assignFAST - Using the API | OCLC Developer Network

Summary

This Web Service uses autocomplete style searching of FAST Authorized and See Also Headings, returning the Authorized Heading and associated information needed to enter it into a cataloging interface.

Please note: The API expects all requests to be UTF-8 encoded. Responses are also UTF-8 encoded.

Access methods

REST is the simplest format to use and the only request format currently supported. REST requests consist of URLs that can be invoked either via HTTP POST or GET methods, either programatically or via a WEB browser. For example:

http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/fastsuggest?&query=[query]&queryIndex=[queryIndex]&queryReturn=[queryReturn]&suggest=autosuggest&rows=[numRows]&callback=[callbackFunction]

where:

parameter

description

query

The query to search

queryIndex

The index corresponding to the FAST facet. These include

name	description
suggestall	All facets
suggest00	Personal names
suggest10	Corporate names
sugget11	Event
suggest30	Uniform title
suggest50	Topical
suggest51	Geographic names
suggest55	Form/Genre

queryReturn

Information requested list, comma separated. These include:

names	description
idroot	FAST Number
auth	Authorized Heading, formatted for display with -- as subfield separator
type	alt or auth - indicates whether the match on the queryIndex was to an Authorized or See Also heading
tag	MARC Authority tag number for the heading - 100= Personal name, 150 = Topical, etc.
raw	Authorized Heading, with subfield indicators. Blank if this is identical to auth (i.e. no subfields)
breaker	Authorized Heading in marcbreaker format. Blank if this is identical to raw (i.e. no diacritics)
indicator	Indicator 1 from the Authorized Heading

numRows

headings to return maximum restricted to 20

callback

the callback function name for jsonp

Example Response:

http://fast.oclc.org/searchfast/fastsuggest?&query=hog&queryIndex=suggestall&queryReturn=suggestall%2Cidroot%2Cauth%2Ctag%2Ctype%2Craw%2Cbreaker%2Cindicator&suggest=autoSubject&rows=3&callback=testcall

yields the following response:

testcall({
 "responseHeader":{
  "status":0,
  "QTime":1,
  "params":{
	"json.wrf":"testcall",
	"fl":"suggestall,idroot,auth,tag,type,raw,breaker,indicator",
	"q":"suggestall:hog",
	"rows":"3"}},
 "response":{"numFound":986,"start":0,"docs":[
	{
	 "idroot":"fst01140419",
	 "tag":150,
	 "indicator":" ",
	 "type":"alt",
	 "suggestall":"Hogs",
	 "auth":"Swine",
	 "raw":"",
	 "breaker":""},
	{
	 "idroot":"fst01140470",
	 "tag":150,
	 "indicator":" ",
	 "type":"alt",
	 "suggestall":"Hog houses",
	 "auth":"Swine--Housing",
	 "raw":"Swine$xHousing",
	 "breaker":""},
	{
	 "idroot":"fst00061534",
	 "tag":100,
	 "indicator":"1",
	 "type":"auth",
	 "suggestall":"Hogarth, William, 1697-1764",
	 "auth":"Hogarth, William, 1697-1764",
	 "raw":"Hogarth, William,$d1697-1764",
	 "breaker":""}]
 }})

The first response heading is the Use For heading Hogs which has the Authorized heading Swine. The second is the Use For heading for Hog houses, which has the Authorized heading Swine--Housing. This Authorized heading is also given in its raw form including the $x subfield separator, which is unnecessary for the first heading. The third response matches the Authorized heading for Hogarth, William, 1697-1764, which is also given in its raw form.

More Information

A sample "how to "search and jQuery javascript processing code are provided here for use with this API.

Using the API

API Documentation