PID webservice: http://pid.socialhistoryservices.org/

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1. What is the PID webservice

The Pid webservice is a driver for Handle System's resolver technology. It eases the creation of persistent identifiers and their bindings to attributes such as web locations with the use of a Soap protocol. This means it is system agnostic: an external application offering web methods that can be integrated into your catalog and archival system solutions. All with the purpose to offer a consistent delivery via pids of your web resources to yourself, your users and external discovery services alike.

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2. Webservice keys

Access to the webservice is HTTP over SSL. A private webservice key is needed to be able to create and update your pids. This single key can be changed at any time you want, should it be compromised. You can manage pids from different naming authorities ( for example a naming authority for production pids, and another for testing). There are two ways to obtain webservice keys:

Place the key in a HTTP header request as expressed in this pseude code:

HTTP-header(headerName, headerValue) = { "Authorization", "Bearer [key]" }
Whereby [key] is the webservice key. For example, if the key is 12345, the header is:
HTTP-header("Authorization", "Bearer 12345")

3. Discover the webservice

The Pid webservice offers seven operations:

  1. Creation and update of pids using an Upsert method
  2. Creation of pids (automatic and custom) and its bind properties: single resolve url, set of resolvable urls, or local identifier.
  3. Update of pids and its bindings
  4. Lookup of bindings via a pid
  5. Reverse lookup of a pid via resolve url or an attribute (local identifier)
  6. Quick binding
  7. Deletion of pids

Use Soap to operate the webservice API:

4. Examples

4.1. Create a Pid with a resolve Url

The following example will create a pid 10622.1/32dc9242-a978-43b0-befd-831fa02af673 Once created, the url handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10622.1/32dc9242-a978-43b0-befd-831fa02af673 would resolve to the url http://socialhistoryservices.org/

You can also create the PIDs yourself as demonstrated in this movie:

4.1.2 Create a custom pid with multiple urls

This example demonstrates a custom pid that is bound to three resolve urls. This will make possible three ways of resolving with one pid:
  1. http://hdl.handle.net/10622.1/EU:ARCHIVE83:ITEM23:FILE3 to resolve to http://socialhistoryservices.org/
  2. http://hdl.handle.net/10622.1/EU:ARCHIVE83:ITEM23:FILE3?locatt=view:master to resolve to http://www.archivalius.org?id=original83.23.3
  3. http://hdl.handle.net/10622.1/EU:ARCHIVE83:ITEM23:FILE3?locatt=view:thumbnail to resolve to http://www.archivalius.org?id=image83.23.3.jpg
Note: to set a resolveUrl for a handle without a qualifier (the locatt here) you need to set the weight="1". All request for the handle without the qualifier will be directed to the URL with that weight.

You do not need the locatt expicitly mentioned in the handle to redirect endusers to the desired locations. The country attribute can be used to direct users using GeoIP. We demonstrate this here:

4.2 Update a Pid with a new resolve Url

To change a resolve url, use the UpsertPidRequest again

4.3.1 Lookup bound attributes of a known pid

To know that bindings exist for a given pid, use the getPid method. In this example we find out that the resolve url is http://new-domain/

4.3.2 Lookup a pid from its know resolve urls

It is possible to find a pid through it's bound attributes such as resolve urls. In this example we look for pids that are bound to the resolve url http://socialhistoryservices.org/. Note that the reverse lookup is case sensitive and the result set is limited to 10 records.

4.3.3 Use a pid with a local identifier

It is possible to bind other attributes to a pid, such as a local identifier or any other tag for that matter. In this case, the local identifier needed to be set when creating or updating the pid.

For example, if the local identifier was 12345 and bound like this:

Then the reverse lookup would be:

4.4 Quick pid method

Unless you are an service provider whose clients cannot supply anything else but local identifiers, this method would not be useful to an organization delivering pids. The GetQuickPid method utilizes the earlier mentioned methods. Specifically:

  1. Pid creation: when the localIdentifier is not bound to a known pid, the webservice creates a pid and then binds it to the resolveUrl and localIdentifier.
  2. Pid lookup: when the localIdentifier is bound to an existing Pid, the method will echo back all data bound to the pid.
  3. Pid update: when the localIdentifier is bound to an existing Pid and the supplied resolveUrl is different to the bound resolveUrl, a rebind will be made.

4.5 CreatePid and UpdatePid methods

The createPid will create a new PID but fail when the PID already was made in an earlier call. Likewise the updatePid will fail when the PID to be updated does not exist.

The upsert method does exactly the same as the createPid and updatePid do separately; but throw no error. It is thus the most efficient method.

The upsert method does exactly the same as the createPid and updatePid combined; and is more efficient. It will create new pids; and update a pid if it already exists. Use this method if you do not need to check explicitly for PIDs that do not exist whilst updating... or already exist while creating them.

4.6 DeletePid method

This method will delete a pid and all it's bound attributes.