How should I set the parser and parser parameters in the full text service of a local electronic collection?

Answer

Static URL

If the portfolios will have a static URL, then the service parser must be set to: Bulk::BULK and the service parser parameters must be blank.

Service editor linking tab showing Bulk::BULK

In the portfolios, the usual method will be to set the URL Type to Static URL, and include the full URL in Static URL. It is also possible to set the URL Type to Parser Parameters, then set the portfolio Parser Parameters to the URL preceded by jkey=

Generic Parser

For some electronic collections, it may be advantageous to use one of the generic parsers. This will allow you to limit the portfolio's parser parameters to the platform identifier, rather than having this identifier embedded in a URL. Doing so may, for instance, make it easier to use Analytics to identify titles that need to be deleted. Or, if the platform changes its URL structure but retains its unique title IDs, you can simply change the parser parameters rather than re-importing all the records. In addition, if you want to share a collection among various Inventory Management Groups, and the URL includes a site ID that varies among these groups, using a generic parser may allow you to set the site ID within the group settings.

The two generic parsers are Bulk::BKEY and Bulk::JKEY. They work exactly the same. Since B presumably stands for "book" and "J" for "journal", I tend to use BKEY for monographic collections. When setting the portfolio parser parameters, it is important to use bkey= or jkey= matching what is selected in the service parser.

To use the generic parser, you need to look at the URL structure and identify the part that will go into the parser parameters—this will be the item/document ID—and any elements that are specific to the institution/library.

Example

A good example of a platform that provides both is the video platform Swank Digital Campus.

Here is a sample URL for a title supplied to Sacramento City College:

https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/scc378966/watch/162C4292D4F985BC?referrer=direct

Analyzing this structure, we can see that it includes a customer ID, scc378966, and a title ID, 162C4292D4F985BC. It also includes a referrer URL parameter, which we do not need and will exclude from our portfolio links.

Here is the parser setup that we will use:

Parser: Bulk::BKEY
Parser Parameters: url=https://digitalcampus.swankmp.net/ $$CUSTID /watch/

Service editor showing parser parameters

In the parameters, $$CUSTID represents a linking parameter. The string CUSTID is arbitrarily chosen; it could be anything. For Sacramento City College, the value of this must be set to scc378966. This may be set in the full-text service, but it also may be set in Group Settings. After you save the service, the linking parameters area will show.

Service editor showing linking parameters field