With the abundance of electronic resources available today, many schools prefer to access their educational assets in one place. Federated Search Engines and other Discovery Tools allow libraries to do just that - easily browse through multiple content sources in their catalog at the same time.
The Infobase Search API provides a much needed "Communication Bridge" between our content and any Discovery Tool that our mutual customers may be using. api.infobase.com/ quickly indexes search results from our Streaming Video Platform in a universal XML format. These customizable XML search results can then be parsed with search results from other outside sources by an Infobase Discovery Tool partner.
In this Search API Integration Guide, you will find everything you need to know to get started as an Infobase Discovery Tool partner.
Search Query
In order to utilize the API, there are certain query parameters that must be added to the URL routing:
Api.infobase.com/msearch/accountID/vendorID/productID/searchterm/format
"msearch" represent media search with differs from our online database API.
Account ID
This is the customer's Infobase Account ID. If you are using the API to harvest meta-data, there are specific Discovery Tool Partner Account IDs separated by Market/Region that can be provided.
Vendor ID
This is the Discovery Tool Partner ID that will be provided once a connection has been established with Infobase.
Product ID
This is the Product ID for what Infobase products you would like to query. Here are the currently available product IDs:
- Classroom Video On Demand - ID 121
- CVOD: Career & Technical Education Video Collection - ID 124
- ^Canadian Versions available.
- Curriculum Video On Demand: Australia - ID 189
- Learn360 - ID 136
- Learn360 Canada - ID 143
- Learn360 International - ID 187
- Learn360 Feature Film Collection (Criterion On Demand) - ID 145
Search Term
This is the keyword(s) you are attempting to search by. In order to get all results, please leave this blank. It is possible to do multiple word searches as well.
For example, "Dogs+AND+Cats"/"Dogs+OR+Cats"
Format
This is the desired output format you would like the results to be returned in. The available formats are:
- XML
- XML-file (this will return a file stream)
- JSON
Search Results
After you have submitted a search query to the API, your results will then be returned with the available meta-data for your requested records. Here are the currently included meta-data fields for the Infobase API:
|
Field Name |
Description |
|
Database |
The Infobase Platform that contains the record |
|
AssetType |
Asset type of the record |
|
TitleID |
The Infobase specific ID for the record |
|
IsSegment |
Whether or not the record is a Full Title or Segment Clip |
|
SegmentNumber |
The Segment Sequence number if the record is not a full title |
|
Title |
Title name of the record |
|
Description |
Full text description of the record |
|
Source |
Source of Record |
|
Record URL |
Account specific access URL to the record (authentication required) |
|
runTime |
Length of video record |
|
copyrightYear |
The Copyright year of the record |
|
language |
The primary language of the video record |
|
collections |
Listing of any Infobase Streaming Video Collections this title belongs to |
|
subjects |
Listing of Subject Areas this record is categorized as |
|
imageURL |
a link to the thumbnail image of the video |
Please note: The Account ID in the Record URL will match the Account ID provided in the original Search Query. Using a customer's correct Account ID is the only way for any authentication settings and usage statistics recording to work properly.
Non-video asset types are now supported as well. Learn360 queries will include Images, Printables, Articles, Audio, and Interactives.
Sample Search
Here is an example Search Query for the term "frogs":
http://api.infobase.com/msearch/0/0/0/frogs/xml
The Account ID and Vendor ID have been set to 0 for this example.
Once completed, the XML end result would look like this for the first record returned: