[Tellico-users] Re: Tellico Namespace Errors When Searching the Z39.50 ADS Server

[Robby Stephenson]

So here's what I can tell you. The XML returned from the ADS server is 
invalid, which is why Tellico was choking on it. Rather than trying to fix it 
up (which would be slightly ambiguous), I implemented a reader in Tellico 
for the native ADS format from their z39.50 server. I just checked it into 
the Tellico source tree so it'll be in the next release.

For current releases, there doesn't appear to be a way to access the ADS 
through z39.50 in a standard way. You can try using the script I wrote, 
which grabs the bibtex data for searches, or you can just wait until Tellico 
2.3.3 is out, which I could push by the end of the month, perhaps.

For an email chain for the BibDesk app for Macs that deals with the same 
issue, see http://www.mail-archive.com/bibdesk-
users at lists.sourceforge.net/msg01183.html

Robby

On Monday 31 January 2011, Nathan Clarke wrote:
> Hi Robby,
> 
> Thanks for taking some time to look at this.  The options I have are:
> 
>    * Source type: z39.50 Server
>    * The "Updating from source should overwrite user data" box is not
> checked.
>    * Available Fields boxes for Address, Abstract and Illustrator are
> all checked (though I've tried various combinations of this to no
> effect). * The "Use preset server" box is not checked.
>    * Host: z3950.adsabs.harvard.edu
>    * Port: 210
>    * Database: AST
>    * Character set: utf-8 (I've tried all of these to no effect too)
>    * Format: MODS
>    * User: [none set]
>    * Password: [none set]
> 
> Cheers,
> Nathan
> 
> On 31/01/11 22:02, Robby Stephenson wrote:
> > Hi Nathan,
> > 
> > I apologize for the late reply.
> > 
> > You're right, it does appear to be a namespace issue. The z39.50
> > searching goes through a somewhat complicated process of being
> > converted from MODS to MARC to XML, so there are certainly plenty of
> > points where the XSLT can get hairy.
> > 
> > What are the options you're using for the ADS z39.50 target so I can do
> > some testing myself? (database name, character set, etc.?)
> > 
> > In the meantime, though it's not as flexible, you could take a shot
> > using a script I wrote a while back, if you were interested.
> > http://tellico-project.org/search-saonasa-astrophysics-data-system
> > 
> > Robby
> > 
> > On Wednesday 12 January 2011, Nathan Clarke wrote:
> >> In Tellico's data source properties, I added a new Z39.50 data source
> >> for the ADS Astronomy Database (hosted on z3950.adsabs.harvard.edu).
> >> However, when I attempt to perform a search (using key words that I
> >> know are in the ADS data base), I get no results, and in the shell
> >> (from where I launched Tellico) I see lots of error messages of the
> >> form below:
> >> 
> >> namespace error : Namespace prefix dc on description is not defined
> >> n>http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011AAS...21714304M</dc:relation><dc:d
> >> esc ription
> >> 
> >> I am no XML expert, but this appears to be some sort of XML namespace
> >> issue.
> >> 
> >> Can you offer any advice on this?  Is there any way that I can fix it?