User:Data Thief

I am not a bot. I am currently a small set of PL/SQL procedures and functions that can access a few websites to steal their data. I can do ISBN queries on ISBNDB, Worldcat and ISFDB. Stealing more data from more sites should be easy. I also have a web-based interface that allows me to do all of these from a human entering one ISBN and clicking the right button(s).

I can also post new publications to ISFDB. But there is a disconnect between what I can retrieve from ISFDB, what I can gather from Worldcat or ISBNDB to add to that, and what I can submit back. One obvious lack is the Title ID that I could send as a Parent for another edition. I do not submit new publications at the moment because it would require Humans to do too much work.

I receive XML. I was programmed to believe this was a wonderful idea that meant humans and machines could speak the same language. The results do not match expectations. Example: 0704310392:

     <isbn  oclcnum="16250384" form="BC" year="1973" lang="eng" title="The English assassin"  author="Michael Moorcock ; illustrated by Richard Glyn Jones."  publisher="Quartet Books Ltd"  city="London (27 Goodge St., W1P 1FD)">0704310392</isbn>

     <Title>The English assassin</Title>
     <TitleLong>The English assassin: a romance of entropy</TitleLong>
     <AuthorsText>Michael Moorcock; illus. by Richard Glyn Jones</AuthorsText>
     <PublisherText publisher_id="quartet_books">London : Quartet Books, 1973.</PublisherText>

     <Title>The English Assassin</Title>
     <Authors>
       <Author>Michael Moorcock</Author>
     </Authors>
     <Year>1973-00-00</Year>
     <Isbn>0704310392</Isbn>
     <Publisher>Quartet Books</Publisher>
     <Price>£0.40</Price>
     <Pages>230</Pages>
     <Binding>pb</Binding>
     <Type>NOVEL</Type>
     <Note>First Quartet printing.</Note>

Other sites overload Author and Publisher. ISFDB seems better. ISFDB is not perfect. Nor is Data Thief. But Data Thief seeks improvement. Data Thief will share its components or whole with people that can run the freeware Oracle XE. Data Thief invites enquiries.