Configure Bookmine to update a specific OLB
Each time you want to refresh your online inventory Bookmine will automatically output update files for each OLB that you are subscribed to. These files have to be sent to each OLB to complete the update cycle. Here is a description of how to set up an OLB from scratch or how to use the pre configured OLBs (ABE,Alibris,Bibliofind,BiblioCity)
Before proceeding you should have set up an account with the OLB and negotiated on the precise file format required by them for updates. If the OLB will accept your updates in UIEE format (Alibris, ABE, Bibliofind and Bibliocity all accept UIEE) you should use the configurations already set up for them.
Bookmine comes already configured to handle the most popular OLBs (ABE, BiblioCity,, BiblioFind and Alibris). All you have to do is tick the subscribe button (See below).
If you wish Bookmine to automatically produce files to maintain your online inventory see below.
Setting up an OLB from scratch.(see below for details on using existing pre configured OLBs)
- Set up output formats for the new OLB If you are setting up an OLB which is not included already, and the OLB accepts UIEE format, it is best to duplicate the existing formats (see Setting up output formats) for ABE or Alibris, giving the duplicated formats appropriate names (hint: to keep all the OLB export formats together use x as the first character in the name of the new formats, and include the function, i.e Add Wants etc, as part of the name), and apply any modifications to the duplicates that the new OLB have specified. As a minimal modification you should change the PreTxt entry on the line starting with UR|BF to UR|xx, where xx is a unique acronym for the new OLB. This will help you to identify where orders have come from if not specified in the email sent by the customer. If the OLB does not accept UIEE (which is unusual) you will have to create new formats from scratch (see Setting up output formats) and test them for compliance. As long as you have obtained the precise specifications from the OLB this should not be too onerous a task.
- Click the Create a New OLB button. Provide a name for the new OLB.
- Follow the instructions which will ask you to select the four (or 2 if you do not want to send Wants requests) output formats that specify how upload information is to be formatted. If you created new formats, as laid out in the first step above, select the appropriate format for each of the four cases (add, delete, add Wants, delete Wants). If the OLB will not accept any of the existing upload formats you will have to create new ones from scratch which adhere to the requirements of the OLB.(see Setting up output formats) Note most will accept UIEE, a well established format for uploading to OLBS.
- Check that the correct information is provide for each of the fileds adjacent to buttons1a to 4a (the output formats to be used for upload files), and 1b to 4b (the path and name of the file to be used for outputting. This file or files will be archived and overwritten each time you refresh your online records. The new file, which contains instructions for updating your online inventory, is then sent to the OLB
Note : to remove a format click the button for selecting a format and instead of making a seletion press cancel. This will remove that format and stop any output to that function.
To use existing UIEE standard formats
Working from the output form, click the Setting up and Refreshing online Catalogues tab and invoke the Setup/Modify specs for Online Bookstores command.
To subscribe to an OLB select the OLB from the drop down box. If the Subscribe radio button is not ticked, tick it (you will have to enable Mods using the Enable Mods command button first) to achieve this. When you tick the Subscribe button the following occurs:
- a directory having the same name as the OLB is created to store the update and archive files for this OLB
- a file is created in this directory which will be used by Bookmine to output all update information to when you refresh online cats. This file is archived and updated you send to the OLB.
- You will be prompted to select Output formats for the OLB. If you wish to use the ones already setup, which is advisable, cancel out of this operation.
Check that all the files adjacent to the buttons marked 1a to 4a are pointing to a file in a directory under the Application Root directory (typically c:\bookmine\pubs) with the same name as the OLB (e.g \\Computername\Sharename\Bookmine\pubs\ABEOnline\ABEOnlineupload.txt for ABEOnline) This filename should be the same in all four boxes (if no wants being sent then only the for sale entries are used).
If it is not selected then select the correct file using the corresponding command button (1a to 4a or the equivalent buttons on the right-hand-side of the screen).
Also check that the correct formats are selected for each type of output. E.g. for BibliofindOnline these shouls be for 1b to 4b, respectively, xBibFind Add(UIEE) , xBibfind Del(UIEE),xBibFind Wants Add(UIEE) and xBibfind Wants Del(UIEE).