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The following steps will help you complete the application for to obtain Overdrive API credentials for your library collection. As a precaution, you may wish to whitelist the email addresses associated with the application process so the response emails don't get caught by your spam protection software. At the least, you should whitelist the following two specific addresses:

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1. To start connecting your library's Overdrive account to your Library Simplified circulation manager, go to the Member Center and apply for API access. You will need to create an Overdrive developer account to obtain credentials required in connecting the Circulation Manager to your Overdrive account.

   Note
   title Apply for Access Early!
   It can take a week or more to get approved for API access, so don't put this off!

   

2. Click the Apply link to start the application.

3. Complete the Developer Application form as shown below

   a. For the "Are you requesting a new API client" dropdown, select the Existing Client option.
   b. Enter your name and your email address into the Contact Name and Contact Email Address fields. c. If you know your library's Overdrive identifier, you can enter it in the API Client Key field. If you don't, you can enter your library's city and state. The API Client Key should be provided to you in your response from Overdrive for developer access. d. Be sure to select both the Discovery and the Circulation options in the API Access Requested field. Info title Overdrive API Types Overdrive distinguishes between Discovery and Circulation APIs. Library Simplified needs access to both, to keep track of the items in your collection as well as to conduct circulation transactions on behalf of your patrons. From the glossary: Discovery APIs: Discovery APIs are designed to allow your users to browse and explore OverDrive digital collections. You can search for titles, check availability, and get details on specific titles. Circulation APIs: These APIs are designed to allow you to circulate content from an OverDrive digital collection. You can borrow and place holds on titles, see what a specific user has borrowed or placed on hold, and get download links for content that a user has borrowed. e. Copy the following block of information in the Planned API Usage field. It is important to request all three authentication types (see the NOTES section below). Be sure to edit your library's name; the remainder of the items should remain as is: Library: Your Library Name Project: Integration with SimplyE, in partnership with NYPL Environment: Production (not testing) Authentication Types Required:   - Client authentication   - Patron authentication   - Granted authentication
   f. Click the Confirm Conditions checkbox. g. Click the "I am not a robot" checkbox. h. Once you've reviewed the form, click the Submit button to complete the registration

4. Wait for Overdrive to send you an email with production IDs needed to configure your Circulation Manager Overdrive Collection. You will receive an email response (to the address you provided above) almost immediately upon submitting your application, which is just a confirmation Overdrive received your request. In about 24 hours so (perhaps longer depending on circumstances) you should receive an email with your library's API credentials. The credentials will include the following data points:
       Library ID
       Website ID
       Client Secret
       Library ILS name
       OverDrive digital collection URL
   If you did not know your exact API Client Key to enter into the application form above, and you don't see it in the response, reply to the support address and request the API Client Key as well.

   Note
   title Sandbox vs Production IDs
   When Overdrive sends your API credentials email, you may accidentally receive a website ID of 100300 and a library ID of 4425. Those are the IDs for the Overdrive test library. If this happens to you, reply to the email and tell them that you need the production IDs to integrate your library into the SimplyE system.

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1. Open a web browser and enter the URL to your Circulation Manager's Admin interface: for example, https://simplye.libraryname-state.org/admin  
2. In the top menu bar, click System Configuration to enter into the Configuration Manager portion of the Admin interface.
   
3. Click the Collections item from the left menu.
4. Click Create a new collection
   
5. Select the Overdrive item from the Protocol drop down field.
   
6. Fill in the configuration form:
   1. Under Name, enter a descriptive phrase for the collection: for example, XYZ Consortium Overdrive
   2. Skip the Parent field if it is displayed
      Note: If this is the first Overdrive collection you have created in the Circulation Manager, the Parent field is not present.
   3. Under Library ID, enter the corresponding ID from your credentials email provided by Overdrive
      Note: If Overdrive's library ID starts with a zero, you'll probably have better results if you omit the zero.
   4. Under Website ID, enter the corresponding ID from your credentials email provided by Overdrive
   5. Under Client Key, enter the key provided by Overdrive
   6. Under Client Secret, enter string provided by Overdrive
      
      
   7. Select the appropriate library record from the Add Library drop down list
   8. In the library sub-form which displays, in the ILS Name field, enter the Library ILS name string provided by Overdrive
   9. Also in the library sub-form, in the Default Loan Period field, enter the length of the library's ebook loans
      
   10. When you have finished the library sub-form, click the Add Library button to enable titles from this collection to be displayed in the library's SimplyE browse feeds
   11. When you have reviewed the form and are ready, click the Submit button to create the Overdrive collection. If the Circulation Manager management scripts are all running, an ingest process for existing title metadata from Overdrive will begin within the hour.

If your Overdrive collection is a single, standalone collection, this completes your Overdrive configuration. If you were configuring the consortium collection which serves as a base for a library's subsidiary Overdrive Advantage collection, begin configuring that Advantage collection in the next section.

Configuring a Child/Advantage Overdrive Collection

When your library is part of a consortium that has a primary, overarching collection, but your library has a separate Overdrive Advantage collection, you need to configure the Advantage collection and associate it with the primary collection.

The script bin/informational/overdrive-advantage-list will query Overdrive to learn about all Overdrive Advantage collections associated with a primary Overdrive collection. In particular, it will list the names and library IDs of all libraries with an Overdrive Advantage collection associated with a primary collection. This is a useful script to run when setting up Overdrive Advantage accounts, because it can save some back-and-forth emailing with Overdrive.

To configure the Advantage collection:

1. Login to the Circulation Manager Admin interface
2. Click the System Configuration top menu item
3. Click the Collections item on the left sidebar
4. Click the Create a new collection item
5. Select Overdrive from the Protocol dropdown list
6. In this case, we need to link the new collection to a parent collection; select the appropriate parent collection from the Parent dropdown list
   
   Notice that selecting the parent collection removes several of the configuration options. This child collection will use the corresponding values from the parent collection.
7. Under Library ID, enter the corresponding ID from your credentials email provided by Overdrive (or obtained through the bin/informational/overdrive-advantage-list script)
8. Select the desired library record from the Add Library drop down list
9. In the library sub-form which displays, in the ILS Name field, enter the Library ILS name string provided by Overdrive
10. Also in the library sub-form, in the Default Loan Period field, enter the length of the library's ebook loans
    
11. When you have finished the library sub-form, click the Add Library button to enable titles from this collection to be displayed in the library's SimplyE browse feeds
12. When you have reviewed the form and are ready, click the Submit button to create the Overdrive collection. If the Circulation Manager management scripts are all running, an ingest process for existing title metadata from Overdrive will begin within the hour.

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