ISBNDB API

[jfletch]

Gathering book data with an ISBN lookup. Looking for the XSL that works with ISBNDB book lookups. Fenton? TIA!

[Fenton]

Good, I see you followed up from the post on FMExperts list. It's just easier to deal with here, as we can post files. I don't know if you've ever done a Import XML before. Basically you submit an http request which returns an xml result, or specify an xml file. You'd be doing the former.

(Though I usually get the result as a file first, so I can see how to create the xsl file to transform it. It's pretty difficult to write the xsl file without seeing the xml itself; which FileMaker can't show you.)

You also specify an xsl stylesheet to transform the xml into what FileMaker wants, so that it can import into records and fields. The xsl file can either be an http path, or it can be a local file.

The URL for a simple book request looks like this:

http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=Your_developer_access_key&index1=isbn&value1=0596002068

The access key is free, but you have to register and get it from them.

Here's the xsl file.

isbn_book_short.xsl.zip

[Fenton]

P.S. If you want to see what the xml file looks like, run the following AppleScript in Script Editor, or in a FileMaker Perform AppleScript step:

do shell script "curl 'http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=YourAccessKey&index1=isbn&value1=0596002068' > ~/Desktop/isbn_result.xml"