Book Industry Communication (the UK equivalent of BNC or the BISG) has released their recommendations on dealing with ISBN assignment for e-books.
The ACP's CPDS Digital Publishing Workshop
On December 9th and 10th I attended the ACP ’s CPDS (Canadian Publishers Digital Services) Digital Publishing Workshop, which focused on real solutions for the average Canadian publisher. I’m a BookNetter and not a publisher, but I managed to sneak my way into this workshop after I agreed to speak at it—more on that to follow.
This two-day workshop dived into the dirt of ePub production on day one and focused on practical solutions for digital workflow on day two.
Data Exchange Tip #7: Mac-Based XML Solutions—Using oXygen
XML on Mac is a rare bird, or if not rare, seriously undercooked. There isn’t the same amount of options as on a PC, and certainly not an ONIX-based editor such as with ONIXEdit. There are a couple of free XML editors available, however Smultron is no longer updating and Serna Free XML Editor is not available for commercial use, instead deferring to Serna Enterprise for businesses. However, Serna Free is a good tool for getting used to XML.
Data Exchange Tip #6: A DIY Guide to Schema Validation on a PC—XML Notepad 2007
For the purist, those who want their XML validation without the added benefits of what some programmer thinks would improve their ONIX file, there is a lovely generic XML software product called XML Notepad 2007. It’s free and written by a Microsoft programmer, Chris Lovett, so the freeware is from a safe source, it’s easy to set-up for a schema validation and robust with files as large as 20,000 records.
Data Exchange Tip #5: Some Basics—Tools Before Validation
An XML file is simply text—nothing very special—except that in order for XML software to read and interpret it, everything needs to be just so. XML is, loosely, a computer formatting language, and as such is a low type of computer code—if not quite as finicky as a proper programming language it has much stricter rules than HTML.
Data Exchange Tip #4: Escaping Entities—Påvøl Breaches Checkpoint Charlie
Data Exchange Tip #3: File Cleaning—Not Just for Your Nails
Data Exchange Tip #2: So What('s) Encoding Anyway?
In the first tip, I tried to establish why you, the ONIX file sender, have to test your file, and that’s simply to ensure that the file’s content — all the characters—would be recognized by the aggregator’s software. The “encoding” declaration in the first line of the file tells the recipient what to expect—and your job is to ensure that the file matches that.
Data Exchange Tip #1: Why XML?
I’m going to do a series of blog posts on some of the very basic issues in file trading—what needs to be done before you submit an ONIX file (or an E-book if your e-book is in XML). In doing this I’m hoping that publishers will comment about software they like (and don’t), problems they have—and with any luck their successes.
So, for the first post: Why XML?
ONIX 3.0: “Working to create a more informed, empowered and efficient book industry supply chain for both physical and digital products.”
In partnership with the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the BISG presented the third in their series of ONIX 3.0 educational webcasts. David Martin from EDItEUR’s ONIX Support Team and Brian Green, Executive Director of the International ISBN Agency focused mainly on how ONIX 3.0 provides new support for digital publishing.
