A "next generation" library catalog will need to operate within our
increasingly Web 2.0 environment, and the following URL points to a
document from NISO outlining best practices for such an environment:
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/rp-2006-01.pdf
Snippets from the document:
* Web services is a technology that allows applications to
communicate with each other in a platform- and programming
language-independent manner. A Web service is a software
interface that describes a collection of operations that can be
accessed over the network through standardized XML messaging.
It uses protocols based on the XML language to describe an
operation to execute or data to exchange with another Web
service.
* Web services are seen as an alternative to fully developed
application programming interfaces (API) for circumstances in
which the additional overhead is not warranted.
* Best practices:
o Prefer HTTP GET for Requests That Do Not
Modify the State of the Service
o Responses Should Include an ETag HTTP Header
o Responses Should Include a Last-Modified HTTP
Header
o Prefer Conditional GET Headers over the
Expires HTTP Header
o Avoid User Specific Information in URLs
* When designing a web service careful thought must be given to the
format of the service requests and responses. These formats must
be machine processable but still expressive enough to convey all
the information necessary for the service to function correctly.
Typically XML is used to structure output formats, although there
are many other options depending on the specific situation. Often
the needs of a particular service can be met by reusing an
existing well known format. It is recommended that web service
designers look for and use an existing format rather than invent
a new one specifically for their service.
--
Eric Lease Morgan
University Libraries of Notre Dame
Received on Tue Oct 03 2006 - 09:19:48 EDT