A content providers guide to OPDS Servers in SimplyE
What are OPDS Servers?
OPDS stands for Open Publication Distribution System. This protocol is based on the ATOM syndication standard and is used to communicate via the world wide web a catalog of books and their related metadata resources. An OPDS server is simply an application server or a file server that hosts and publishes an XML document that conforms to the OPDS protocol. Client applications like RSS readers or the SimplyE applications interpret these documents to display catalogs of content, transact with resource providers and download books. This creates a highly scalable highly interoperable ecosystem from content distribution.
How Do I Get My Books into SimplyE?
The basic answer is: "set up an OPDS server that gives access to your catalog". But you'll need to answer two questions to figure out what features the OPDS document server needs to have and what design you should use.
For Authors
If you're the author of a book, and you want to get the book into SimplyE, you should know that SimplyE is not a bookstore or a library. It's a mobile interface to a large number of libraries. There are no books in "SimplyE" per se; all the books are in one library or another. To get your book into SimplyE, you'll need to get it into one of these libraries. At that point it will be available to patrons of that library.
Your best bet is to upload your book to the Internet Archive or to get it onto unglue.it. The Internet Archive will be publishing its books through SimplyE in the near future, so this will make your book available directly through SimplyE. Many libraries in the SimplyE system use unglue.it as a source of free content, so getting your book into unglue.it will make your book available indirectly.
The rest of this document assumes that "you", the person who has books they want to get into SimplyE, represent a publisher, distributor, university, public library, or similar institution. In other words, we assume you represent an organization that deals with hundreds or thousands of titles--so many titles that it makes sense to set up your own OPDS server.
For Libraries
Do you want to be in the library registry? The first thing a user sees when they open the SimplyE mobile application is the library registry, a searchable list of OPDS servers that the application tries to match a person. If you want individual people to be able to find your OPDS server, then you need an entry in the library registry. If your goal is to distribute books through libraries or similar institutions, then you don't need an entry in the library registry.
Some organizations that could/will/do show up in the library registry:
- The New York Public Library
- The Brooklyn Public Library
- Canadian Electronic Library
- The Internet Archive
Some organizations that publish (or could publish) OPDS feeds but won't show up in the library registry because they don't deal directly with individuals:
Do you allow anonymous access? Some OPDS servers are open for anonymous access by the general public. Others restrict access to people with a user account. It may be easy or difficult to get a user account; the distinction here is whether a user account is required at all.
Four Types of OPDS Servers
Once you make your two decisions, you can know approximately what features your server will need to have.
Library Registry? | Anonymous Acces? | OPDS Feeds | Authentication for OPDS | Search Service | Authentication | Token Service | Example |
Yes | Yes | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Yes | No | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
No | Yes | ✔ | Optional | ||||
No | No | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
The features are discussed in the following documents
