ONIX

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ONIX stands for ON line I nformation e X change and is a data format for the exchange of bibliographic and product data across the entire exploitation chain in the book trade .

The ONIX standard is published by an international group ( EDItEUR ) and is based on XML . With its help, information on books and other publications can be exchanged as metadata between publishers , booksellers , libraries , bar assortments , aggregators and other actors or automatically processed. The very differentiated exchange format was initiated by the English and American book markets. ONIX has been used in German-speaking countries since the early 2000s.

Data format

The ONIX standard, which is defined with the help of a document type definition (DTD), contains a large number of data fields such as product form, title, author (s) and price, some of which are mandatory and others are optional (e.g. images or descriptive texts). The information on one or more products is summarized in what is known as a message, which results in a complete data set . Not all data is transmitted directly in the message, e.g. B. multimedia content is integrated as a media file link. Updates to price / availability can be transmitted in a partial data set.

Best practice

A working group made up of VLB , the KNV , Libri and Umbreit bar assortments and the German National Library promotes the use of the standard by publishing best practices and has developed guidelines for standard book reports and standard e-book reports.

use

In the German-speaking area, version ONIX 2.1 was widely used. Larger publishing houses generate the data format themselves. Numerous service providers support the creation. Smaller publishers can make use of the VLB's offer to convert the media data they have recorded there into ONIX format and transmit them to bar assortments and other aggregators.

Version ONIX 3.0 (2009) is the first ONIX version since 2001 that is not backwards compatible. The new version was driven by the inadequate display options for digital products in 2.1. Numerous data fields (deprecated) that are no longer in use will be abolished. The principle of the complete data set has been repealed. Different partial data sets are possible. Processing becomes significantly more complex.

The great advantage of version 3.0 is the improved display of digital products such as e-books . ONIX 3.0 is not yet very widely used in German-speaking countries. Since the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016, ONIX 3.0 has been accepted by the VLB as well as by the bar assortments.

literature

  • Stephan Selle: MAM - Significance and advantages of ONIX using the example of Rowohlt in: Content Management Magazin 1/2004 (no longer available online)

Web links

Mailing lists

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ONIX Books Supply Update Message
  2. ↑ Guide “Best Practices ONIX for Books - Character set” (2011) http://info.vlb.de/files/best_practices_zeichen Satz.pdf
  3. ↑ Guide "Best Practices ONIX for Books - E-Book Standard Message" (2010) http://www.vlbcms.de/files/best_practices_onix_for_books.pdf