Data Submission Formats

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Introduction

The data submitted to the ISFDB must be a well-formed XML string. All submissions must contain the following:

  • An xml header utilizing version 1.0, and a recommended encoding of iso-8859-1.
  • The data must be enclosed within a set of IsfdbSubmission tags.
  • The data must contain a valid registered user within a set of Submitter tags.
  • The data must contain a subject heading within a set of Subject tags. This subject is displayed in the moderator queue, and is not integrated into the ISFDB data.

A stubbed out version of a generic submission looks like this: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <...Type...>
     <Submitter>Registered_User_Name</Submitter>
     <Subject>Subject Line That Will Appear in Moderator Queue</Subject>
     ...
  </...Type...>
</IsfdbSubmission>

Author Related Submissions

There are two data submission types necessary for the upkeep of the authors table: AuthorUpdate and AuthorMerge. AuthorUpdate handles changes made to the author-related tables; it has no side effects on other tables. AuthorMerge handles merging two authors together; it does have side effects on publication and title mapping tables, as one of the authors is replaced with the other.

AuthorMerge

The AuthorMerge submission specifies how two author records should be merged. The submission contains three required tags:

  • KeepId - Required tag. Specifies which author record will be retained.
  • DropId - Required tag. Specifies which author record will be dropped.
  • Range - Required tag. Specifies the range of changes:
    • TITLES - Only merges authors an the canonical_author table.
    • PUBS - Only merges authors in the pub_authors and aspub_author tables.
    • ALL - Applies changes to all author mapping tables.

The AuthorMerge submission also contains a number of optional tags. When a merging conflict occurs, these tags are used to specify which version of the data should be used:

  • Canonical - Use when a conflict exists between the canonical names.
  • Legalname - Use when a conflict exists between the legal names.
  • Birthplace - Use when a conflict exists between the birthplaces.
  • Birthdate - Use when a conflict exists between the birthdates
  • Deathdate - Use when a conflict exists between the deathdates.
  • Wikipedia - Use when a conflict exists between Wikipedia URLs.
  • Imdb - Use when a conflict exists between IMDB URLs.

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <AuthorMerge>
     <Submitter>Rkihara</Submitter>
     <Subject>Elliott Dold/Elliott Dold</Subject>
     <KeepId>71501</KeepId>
     <DropId>84301</DropId>
     <Range>ALL</Range>
     <Legalname>84301</Legalname>
  </AuthorMerge>
</IsfdbSubmission>

AuthorUpdate

The AuthorUpdate submission updates author information for a single specific author. The submission contains one required tag

  • Record - Required tag. Specifies which author record to update.

The AuthorUpdate submission also contains a number of optional tags. These tags should be used whenever an update is made to a particular field. If a particular field is unchaged, it should not be included in the submission. If a field value needs to be deleted (for instance a webpage is decommissioned), the tag value should be empty. The following tags are supported:

  • Canonical - Should contain the author's canonical name.
  • Legalname - Should contain the author's legal name, in Lastname, Firstname format.
  • Lastname - Contains the author's last name. Used to set how the last names with multiple sections should be alphabetized, for instance "von Ruff" instead of "Ruff".
  • Birthplace - Should contain the author's birthplace, in Town,State,Country format.
  • Birthdate - Should contain the author's birthdate in YYYY-MM-DD format. If the month and day are unknown, YYYY-00-00 should be used.
  • Deathdate - Should contain the author's deathdate in YYYY-MM-DD format. If the month and day are unknown, YYYY-00-00 should be used. If the author is known to be dead, but the deathdate is unknown 0000-00-00 is acceptable.
  • Emails - Should contain a list of the child tag Email, which should contain the author's email addresses. There should be a separate Email tag (enclosed within a single Emails tag) for each email address.
  • Webpages - Should contain a list of the child tag Webpage, which should contain the author's website URL. There should be a separate Webpage tag (enclosed within a single Webpages tag) for each website.
  • Wikipedia - Should contain the URL to the author's Wikipedia article.
  • Imdb - Should contain the URL to the author's IMDB filmography.
  • Image - Should contain the URL to an author picture.

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <AuthorUpdate>
    <Record>347</Record>
    <Subject>David Duncan</Subject>
    <Submitter>ErnestoVeg</Submitter>
    <Birthdate>1913-02-17</Birthdate>
    <Deathdate>1999-12-26</Deathdate>
  </AuthorUpdate>
</IsfdbSubmission>

Publication Related Submissions

PubUpdate

The PubUpdate submission updates publication information for a single specific publication. The submission contains one required tag:

  • Record - Required tag. Specifies which publication record to update.

The PubUpdate submission also contains a number of optional tags. These tags should be used whenever an update is made to a particular field. If a particular field is unchaged, it should not be included in the submission. If a field value needs to be deleted, the tag should be included, but the value should be empty. The following section describes the tags are supported in the metadata section. You should refer to Help:Screen:EditPub for more detailed information on data entry. The bold text in the description refers to specific labels found in the Help article:

  • Title - The Title of the publication.
  • Authors - The Author list associated with the publication. This XML tag will enclose:
    • Author - There should be one Author entry for each individual who wrote or edited the publication.
  • Artists - The Artist list associated with the publication. This XML tag will enclose:
    • Artist - There should be one Artist entry for each individual who wrote or edited the publication.
  • Tag - Unique ASCII identifier for the publication.
  • Year - The Year of publication.
  • Pages - The number of Pages in the publication.
  • Binding - The Pub Format of the publication.
  • PubType - The Pub Type type of the publication.
  • Isbn - The ISBN / Catalog # of the publication.
  • Price - The Price of the publication.
  • Image - The Image URL associated with the publication cover art.
  • Note - A Note specific to this publication.
  • Publisher - The Publisher of the publication.
  • Content - For non-novels, some amount of content may be associated with the publication. Only those titles undergoing change should be included in this section. If no titles are modified, the Content section must be present, although it will be empty. Any number of the following content type entries are supported:
    • ContentTitle - This is for normal content, such as short stories or essays.
    • ContentReview - This is a specialized format for reviews, taking into account the author writing the review, and the author who wrote the work being reviewed.
    • ContentInterview - This is a specialized format for interviews, taking into account the author that conducted the interview, and the author who was interviewed.

ContentTitle

Refer to Help:Screen:EditPub#General_contents for detailed data-entry help:

  • Record - The record number of the title. If missing the title is considered new.
  • cTitle - The name of the title.
  • cAuthors - The author(s) of the title. Note that multiple authors are separated with a +; they are not enclosed in separate XML tags.
  • cDate - The copyright date of the title.
  • cPage - The page the title appears on.
  • cType - The Entry Type of the title.
  • cLength - The Length of the title.

ContentReview

Refer to Help:Screen:EditPub#Reviews for detailed data-entry help:

  • Record - The record number of the title. If missing the review is considered new.
  • cTitle - The name of the title.
  • cBookAuthors - The author(s) of the book being reviewed. Note that multiple authors are separated with a +; they are not enclosed in separate XML tags.
  • cReviewers - The author(s) writing the review. Note that multiple authors are separated with a +; they are not enclosed in separate XML tags.
  • cDate - The copyright date of the review.
  • cPage - The page the review appears on.

ContentInterview

Refer to Help:Screen:EditPub#Interviews for detailed data-entry help:

  • Record - The record number of the title. If missing the interview is considered new.
  • cTitle - The name of the title.
  • cInterviewee - The author(s) conducting the interview. Note that multiple authors are separated with a +; they are not enclosed in separate XML tags.
  • cInterviewer - The author(s) being interviewed. Note that multiple authors are separated with a +; they are not enclosed in separate XML tags.
  • cDate - The copyright date of the interview.
  • cPage - The page the interview appears on.

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <PubUpdate>
    <Record>56773</Record>
    <Submitter>Davecat</Submitter>
    <Subject>Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, September 1962</Subject>
    <Note>Vol. LXX, No. 1.</Note>
    <Content>
      <ContentTitle>
        <Record>772165</Record>
        <cTitle>Hugos and Others</cTitle>
        <cAuthors>The Editor</cAuthors>
      </ContentTitle>
      <ContentTitle>
        <Record>54317</Record>
        <cLength>ss</cLength>
      </ContentTitle>
      <ContentReview>
        <cTitle>The Sixth Galaxy Reader</cTitle>
        <cBookAuthors>H. L. Gold</cBookAuthors>
        <cReviewers>P. Schuyler Miller</cReviewers>
        <cDate>1962-09-00</cDate>
        <cPage>152</cPage>
      </ContentReview>
      <ContentInterview>
        <cTitle>Dan Simmons Interview</cTitle>
        <cInterviewees>Dan Simmons</cInterviewees>
        <cInterviewers>Bob Morrish</cInterviewers>
        <cDate>1990-00-00</cDate>
      </ContentInterview>
    </Content>
  </PubUpdate>
</IsfdbSubmission>

PubDelete

The PubDelete submission deletes the specified publication record. The submission contains one required tag:

  • Record - Required tag. Specifies which author record to delete.

Optional tag:

  • Reason - The reason the publication is being deleted.

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <PubDelete>
    <Subject>Mutants</Subject>
    <Submitter>Mhhutchins</Submitter>
    <Record>179041</Record>
    <Reason>No reason given.</Reason>
  </PubDelete>
</IsfdbSubmission>

NewPub

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <NewPub>
  <Submitter>Ahasuerus</Submitter>
  <Subject>Sweet and Deadly</Subject>
  <Parent>185660</Parent>
  <Title>Sweet and Deadly</Title>
  <Year>1981-00-00</Year>
  <Publisher>Houghton Mifflin</Publisher>
  <Pages>179</Pages>
  <Binding>hc</Binding>
  <PubType>NOVEL</PubType>
  <Isbn>0395305322</Isbn>
  <Price>$8.95</Price>
  <Note>Data from OCLC record 6915310.</Note>
  <Authors>
    <Author>Charlaine Harris</Author>
  </Authors>
  <Content>
  </Content>
  </NewPub>
</IsfdbSubmission>

Title Related Submissions

TitleUpdate

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
  <IsfdbSubmission>
    <TitleUpdate>
    <Record>11114</Record>
    <Submitter>DESiegel60</Submitter>
    <Subject>Breed to Come</Subject>
    <Year>1972-00-00</Year>
  </TitleUpdate>
</IsfdbSubmission>

TitleMerge

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <TitleMerge>
    <KeepId>7287</KeepId>
    <DropId>170262</DropId>
    <Title>7287</Title>
    <Year>7287</Year>
    <Series>7287</Series>
    <Seriesnum>7287</Seriesnum>
  </TitleMerge>
</IsfdbSubmission>

TitleDelete

Example: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<IsfdbSubmission>
  <TitleDelete>
    <Subject>The Petrified Planet</Subject>
    <Submitter>Ahasuerus</Submitter>
    <Record>825280</Record>
    <Reason>Dup title.</Reason>
  </TitleDelete>
</IsfdbSubmission>

TitleUnmerge

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