sruthi

sruthi is a client for python to make SRU requests (Search/Retrieve via URL).

Currently only SRU 1.1 and 1.2 is supported.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • searchretrieve operation
  • explain operation
  • Request for SRU 1.1
• Schemas
• Development
• Release

Installation

sruthi is available on PyPI, so to install it simply use:

$ pip install sruthi

Usage

See the examples directory for more scripts.

searchretrieve operation

>>> import sruthi
>>> records = sruthi.searchretrieve('https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/SRU/', query='Brettspiel')
>>> print(records)
SearchRetrieveResponse(sru_version='1.2',count=500,next_start_record=11)
>>> print(records.count)
4
>>> print(record[0])
{'schema': 'isad', 'reference': 'PAT 2, 54 d, Nr. 253492', 'title': 'Schlumberger, Jean, Zürich: Brettspiel', 'date': '08.03.1946', 'descriptionlevel': 'Dossier', 'extent': None, 'creator': None, 'extra': {'score': '0.4', 'link': 'https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?Id=1114641', 'beginDateISO': '1946-03-08', 'beginApprox': '0', 'endDateISO': '1946-03-08', 'endApprox': '0', 'hasDigitizedItems': '0'}}
>>>
>>> for record in records:
...    # print fields from schema
...    print(record['reference'])
...    print(record['title'])
...    print(record['date'])
...    print(record['extra']['link']) # extra record data is available at the 'extra' key
PAT 2, 54 d, Nr. 253492
Schlumberger, Jean, Zürich: Brettspiel
08.03.1946
https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?Id=1114641
PAT 2, 54 d, Nr. 246025
Frei, K. H., Weisslingen: Brettspiel
26.10.1945
https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?Id=1114639
DS 107.2.37
UZH Magazin
Die Wissenschaftszeitschrift
2019
https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?Id=4612939
G I 1, Nr. 34
Verordnung der Stadt Zürich betreffend die Erfüllung von Amtspflichten durch die Chorherren des Grossmünsterstifts
24.09.1485
https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?Id=3796980

The return value of searchretrieve is iterable, so you can easily loop over it. Or you can use indices to access elements, e.g. records[1] to get the second elemenet, or records[-1] to get the last one.

Even slicing is supported, so you can do things like only iterate over the first 5 elements using

for records in records[:5]:
   print(record)

explain operation

The explain operation returns a dict-like object. The values can either be accessed as keys info['sru_version'] or as attributes info.sru_version.

>>> import sruthi
>>> info = sruthi.explain('https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/SRU/')
>>> info
{'sru_version': '1.2', 'server': {'host': 'https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/Sru', 'port': 80, 'database': 'sru'}, 'database': {'title': 'Staatsarchiv Zürich Online Search', 'description': 'Durchsuchen der Bestände des Staatsarchiv Zürichs.', 'contact': 'staatsarchivzh@ji.zh.ch'}, 'index': {'isad': {'title': 'Title', 'reference': 'Reference Code', 'date': 'Date', 'descriptionlevel': 'Level'}}, 'schema': {'isad': {'identifier': 'http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/xmlschemas/isad.xsd', 'name': 'isad', 'title': 'ISAD(G)'}}, 'config': {'maximumRecords': 99, 'defaults': {'numberOfRecords': 99}}}
>>> info.server
{'host': 'https://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/Sru', 'port': 80, 'database': 'sru'}
>>> info.database
{'title': 'Staatsarchiv Zürich Online Search', 'description': 'Durchsuchen der Bestände des Staatsarchiv Zürichs.', 'contact': 'staatsarchivzh@ji.zh.ch'}
>>> info['index']
{'isad': {'title': 'Title', 'reference': 'Reference Code', 'date': 'Date', 'descriptionlevel': 'Level'}}
>>> info['schema']
{'isad': {'identifier': 'http://www.expertisecentrumdavid.be/xmlschemas/isad.xsd', 'name': 'isad', 'title': 'ISAD(G)'}}

Request for SRU 1.1

By default sruthi uses SRU 1.2 to make requests, but you can specify the SRU version for each call or when you create a new client instance:

>>> import sruthi
>>> # create a client
>>> client = sruthi.Client(
...     'https://services.dnb.de/sru/dnb',
...     record_schema='oai_dc',
...     sru_version='1.1'
>>> )
>>> records = client.searchretrieve(query="Zurich")
>>> records.count
8985
>>> # ...or pass the version directly to the call
>>> records = sruthi.searchretrieve(
...     'https://services.dnb.de/sru/dnb',
...     query="Zurich",
...     record_schema='oai_dc',
...     sru_version='1.1'
>>> )
>>> records.count
8985

Schemas

sruthi does not make any assumptions about the record data schema. The data is provided as-is (as a flattend dict). sruthi has been tested with the following schemas:

• Dublin Core Record Schema (dc)
• MARCXML: The MARC 21 XML Schema (marcxml)
• ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description, Second edition (isad)

Development

To contribute to sruthi simply clone this repository and follow the instructions in CONTRIBUTING.md.

This project ha a Makefile with the most common commands. Type make help to get an overview.

Release

To create a new release, follow these steps (please respect Semantic Versioning):

1. Adapt the version number in sruthi/__init__.py
2. Update the CHANGELOG with the version
3. Create a pull request to merge develop into master (make sure the tests pass!)
4. Create a new release/tag on GitHub (on the master branch)
5. The publication on PyPI happens via GitHub Actions on every tagged commit