adlibapi

Overview

The adlibapi is a module which enables Drupal to connect to museum database software 'adlib' by adlibsoft.
Adlib offers an API which can be used to search the the collection of a museum. Adlib is used by many musea around the world to maintain their collections.

The basic module provides api functions, as well as connection settings for several databases.
Based on the api module, other modules can perform different tasks. There is one submodule supplied with this module which offers feeds integration.

The strength of the module lies in the use of other modules to perform specialized tasks.
Configuration of the databases is achieved by the ctools export ui, so database settings can be exported.
Synchronization is done by the feeds module, which is an excelent import tool.

The basic communication with the adlib server is handled by specialised classes which are general php classes and could be used in any PHP project.

Features

• Api functions to access adlib databases from Drupal
• Exportable database configurations database using ctools
• AdlibAPI image support
• Field lists per database
• Feeds support for import of objects in Drupal
• Feeds fetcher suitable for bulk import of data
• Feeds parser with advanced mapping of adlib fields to drupal fields

Requirements

• PHP curl extension
• CTools
• For submodule adlibfeeds: Date
• For submodule adlibfeeds: Feeds
• Working adlib database (url with something like api/wwwopac.ashx at the end)

Known problems

The api of adlib can be difficult to set up. Image support is not always possible, and the API is known to change now and then. The basic features mostly work though.

Documentation

Installation instructions can be found in the README.txt of the module.