Support

Sometimes even the most stable web services and elegant code decide to act up. The Developer Network team is happy to lend a hand to help get your project back on track. You can reach us through our contact form, or shoot us an email at devnet[AT]oclc.org.

How to help us help you

A little bit of information can really help speed up our troubleshooting so that we can get you an answer more quickly. If you don't have these details at hand, or aren't quite sure what it is we're talking about, send us what you can and we'll walk you through the rest.

Describe your project or goal

Are you building a table or a lamp? Tell us as much as you can about what you're trying to do:  

• I want to create a new Purchase Order with the Acquisitions web service
• I want to search WorldCat Search API for books about Chinese cooking held by University of Wisconsin Madison
• I want to use the WorldCat Metadata API to set holdings on OCLC Number 319501305 for institution ID - 128807

Authentication or WSKey problems

It's best if you can send us your WSKey string. Be sure to keep your secret a secret - we really just need the key string. We can always look up your WSKey if you provide your:

• your institution affiliation
  
• associated service(s)

Request problems

Send us the HTTP request including all the headers and body information, e.g,:

GET /bib/data/319501305?holdingLibraryCode=MAIN&classificationScheme=LibraryOfCongress&
instSymbol=OCPSB&principalID=12345&principalIDNS=urn%3Aoclc%3Awms%3Ada HTTP/1.1
Host: worldcat.org
User-Agent: Platform PHP Test Client
Accept: application/atom+xml;content="application/vnd.oclc.marc21+xml" 
Authorization: http://www.worldcat.org/wskey/v2/hmac/v1 
clientId="LOAjXFWEtkA5JHrbpu2YElhMypGHXEP9Rjp2pTt4E2GwZ1Bx0RhA7YyQutyuSXX5AAjJv1aYH0FWirC6", 
timestamp="1370357606", 
nonce="3bdf237a", 
signature="dnWqDMjh3o6eriU1T4aNxOF4tzEQ6H58v5lG36ErC3c=", 
principalID="12345", 
principalIDNS="urn:oclc:wms:da"

We'd also like to see the HTTP response your received, including the HTTP status code,  message, and body of the response, e.g.,:

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Content-type: application/xml;charset=UTF-8
Content-length: 227
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:01:24 GMT

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<error xmlns="http://worldcat.org/xmlschemas/response">
    <code>403</code>
    <message>User forbidden</message>
    <detail>PrincipalID and/or PrincipalIDNS is invalid</detail>
</error>

Include these additional details where you can:

• The WSKey you are using
  
• User you performed the action as, preferrably in the form of the username
  
• Date and time the request was sent
• IP address the request was sent from
• User-Agent your client identifies itself as (tip: consider sending a User-Agent if you aren't already - it will make your requests easier to find and debug)
• RequestId - this is a header which the API will often return. Named x-amzn-RequestId  

Your code

This is optional, but it can really be helpful for us to see your code. Your best bets are posting it to GitHub as a GIST (https://gist.github.com/) or directing us to a code repository on GitHub. This will make it simple for us to do a quick review. While we aren’t experts in every language we do have experience working with several (PHP, Ruby, Java, Javascript) and seeing your code may help us debug the problem with you.

How to help yourself

We have reason to believe some of you are DIY-ers who might just want to check some things on your own. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Utilize handy resources

• Check our FAQ page regularly - we'll keep it well fed and growing
• Use the API Documentation or PostMan to do isolated tests of messages and responses
• It never hurts to double check the documentation
  • OCLC APIs
  • API Keys
• Query your peers via the Community Center
  

Check for common errors

Application Authentication Errors

These are the types of errors that occur when your WSKey fails to authenticate appropriately. There are several possible causes:

• Invalid WSKey
• Invalid Signature when authenticating using HMAC Pattern
• Invalid Token when authenticating using Access Tokens

Application Authorization Errors

These are the typs of errors that occur when the WSkey you are using authenticates appropriately but isn't authorized to do the action.

• WSKey is not permitted to use the service you are making requests to
• WSKey is not permitted to interact with the institution's data being requested

User Authentication and Authorization Errors

These are the types of errors that occur when a web service requires a valid user with the appropriate roles and permissions and either:

• the valid user identifier passed was not valid, or
• the user whose identifier you sent does not have the appropriate roles and permissions to perform the requested action.

Request Errors - General

Request Errors - Writing Data