Response Details

Valid conditions and metadata fields

If the request is valid, xISSN service returns a list of matched ISSNs and requested metadata fields, with a "stat=ok" indication. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rsp xmlns="http://worldcat.org/xid/issn/" stat="ok">
<group rel="this" >
<issn form="JD">1095-9203</issn>
<issn form="JB" >0036-8075</issn>
</group>
<group rel="preceding" marccode="780" subrel="5">
<issn form="JB">0096-3771</issn>
</group>
</rsp>

Metadata fields for an ISSN

A number of metadata fields can be associated with an ISSN number:

• form: Each ISSN has a production form, indicated by an ONIX production form code. Current supported values include: JB ( Printed serial ), JC ( Serial distributed electronically by carrier ) ,JD ( Electronic serial distributed online ), MA ( Microform )
• oclcnum: Oclcnum
• peerreview: Peerreview, 'Y' if the ISSN is peer-reviewed, 'N' if the ISSN is not peer-reviewed.
• publisher: Publisher
• rawcoverage: Human-readable Coverage
• title: Title
• issnl: Linking ISSN, as defined here
• rssurl: Journal feed URL, data obtained from ticTOCS

Metadata fields for a group

A number of metadata fields can be associated with a group:

• rel: relationship between the group and requested ISSN. Current supported values include:
  • this: the group which contains requested ISSN.
  • preceding: containing the immediate predecessor of the requested ISSN - see the MARC 780 field specification
  • succeeding: containing the immediate successor of the requested ISSN - see MARC 785 field specification
• marccode: MARC code of the historical relationship. This field can have the values "780" (preceding) or "785" (suceeding).
• subrel: Type of relationship: corresponds to the "Type of relationship" indicator in the MARC 780 and 785 field specifications.

Invalid and exception conditions

If the request is invalid or the usage limit has been reached, the response will return header only, with appropriate status code. For example, a request to

http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/123456789?ai=[affiliate id]

returns following response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rsp xmlns="http://worldcat.org/xid/issn/" stat="invalidId"/>

Status codes

Possible status codes include:

• ok: correct request and response
• unknownId: the requested identifier is a valid ISSN, but cannot be found in the xISSN service
• invalidId: the requested identifier is not a valid ISSN
• unknownMethod: the requested method is not supported
• unknownFormat: the requested format is not supported
• overlimit: the usage limit has been reached
• invalidAffiliateId: invalid affiliate id
• invalidToken: invalid access token (subscription only)
•  invalidHash: invalid hash (subscription only)

XML schema for response XML

The XML schema in xissn.xsd validates the xISSN response XML format.

CSV, TEXT, JSON, Python, Ruby, PHP, and XHTML response

Several other serialization formats are supported, Below is an example of each:

• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=html&ai=[affiliate id]
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=json&ai=[affiliate id]
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=python&ai=[affiliate id]
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=ruby&ai=[affiliate id]
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=php&ai=[affiliate id]
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=csv&ai=[affiliate id] (comma-delimited file)
• http://xissn.worldcat.org/webservices/xid/issn/0036-8075?method=getEditions&format=txt&ai=[affiliate id] (tab-delimited file)