Retrieving and Maintaining Records with Patron Web Services

The Innovative Patron Web Services enable custom (non-Innovative) applications, such as a website or Web application, to assist in maintenance of Sierra's patron database using standard Web Services protocols. With these products, a user in the bursar's or registrar's office, for example, can use a custom application to send an inquiry via Web Services to the Sierra system, which "listens" for such inquiries. The inquiry requests patron record information, searching by ID, barcode, or any unique key. The Sierra system sends back patron data, if found.

The Patron Web Services offer no interface for humans, requiring a service requester application for access. The Web Services provide an API that enables access to Innovative data and functionality. They follow the standard Web services model, that is, users of the service request data through XML over HTTP or SOAP and the service returns data as an XML-formatted stream of text. The Web Services run under Tomcat.

Contact Innovative to acquire the Patron Web Services or access to technical specifications for developers.

The Patron Web Services include three products:

• Patron Update Web Service
• Fines Payment Web Service
• My Account Web Service

Patron Update Web Service

The Patron Update Web Service offers access to patron data. Applications can use that data to send an update to an existing patron record, to add a new record, or to request a record's deletion.

Patron data includes the patron ID and an array of patron fields data specified by the client library that can include information such as address, telephone number, email address, and so forth.

Fines Payment Web Service

The Fines Payment Web Service enables custom (non-Innovative) applications to send fine payment information to Sierra. Payments made using this service are written to the Fines Display.

Fines Payment data includes:

• Amount paid
• Billing fee
• Campus code
• Charge location
• Charge type
• Collector's login
• How fine was created
• Date of fine or charge assessment
• Date of payment
• Description of charge
• Invoice number
• Item charge
• Item checkout date
• Item due date
• Item loan rule
• Item record number
• Item returned date
• Item title
• Patron ID of patron against whom fine originally assessed
• Patron ID of currently fined patron
• Whether patron's bill will print
• Processing fee
• Statistics group associated with the user who entered the fine payment
• Date of fine transfer, if fine was transferred from original to current patron

My Account Web Service

The My Account Web Service offers access to patron data on current checkouts, holds, fines, bookings, and programs.

Patron data includes the patron's name, barcode, birthdate, and expiration date. You can request that additional data from fields in the patron record display in the My Account Web Service (address, telephone number, email address, etc.).

Checkout data includes:

• The type of request: standard, ILL, or INN-Reach
• Title
• Title Proper
• Patron barcode(s)
• Item due date
• Number of renewals since checkout
• Call number
• Copy number
• Status of the checked-out item
• Status description
• Volume data, if applicable
• Link to the item record in the WebPAC

Holds data includes:

• Title
• Title Proper
• Date and time the hold was placed
• Date before which the system should not place the hold
• Date after which the system should not place the hold
• Hold's status
• Pickup location code
• Pickup location name
• Volume data, if applicable
• Link to the item or bibliographic record in the WebPAC
• The type of request: standard, ILL, or INN-Reach

Fine data includes:

• Amount paid
• Billing fee
• Campus code
• Charge location
• Charge type
• Collector's login
• How fine was created
• Date of fine or charge assessment
• Date of payment
• Description of charge
• Invoice number
• Item charge
• Item checkout date
• Item due date
• Item loan rule
• Item record number
• Item returned date
• Item title
• Patron ID of patron against whom fine originally assessed
• Patron ID of currently fined patron
• Whether patron's bill will print
• Processing fee
• Statistics group associated with the user who entered the fine payment
• Date of fine transfer, if fine was transferred from original to current patron
• Link to the item or bibliographic record in the WebPAC

Booking data includes:

• Title
• Title Proper
• Date the booking was made
• Date and time the booking begins
• Date and time the booking ends
• Type of booking
• Item location code
• Item location name
• Delivery method
• Pickup location
• Booking note
• Event name
• Link to the item or bibliographic record in the WebPAC

Program data includes:

• Program name
• Session summary of dates and times
• Session start date and time and duration of each session
• Session location
• Section status
• Link to the program record in the WebPAC