epic-py package

This is the Python client for ePIC API version >= 3.0.0.

Features

Get a PID

To get a PID and its values, simply call the get method. It returns a Pid object which contains prefix, suffix, and its values in data variable. Note that if username and password are not provided, the client can only get the PID and its public readable values.

Create a PID

To create a PID, a Pid object must first be created with proper data, which is a list of PidData (handle values). Please see the example usage below for more details.

There are 2 ways to create a PID:

1. Call the create method: this method will throw an error in case the PID has already existed.
2. Call the create_or_update method: as the name suggested, if the PID has already existed, it will be updated instead. This update overwrites the PID with new data.

Update a PID

To update a PID, a Pid object must first be created with proper prefix, suffix, and data. data is a list of PidData (handle values).

Same as create, there are 2 ways to update a PID:

1. Call the update method: this method will throw an error in case the PID does not exist.
2. Call the create_or_update method: if the PID already exists, it will be updated. This update overwrites the PID with new data.

Delete a PID

To delete a PID, simply call the delete method and pass the PID string as a parameter. This command does not guarantee that the PID will be deleted. It depends on the policies of each prefix. Usually, the no-delete policy is enforced. If that is the case, trying to delete a PID will lead to an error.

Example usage

Suppose one wants to create a PID with its content as follows:

[
  {
    "parsed_data": "Test Publisher",
    "type": "publisher"
  },
  {
    "parsed_data": "2021",
    "type": "publicationYear",
    "privs": "rw--"
  },
  {
    "parsed_data": {
      "identifier-Attribute": "DOI",
      "identifier-Value": "10.123.456/789"
    },
    "type": "identifier"
  },
  {
    "parsed_data": {
      "resourceType-Value": "test"
    },
    "type": "resourceType"
  },
  {
    "parsed_data": {
      "creator": {
        "creatorName": "Triet Doan"
      }
    },
    "type": "creators"
  },
  {
    "parsed_data": {
      "title": {
        "title-Value": "Test title"
      }
    },
    "type": "titles"
  }
]

The following example code can be used:

from epic_py import EpicAPI, PidData, Pid

publisher = PidData(type='publisher', parsed_data='Test Publisher')
publication_year = PidData(type='publicationYear', parsed_data='2021', privs='rw--')
identifier = PidData(type='identifier',
                     parsed_data={"identifier-Attribute": "DOI", "identifier-Value": "10.123.456/789"})
resource_type = PidData(type='resourceType', parsed_data={"resourceType-Value": "test"})
creators = PidData(type='creators', parsed_data={"creator": {"creatorName": "Triet Doan"}})
titles = PidData(type='titles', parsed_data={"title": {"title-Value": "Test title"}})

# Create the PID object
prefix = 'my_prefix'
pid = Pid(prefix=prefix, data=[publisher, publication_year, identifier, resource_type, creators, titles])

# Create the client
epic_api = EpicAPI('<host>', '<username>', '<password>')

# Create the PID
pid = epic_api.create(pid)

# Get the PID
pid_response = epic_api.get(pid.pid_str)

# Delete the PID
epic_api.delete(pid.pid_str)