrating this blog, I upgraded to dasBlog 2.3. Smooth there as well, since this is not using a database.

So, I have a new web host, more space and features, for less than what I was originally paying before, even before my upgrade.

Part of the deal with webhost4life was 5 sql databases (It was a time limited offer, so good luck if you go after it. So I’ll be working more on my personal applications. Trying to fit it all into 1 was annoying.

Also, just to let you know, I’ve been on Twitter (as @kaplooeymom) more than here lately, cause it’s easier to do one-liners than blog entries.

<geek alert>

Hi, I’m Leah and I’m a bookaholic.

In my quest to tame my addiction, I’m working on a little app to keep track of what I have and what I want. Kind of like Library Thing without any of the social stuff. And not necessarily a browser based system.

So, I’ve got a WPF client that will go out and touch four (so far) different web services to get the xml about a particular book – based on isbn or isbn13.

Getting the Data

There are some other choices out there, but I concentrated on the main ones, as far as information is concerned. In alphabetical order: Amazon, ISBNdb, Library Thing, and Library of Congress. Here’s how to get the XML from each service.

(note – blog jet is not the best at formatting the xml, and this is my first time at a serious tech post, so pretend all is properly indented until I get it cleaned up)

Amazon

First, get a key. Then make your url like this:

http://webservices.amazon.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&SubscriptionId=YOURKEYHERE&Operation=ItemLookup&ResponseGroup=Medium&ItemId=0441172695

Then, here’s what your xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <ItemLookupResponse xmlns="http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2005-10-05">
- <OperationRequest>
- <HTTPHeaders>
  <Header Name="UserAgent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; 
InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)" /> 
  </HTTPHeaders>
  <RequestId>38eed815-71e3-420b-902f-ade8746fb3ca</RequestId> 
- <Arguments>
  <Argument Name="Operation" Value="ItemLookup" /> 
  <Argument Name="Service" Value="AWSECommerceService" /> 
  <Argument Name="ItemId" Value="0441172695" /> 
  <Argument Name="ResponseGroup" Value="Medium" /> 
  <Argument Name="SubscriptionId" Value="YOURKEYHERE" /> 
  </Arguments>
  <RequestProcessingTime>0.0165120000000000</RequestProcessingTime> 
  </OperationRequest>
- <Items>
- <Request>
  <IsValid>True</IsValid> 
- <ItemLookupRequest>
  <Condition>New</Condition> 
  <DeliveryMethod>Ship</DeliveryMethod> 
  <IdType>ASIN</IdType> 
  <MerchantId>Amazon</MerchantId> 
  <OfferPage>1</OfferPage> 
  <ItemId>0441172695</ItemId> 
  <ResponseGroup>Medium</ResponseGroup> 
  <ReviewPage>1</ReviewPage> 
  </ItemLookupRequest>
  </Request>
- <Item>
  <ASIN>0441172695</ASIN> 
  <DetailPageURL>http://www.amazon.com/Dune-Messiah-Chronicles-Book/dp/0441172695_
      %3FSubscriptionId%3YOURKEYHERE%26tag%3Dws%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26_
      creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0441172695</DetailPageURL> 
  <SalesRank>8349</SalesRank> 
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
- <ImageSets>
- <ImageSet Category="primary">
- <SwatchImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL30_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">30</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">18</Width> 
  </SwatchImage>
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
  </ImageSet>
  </ImageSets>
- <ItemAttributes>
  <Author>Frank Herbert</Author> 
  <Binding>Paperback</Binding> 
  <DeweyDecimalNumber>813.54</DeweyDecimalNumber> 
  <EAN>9780441172696</EAN> 
  <ISBN>0441172695</ISBN> 
  <Label>Ace</Label> 
- <Languages>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Original Language</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Unknown</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Published</Type> 
  </Language>
  </Languages>
- <ListPrice>
  <Amount>799</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$7.99</FormattedPrice> 
  </ListPrice>
  <Manufacturer>Ace</Manufacturer> 
  <NumberOfItems>1</NumberOfItems> 
  <NumberOfPages>336</NumberOfPages> 
- <PackageDimensions>
  <Height Units="hundredths-inches">120</Height> 
  <Length Units="hundredths-inches">670</Length> 
  <Weight Units="hundredths-pounds">35</Weight> 
  <Width Units="hundredths-inches">410</Width> 
  </PackageDimensions>
  <ProductGroup>Book</ProductGroup> 
  <PublicationDate>1987-07-15</PublicationDate> 
  <Publisher>Ace</Publisher> 
  <Studio>Ace</Studio> 
  <Title>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</Title> 
  </ItemAttributes>
- <OfferSummary>
- <LowestNewPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestNewPrice>
- <LowestUsedPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestUsedPrice>
- <LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <Amount>1000</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$10.00</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <TotalNew>42</TotalNew> 
  <TotalUsed>441</TotalUsed> 
  <TotalCollectible>10</TotalCollectible> 
  <TotalRefurbished>0</TotalRefurbished> 
  </OfferSummary>
- <EditorialReviews>
- <EditorialReview>
  <Source>Product Description</Source> 
  <Content>Paul Atreides, genetically bred and trained to become the leader of his planet, is still subject_
 to human frailties. The second book of the series.</Content> 
  </EditorialReview>
  </EditorialReviews>
  </Item>
  </Items>
  </ItemLookupResponse>

ISBNdb

Get a key. Then make your url like this (for isbn):

http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=YOURKEYHERE&index1=isbn&results=details&value1=9780441172695

Here’s what they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <ISBNdb server_time="2009-03-16T19:38:39Z">
- <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
<BookData book_id="dune_messiah" isbn="0441172695" isbn13="9780441172696">
  <Title>Dune Messiah</Title> 
  <TitleLong>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</TitleLong> 
  <AuthorsText>Frank Herbert</AuthorsText> 
  <PublisherText publisher_id="ace_charter">ACE Charter</PublisherText> 
  <Details change_time="2004-12-24T01:24:17Z" price_time="2009-03-16T16:59:06Z" _
            edition_info="Mass Market Paperback; 1994-11-01" language="" _
            physical_description_text="4.2"x6.9"x0.9"; 329 pages; 0.3 lb" lcc_number="" 
            dewey_decimal_normalized="" dewey_decimal="" /> 
    </BookData>
</BookList>
 </ISBNdb>

Library Thing

Another key needed. Make your URL like this:

http://www.librarything.com/services/rest/1.0/?method="librarything.ck.getwork&isbn=0441172695&apikey=YOURKEYHERE

Library Thing’s response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <response stat="ok">
- <ltml xmlns="http://www.librarything.com/" version="1.0">
- <item id="8183" type="work">
  <author id="54" authorcode="herbertfrank">Frank Herbert</author> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/work/8183</url> 
- <commonknowledge>
- <fieldList>
- <field type="13" name="disambiguation" displayName="Disambiguation notice">
- <versionList>
- <version id="848067" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230621463">Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:17:43 -0500</date> 
- <person id="501960">
  <name>alexdaw</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/alexdaw</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ A shorter version of this book appeared in Galaxy Magazine for July-September, 1969 ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="26" name="lastwords" displayName="Last words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827623" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087264">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:54:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ She led him back across the qanat into the darkness at the base of the massif and its Place of Safety. ]]></fact> 
  <fact><![CDATA[ Epilogue . . . He strides through the long cavern of time, Scattering the fool-self of his dream -The Ghola's Hymn ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="25" name="firstwords" displayName="First words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827605" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087106">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:51:46 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ Excerpts from the death cell interview with Bronso of IX- Q: What led you to take _
          your particular approach to a history of Muad'dib? A: Why should I answer your questions? ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="2" name="placesmentioned" displayName="Important places">
- <versionList>
- <version id="672922" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1224171231">Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:33:51 -0400</date> 
- <person id="61056">
  <name>amweb</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/amweb</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Arrakis (Dune)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="23" name="series" displayName="Series">
- <versionList>
- <version id="581299" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1220475254">Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:54:14 -0400</date> 
- <person id="47275">
  <name>PhoenixTerran</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/PhoenixTerran</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune (2)</fact> 
  <fact>Dune: complete chronology (9)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="3" name="characternames" displayName="People/Characters">
- <versionList>
- <version id="289511" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205984261">Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:37:41 -0400</date> 
- <person id="138345">
  <name>jmjackson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/jmjackson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Paul Atreides</fact> 
  <fact>Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife)</fact> 
  <fact>Chani</fact> 
  <fact>Princess Irulan</fact> 
  <fact>Duncan Idaho</fact> 
  <fact>Stilgar</fact> 
  <fact>Gaius Helen Mohiam</fact> 
  <fact>Edric</fact> 
  <fact>Scytale</fact> 
  <fact>Hayt</fact> 
  <fact>Bijaz</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="21" name="canonicaltitle" displayName="Canonical title">
- <versionList>
- <version id="278019" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205206730">Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:38:50 -0400</date> 
- <person id="118708">
  <name>ATimson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/ATimson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune Messiah</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="16" name="originalpublicationdate" displayName="Original publication date">
- <versionList>
- <version id="96006" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1194630684">Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:51:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="303911">
  <name>michaelhehir</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/michaelhehir</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>1969</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
  </fieldList>
  </commonknowledge>
  </item>
  <legal>By using this data you agree to the LibraryThing API terms of service.</legal> 
  </ltml>
  </response>

Library Of Congress

No key needed (yay!). Your URL like so:

http://z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=9780441015610&maximumRecords=100&recordSchema=dc

And they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <zs:searchRetrieveResponse xmlns:zs="http://www.loc.gov/zing/srw/">
  <zs:version>1.1</zs:version> 
  <zs:numberOfRecords>1</zs:numberOfRecords> 
- <zs:records>
- <zs:record>
  <zs:recordSchema>info:srw/schema/1/dc-v1.1</zs:recordSchema> 
  <zs:recordPacking>xml</zs:recordPacking> 
- <zs:recordData>
- <srw_dc:dc xmlns:srw_dc="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" 
       xsi:schemaLocation="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/resources/dc-schema.xsd">
  <title>Dune messiah /</title> 
  <creator>Herbert, Frank.</creator> 
  <type>text</type> 
  <type>Science fiction. gsafd</type> 
  <publisher>New York : Ace Books,</publisher> 
  <date>2008.</date> 
  <language>eng</language> 
  <subject>Dune (Imaginary place)--Fiction.</subject> 
  <identifier>URN:ISBN:9780441015610</identifier> 
  </srw_dc:dc>
  </zs:recordData>
  <zs:recordPosition>1</zs:recordPosition> 
  </zs:record>
  </zs:records>
  </zs:searchRetrieveResponse>

Conclusion

Library Thing’s api is useless to me in this format. LOC is good, but a little terse. For my purposes, I’ll probably search ISBN db first, then if I can’t find it, look at amazon. Amazon’s info is designed, and licensed, for marketing purposes, so you’re supposed to be linking back to the website for purchases. If this becomes a public app, I may reverse the lookup order.

Feel free to let me know if there are other reliable, and sizeable, databases with web service access out there.

Next up, sometime – building an app in WPF, and LINQ to XML.

</geekalert>

Recorded Here until I get a chance to move them to the sidebar:

Blogs

• Elizabeth Moon
• Because I Said So

Links

• Giveaway of the Day
• Wikipedia

Recommended To Do Site: ToodleDo. Easy Peasy(tm) set up, integration. No Hierarchies, but who cares? Inline editing is GREAT. They have an API which the geek me will check out soon. I like this much better than any of the other online list management apps.